Gates of Oblivion

12/08/2024 08:17 AM

The ultimate all’s well that ends well…

In many ways, yesterday nearly didn’t happen. Storm Darragh playing havoc, your editor having a cold and feeling like somebody had repeatedly punched me in the head.

That resulted in zero sleep, which nearly led me to fall down the stairs (but that’s another story), and all in all – I wasn’t looking forward to the ten hour round trip one bit.

I can’t deny I was secretly hoping the game would be off so I could go back home, but it was on course to be one of the uber-shit days of all time.

Somebody forgot to tell the players though. They put in one of the best performances of the season.

First to every ball, deservedly going ahead, looking comfortable for the most part. Hell, we were even pushing for the fourth goal – and we would deserve it as well.

Josh Kelly opened the scoring (well, whoever the defender the ball came off did so anyway) and it set us on our merry way.

We were looking pretty decent value, not giving Harrogate a sniff, and JJO’T nabbed the second. Cue more joy.

And cue more pant shitting afterwards.

I don’t know what it is with us, but whenever we go 2-0 up we seem to think the job is done. It’s why this particular scoreline seems to be the worst we can have.

Harrogate pushed onto us a bit, although I don’t think they were particularly potent, so I was glad we went into the break without a cheap goal conceded.

We still needed a third though, and soon after the restart – cometh the hour, cometh the Matty Stevens.

I can’t remember if their defence gave it away, but if you look at the replay of the goal, it’s a damn fine finish.

I wonder if Stevens might be the subject of some bids in January? Bearing in mind we only have £1.50 in the coffers and we tend to sell anyone as soon as any reasonable offer comes in, it wouldn’t be a surprise.

That’s for later. As said earlier, we went for a fourth which if we’d got would have been deserved.

Indeed, we thought we had got it, when Stevens headed home, but the referee decided that their goalkeeper was impeded by Isaac Ogundere.

And by “impeded”, I mean, well, judge for yourself…

We could have had a penalty as well, although to be fair it happened practically in front of me and our player was looking for it.

But these are minor quibbles in the grand scheme of things. We won, won well, and we went back down the M1 happy.

We’ll all be pleased at the result, the performance, looking for more goals and not letting any in, but many will forget that we’ve done all that after a horrific grind of games.

Yesterday, we didn’t look knackered one bit. Granted, when you’re playing well and in the mood, you can forget you’ve worn yourselves out, but it’s a good way to end that particular period.

And yes, I know we’re playing in the Veritu Cup or whatever it’s called this week. I’m in two minds on that – it will mean less games, but it’s still a trophy at Wembley.

Anyway…

Plus points: We won. Three goals. Didn’t let one in. Nobody played badly. Full of energy. Stevens. Kelly starting to find his feet.

Minus points: The weather. Should have more goals.

The referee’s a…: I can only guess he didn’t award our fourth goal because he was feeling sorry for Harrogate by this stage.

Other than that, didn’t really notice him. As is the case with all good officials.

Them: Got nil and were lucky to get that.

I’ve just checked the league table (above Franchise, which is what it should be) and they’re lower down than I thought.

To be honest, I think they would be thankful it was only three we put past them, because that could have been a legitimate shellacking.

It was funny hearing their PA announcer getting the number of their subs wrong, and if their manager did likewise it would explain a lot.

Their goalie was getting immense stick from us, especially when he kept kicking the ball out of play for a goal kick.

Even when he started doing what goalies do when making a mistake, namely pointing and yelling at their defenders.

Harrogate seem quite a nice club, and their ground is a better KM. Although it’s still the size of our former home ground, as became apparent when going for a half-time piss.

I bet it’s fun when Bradford roll into town.

Oh, and their fanbase is both small (less than 2k of theirs yesterday) and so middle class they make ours look like salt-of-the-earth Yorkshire miners…

Point to ponder: Was yesterday a reaction to both last Tuesday and Daggers?

We let ourselves down in the FA Cup, and while I don’t think we played too badly against Newport two moments of indiscipline cost us.

At Harrogate, we played with an air of, we’re not ballsing this one up.

We’ve had all these catch-up games, and the lack of squad depth (again) and just sheer number of fixtures have caught up with us, so to put in a performance like this shows we’ve got something about us still.

Perhaps we’ve stumbled upon a way of playing that works? It would be nice if that was the case, and if you can play well with some of your first choice missing, that’s not a bad spot to be in.

We’d all people like Lewis and Reeves back fit and raring to go, but it would be something if they get back and find they can’t get in the team.

Truth is stranger than fiction: 1) Brass band at Woodall services, which is not what you want when your head is sore. They got the hint when a load of Birmingham fans turned up. 2) The weather. Not only wet and windy but absolutely freezing with it. 3) “Pizza and Ice Cream” sign in the away end. Isn’t that a near-the-knuckle chant as well?

Anything else? He didn’t feature yesterday, but signing Romaine Sawyers on a one-month deal is an interesting one.

It’s clear that we need backup, and your editor remembers him playing for Brentford.

Seeing him joining us was a bit of a surprise, albeit not a bad one, and Craig Cope seemed to hint at something like that happening.

Obviously, Sawyers isn’t going to be match sharp, and we’ll likely see him in cameo roles for this upcoming month.

That’s the problem with free agents – come November or December they’re not able to drop into squads straight away when they’re most needed.

The PFA do something called “Pre Season”, which is basically a ten-week pre-season training camp for players ohne Fußballclub.

That makes sense, although it’s not clear what happens when it ends and they still haven’t had somebody sign them up.

JJ has said it’s a short-term thing to help us over Xmas, but with these sort of things you never quite know.

Sawyers is 33, won’t have many options left anyway, and gets to play in a legit L2 promotion chasing side for the next month.

If he’s any good, and doesn’t demand stupid wages, then who knows?

I’m thinking back to Ronan Curtis (or Ronan Fucking Curtis, to give him his birth name) here.

While that was a different set of circumstances (Curtis was injured, had a trial with us and signed for the season in January) it’s still signing somebody who’s pretty decent.

He might be shite for us after all, but this is a risk-free signing and one that might work out well.

Plus of course, just as Curtis will forever be a hero for obvious reasons, perhaps Sawyers will stick around and do likewise on the 25th January…?

So, was it worth it? Oh, absolutely.

In a nutshell: More of the same please (on the field).