BFC 1-0 Bristol Rovers, Saturday 27th October 2018

'THAT'S proper rivalry' (the Rwandan genocide)

Outside Oakwell, 3:15pm.

‘It’s like de ja vous all over again’ said one Shaka Hislop upon not gaining immediate entry to see the Super Reds for a second time, having forgotten his season ticket.  What a moron.  Why would anyone giving 2 weeks notice to the Oakwell box office expect to get in before anyone who rocks up on the day without their ST?  Let me explain…

(Once is misfortune, twice is carelessness)

https://geordiealsgroundhopperscrapbook.blogspot.com/2014/11/barnsley-1-2-scunthorpe-united.html

3 hours and 160 miles later, I'm heading to Oakwell...what can go wrong?

Here’s how it works:  You lose your ST a fortnight before the next home game.  You make the mistake of communicating this to Oakwell.  They tell you a new ST is waiting for you, but they’ll charge you a fiver (fair enough).  You rock up at 2:45 to join the queue (wondering why there’s so many there).  2:55pm, you are talking to a nice lady behind a screen.  You tell her your ST is waiting for you and she goes wandering.  She wanders further.  You stop watching, despite the wonderment that she has no idea where they keep replacement STs.  She appears your side of the counter (I forget why) and disappears back in the office, where your replacement ST appears.  ‘Sorry about that.’  ‘No worries.’ 

Is that us, playing in BLUE?

I am off and running (walking).  The game has kicked off, but whatthehell, it’s only division 3.  I walk down the hill to the East Stand, turning the corner to the lower tier turnstiles (past the halfway line: why?).  Even a couple of mins into the match, ALL lower tier turnstiles are closed.  Fine.  There is a beautiful looking upper tier turnstile open.  I guess all latecomers go through that. ‘Beep beep beep’. No, My replacement ticket is invalid.  Fine, division 3, etc.  I walk back to the ticket office.

Turnstiles.  Closed.

Ticket office closed.  Club shop closed.  Let’s try the main reception.  I tap on a window and receive a surprised look (WTF?  The match has kicked off.)  ‘My ST doesn’t work’ etc.  A little bit of magic and a ‘it works here’ and I’m off.  (I have by now told them what will happen next; I will walk halfway around the ground to find it doesn’t work and then have to come back again.)  I walk halfway around the ground to find it doesn’t work and then have to come back again.  (You’d think after all these years I’d get used to being right; I look upon it as a curse.)  By now I’m mildly irritated.  I point out that all the other folk in the ticket office at 2:55pm, who’d forgotten their season tickets, are NOT walking aimlessly around the outside of Oakwell; TOP TIP: don’t tell the bleeders 2 weeks in advance you’ve lost your ST; rock up on the day saying you’ve forgotten it and they’ll PRINT you a ticket for that day. A fortnight’s notice?  Forget it.

Turnstiles.  Closed.

So, I’m given my fiver back for the new ST wot doesn’t work (‘do you mind if I keep your ST?’  ‘Wot?  The one that doesn’t work?  Help yourself.’  A replacement ticket is handed to me (not for my seat, but one nearby,cos they can’t do one for my seat cos it’s…errrrr…..taken.  Go figure.)  So I get into Oakwell, at 15:33 and however many seconds, in time to see the Super Reds see off 3 consecutive attacks.  Is this what I’ve missed? Being outclasses by a(nother) side in or around the relegation zone?  Amazingly, no.  I look up at the scoreboard and it says we are winning 1-0.  Now, either Oakwell has the best soundproofing ever, or the crowd make FA noise.  I don’t believe we’ve scored and check t’internet on my phone.  We’ve scored. We are indeed winning 1-0 and apparently Mowatt has scored from outside the box to the top corner.  Now I know this can’t be true.  Even the World Wide Web is in on this conspiracy.  I have to laugh.

The away end...and scoreboard proclaiming 1-0.

