Big match build up
Is it just me or is the build up to the biggest game in the club's history strangely low key?
The media output has been brilliant for a few seasons now and I would have expected them to be whipping us up into a frenzy of pre match anticipation by now, and yet there's been hardly anything.
On here as well it's felt a bit subdued. Maybe we're all a bit emotionally spent after the semi final legs? I hope not. Or maybe it's the gradual realisation that none of us can be there.
Who knows? Hopefully there will soon be a flurry of activity and by Monday evening we'll all be at fever pitch
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Financially you are probably right Eric, but in a sporting context, can a Lg1 playoff final really be regarded as a bigger game than an FA Cup semi final?
You are right though. Does all feel a little off-season. As long as the players are fully focused notsure it matters overly though.
My suggestion is that, as the impossible has become a realistic proposition, we, or at least I, have become too nervous for displays of overt excitement. In terms of how much I'm thinking about Monday and the extent to which thinking about Monday is having a deleterious effect on my professional output, I can assure you that the biggest game in the club's history is having as big an impact as you could possible wish for.
Ok, biggest league game in our history then we don't have to argue
I'd managed to put it out of my mind enough to concentrate on getting a bit of work done. Until now. THANKS ERIC
The excitement just isn't anywhere near the same in anticipation of a TV show as it is for going to the game.
You're more than welcome
There is a limit to how excited one can be on one's own home, knowing that you're not going to experience the live match (except for those richemu is keeping an eye on for the EFL) but, like the good doctor, I am excited enough to keep too much of an eye on things when I am supposed to be working. I will be very nervous come Monday night.
Analysis of our opponents last game if you need something to watch. Lots of references to "lucky" which is a bit worrying but Loki may have given them their quota already. BELIEVE!
Perhaps its me getting old, but I don't feel anywhere near as excited as I was for the 2015 play off final. Maybe, it's just because it feels so unreal not playing in front of fans, sort of artificial. Or maybe its because we've cheated MacAnthony's Galacticos out of their rightful place at Wembley!!
Had a quick chat with David Wheeler: https://chairboyscentral.com/2020/07/10/david-wheeler-weve-worked-incredibly-hard-to-get-this-opportunity/
I was watching Paul McCartney at the 02 last time, but I was pretty optimistic we would make it this year even before lock down...so I am disappointed and yet elated...Which I suppose cancel each other out to a kind of serenity. A bit like the way these two footballing sides who play the right way and have no rivals cancelled each other out to a penalty shoot-out. I suspect with the historic aspect to our promotion and the profile of The Beast they might get a bit tetchy about who gets the most pre-game national publicity!
Article on Gareth Ainsworth and interview with Keith Ryan on the efl website
https://www.efl.com/
To me it just all seems unreal, just from the whole backdrop of COVID, to how the season was terminated, and then qualifying relatively comfortably for the final - very un-WWFC.
Yeah I know our backs were to the wall for a large part of the 2nd leg, I'm certainly not saying it was an easy game, but we didn't look in serious danger of blowing it.
Obviously having to watch the game on TV is a big downer, but I guess you just have to remember how well we've done to get there in the first place - I'll be the first to hold my hand up and say I'd have been delighted with mid-table mediocrity this season.
I think after a rest and the fact it is a one off game, we may see more of a Friday team than the Monday one! Fingers crossed. But yes, another season in League One is what most of us were hoping for...so no pressure. Great achievement by the club.
Another great EFL interview...this time with Jack Grimmer. We do seem to have a crop of intelligent as well as talented players...and having looked at his record at Coventry I am amazed we were able get him. All hail Gaz and Dobbo!
https://www.wycombewanderers.co.uk/news/2020/july/jack-i-came-to-the-perfect-club/
John Mousinho came across very well in his as well, loath as I am to admit it
Though clutching his face and rolling about on the floor recently was a bit grim...I did used to like Moushino when he was at Wycombe
He's behaved like a prick every time he's played against us since he left
Seemed like a decent chap though
Funny old game
Pretty much agree with everything @PBo said, it all seems a bit unreal. Personally I am excited, but actually more nervous - I really can't bear the thought of losing to Oxford. I just think we have to grab this chance with both hands - who knows when or if we'll get another one.
I am sure the players will give it their all in a one off game with the chance to make history for us, play in the Championship under Gaz and get a huge cheer and a free dinner at AP three or four times a year for life!
I’m hiding under my covers and not reading the papers or going online until the fixture lists come out for next season...
This from Jamie Mascoll on Instagram really resonated: "We haven't come this far, to only come this far."
Let's go and make history.
Much more like it.
I'm sure all the players are very much thinking that way, rather than thinking through the connotations of playing and maybe being found out at a higher level!
I'm still of the 'nothing to lose' mindset, but also I will be distraught if we lose.
The only tiny upside would be that we wouldn't have to trudge out of Wembley utterly gutted at losing in the cruellest possible way.
I'm still queuing for the train after the last final.
For me it feels somewhat low key simply because of the behind closed doors element. I’d say the whole experience of watching the games on TV and not being able to be there in person offers maybe 50% of the enjoyment of the real thing.
In fact it isn’t so much that I can’t be there myself. I’ve watched games online from abroad and enjoyed it. But the fact there is no atmosphere at all really dampens the whole experience too much for me to be overly nervous.
I think the clubs, EFL and the players have made the best of it. And in the circumstances it is the least worst outcome to play out the play offs behind closed doors. But I’ll be more excited for the first game back with spectators than I am about Monday.
The excitement I felt before the last play-off final was as much for the party atmosphere in town before getting the train to Wembley as much a being there for what seemed like the most important thing in the world. As much as the game ended in such a crushing low, the few hours spent in town meeting up with old friends and family, and meeting new people bonding over what was to come remain one of my favourite moments of following the Blues.
Maybe I'm jaded with lockdown fatigue, though I haven't had the butterflies in my stomach like I did the whole time between the pitch invasion after the 2nd leg against Plymouth and that fateful penalty shoot out. I know in my head that this game is will be a pivotal moment in our club's history, and I am massively looking forward to the game, though having to watch the game from afar through a laptop hooked up to a tv is nothing that _really _gets the heart racing. Though I'm sure the blood will be pumping come 7:30pm on Monday as if I were there, like it was for the semi-final matches.
Three more sleeps...this is just massive
I think if we (the crowd) had been physically present at those semi-finals, it would have whipped up huge excitement surrounding the final. As it is, it's exciting, but feels surreal, like it's happening in a film. Oxford are the perfect opponent for this fantasy - bliss if we beat them - double the pain if we lose.
COYB