4 -v- 1 
I was really looking forward to this game, REALLY looking forward to it…it was going to be different for me…I was on me own as the young un couldn’t make it and I couldn’t really afford to stop over at Petes, we do tend to get through some drinking when I do that. So it was a drive down there and straight back afterwards…
Before all that started I had the cat to get to the vets, part of the reason I couldn’t afford to stay over…all me vodka money was tied up in his furry little arse, that’s 100 quid I’ll never see again…
He doesn’t make it enjoyable either….
He’s fine going in the basket…but as soon as he gets in the car that’s it…he has to have a shit….every chuffing time…as soon as that door shuts, that’s it……CLUNK-PARP!…..it chuffin stinks…try driving with that smell going on….driving with all the windows and two sunroofs open….bloody hell…it’s like driving through a hurricane…a smelly hurricane.
But even that didn’t dampen the Beastie spirits...
I was STILL in an outstanding mood for this…everything felt good…I knew I’d be running a little late and I knew there’d be traffic problems but nothing was going to get me down today…if I was I was late…I didn’t mind missing a few minutes…
I spared nothing when it came to routine and good luck stuff…the feathery gusset boxers were back out…I’d got me vest on….I was exfoliated to fook and smelling gooood.
Because I was on me own driving down it meant I could pick the music and today it was heavy rock all the way….by the time I’d finished, me neck were killing me and playing air guitar whilst driving is not recommended.
It wasn’t long before I came across the first stoppage en-route…a wagon break down…never mind, Sabbath were on the I-pod and I was still chilled….
The second stoppage was a bit worse…nothing moving at all…I was in standing traffic for over half an hour and as the sat nav ‘arrival at destination’ time got closer and closer to kick off….and eventually past kick off…I thought I needed to do something….I managed to squirm me way out and up the hard shoulder and take a detour through Bedford…as I cam off, whatever had happened ahead was bad as nothing was getting on the M1 or moving forward and it was causing carnage in all directions…
I came back onto the M1 further down and the destination time is now half time…but again…still not mythered…look what happened when I got to Plymouth for half time…a good result.
Even when the score flashes came in I was still headbanging away and cool…I turned for the first car park and it was all chained up, no entry! Fookin hell!
Drove on, found another, but I’d lost me bearings and me gyroscope was all ower the place, I ask for directions...which way to the ground mate…just down there…where them floodlights are and the sound of the crowd…err…yes, thanks for that…I knew that really…just testing!
I put on me best dad jog and run slower than walking pace…In my defence I was busting for a piss and me bladder was about to explode, so I was actually 'running' without trying to move my legs...
I normally love this walk, through the paved precinct, amongst the crowd, taking in the vibe….it’s a good football walk, right up there with the best how it all comes together, but I couldn’t enjoy it tonight as there were no crowds and my super fast dad jog didn’t allow it…as I get to the ground all the turnstiles are shut but I see two stewards opening a gate…
’Where do I get a ticket mate?’ …
’You late? M1?’…
’Aye, it’s a neetmare’…
’Away end?’ …
’Aye, what give it away sithi?’….
’Tenner’
I hand it ower and it goes straight down darkside…that’ll not be added to the crowd figures….
I arrive inside the ground JUST after the whistle for the first half.
5 hours after setting off…I was in! RESULT!
Toilet first...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! NECTAR!
I get out of the toilet just in time for kick off second half...I can't hurry it these days ya know....I find out where everyone is sitting and make me way to them....
As far as I was concerned we were losing 2-0 so when I found out Tudders had scored late on, I could tell this was going to be a cracking night after all…OH aye, we’d sort em second half…now I was here, what could go wrong?
THE MATCH
-
Right…I’m not really going to talk about the footy…most folk will have seen it on TV, in fact you all saw more of it than I did, it wasn’t good was it?
Again…I don’t really want to take anything away from Watford but things DID go their way at crucial times and they seemed to have the rub of the green at key points, and Gray going off for us was a major blow, but that said, they were good value for this win and we even though we made them look better at times, I have no complaints about the size of the victory, or how they beat us…I don’t have any complaints about their fans taunting us…it’s all fair in love and football….all part and parcel of the game…they move to within 3 points of the top of the table and whilst I don’t think they’ll stay there, they have a least something to savour and enjoy and the world has seen them on TV rogering us senseless…good luck to em.