Now it gets boring.  I have to describe what I DID see.  So….we cagily hold on to what we’ve got, missing not a lot, creating not a lot and conceding not a lot.  Luton, 2^nd half, without the goals.  I have 2 highlights.  We have a goalkick (we are into the 2^nd half now) and the linesman flags for offside. Nevermind Andy and Andy (and every other Reds fan) moaning every match that the officials are against us.  This one doesn’t even know the rules. (He puts his flag down; did the ref tell him?  Or is he a slow realiser?)  And talking of slow realisers….Mamadou Thiam. 

A. Londontyke is caught short outside the East Stand.

Possibly still our highest paid player, but most definitely the thickest.  We’re 2-on-1 and all he has to do is lay it across for Mike Barry to be clean through.  Instead, he kicks it 20 yards to run onto, and while the ball harmlessly goes to the keeper, a defender runs into him.  Half a dozen fans in the Ponty scream for a sending off (the ball is at the other end) while 5,000 people in the East Stand shrug and can’t even be ar5ed to berate Thiam for his Thiam-ness.  (Lads I play 5 aside with know; if I’m not shouting at you for your incompetence, this is a BAD sign.  It means I don’t think you can do any better.  Mamadou: I WANT to shout at you.  I really do.  But you’re a poor excuse for a footballer, which is why you’ve gone from barely commanding a place up front in division 2, to hanging onto a place on the bench, coming on as a winger, in division 3.)  Of course, he then cracks a 20 odd yarder off the bar from the resultant free kick, before hitting the rebound against someone and the second rebound into the crowd.  I make that 3 attempts off target in about 5 seconds, surely a record.  The vocal few will tell you what an incredible free kick it was and all else is forgotten*.)

Midfield action.

*Did I tell you about my bet with Nice Guy Chris?  After Luton, he offers me a tenner that Mamadou will hit at least 15 for the Super Reds this season (‘not including pens’).  I tell him I can’t take money like that from a pensioner and offer 13…to give him a sporting chance.  F***me.  I honestly look forward to everyone here rubbing my piggy little snout in it later this season when Mamadou hits his 3^rd hattrick (no chance).  He is RUBBISH.

The Reds take a corner in front of the Ponty.

*** Lindsay.  I don’t rate him, but me and Mr Twitter agreed today.  Won everything in the air, passed the ball to his teammates (unusual) and stopped a certain goal with a block.  Twitter MOTM.

** Mowatt.  Looked tidy.  Allegedly scored.

* Bahre.  Ran around.  That’s all it takes these days.

Londontykes' MOTM: 1. Mowatt  2. Lindsay  3. Bahre

Despatches:

Davies only dropped one cross (but the ref gave a soft free kick in his favour anyway).  In news of other positions wot need strengthening, Pinnilos was underwhelming at left back.  Cavare was relatively anonymous (possibly a good thing) while Pinnock played it simple.  Moncur…well….let’s just say in the 10 mins I saw of the 1^st half he gave the ball away twice and got booked (correctly; sorry Andies) for a late challenge.  McGeehan…I’d love to defend him, but agree with Dave, he makes it hard for himself with his inability to control a ball…while Moore’s job appeared to be to stand in front of opposition free kicks, till one was kicked off him and he got booked (correctly, Andies).

The view from next to Diane.

Which brings me to a 3^rd highlight, nearly forgotten.  Small kid in front of me in the East Stand wonders to his dad why Hedges isn’t playing.  ‘He can do a job.’  Yes, he probably can.  But footballer isn’t one of them.

And a 4th.  Blimey, this game had more thrills than a Thrills' album.  I saw a bit of the game on a screen in the box office.  We were playing in dark blue, Rovers in sky blue.  I swear the pitch was still green.  Later, I saw the same in the East upper, and we were still in blue, so there was obviously a problem with the screens.  Or I'm still coming down from a trip c.1995.

Onwards and upwards!

Away: 400 and some.

