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| Legendary alehouse 'Groggers Rest', soon to be demolished. |
Cold and s***. And we won. For a club that always claims how unlucky it is, the luck certainly went with us today as we win with an own goal and a deflection, while the ref ignores Pearson kicking one of theirs in the head late on in our box, despite it being right in front of him. And all that is to ignore how Port Vale ran the 2nd half after we scored.
During the 1st half, absolutely nothing happened, save for an injury to one of their players. (Not sure what happened, but it led to 7 minutes of injury time). Said player eventually got up and ran about, to predictable boos. Were we booing that he was alive? Would we have preferred it to be something a little more...serious? Anyway, during that injury time, Lalkovic skins a player down the left, drives into the box and hits it across the goal. I thought it went in off a defender, but TV replays show the keeper somehow catching it then pushing it over the line. He'd overestimated Lalkovic's ability to pull a ball back and strayed a yard off his line.
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| 335 all-ticketed Valiants |
Then, about a minute into the second period, Pearson makes a run from his own half. Their players back off and back off, expecting the pass. Pearson continues toward goal and eventually, edge of the box, he has no choice - he HAS to shoot. He 'hits' it (not very hard) and a lucky deflection takes it over the keeper. Frank Lampard at his best. Great goal and Pearson deserved every bit of fortune. Now, let's sit in our own half for 44 minutes and maybe catch Vale on the break.
If only we MEANT such tactics. But that's how it turned out. Vale pulled a goal back when a looping cross from Carl Dickenson (remember him?) found an unmarked Daniel on the back post. I'd have liked to see Turnbull come out and claim, but he was too busy looking at the centre half and Valiant in front of him.
We had 34 minutes to hang on, which I thought we did quite comfortably, considering. Or was I too cold to worry? I know I only had cause to be animated twice; once in injury time when we attempted to waste time off a corner, lost the ball (who'd have seen THAT coming?) and Vale ran down the pitch while we had several players out of position. And a little earlier, when Winnall (welcome back!) delayed a pass to Hourihane on the overlap until he was offside. That would've put him clean through.
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| The Ponty |
*** Our 4 man central defence ruled (despite a couple of dodgy M'Voto moments). I'm giving it to Ramage (welcome back).
** Crainie. Solid at right back.
* Nyatanga. Solid at left back.
Londontykes top 3:
1. Pearson
2. Crainie
3. Lalkovic
Despatches:
Sponsors' MOTM was Waring. Ironic? Family friend? Either way, you could some up George's performance as 's***, but not as s*** as he has been'. I did actually see him win a header and twice he held a ball up and laid it off to one of his own team. Otherwise, he didn't. Hemmings was rubbish, and a cheer went up when he was taken off. Or was it cos Winnall was back? Hourihane had his usual game while Pearson had his moments. I imagine we'd have lost were Berry in for him.
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| We have a winner! |
I suppose the main highlight was the return of Sam Winnall (Sam Winnall). Certainly the Ponty thought so, it was the only time they made any noise, as he was about to be brought on as sub after 3 months out. It took him less than 20 seconds to lose the ball. He's still got it. Thankfully we were in a promising position and he had an easy (forward) ball to an unmarked Red. I know, I know - I'm too harsh. At least he actually gets the ball, unlike Hemmings and Waring, who're more comedy duo than deadly duo.
Today's game was also all-ticket, presumably a knock-on effect of the trouble at Port Vale. Rumour has it we don't just top division 3 in terms of arrests this season, we top the ENTIRE LEAGUE. Can this possibly be true? Makes one proud...
Drink du jour: vodka and orange.
Damage:
£28 train
Away: 335
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| Home time! |
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