FA Cup day!

A refreshing break from the league? NOPE! Same old shit

This was horrible this game, absolutely horrible…from start to finish and I’m sure a lot of those that turned up only went so they could moan….and doing a ramble after a game like this aint easy, I can tell ya.

I wasn’t even gonna go to this game but no matter how bad things get I always feel guilty if I miss a game, especially if I could get to it anyway.
As it was I left it til very late to decide and talked the young un into going…and I mean very late….it was gone 1pm before we decided for definite and around 2pm before we set off, but eventually we got underway in the freezing cold and under the gloomy grey sky.

The good thing is it doesn’t take us long in the car to pick the mood up and start smiling and looking forward to the game….a few decent toons on the aye-pod, a bit of piss taking, with me usually be on the wrong end of it and we’re back on track and in footy mode. These days the upbeat mood in the car on the way to footy is the highlight of the day and this was no exception.

We get into the car park and we could park anywhere we wanted really, not like it was full…but I decided in yards and yards of ice free car park to pick the only spot… that had ice on it, and to make it worse, it was only on MY side of the car, so when the young un got out and put her coat, scarf and gloves on, on her safe side, I stood outside my door trying to stop me legs going all coat hanger on me on one of the icy patches. Of course Hollie always thinks it’s funny when I slip and I did a fair bit of that TBH…you know them little slips, them right quick ones that you recover from but ya heart is pounding like a fookin bastard! Your arms still go out like, in some kinda reflex thing, like a falling cat…ya brain’s shouting SPREAD YA WEIGHT! BRACE FOR IMPACT!

It’s like…walk, walk, ZIP! ARMS OUT!…and stand still for a minute or two…until ya sure you’re not gonna tummell…absolutely sure! Then give ya heart time to get back to normal….

ZIP! Arms out…WOAH! I’m OK…I’m OK…Don’t worry, I’m OK….ZIP! Arms out!…Oh fook…ZIP! Shit…ZIP! ZIP! ZIP! FOOK OFF! FOOK RIGHT OFF!

Of course the young un waint hold onto me, her reason being she doesn’t want me to take her down with me. Bassad!
She’d rather see her poor old dad go flying on his arse on his own, so she could laugh at him laying there in a crumpled heap.

So for the second game in a row I walk like an old bloke trying to walk without moving his legs and concentrating like fook, across the car park…

Once we get to the pavement though it’s fine…all totally dry and saf-ZIP!

BOLLOCKS YA BASSAD!

The pavement is dry for fooking miles, no ice to be seen ANY FOOKIN WHERE! Except one little patch that I manage to find, stand on and slip on. Of course the young un thought it was fookin hilarious.

We decide on the North Stand this time. The Young Un’s never sat in there and it’s been a while since I did but she wasn’t happy. She was one of those that thinks the Kop should have been open and this experience did nothing to change her mind. She’ll not be back over there in a long while I can tell you, she hated every minute of it…I wasn’t keen on it meself either to tell ya the truth but I enjoyed the pie, pays n gravy which was a first inside the ground for me.

No sooner had we sat down and before the players come out there’s moaning going on all around us.
Some moaning about the players, some moaning about the chairman some even moaning about the moaning…mindst you, I have to agree with the pricing moaners. £15 might not seem a lot but cutting it to a tenner would have helped massively, having said that, a tenner wouldn’t have represented value by the end of this game.
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THE MATCH
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It wasn’t a good game, not by any standards was it a good game but for all the desperate and dire stuff on display there was still SOME positives to take from the game.

Yes we look poorly organised and we look short on confidence. Players seem to look to others to take the heat off them and not many want the responsibility of being the one that makes a fook up and gets the crowd on their back.
All through the game you could practically taste the angst in the crowd and in the players.

At times we looked disjointed, disorganised and bereft of ideas. Purse lumped the ball forward, not with purpose but just lumped forward blindly and the one time he didn’t do that, he passed it back to Grant when he wasn’t under any pressure and he had options going forward.

We had the hit and miss version of Potter for this game but far too much of the miss type, which is an absolutely crime for someone with his talent and ability.

We seemed to be playing 4-5-1 When not in possession and 4-3-3 when we had the ball but at times some of the players were like the Keystone Kops, they were confused, they stumbled about, they all occupied the same small area and were3 unsure of their roles. On more than one occasion we had 4 or 5 players within a yard of each other. We had 2 or 3 players going for the same ball or going for the same space, if it was so serious a situation it’d be laughable.

The strikers, Jeffers, Leon and Tudders swapped roles throughout the game, going wide and central in equal amounts and with varying degrees of success.