The Damage:
£33 train
= £33

The Tunes:
She Hangs Brightly (Mazzy Star)
All Melody (Nils Frahm)
It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (Public Enemy)

East Stand upper panorama

Panorama from the Ponty (cheers Jonesy)

For those of you watching in black and white...Barnsley are playing in blue.

Another Bristol team doesn't bring very many.

Shrewsbury Town 3-1 BFC, Tuesday 23rd October 2018

‘Pinnock, yer turning into f***ing Nyatanga….’

The teams come out at Montgomery Water Meadow.

Things are getting worse.  Not content with conceding after 8 mins of the 1^st half and 7 mins of the 2^nd v Chorlton (without the Wheelies), we concede after 2 mins against the Shrews.  And forgive me if we’ve seen this before, a mere 2 games ago against Luton…the fullback fails to cut out a cross, the keeper makes a hash of it, and their striker is left with a tap-in.  But it must be the SYSTEM’S fault, as it’s not Cavare failing in defensive duties, it’s Williams on the opposite flank, and it’s not reserve keeper Walton, but Should-be reserve-keeper Davies, Captain Awesome.  'Christ Davies' (as I think he’s called, judging by the number of people calling him that throughout), if you can’t catch it cos you’re under pressure, at least PUNCH the ball.  (Later he did…and it worked.  But it was too late by then).

The Salop Leisure Stand...framed by darkness.

It had started well. Not the match, my trip. Got to the quaint (by football league standards) village of Shrewsbury mid-afternoon, ran an errand and ensconsced myself in a charming ye olde worlde pub and restaurant (Cromwell’s Inn).  They had Erdinger on too (in bottles).  And then Molly, Nozzer and their pet chimp rolled in (I’m being harsh; I should be more tolerant to other people’s intolerant views).  Once we were fed and watered, Moll drove us to the out of town edifice that is the Montgomery Waters Meadow, another lower league stadium tarred by sponsors you’ve never heard of.  I blame McCain oven chips.  They started all this.

Before it all went wrong...

Good timing, straight in and the pick of the seats despite a decent midweek turnout from the Super Reds.  Following Charlton, this was just what we needed; a game soon after against a side in or around the bottom 3.  They murdered us from the start.  It wasn’t long before Davies was beaten, again.  A ball was played out wide and their player was one-on-one with Pinnock.  Hang on.  Didn’t this happen Satdy?  Pinnock shows him inside but Shrews always had a man extra and despite (because of?) a desperate lunge from Mowatt, they score, the ball looping over Davies after the aforementioned deflected the ball.  ‘How s*** must you be, we’re winning two-nil.’  Indeed.

Shrews' vocal element, top right.

One highlight of following the Super Reds is when fellow fans argue amongst themselves.  Is Davies s*** or really s***?  Anyway, his defenders thought they’d won the argument when the captain made a decent one-handed save to prevent 3-0 on the stroke of half-time.  It was within arm’s reach, mind yer.  Their lad shoulda buried it.
Still, half time, we’ll come out fighting, etc (actually, that was later, when the management of both teams squared up following a poor challenge by McGeehan).  The only question was who would Moncur come on for.  Thiam?  Never a footballer, nevermind a winger.  The anonymous McGeehan?  Can’t really, he’s just come on for the injured Dougall (who’d been kicked out of the game; very SHREWd).  Bahre?  But he runs around, and wasn’t to blame for Charlton.  And that only really left Mowatt, who was comfortably our best player.  No, leave him on the bench.

I was surprised the 'safe standing' wasn't fuller.

And it works, as we pull a goal back from nothing.  The ball is lifted into the area from our left and in the ensuing melee, Pinnock puts it in from close range.  Hope!  Moncur comes on (for Thiam, obvs), dazzles for 5 mins, has a shot cleared off the line…then disappears.  And the icing is put on the cake when they get a corner which is headed in from 12 yards.  I’m resigned, others are angry.  Having seen it on telly, I’m joining the Livid Party.  Stendal and his f***ing…what do you call it? Defending a zone? Zonal defending!  Got there in the end.  Christ.  I’ll give you zonal defending.  Mark the area where their bloke stands and have someone on the post.  The ball goes in next to the far post, about 2 yards off the floor.  Soft.  Bit like us. 

