Burton Albion 2-1 BFC, Friday 7th April 2023

‘It is adamantine parallelograms – indeed, hard lines.’

What can I say? The world and his wife knows this game was decided 10 minutes in. Or, to be more precise, COULD have been decided. We’ve broken down the right, the ball’s been cutback, the keeper is nowhere. All Norwood has to do is slot it, but he finds the defender on the line. Or the defender’s ARM. Now, I’ll be honest, I’m at the other end of the ground and the ref is far closer and has a CLEAR view. No pen, no nothing. Everyone watching online is positive it’s handball. But I’m sure the ref’s subconsciousness comes into play. Give the pen, send their man off and the game is potentially over. And if he gets it wrong, he’ll run the gauntlet for ruining the match. Far better to give Burton the benefit of any doubt – after all, promotion chasing Barnsley still have 80 odd minutes to win this game. And win it we didn’t.

(I’ve since seen a replay. Norwood is 6 YARDS OUT, FFS. I can’t see how the ref can definitively spot that’s a handball, it happens so fast. But it does allow me to give credit to Adam Phillips for the throughball to Jordan Williams which tears them apart.) Anyway, cue the vitriol for me for sticking up for the ref. This is not the Premiership, the ref doesn’t have the advantage / fallback of VAR. And besides, I rather like the idea of getting promotion without gaining a single penalty all season. But yes, the shot does hit his arm. If it had been at our end, we might have had a better chance of persuading the ref (think Old Trafford and THAT Gary Neville foul on Andy Liddell).

Then we fell apart. Ball after ball was aimed at the heads of Norwood and Cole (and later, Tedic and Watters) and the Burton centre halves mopped it up. Kane and Connell, so often the lynchpins, couldn’t their feet on the ball and were pulled after an hour, with us one down. Kane fails to stop the cross, Phillips fails to cut it out, and their bloke prods it in. What a terrible, terrible goal to concede. This is food and drink to a defence, this type of ball.

Credit where it’s due for their killer second on 87, as their bod cuts inside from Williams and curls it into the far corner from 20 yards. The game is up, Sarah’s dad needs the toilet and he’ll see us outside. He misses the (our) best 10 mins of the match, as Cadden pulls one back, driving home through a crowd. 7 minutes of injury time offers hope…and Burton are now camped in their half. However, we barely threaten until a last second Tedic header sees the keeper scrambling.

Onwards and upwards!

*** No-one. A poor show all round.
** Tedic. Only threat we had. The turn and snapshot, the header…
* Cadden. Notched.

Londontykes’ MOTM: 1. Tedic 2. Cadden 3. Connell

Despatches:
It’s my old bugbear, timewasting. Their keeper had possession of the ball twice in injury time, holding it 15 and 13 seconds respectively. Last time I looked, the rule was 6 seconds. Of course, he'd already been booked, so the referee couldn't possibly award a free kick, as he'd have to send him off. When will this accursed rule be adhered to!!??

The yoof were in our real ale pub, pre-match, banging signs, standing on a picnic table, making a racket. Lads – fine, but wrong hostelry. (I think they had 3 drinks between them, so who knows what was powering their energy!?)

Excellent pre-match planning from the Londontykes as we agree to meet in a pub that doesn’t open till 4. Thankfully, crisis averted before I reached Burton. Visiting the outlaws in nearby Lichfield, I had Sarah and her dad slumming it from the likes of Norwich City and Aston Vanilla. Neither were impressed, but neither was I. Sarah wasn’t keen on the language (!) and both moaned about not having seats. Well, next season…

Drink du jour: Joules IPA in Coopers Tavern. Love this pub.

Away: 1500? A sellout, anyway.

Today’s take home: If Connell and Kane don’t boss it, what have we got?

The Damage:
£19 ent
£3 programme
= £22