*we’d ascertained the new bridge does, indeed, move.
Well, for one, we have access to a bar in the Corner Stand. Poor choice of ale for the connoisseur (and me) so we settle on Madri. (Later on we find Loom pale ale is on offer in the bar in the main exec area. Boooo.) If you ask nicely, Gally might tell you the secret way through... And we have our own table, courtesy of ‘ABC Stone’ (Ben’s mum’s company). Lovely! And as many ‘free’ programmes as you can shake a stick at, and teamsheets handed out before kick-off. How DO you spell that French bloke’s name? Great soundproofing too, as no-one realises the teams are coming out. Why would you want to spoil a day at the football by hearing what’s going on?
Nozzer and I are last out, so we’re forced to sit as far away from the door as possible. I spend the last 20 minutes of the half desperate for a pee, yet unwilling to upseat everyone in our row, unlike everyone else where I sit in the East Stand. Those people have weaker bladders than me, and no manners to boot. (There was another door behind me, if only I’d looked. Doh!) Still, I was enjoying the padded seats (oh yes!) and the dubious quality of football.
Yes, HAPPY NEW YEAR Londontykes, and we start as we’ve been all season...disjointed, confused...and winning. With first half injury time upon us, McAtee wins the ball in midfield, sends Phillips away down the right and a delicious cross is slid home from close range by Cole. That’s it, dam broken, the goals will pile up second half. Thus far, every time we have the ball, there’s 11 Wigan players between us and their goal...or at least there is by the time we look up to play a forward pass.
In truth, we’d been jammy. For all our possession, Wigan should certainly have been 2 ahead. A Latic on the overlap is played in...and he fires over from 10 yards with the keeper to beat. (Later, in an IDENTICAL position, Kane would overhit a pass to Cadden with us 2 on 1. That would have put us two up.) A free header is put criminally wide. Second half, our jam continues. Jordan Williams falls over and GIFTS an unmissable chance to their centre forward, who puts it wide in the style of an Odejayi. The way he sidefooted it, surely he MEANT to hit that advertising hoarding?
Another header is cleared off the line, before our largest dollop of jam yet...they score direct from a corner and the ref blows for a non-existent foul on the keeper. (I have since seen a replay and the only contact I can see is our keeper trying to push away their player.) It reminds me of the time we got battered 7-1 at Man City and Colgan conceded direct from a corner just before half-time. That woulda made it six nil, but the ref disallowed it for the invisible. It was right in front of us and there wasn’t a Man City player within 2 yards of him. Like Colgan, Roberts has been completely bamboozled by a beautiful inswinger to the far post. (I have still only seen one goal in professional football from a corner, Darren Barnard v Gillingham one year...after the ref turned down a stonewall penalty to award a corner for them kicking us. I digress.)
Do we heed the warning? Well, Pep Collins has already made his move. Taking off our two most creative players before the hour (McAtee and Phillips, the latter making it plainly known he was baffled at being taken off). Then he takes Cole off after 72. We didn’t look in trouble, but Collins knows best, presumably proactively preventing the late Wigan onslaught. Or encouraging it. On came Styles, Watters and Jalo to have...errr...’quiet’ games. (Actually, I was told off for not pointing out Jalo got a couple of free kicks and one of theirs carded.) Then, with 3 mins of normal time remaining, the predictable happens. They win a free kick out right, take a short one and their player takes it past Jalo (the only player in the wall...if a ‘wall’ can contain only one player) and curls a SUPERB effort into the far top corner. Make no bones about it, it is a terrific finish and no more than Wigan deserve.
I await my bottle of champagne for correctly predicting the one-all in the competition in the exec. (Sadly, my crowd prediction was off, so I never did win, though I enjoyed teasing the lady asking me for a ‘guess at the capacity’. I (used to) know the capacity...isn’t it 23,009? I mean, before we built the Cornber Stand and South Yorkshire’s finest decreed we have to rope off various parts of the away end. Anyway, I think the poor lady learnt a new word. I know, I’m a tw*t. But it’s the lack of pedantry / standards that is the downfall of this country.)
We have 7 mins of injury time to create a chance, score a goal or kick the ball too long for our forwards. The draw takes us into a play-off position. I am as bamboozled as Roberts on that corner.
Onwards and upwards!
Another ‘guess a player’ week. Anybody and nobody.
*** Cole. The more I think about it...that 1st half, he had a header spectacularly saved (it really was spectacular; the keeper managed to dive despite it being straight at him). He also had a shot saved from a narrow angle – nobody up there for a return pass – and, of course, scored.
** Phillips. Floated around in dangerous positions, and set up the goal.
* McAtee. For THAT tackle.
Official MOTM: Connell. Never.
Londontykes’ MOTM: 1. Cole 2. Phillips 3. McAtee
Despatches:
Afterwards, we headed to the main exec lounge. MOTM Connell couldn’t be with us to dissect why he was given MOTM as he needed some treatment for an injury. So they sent out Jalo, bless. At the risk of contradicting myself, I couldn’t hear a word he said...but he spoke great English. Perhaps the bloke with the mic needed to put it somewhere near Jalo’s mouth? So, a bit of a waste of time, save for noting what a big cheese Gally is, as folk queued to shake his hand.
Afterwards, the shirt Jalo wore when he signed his new contract was auctioned for charity (note: not his match shirt from today.) With bidding reaching 450 quid, I’ve never stood so still, for fear of bankrupting myself. Apparently the record is 600 nicker for a Mads shirt. Auction over, grown adults formed an orderly line to have their picture taken with a 17 year old.
The players? I said anyone could get the votes. At various points, Jordan, The Frenchman and McCart made some unbelievable blocks...but for reasons of all those other chances, there was a problem somewhere. O’Keefe and Cadden were quiet. I can’t blame Cole for not getting on the end of crosses if there weren’t any. Connell had his quietest game for a while, while Kane...what did he do? Jalo came on and lost the ball, Watters came on and never got near the ball while I never saw Styles. Standard. Wonderful substitutions, Collins.
Drink du jour: Leffe in Bramah’s, Madri and Bavaria (Alkohol Frei!) in the Exec. And I would have had a filter coffee at HT, if they’d bothered to re-fill the coffee pots. Apparently that complaint has already gone in. I had a tea instead, but the water wasn’t hot enough to stew the teabag. But they did have free blankets you could use, so it’s not all bad.
Away: c.1100. Somebody (no names, no packdrill) started wittering on to me as they announced it. I can’t be annoyed though, cos I got dinner at his house last week!
The Damage:
c.£8 petrol
£4 half time draw tickets
£11 Madri (x2)
= c.£23
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