The away end, defeat looming.

We are back to being put in our place by Shrews fans, even more so as Stendal is sent off following the handbags on the touchline.  ‘Just because you’re losing.’  Damn right.  ‘3-1 to the sheepshaggers’ (a retort to earlier moronic chants from the away end).  And don’t get Moll and Salisbury started on the age-old ‘Shrewsbury’s a sh*thole, I wanna go home’, sung by folk who have no sense of irony whatsoever.  Next year (!) let’s have a round of ‘Shrewsbury’s a beautiful and mildly interesting place full of great pubs’.  I’ll start…

S

*** Molly, for the lift. 

** Salisbury, for the bed.  (Will he be angry he hasn’t got MOTM?) 

* BFC box office.  For offering to get my ticket reprinted (it took a week to turn up through the post).
  
Seriously?
*** No-one.  Again.
** Mowatt.  Only one who looked interested AND could do something with the ball.
* Moncur.  For 5 minutes.  F*** me.

Londontykes' MOTM: 1. Mowatt  2. Bahre  3. No-one

Where the Shrews' big nobs hangout.

Despatches:
Lindsay flicked one onto the bar late on.  So he WAS playing.  Pinnock was appalling, his worst game yet (but rumour had it he was having to cover for 2 fullbacks and his centre half partner.  Maybe.)  Davies was…Davies.  Williams cannot defend, and is not fast enough in attack.  If George Smith couldn’t eke out a career at Oakwell, this bloke has no chance.  Cavare?  I’m mystified.  Looks the part, athletic, quick (going forward).  But for a defender, he can’t defend.  And the athleticism?  Small bursts here and there, but can’t sustain it.  The midfield?  Bahre tried to the very end, tho nothing worked.  Potts was awful and got dragged off.  Dougall I’d noticed (for once) cos the hatchet job which caused his substitution was the 3^rd foul on him.  Was he targeted?  As for Moore, it looked a gamble too far.  He didn’t look fit at Charlton and he didn’t look fit tonite.  Didn’t win a header till the 90^th minute (unless it was his flick-on for Pinnock’s goal?)

Now, all I need is a discussion on the way home about how all these foreigners in our country are destroying our identity…

Onwards and upwards!

Back to the teams lining up...

Drink du jour: Erdinger.  Not nearly enough of it.

Away: c800

The Damage:
£21 ent
£13 train
£12 Molly’s dinner
= £46

The Tunes:
Vulnicura (Bjork)
Walking The Line (Johnny Cash)
Latenighttales (Jon Hopkins)
Latenighttales (BadBadNotGood)
Behind the Counter with Max Richter (Various)

Pedestrians Only.  A pathway outside the stadium.

Charlton Athletic 2-0 BFC, Saturday 20th October 2018

‘I don’t want to lecture you, but let me point out….’

Welcome to ....

Marius is over from Norway and we’re doing the Bermondsey Beer Mile (before and after the match). What can possibly go wrong?  Well, for starters, I lost my tickets last week, so I’ve got to arrive early at The Valley to pick up reprints (well done all concerned).  Then I take Marius to the wrong end of the beer mile (nearer two, I’d say) and we have to walk all the way to the other end to meet Reedy and Pompey in Four Pure.  Needless to say they then leave 5 minutes later, while Sarah and I sip our pints (no-one told us we were on halves).  Still, cooking lager lout Pompey summed it up best: ‘£5 a pint for something dredged from the river?’ 

OK, technically cheating...We 3 enjoy beers on Sunday.