I WILL say this though…As bad as our performance was, I don’t think it was as bad as at Derby…that day not one player turned up…no one looked interested, they wanted to be anywhere but there…I didn’t get that feeling here…
HOWEVER….
 | I mentioned against Coventry about Clinton Morrison and how he
chased every fookin ball for every minute of the game…even into injury
time…the last dieing seconds of the game, EVEN though they were 2 goals
down, he never stopped…the ball went out of play…he ran after it… They had no chance of winning the game but he was determined he was going to give everything he could for the whole of the game… THE WHOLE OF THE GAME! |
I don’t demand perfection from our players, we all have off days…sometimes things don’t come off….you try stuff and it’s not your day…like the first half against Preston…we mullered em but it just didn’t happen….
What I do want to see though, is attitude…is work rate…is effort!
There’s no excuse for a lack of any of that....
Even when we’re losing and losing by a lot, I expect them to see it out…I expect them to run…I expect them to try…I expect them to show us they care.
If I stopped working like they did in this game, because things weren’t quite going to plan, besides the fact that some poor sod would prolly die, I’d be fookin sacked!
I know it’s hard when things haven’t gone your way and I accept they scored against the run of play initially but when did we suddenly forget how to play football? When did this set of players think…’I don’t need to play anymore?’
When did we forget the basics?
No one runs now…there was a moment late on when the ball went dead…why weren’t we doing like Clinton Morrison…chasing after the ball…pick it up and hand it to their keeper…I don’t give a flying fook that there’s only 5 minutes left and we’re 3 goals down…
When the ball goes out of play chase the fooker, go get it...if it's our throw, have some fookin urgency about you...look like you want it...if it isn't our ball show even MORE urgency!
SHOW YOU FOOKIN MEAN IT YOU BUNCH OF TWATS!
No one anticipates anymore. We have strikers going for the same ball, for the same space…we have defenders chasing the same players…we have midfielders heading the same ball…Where’s the communication? Where’s the team part of our game?
This defences confidence is shot to shit…they are absolutely on their knees, you can see it…they shit themselves now when a bit of pressure is applied…they’re leaderless and they’re clueless.
| We used to have one of the best defences in the division…one of the
youngest but most PROMISING in the division…and worth a few bob too,
with all that potential…they’re worth fook all now…even the reliable
Tommy Spurr, bless him, is looking shakier than he ever has… Beevers seems to have lost any composure he ever had… Lewis looks to be trying way too hard to please at the moment and although he’s making mistakes for sure, a lot of them are through covering for his captain IMO. |  |
The shape of the back four is absolutely dreadful…they are pulled out of position so easily it’s scary….it leaves huge gaps down the flanks. I was looking at them at one point and all four of them had moved over to our left, towards Tommy…obviously that means there’s space on the other side…and there’s a Watford player in absolutely acres of space. This is basic stuff, schoolboy stuff…
Don’t get me wrong…they aren’t alone and the midfield has a lot to answer for…the opposition stroll through them like theyr’e made of case hardened cheese…I’ve no idea what’s happened to Potter lately. 45 minutes worth of good play out of the last half dozen games doesn’t earn a wage IMHO and we’ve stopped getting the ball out wide…all our attacking play comes from wide areas, when we don’t get it out there, we don’t attack.
Above all that… I try to find positives from any defeat…and even though we got royally fooked and I’m very pissed off, there are still SOME positives…Varney worked hard, as he always does…Tudgay tried to an extent but looked a little slow on his return from injury…Tommy put the best cross of the night in….erm…that’s about it.
Even though this performance wasn’t acceptable, I could have moved on from it…just as we, as Wednesday fans, do on a regular basis…I can accept we weren’t good enough on the day…I can accept things didn’t go our way….I can accept Watford giving us a lesson in finishing.
I cannot accept a team mentality that basically says ‘Aaah well we’ve lost this, lets get it over with then move on’
What I cannot accept above all else is that when that final whistle goes and the fans, all 800 of them, that have made their weary way down to this ground, when they could have stayed at home to watch it, are incensed by the performance, and rightly so, but the captain of OUR football club cannot bring himself to acknowledge us.
