@eric_plant , JJ has started racking up a few great cross assists for Bayo now.
Long may that partnership continue.
Someone gave O Nien 2 assists the other day. I don't know if they were just mistaken, or giving him the second one for the little block on the defender to let JJ go free!
First chance I've had to pop back with my thoughts!
First things first - all the best at White Hart Lane! What a great draw! Naturally it's a bit "what might have been" from our point of view, nobody more so than our Club President (also happens to be my old man) who is a lifelong Spurs fan. His family moved up here from Winchmore Hill shortly before he was born. The draw we would have loved, but one round too late! Ah well...
Thoroughly enjoyed everything about Saturday. A great game in which we did ourselves justice, and that was all I hoped for before kick-off, not to be 3-0 down after ten minutes but to be still in the game with 10 to go, and we were certainly that.
There was a spell around the hour when I felt we were rocking for five minutes but we got through it and when we got the goal, bedlam!
I thought Gareth Ainsworth (more on him later) was spot on in everything he said afterwards, particularly about us being "the better team in spells". Looking back, we had chances, and we had times when I think you were a little rattled. That cross-cum-shot that hit the bar... But over the 90 minutes I thought you showed just that bit more about you in the moments when it counted. Akinfenwa's goal, and the cross, was the stand-out moment of the game. For all the talk of his size he's a fantastic footballer and clearly more than fit enough to cut it. You can't give him space like that.
Off the field, you showed how it should be done, from Boardroom, to Manager, to staff, to fans. A fabulously warm welcome, and something all of our supporters have commented on time and again.
GA is a class act. To applaud our supporters, and then wait the best part of 15 minutes for our players to celebrate with the fans so that he could applaud every one of them off the pitch was incredible. A great gesture that did not go unnoticed at our end.
I believe clubs take on the image of their manager, so that he pervades every nook and cranny of the place - twice in the last five years we've had the misfortune of coming across Stevenage and Graham Westley. An odious individual and an odious club, They deserve(d) each other. So do Wycombe and GA, but for completely opposite reasons. As long as football higher up has people like him involved all hope for the game may not yet be lost.
It's been mentioned by several fans that we'd love to have you at our place in pre-season. I hope that can happen, although with us sharing with the cricket club we are limited to one, or maybe two, home friendlies and dates can be difficult to slot in to suit all parties. Would be great if it could be arranged though.
Can't ignore the one sour note - our "friend" with the flare. I gather he's in Court on 30th January and I hope they throw the book at him. Bragging on Twitter afterwards and making threats to the fans who pretty much made a collective citizen's arrest on the spot. Account now deleted, but not before screenshots were taken which hopefully might enable further charges to be brought. Sadly, it will probably incur a fine, and by the letter of the rulebook we can't argue. However, I hope the FA will take a little pity on us given our message/plea beforehand, and the fact that the offender is a Birmingham City fan who nobody has seen before, and readily admitted no affiliation to the club at all. There's a few clues as to how he came by a ticket but it's not clear-cut so I'll say no more.
A million more things I could say, but just incredibly proud of what my club did on a very special day for so many reasons.
@TRM Wonderful post Mr TRM, much appreciated. And you are absolutely spot on with the Ainsworth/Westley contrast. There are some similarities in the style of football played and the, ahem, game management techniques sometimes employed. But the differences are so much more fundamental.
@TRM - Post much appreciated. It was a pleasure to have such a large well behaved and enthusiastic set of supporters at our ground. I think we all agree on that obnoxious individual called Graham Westley, I am just amazed so many chairmen appoint him.
Best of luck for the rest of your season and hopefully promotion, you certainly deserve it.
@TRM nice one pal. It was fairly clear, both from some of your team's performance and reading the pen pictures in the programme that you've got some talented players, perhaps unfortunate with injuries.
Maybe it suits their overall life position to hold a job and play tier 7, then to be league players? Our manager is very cagey with interest, so I was very surprised to hear he'd be maybe looking at some of your players. That's high praise from such a secretive guy. He doesn't even let on to fans when our own team are injured half the time!
All the best, hope you get a promotion this season, I haven't looked, but you must be in the mix surely.
ps chuckled at the idea of that fan giving it large on twitter! Didn't look so big a man when basically being absolutely battered by your fans giving him up! What a dolt. Come all that way, paid his money, then kicked out, to great shame. No words really!
@Malone We're currently 11th - dropped two places on Saturday (Manager has to go!) but obviously with games in hand on most above us after the Cup run. Points-wise, we're well in touch. It's a competitive League, you don't get time on the ball especially when pitches are just that bit short of perfect and first touch can't always be trusted. The old image of muddy fields is way out of date in NL now but few are as good as you find in the League - Nantwich Town being a notable exception. It does make a difference.
On your point about jobs outside the game, it's true that players can play part-time, have a decent job and earn more than playing f-t in the League. And there's also the job security factor. Say one of our players gives up a secure job for a contract in League Two, then gets a career ending injury, or gets released at the end of the season? Why risk that when you can have the best of both worlds? It means a lot of good players stick where they are.
TRM
Thank you very much for such positive comments about our club it's so refreshing to hear I for one will be following you on twitter and looking out for your results hope you get promoted. The roar when you scored was the loudest I've heard at AP. Good luck
Comments
@eric_plant , JJ has started racking up a few great cross assists for Bayo now.