Then there was a match.  That went well too. The bookies had us down as twice as likely as Charlton to win. And they’re always right, so I felt the same.  Mind, I’ve never met Paddy Power, William Hill or that lad Brooke, so what do they know?  Still, with 3 wins and a draw in our last 4 there, it’s not like QPR.  ‘No, it’s not raining for a start’ (A. Reed)  A beautiful day, a busy away end and we could sit where we liked.  So we turned our seats by the corner turned into prime positions above the net.  We’d have a perfect view of Charlton’s 1^st.

The view from behind the goal.

We then proceed to pretty much give up.  The fans that is, aside from a few intermittent chants.  Do we only sing when we’re winning?  Are we spoilt?  Are we as complacent as the players?  Well, maybe.  About the only positive I could see in a stuttering 1^st half performance was our ability to switch the ball out wide.  But whereas Charlton scored from this, we simply drill endless crosses to the keeper, to the first man, to no-one, or worse, into the stand.  I reckon we had 20 crosses on Satdy and only one went in the right place, a second half low ball along the edge of the 6 yard area, while Kiefer was on the backpost and Brown was AWOL. 

The teams come out.

Yes, after knocking it around nicely and looking comfortable, we let Chorlton score.  We’ve been sucked to our left and one crossfield ball from the homesters sees a 1-on-1 with Pinnock. Howthehell has he got a one-one-one with Pinnock?  Anyway, Pinnock fails to deal with it, the player going on his outside and burying it with his left foot.  I’d say into the corner, but it’s only in the corner cos that’s where Davies’ hand has put it.  Good to have him back in goal as well (kidding).

A club whose ground is more too big for them than ours.

We DID manage one shot of note though, a free kick from miles out by Mowatt which the keeper scrambled around the post, much to our chagrin (it looked in all the way).  But after 39 minutes I’d had enough. I was hungry, so went and joined the queue for pies.  ‘Will you get me one?’  ‘Will you get me one?’ Christ. At least I didn’t miss anything (I was told).

I wondered this most of the match....

Second half and Big Kiefer was on for McGeehan (who was problies only in the team cos Bahre was absent).  Anyway, the second half started even worse than the first, as we took 7 mins to concede rather than 8.  Again, Charlton show us how it’s done with an overlap and cross that’s actually met by one of their own players.  Davies (for a change!) doesn’t cover himself in glory as the winger (fullback) was only ever going to put the ball in one place and he doesn’t read it.  When was the last time our keeper made a difference in a match?  (errr….last away game, penalty save at 0-0?)

Some (almost) pressure on the Charlton goal.

We continued to be disjointed, and although enjoying the lions’ share of possession, we never looked likely to score.  Indeed, we were ripe for being hit on the break and from one attack, it looked  like Charlton missed the unmissable from 6 yards.  Did Davies save it? Did the player simply miss the ball?  I couldn’t tell.  As I also couldn’t tell you the reputed seventeen (17!) shots we allegedly had on Satdy.  The only one I can recollect in the second half was a from Cavare, a weak effort following a great surge into the box beating 3 players.  It wasn’t our day.  Charlton had done a job on us, worked hard…and had the timewasting tactics second half to see it through.  I can’t remember seeing as many players collapse to the floor before, but according to Jonesy, his Charlton mate says this is de rigeur under Bowyer.  (He may not have said ‘de rigueur’, but I thought I’d drop in a bit of French just for Mrs Jones!)

*** Barnsley box office, for helping sort the reprint of the tickets. 

** Charlton box office, for helping sort the reprint of the tickets. 

* Nozzer.  For identifying the lost ticket seat numbers and buying replacement tickets to replace the lost boys.  (Miriam and Martin took those.)

All that was left was to traipse back to Bermondsey and drown our sorrows in some breweries or other.  Drink du jour quality-wise was a Belgian wit at the Swedish place. Just saying.

About as good as it got.

