It’s always good to see history unfold before your very eyes. It wasn’t good enough to BFC that we were being treated to the first ever clash between Barnsley FC and Bromley. No, we had to go and lose to a side who were non-league 3 years ago. And the eleven thousand one hundred and sixty-three who were there? Take a bow. You were part of the biggest crowd to ever see Bromley win a Football League match. YOU are a part of history!My God. (How many times will I blaspheme this season? That could be a record too.) We’ve lost to a side despite us having 2/3 possession, outshooting them 22-12 (on target 8-3) and we still fail to score. That’s what not having a centre forward does to a side. Indeed, we quite literally didn’t have a centre forward 1st half, as Stendel benched Kirk (tell me he’s on loan?) before sticking him on in desperation and seeing him slice a simple 6 foot finish on the rebound. Unlucky? I don’t think we were unlucky. For all the saves their keeper made, we created one great chance, aside from Kirk’s effort.
Opening half, Bland plays in their striker for a simple finish…only Ravenhill spreads himself well and blocks. Bland’s fault? The keeper’s? Probably both, a miscommunication, though Bland could have at least blocked the striker’s run. (I’ve since seen it on youtube and I totally blame Bland.) Then, second half, Ravenhill makes a couple of blocks on his front post as the ball bobbles around before he pounces on it.
In reply, we have a number of half chances, but the ball either never falls properly, or results in a McGeehan scuff. The amount of times the ball needed an extra touch, allowing defenders to block…and when we do create a chance (Connell playing a lovely throughball to Cleary), the latter fails to dink it over a keeper who’s sat on the floor.
Reyes Cleary. No-one did more than him on Satdy to ensure we’ll still have him at the end of the transfer window. I lost count of the number of times he lost it. He must have been given the opportunity, one-on-one, to beat his man and DO something, 20 times – and failed. There’ll be other games where he’ll be lucky to have half a dozen such opportunities, nevermind the 2 or 3 efforts he bent into the stand. 5 million? Be lucky to get 50 grand. (Plans to invest said transfer cash should be put on hold.)
Then Adeboyejo came on as sub. I can’t have been the only one who said ‘I bet he gets the winner.’ He gets the winner. Our hapless defence (no change there then) fails to deal with a long ball, fails to deal with the 2nd ball, fails to deal with the 3rd ball, and a shot so wide it becomes a cross is deflected in on the scuff by Big Vic. One of the worst goals we have conceded in a year of conceding worst goals.
It’s ok though, on comes the cavalry. How many times do we see this? Managers make changes AFTER they’ve conceded. The key is to make changes BEFORE you concede! Richards comes on for Bland (who’d also been booked for going through one of theirs from behind). He goes on the wing, while the Curacaon is pulled back. Kirk is on for Alker (anonymous in the 2nd half) while later, my favouritely-named Reds player Noah Town comes on for Luca. We never look like scoring. That Richards bloke looks like he’d blow over in the wind.
And then we spend the last 20 minutes watching Bromley go down ‘injured’ at every opportunity (though none of which lead to a Bromley player going off for a minute, waiting to come back on). Maybe it’s different rules at Oakwell? 9 minutes injury time just means we’re 9 minutes later in going home. We have been beaten by Bromley. Bromley. FFS. (Well done Bromley.) We couldn’t beat a side whose star centre half got taken off injured and in whose line-up included a certain Will Hondermarck. My God.
Welcome home Daniel.
Onwards and upwards!
*** Kay. 2 shots, one header, hit the bar. Not bad for a fullback. GET HIM UP TOP!
** Alker. Floated around in the Bermuda Triangle of their defence before actually disappearing.
* The Curacaon. Looked promising.
Official MOTM: McGeehan
Londontykes’ MOTM: 1. Kay 2. Noslin 3. Alker
Despatches:
It was a pity we went on to lose, as there was a really positive atmosphere 1st half. It was also vaguely busy, credit to BFC for making it £17 in. But we’ll have to win a few games if we’re to avoid regularly 4 figure crowds come October.
Spiral was busy too, helped by Jonesy bringing half the away end (3) with him from the train. I trust his daughter’s boyfriend (who’s a Chelsea fan actually) enjoyed his day with his adopted team.
The players? Well, being positive, there were some good moves. We often made little passes that ended with a throughball down the wing for the wide player to…kick it to them. But this was on the players making the runs as much as the provider. You can’t run behind a defender and expect him to miss the ball. So, yes, lots of possession in promising areas, but zero chances created from them.
And where will we finish? I don’t want to go mad and say we’re doomed. (Altho…) But I have twenty quid on with A. Jones that we finish bottom half. I think I’m winning that bet! (Winning, as in ‘in the lead’; I think we’ve a chance of finishing top half. It IS division 3, after all.)
Drink du jour: Beartown Inception in Spiral.
Away: 360 (11,163).
The Damage:
£18.22 (£419 season ticket divided by 23 home games)
£8 petrol
£20 ent (sort of)
= £46.22
No comments:
Post a Comment