‘Johnson, what’s the score?’
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| Welcome to .... |
Well, that made a change. Played well, scored a couple. Didn’t win. No change on the latter then, as we break our record for most number of consecutive home games without a win (is it 12 now?) Furthermore, if we don’t win another home game this season (feasible) we break our all-time record for least number of home wins in a season. Great. So what we need is another member of our 3rd division play-off winning side to come along and deny us points. This time it’s Josh Brownhill who pops up with an injury time looping header to give Little Lee’s Bristol City a share of the spoils. This follows Josh Scowen’s 25 yard winner for QPR and Hourihane’s goal in Villa’s Villa Park win. So, if (when?) we go down, if it’s by 3 points or less (feasible) we can say it’s our former players wot did it. Good job Marley doesn’t get picked for Naaaarwich…
Yet we started the match like a train. Not a British train but one of them there continental ones wot work. Kiefer Moore is clean through and is fouled. Free kick and a yellow. Fans baying for a red and 85 mins v 10 men. I thought the yellow was right. Denial of a goalscoring opportunity? Hardly. I’ve not seen Kiefer Moore control a ball and run with it…let alone finish it…since he signed. ‘More likely to score with his head’ I told my dad’s friend Diane. Two mins later, he does just that, beating the keeper to the ball off a corner. (Had we given them one of our keepers?) One-nil. Dreamland. Only 83 mins to hold out. |
| It's all downhill from here. |
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| Goalmouth action. |
It’s an open game and City miss one great chance (was it a Jackson block?) before their guy cuts inside Yiadom and hits it into the far corner. Great finish – but at least the 3rd goal of this type we’d conceded this season. Boro away, Dirty Leeds home…and there was another one got mentioned, I forget. Yeah, great goals, but all AGAINST us. If it’s that easy to cut inside and strike one, why aren’t we doing it? Oh.
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| The Ponty v Bristol City. |
The 2nd half comes and we continue in an attacking vein, Moncur in particular driving from midfield. Moncur lays a ball on a plate across goal for Paul Scholes…sorry, Brad Potts…to race into the box and shin the ball into the keeper’s grateful arms from about 4 yards. Either a poor miss or unlucky, and I’m inclined to go for the latter, given the number of defenders the ball went through….and the amount of s*** Potts has got from various Londontykes this season. Moncur is then taken off, Williams on, and the boos show the turnaround in Moncur’s (and Williams’?) stature around these parts too. WTF is the manager doing?
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| 855 away fans. Allegedly. |
Ahh, turns out Jose is a genius, as Moore holds a ball up wide left. There is nobody within 40 yards of him…but who’s this, streaking down the pitch into the box? Why, it’s the cavalry…it’s Brad Potts. A perfect cutback is hit with the outside of Potts’ right boot and it flies in. Delirium. There’s some proper noise at Oakwell, and belief. Apart from the bloke who said ‘I hope we haven’t scored too early’ (me). Only 12 mins plus injury time to go.
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| City flags. |
As it was, turns out we did score too early. The clock is ticking down to injury time, they hoof a ball into the box and it’s half cleared. Moore, by now, is off injured and Paddy McCarthy’s only input in the match is to fail to get anywhere close to preventing the ball being returned in from the left and Brownhill looping a lucky header over Davies. I say lucky – there was no way he meant it. But having seen it again on telly, it wasn’t the top corner job I thought it was. Davies got a good hand to it, but he’s neither tall enough, or good enough. Two-all and another nail in the relegation coffin. This was our chance. Robins fans, awake again, become the 2nd or 3rd team this season to chant ‘he left cos you’re s***’. I think they mean Little Lee. Listen lads, you’re welcome to him.
Onwards and upwards!
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| The old Main Stand. |
*** Moore. Unplayable. This was the beast I thought we’d bought. Held the ball up, kept possession, won headers (at their end and ours), scored, set up. About the only mistake he made was, after bringing down a long ball superbly, and being clean through (at 1-1), allowing the keeper to save.
** Moncur. Most likely player to set anything up – and he did. So let’s take him off for a defensive midfielder with half an hour left.
* Potts. Good job he runs into the box, cos nobody else does. Possibly shouldn’t take his shirt off in celebration with a body like that though.
Twitter MOTM: Moore. I think we can all agree on that.
Londontykes' Top 3: 1. Moore 2. Moncur 3. Gardner
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| The view from the East upper. |
Despatches:
Davies had two saves to make and conceded two. Fryers was an accident waiting to happen, but got away with it. Yiadom was alright, save for defending the 1st equaliser. So not alright. Jackson and Lindsay were solid. Isgrove was fairly anonymous, while Hammill looked keen and stoked up the fans when he came on. Maybe the manager is getting the message about playing WINGERS on the wing. Or not. McBurnie looked a threat, but too often he was wide left. Still, you could see the terror in their defenders’ faces whenever he ventured towards the box with the ball. Gardner was excellent, then disappeared when his mate Williams came on. But at least they didn’t just stand around doing nowt, with Williams under instruction to get his ar5e up the pitch and join attacks.
All in all, a promising display, ‘cept at this stage, we need POINTS not ‘promising displays’. Too little too late.
Drink du jour: Schneider Weiss on tap in the Old #7. Vodka and orange on tap on the train. Good bants with a couple of Chelsea groundhoppers who’d been to Rovrum, and a Bolton fan coming back from Helland Road.
Away: 855. Three people, in three conversations, commented on how there were NEVER 855 Bristol there. At any one time, I presume 300 were in the queue for a pie.
The Damage:
£28 train
= £28
The Tunes:
Damage and Joy (The Jesus and Mary Chain)
Lazer Guided Melodies (Spiritualized)
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| Panorama v Bristol City. |
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| A present from The Captain to 'Geordie Owl' (me). |
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