Anyway, it was nice for Bob and Mo to jet in from Lanzarote (via a freezing cold Scarborough) for the match. They can see what the rest of us have to put up with. It takes Exeter an embarrassing 13 minutes to go ahead, THAT’S how bad they are. They’ve already skied one from 6 yards early doors, so we can’t say we haven’t been warned. The defence are all over the shop as Roberts blocks, Flavell saves...and the ball drops for them to tap in. Is he offside? He’s behind the nearest defender. But oh no, McCarthy has jogged towards the line in the pandemonium and is playing them on.
Worse is to come, before half-time, as another scramble, more defensive pandemonium, it’s 0-2, O’Keeffe failing to stop it crossing the line. The ref points to the halfway line, the scoreboard comes up 0-2, Wigan...dammit, EXETER (I kept making this mistake last nite, I guess I was linking our previous opponents to last nite’s colour of strip, blue) are celebrating. We are down and out, already beaten by a team with as much to play for as us (though I guess they have ‘pride’). But what’s this? There’s arguing, the ref’s now in our box. He’s only gone and chalked it off. What was it that everyone was saying about him being terrible? (He was.) A foul no-one in the ground saw...or no-one in the ground who I spoke to, though at about 10, that was half the crowd...turns out there was a tug on Russell.
I can’t remember us creating loads of chances to equalise, but let’s presume we did and fast forward to the second half. Hourihane goes all decisive, hauls Bland and Nwakali for Watters and Connell and goes 4-4-2. (He’s already shown his decisiveness in not including Phillips in the squad, reputedly for arriving late for a meeting. Mind, this reminds me of school...if you can get out of something by being a d*ck, won’t this encourage players to act like d*cks? None of them want to play for us (do they?) so getting an evening off sounds cushty to me.
Then it happens! I’d never have believed it if I wasn’t there. If I was watching the highlights, I’d presume this was something concocted by AI. But I SAW IT. We counter attacked AT SPEED from their corner. I know. I’ve only waited all season for this. A fortunate clearance even more fortuitously lands at the feet of DKD (the only Red capable of making this happen) and he runs forward, pulls the defender to him and plays a perfectly weighted ball to the overlapping Humphreys who fires into the far corner via the keeper’s hand. YOU BEAUTY! So it CAN be done. We then have a spell where we actually force the keeper into the odd save and get a couple of corners. The sparsely populated Ponty awoke from its slumber (it was surprising how so few could make a noise). I turned to Bob. ‘You’ll be able to say we could’ve won that!’
Then the inevitable. MdG falls over (whatthehell was he trying to do?) and has his pocket picked, the Grecian strolling forward at an angle and burying it at Flavell’s near post. Oh well, at 81 minutes, at least it was earlier than most of our late goals conceded. Time indeed to contemplate ANOTHER home defeat. Against ANOTHER 3rd division side. (Who was it in the pub objected to me terming League 1 ‘division 3’?) Pitiful.
Onwards and upwards!
*** Humphreys. Go on then. Smart finish for the goal and made a couple of promising runs (before filing to deliver).
** DKD. Dropped deep at times to probe, but we’d never have scored without him.
* Flavell. Made a couple of saves, and I don’t blame him for either goal. It’s easy to say he should’ve covered his near post for the winner, but he’s having to watch out for the cross too. Poor bloke problies ended last nite cross-eyed.
Official MOTM: Humphreys
Londontykes’ MOTM: 1. Humphreys 2. DKD 3. Flavell
Despatches:
Too many players had poor games. In the space of 5 minutes I heard the bloke behind me complain how bad O’Keeffe, McCarthy and MdG were, all 3 committing criminal mistakes in that short period (the latter leading to their winner). What’s happened to MdG since he came back from his ban? To blame for 2 in 2 now and less than inspiring before that. O’Keeffe? Listen, I get that he’s set up (read: provided the last pass after a killer move) a number of goals, but the lad can’t defend, a basic trait needed in a ‘defender’ one would have thought. He’s had time...nearly two seasons...and he’s had enough head coaches...Collins, Devaney, Clarke, Hourihane...but he refuses to improve. McCarthy got better as the game went on, but from a low bar. And fair play to Roberts with that early block, I thought that bloke behind would complete the set.
The midfield? We had a midfield? Nwakali was so bad he was hauled at half-time. Connell was so bad the coach forced him to stay on. What was that 40 yard forward ball for a goalkick all about? There wasn’t a red shirt within 20 yards of it. Russell showed some nice touches. Up top, Jalo had a mare. If the ball went in his direction he couldn’t control it. Watters came on at the interval for Bland. Why? He’s never a right wing back. Or a centre forward. Anonymous, tho, like Connell, my abiding highlight of him was misplacing a simple ball into touch. (This was after he’d chased the ball down into the corner, held it up...you know, done all the RIGHT things...then kicked an easy ball out for a throw.)
The attendance. Laughable. A reputed 10,000 was never more than 6, and more likely 5,000. The season ticket holders have spoken. Will they now start SHOUTING by not renewing? We are in serious trouble if they/we don’t.
Drink du jour: House Party IPA in Spiral.
Away: 188 (10,092). And half a dozen of them came bowling along Grove Street post match, singing ‘we always win at Oakwell’. 3 in a row and counting.
The Damage:
c.£8 petrol
£27 replica shirt
= c. £8
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