Despatches:
If I’m being generous, I’ll give one star to Kiefer Moore, the only player who looked owt like.  Good to see him back.  Maybe Brown looked alright, tho poorly supported.  The rest?  The midfield played it around nicely at times, without creating anything, while the defence looked penetratable (is that a word?).  Makes me laugh when I hear ‘Barnsley have the best defence in the division’ when what the commentators mean is ‘Barnsley don’t concede many cos they’re normally at the other end attacking.’  And for all the adulation early doors for Dougall, when I finally see him in a game where he’s tested, he comes up short.  I’ll tell you who we missed: Bahre.  Where was he?  Certainly, no-one else seemed capable of running about and panicking Charlton into losing the ball high up field.

Drink du jour: Too many to mention.  We finished in the George at London Bridge, just to show Marius a bit of historic.  Anyway, I think he enjoyed his weekend, having at least 13 new beers to add to his beer app (plus whatever he had at the Brick Brewery in Peckham on Sunday).  Just a shame he saw such a poor display from the Super Reds.

Onwards and upwards!

Away: 1500

The Damage:£21 ent
£2 fanzine (never saw a programme)
£4 pie
£2.90 coke (I know, unbelieveable)
= £29.90

The Valley panorama.

The teams line up.

Miriam complains the legroom isn't enough for a dwarf.

'Thanks for coming' etc

East meets...North.

The cavernous West Stand.

BFC 3-2 Luton Town, Saturday 13th October 2018

‘The Beatles are just idiots’

Sky are in town.

It’s international weekend and the nation demands our game at home to Luton Town is on Sky.  Furthermore, it’s a midday kick-off.  F*** the fans, though no doubt some (Barnsley-based) Reds fans think the game should be called off, since keeper Davies has been called up to Wales’ bench and this-season’s-big-thing Dougall is having another training sesh with Oz.  Personally, I’d rather play the game.  Davies is no great miss and Dougall gets booked enough to be missing future games anyway.  We have to learn to cope somehow.

One way.  My way...or the highway.

And for 4 minutes we aren’t coping much at all.  It’s all Luton, we’re penned in our half…and we break away and score with our first foray into their half.  The Magnificent Potts (ours, not theirs, though I did enjoy right wing Potts being marked by left back Potts) drives forward, digs the ball out from under his feet, beats 2 or 3 players and drills it into the bottom corner from 20 yards.  The new Redfearn.  (Well, he certainly looks more Neil Redfearn than the 2 last hopefuls, Stephen Dawson and Gary Jones.)  Our midfield now take the game by the scruff of the neck and are SUBLIME (by 3^rd division standards).

The teams come out.

That new bloke Moncur is simply dazzling.  The Hatters can’t get near him, even at walking pace, as he rolls the ball back and forward under his studs.  The new Hammill stepover?  Indeed, George sets up #2 as he breaks clear on the left, holds it up, cuts inside, and lays it on a plate for an on-rushing (on-jogging?) McGeehan to stroke into the bottom corner 1^st time.  Beautiful.  But credit where it’s due, the dummy from Behre to send Moncur clear was a cut above.  How can we NOT get promotion?

Pre-match meet 'n' greet.

Further credit to McGeehan.  He’s been in and out of the team, and today he’s been told to play further back in the Dougall roll.  How ironic then that he bags.  But 3 times I saw him chase back, including one last-man tackle.  Superb.  Even better that it's against the club we signed him from.  Maybe BECAUSE it's the club...etc

Not quite so superb were our young uns.  Ben Williams at left back was having a mare, and topped it by giving away an injury-time penalty to give Luton a sniff.  I thnk he got caught blind-sided, but it was still careless.  Later, as a fan berated the ref for not giving one of theirs a yellow for persistent misconduct, I pondered how Williams had avoided a card till that point.  Nothing went right for him.  Missing tackles, giving balls away and losing it when up in attack.  Good management by Stendal though, taking him off after 70 or so minutes; not so early it kills his confidence, not so late it cost us.

A rather excellent 807 from Luton, midday KO and all.