Long may that partnership continue.
Someone gave O Nien 2 assists the other day. I don't know if they were just mistaken, or giving him the second one for the little block on the defender to let JJ go free!
First chance I've had to pop back with my thoughts!
First things first - all the best at White Hart Lane! What a great draw! Naturally it's a bit "what might have been" from our point of view, nobody more so than our Club President (also happens to be my old man) who is a lifelong Spurs fan. His family moved up here from Winchmore Hill shortly before he was born. The draw we would have loved, but one round too late! Ah well...
Thoroughly enjoyed everything about Saturday. A great game in which we did ourselves justice, and that was all I hoped for before kick-off, not to be 3-0 down after ten minutes but to be still in the game with 10 to go, and we were certainly that.
There was a spell around the hour when I felt we were rocking for five minutes but we got through it and when we got the goal, bedlam!
I thought Gareth Ainsworth (more on him later) was spot on in everything he said afterwards, particularly about us being "the better team in spells". Looking back, we had chances, and we had times when I think you were a little rattled. That cross-cum-shot that hit the bar... But over the 90 minutes I thought you showed just that bit more about you in the moments when it counted. Akinfenwa's goal, and the cross, was the stand-out moment of the game. For all the talk of his size he's a fantastic footballer and clearly more than fit enough to cut it. You can't give him space like that.
Off the field, you showed how it should be done, from Boardroom, to Manager, to staff, to fans. A fabulously warm welcome, and something all of our supporters have commented on time and again.
GA is a class act. To applaud our supporters, and then wait the best part of 15 minutes for our players to celebrate with the fans so that he could applaud every one of them off the pitch was incredible. A great gesture that did not go unnoticed at our end.
I believe clubs take on the image of their manager, so that he pervades every nook and cranny of the place - twice in the last five years we've had the misfortune of coming across Stevenage and Graham Westley. An odious individual and an odious club, They deserve(d) each other. So do Wycombe and GA, but for completely opposite reasons. As long as football higher up has people like him involved all hope for the game may not yet be lost.
It's been mentioned by several fans that we'd love to have you at our place in pre-season. I hope that can happen, although with us sharing with the cricket club we are limited to one, or maybe two, home friendlies and dates can be difficult to slot in to suit all parties. Would be great if it could be arranged though.
Can't ignore the one sour note - our "friend" with the flare. I gather he's in Court on 30th January and I hope they throw the book at him. Bragging on Twitter afterwards and making threats to the fans who pretty much made a collective citizen's arrest on the spot. Account now deleted, but not before screenshots were taken which hopefully might enable further charges to be brought. Sadly, it will probably incur a fine, and by the letter of the rulebook we can't argue. However, I hope the FA will take a little pity on us given our message/plea beforehand, and the fact that the offender is a Birmingham City fan who nobody has seen before, and readily admitted no affiliation to the club at all. There's a few clues as to how he came by a ticket but it's not clear-cut so I'll say no more.
A million more things I could say, but just incredibly proud of what my club did on a very special day for so many reasons.
My bad @Malone , thought they were both Luke's
@TRM Wonderful post Mr TRM, much appreciated. And you are absolutely spot on with the Ainsworth/Westley contrast. There are some similarities in the style of football played and the, ahem, game management techniques sometimes employed. But the differences are so much more fundamental.
@TRM - Post much appreciated. It was a pleasure to have such a large well behaved and enthusiastic set of supporters at our ground. I think we all agree on that obnoxious individual called Graham Westley, I am just amazed so many chairmen appoint him.
Best of luck for the rest of your season and hopefully promotion, you certainly deserve it.
@TRM nice one pal. It was fairly clear, both from some of your team's performance and reading the pen pictures in the programme that you've got some talented players, perhaps unfortunate with injuries.
Maybe it suits their overall life position to hold a job and play tier 7, then to be league players? Our manager is very cagey with interest, so I was very surprised to hear he'd be maybe looking at some of your players. That's high praise from such a secretive guy. He doesn't even let on to fans when our own team are injured half the time!
All the best, hope you get a promotion this season, I haven't looked, but you must be in the mix surely.
ps chuckled at the idea of that fan giving it large on twitter! Didn't look so big a man when basically being absolutely battered by your fans giving him up! What a dolt. Come all that way, paid his money, then kicked out, to great shame. No words really!
@trm Fantastic post, thank you. I think I'll probably keep an eye out for Stourbridge's results for ever more.
@Malone We're currently 11th - dropped two places on Saturday (Manager has to go!) but obviously with games in hand on most above us after the Cup run. Points-wise, we're well in touch. It's a competitive League, you don't get time on the ball especially when pitches are just that bit short of perfect and first touch can't always be trusted. The old image of muddy fields is way out of date in NL now but few are as good as you find in the League - Nantwich Town being a notable exception. It does make a difference.
On your point about jobs outside the game, it's true that players can play part-time, have a decent job and earn more than playing f-t in the League. And there's also the job security factor. Say one of our players gives up a secure job for a contract in League Two, then gets a career ending injury, or gets released at the end of the season? Why risk that when you can have the best of both worlds? It means a lot of good players stick where they are.
TRM
Thank you very much for such positive comments about our club it's so refreshing to hear I for one will be following you on twitter and looking out for your results hope you get promoted. The roar when you scored was the loudest I've heard at AP. Good luck