Yes most were booing and they had reason to boo…
At least 12 hours out of a fans life to get to this game….12 hours of family time….the cost in getting there….£100 will be on the short side for a lot of us…the EFFORT we put in…on a shitty night in October to make our way down there…after that, everyone had the right to boo what they’d just seen…
It might mean fook all to the captain…just another defeat….just another poor performance…the team will recover and the fans will get over it…YES we will…We ALWAYS get over it
We’ll be back on side next week at Bristol…we’ll put this behind us AGAIN….
 | What we won’t put behind us is the lack of acknowledgement…simple
fookin courtesy from the captain to come over to the fans…and pay his
respects….take it on the chin…look like he KNOWS it wasn’t acceptable
but ‘thanks for coming and showing us your support’ He’s the fookin captain FFS! He should be gathering them players up after a performance like this…STOPPING them leaving the pitch UNTIL they’ve been over and seen the fans…he should be saying to them…get over there and take the abuse….we’ve played bad….apologise….say well done to the fans for making the trip down here. |
He should be saying….
‘When we play good we can’t wait to go and celebrate with them and take the adulation…we’ve failed tonight…let’s take the abuse…let’s applaud THEM for turning out…let’s apologise…go some way to saying ‘Look, we know it’s unacceptable and you DO deserve better...we’re sorry’
They clap when they win, there’s badge kissing, there’s punching the air like it means something…well NEWSFLASH!
It fookin means something to US when we lose too.
He fooking didn’t…he didn’t come down to us…he’d all on to raise his hands to clap at all…he never even glanced our way…he just walked off…THAT IS UNNACCEPTABLE!
He had time for a big man hug with his Watford mate, but not for us.
This is our fookin captain!
The captain of this fookin club….OUR CLUB!
Every fooker told me that when Richard Wood was captain it was too much of a burden, it stopped him playing…blah, blah fookin bollox!
When we got a pasting he didn’t hide, he didn’t shirk and he ALWAYS came over to the fans ALWAYS!
He was last one of the pitch and he faced up to it.
If the armband affected HIS play what the fook is it doing to Purse?
| The youngsters who took some horrible abuse came over…. The kids of the team…Tommy and Beevers, barely out of their teens…or still IN them…they came over…they took the abuse they applauded…they took it on the chin even if some of it was beyond the pale…and it was…but they took it…the looked at us and their faces said it all…it was etched in their young faces how much it hurt and how much they KNEW it meant to us having made the trip….and anyone that’s criticised these two lads should bear that in mind…when ya venting ya spleen…just fookin think about the fact that these are two young lads looking like it hurts as much as it hurts us and prepared to face the wrath, unlike older, more seasoned heads. |  |
We went in at half time ONE GOAL DOWN…it’s your job as manager to get them back out fired up….the first 20 minutes when we’re down at half time should be ALL us…we should be attacking non stop…Like every bastard team that comes to Hillsborough does. Their managers get them fired up…DO YOUR JOB!
When you don’t do your job…come and face the fans….send ya fookin captain down…don’t allow them to leave the pitch without acknowledging the fans…IT’S THE LEAST WE DESERVE!
And ya know what? I still didn’t boo em.
Ya know what else?
I WILL forgive em and be there at Bristol….that’s what we do isn’t it?
We move on VERY quickly…but it will be a while before I move on from SOME things.
And yes this does matter…it matters to me anyway….it’s not always about the actual performance, it’s about standing up and being counted, about showing what you’re made of, showing the fans what you’re made of. It’s about effort and about caring about what you’re doing, about caring for those around you, giving back the same respect they afford you.
We spent a log time at this club with players who weren’t prepared to put in the effort who had no respect for the club or fans…that will not be tolerated again.
It was a long lonely journey home after this game…I did miss the young un not being there…and when you’ve got something to stew over, it makes the journey home even worse doesn’t it?
Can’t wait for Bristol though…a team that’s only been beaten a couple of times at home since the ice age?
Oh aye…3 easy points…it’ll all look different after that...you’ll see.
Cheers
Steve:BeastieOwls Alive
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