So, 2-1 at half time, and for all our midfield intertwinations (!?) Luton were good value for their goal. 3 or 4 times they’d broken in numbers and 3 or 4 tims they’d been let down by a stray offside.  Davies’ replacement Walton fumbled a shot straight to their centre forward who tapped in but was denied for offside.  The Luton manager went mad, and between Colin Murray and Ian ‘Ollie’ Holloway on EFL Quest, they decided Luton were hard done to as ‘it was only his shoulder offside and you can’t score with your shoulder.’  Well, Ollie, that’s as maybe, but the last time I looked, the rule book didn’t take account of that.  Correct decision.

I've been to Luton.  It's too late.  (Only kidding!)

The second half was a bit of a non-event.  Neither side did much, so we sent Thiam on.  The goal scoring machine (4 in a year) suitably lashed it into the far top corner from 25 yards.  Where’s he been?  This year’s bet with Nice Guy Chris was made on the train back; he bet Mamadou will get 15+ this season.  Presuming you can’t take candy off babies (or old men) I offered him 13.  Generous to a fault, I am.

The view towards the Ponty.

Still time for us to make it uncomfortable for ourselves though, allowing Luton to nick one late on.  Oh yeah, pure Davies in goal, as Walton shows he’s learnt from his master by watching a 40 yard cross sail over him, hit the far post and be knocked in on the rebound.  No wonder Davies still gets a game if this is the level of subordinate.  At least Walton kicks well though.  I’ll throw him that bone.

*** Moncur.  As someone Whats-apped at half time ‘he’s OWNING this pitch’.  Tailed off later, like the match itself.  Twitter MOTM.

** McGeehan.  As noted earlier, it wasn’t just his goal.  The effort matched it.

* Potts.  What a difference a year makes.  Last season he looked cumbersome and slow, this year he’s faster, fitter and bigger than anything he’s up against.  One 50 yard run where he shrugged off 3 players deserved better.

Londontykes' MOTM: 1. Potts 2. Moncur 3. Mowatt

The Super Reds celebrate Thiam's screamer.

Despatches:

Walton and nowt to do…and conceded two.  Pinny and Linny…chances were skinny (actually, they both nearly gifted Luton a goal each).  Williams, Ben…4 out of 10.  Behre, the German…my kind of Merman.  Lacks a fishy bottom half, but has an engine like a swordfish, always pressing from the front.  Brown…he was down…couldn’t hold a ball up for toffee.  While Mamadou…he’s new….can’t remember ever seeing him get summat right before.  So I enjoyed his next touch after his goal, as we broke 3 on 3 and Thiam kicked the pass out for a throw.  Hapless.  ‘Message to feet.  Kick ball out wide for Reds player to run onto.  Doh.’  Oh, and I nearly forgot Mowatt.  Excellent inter-passing with the rest of midfield.  We rock!

The sun is out, the floodlights are on.

Drink du jour: Midday kick off, so no beer there then.  Had a couple afterwards in Wakey, including one in MILF-heaven (I don’t think that’s what it’s called, but this IS a town with a ‘Fanny and Bacardi’).  Decided to take it easy on train, a 4-pack of Leffe, as I was off into Camden to see Kruder and Dorfmeister.  The long and the short was after some bleepy s*** I got so drunk I don't remember much until waking up in a panic on the tube and jumping off…to find I’d left my bag…containing some work, a Reds tracksuit top and Satdy’s Guardian.  Oh, and a couple of tickets for Charlton next Satdy.  ‘I’m surprised that doesn’t happen more often’ said an unsurprised better half.  Balls.

Onwards and upwards!

Away: 807.  Decent turnout, given KO time and on Sky.

The Damage:
£29 train
£3 prog
£2 zine (x3)
= £38

The Tunes:
Slowdive (Slowdive)
DJ Kicks (Kruder and Dorfmeister)

Luton pano from the East Stand upper.

Luton pano from the Ponty (cheers Jonesy).

Heading towards t'well.

The Ponty v Luton.

Home time!