I wasn’t too impressed with the booing of Leon and the ironic cheering for him when he did something that came off.
He didn’t win many headers true enough; even though those around us thought he SHOULD have…but some of the balls he was given to deal with were fookin ridiculous. No fooker could have handled them let alone a borderline Championship player.
Some of those around us were slating both Leon and Potter for not getting back and defending, it was incredible, I’ve never heard owt like it…some of the time it was just after we’d been on the attack and Usain Bolt couldn’t have got back and defended that quick.

As I said though….as bad as it was overall, it wasn’t all doom and gloom…

James O Connor, despite what those around us thought and despite some callers on the radio, one of who hadn’t been to a game for 18 months and won’t go until Lee Strafford has gone, despite that wonderful insight into how poor he is, JOC played his heart out AGAIN. I thought Tommy seemed to grow in confidence as the game went on and Frankie played very well for over an hour. The mistake for the goal shattered his confidence though and he was buggered after that.

At times we showed good glimpses of what we could do…it usually involved Leon, Tudders and of course Jeffers but we just couldn’t apply the finish….same old story for this season.

The best football we played throughout the 90 minutes usually involved Jeffers.
Whenever he was involved the skill factor went onto a different plain to the rest IMO.
OK, he should have done better at the end of the moves a couple of times, especially with one of the balls he put into the box second half, that went tamely to a Palace defender, but he hasn’t played for a while so he’s bound to be at least a little rusty, but fook me, some of his play was wonderful and he must play next game IMO.

Tudgay too worked hard and I really fancied him for a goal today but it wasn’t to be. The best chance he had was a good header first half but it was saved well. There was a wonderful bit from Tudgay second half when Grant kicked out an abysmal goal kick that was going out just over the halfway line, North Stand side, but Tudders dived for it and somehow got to it to keep the ball in, incredible stuff…we got a decent attack from that one bit of enterprise…obviously we didn’t make it count but it was good to see that he hadn’t given up.

The full backs have to have more belief in themselves, they CAN do it.
BOTH of them did driving runs into the box…Frankie with his patented angled drive, Tommy across the edge with a view to a shot…it was nice to see TBH and right until that poor NON tackle from Frankie that let them in for their second goal he played very well, about the best he’s played yet and that was nice to see.

After the good team performance against Newcastle we really could have done without this game.
I don’t’ think any of the fans wanted a replay, well those that had turned out today didn’t, in fact Sheffield Blue said that very thing before kick off…none of us wanted that journey at this time of year and in the last few minutes of the game it actually looked like the players really didn’t want that either.

I know everyone will say the ref and linesman were poor, they were, I agree and I was as angry as anyone when he pulled us up for a foul throw but allowed them to do EXACTLY the same thing. I was angry when they were allowed to take a throw from ON the pitch and angry when they didn’t see the ball hit the Palace players arm in the box, as clear as ya like but let’s not kid ourselves here, we didn’t lose because of those decisions, they didn’t help, but they aren’t the reason.

I don’t know where we go from here TBH and I don’t mean just on the pitch….that’s probably the easy part TBH. Everyone can see where the problems are on the pitch, we can’t score and we can’t keep em out, simple as that.

Lifting the gloom is another thing entirely. What we could do with is a run of about 6 or 7 AWAY games in a row because at least you know that if the players really apply themselves the travelling fans will get behind them and the players could at least play without the heavy weight of doom and gloom about their shoulders. That’s what it is now at Hillsborough, it’s no longer a weight of expectation from the fans but a general creeping malaise and it makes the whole place an unpleasant place to be.

Anything we had to build on from that Newcastle game has gone now and we have to start from scratch against Peterborough.

I’d prefer that to be under a new manager because listening to Sean McAuley on the radio afterwards I don’t see that he can do anything to change the fortunes of this club and the tone of his interview seemed one of resignation, that he’d over estimated the strength and abilities of this team and what they’re capable of. He said that there’s players here that don’t want to play for the club anymore but I felt an underlying vibe from his voice that he honestly believes we can’t stay up. His comments last week that we had the players to keep us up seemed a long way from his comments this week and something needs to be done SOONER rather than later.

The whole squad needs freshening up, up front, in midfield and definitely at the back.
It desperately needs that lift that a new manager will bring, a total change to the routine they have at the moment.
Go out and get Kevin Phillips til the end of the season, someone to do what Robins did when he came to us. He doesn’t have to do anything else except find the net. He can spend 88 minutes tossing himself off on the touchline if he wants but the other 2 minutes he’ll be there side footing the ball into the net. A 6yd man, we’re desperate for one…Someone that knows where the goal is will bring back a good vibe to the whole team and it’ll certainly take some weight of the defence.

These are desperate, desperate times and make no mistake about this, IF WE DO stay up, it will be a bigger achievement than any play off final or any cup success this club has ever had. THAT is the measure of the task ahead for whoever has the managers’ job at this club.

Cheers

Steve:Beastie
Owls Alive


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