Shrewsbury Town. The only team I’ve ever seen timewaste while two goals down. This game broke records for the number of ‘head injuries’ sustained. Every time a Shrew went down, he was clutching his head. Ironic then that it was two of our players (Mads and Kane) who ended up bandaged up. Later, half their team surround Cadden after an innocuous looking tackle leaves their man rolling around. He’s a split second late, FFS, making a genuine attempt at a tackle. Red card it is. A minute later, their manager is mouthing off at the ref again. Seems the man in black can’t please ANYBODY. So he must be doing something right!
In a disjointed opening half, we somehow went in 2 goals to the good. Cadden crosses the ball and the keeper fumbles it into the net. Karma. The PA announcer mistakenly gives it to Cole, but I guess he’s on the wrong side of the pitch to see. Looked Cadden’s all the way to me. Then, 30 seconds after Phillips has found row Z* of the Ponty with a(nother) wayward shot, a centre half shows him how it’s done. Kitching hits it low and hard and Cole snaffles a carbon copy of the tap-in he got in the last home game. He’s a right sniffer! Watters does the best thing he did all game by following up and not stealing it off Devante.
*ok, pedants. Probably row T. You get the idea though.
Done and dusted you’d think. We’ll get into the groove second half and take these to pieces like we did Morecambe. And it shoulda been three as Watters does the impossible…heading it past the keeper on the edge of the box and somehow…somehow…failing to find the net, as a defender gets back while he dawdles. Maybe we had other shots, but by now there’s squabbles going on all over the pitch and the ref is finding his notebook.
There are 15 mins left as Cadden sees red. I still fancy us to go up the other end for a third (a la Cambridge home and away) but not if Mads connects with a stupid challenge as they break. Luckily, he’s so late he misses the Shrew. (They’re tricky little beggars.) On a booking, we’d have been down to 9. Now THAT would have been interesting. They pull one back with a superb dink down the middle for Phillips to head home (proving Cadden’s foul hadn’t broken him). But we aren’t troubled again, until a last second close range stab goes straight to Isted. Good positioning? Lucky? Poor finish? Who cares? The three points are ours, and with Plymouth losing and Ipsh*t drawing, this weekend hasn’t been the disaster it looked. A bit like Jesus, we’ve been crucified Easter Friday and are back from the dead come Monday. It’s what the Reverend Tiverton Preedy woulda wanted.
Onwards and upwards!
*** Goal King Cole. Busy up front, excellent runs, won balls in the air (!)…and held the ball up. Oh, and notched.
** Mads. Reckless challenge aside (see earlier) a tower of dominance.
* Kitching. Reading an article in the Chron, I was unsurprised to find Kitching used to do a bit of boxing. Well I never!
Londontykes’ MOTM: 1. Cole 2. Andersen 3. Kitching
Official MOTM: Cadden. A cheeky choice from the match sponsors.
Despatches:
Watters. Bloody useless. How can a bloke so big fail to be able to win a header? Even Cole won a fair few flick-ons Monday. I also saw him lead with his elbow (again) in one slow-mo challenge. Thankfully, that particular Shrew wasn’t bright enough to stand and wait to be hit and go down like the sack of s*** his teammates kept imitating. In the end, they only managed to get us 2 yellow cards (and the red) while they had….SEVEN yellows, including one getting sent off in injury time. I nearly forgot about that, though I can still see his look of amazement and his arms spread out like Cauley Woodrow in his best Christ the Redeemer phase.
Kane was the subject of debate. Was he particularly poor in his passing, or was he giving the ball away trying to make things happen (as opposed to those tidy ‘safe’ passes wot players do). I was in the former camp. We can all kick a ball 6 yards square to someone unmarked. Phillips….was put out of his misery on 64. It’s always nice to see the manager reading my mind, taking off Watters and Phillips for Norwood and Benson for Beds. (Mind, we turned a 2-0 lead into a 2-1 scrape thereafter. Stats, eh!?) Oh, and while Bobby Thomas had another excellent game, his brother Luke’s main input once coming on was to be hacked down while in full flow in their half. If that challenge was worth the yellow it got, and Cadden’s was a red, there is something wrong with this game. Kane too was taken out by a wild challenge on the far touchline, the ball not even in sight of the proponent. Again, a worse ‘tackle’ than the red, but deemed only a yellow. No wonder it all kicked off at full-time, with manager Duff having to intervene to drag our players away.
Drink du jour: A better pint of pale ale in Spiral City. It might have been Acorn.
Away: 514
Today’s take home: Check your play-off final dates carefully! (They’ve changed.)
The Damage:
c. £40 travel (petrol). Up from London.
= £40
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