You learn a lot doing a shite blog. Actually, I'm not sure you do really, but some things I've learned are that Bauhaus are from Northampton and that this (my favourite Bauhaus song) is a cover of a Brian Eno song. That's probably of no interest to 99.5% of the readers but it's now firmly filed in my mind in the large cabinet marked 'useless things to tell people who don't care.'
Here's another thing I learned this week - Bob Smith from off of the Cure is from Blackpool. Why didn't I know this? I know loads of useless facts like this but somehow, not this one. Maybe everyone knew and just thought it was too boring to tell anyone else? Like, I know about really obscure bands from Blackpool. I've bought records from the brilliant Pumpf label. I've interviewed John Robb like a right creepy starfucker, but somehow this fact had passed me by. I'm not saying I am an authority on all things musical, but it seems really weird that this has been in the ether since...well, since yer man with the big hair was born and I haven't picked it up. It's like finding out Michael Stipe is from Rotherham or that Kurt Cobain comes from Gillingham. Anyway, here's my favourite Cure track for geographical balance...
Here's another thing I learned this week - Bob Smith from off of the Cure is from Blackpool. Why didn't I know this? I know loads of useless facts like this but somehow, not this one. Maybe everyone knew and just thought it was too boring to tell anyone else? Like, I know about really obscure bands from Blackpool. I've bought records from the brilliant Pumpf label. I've interviewed John Robb like a right creepy starfucker, but somehow this fact had passed me by. I'm not saying I am an authority on all things musical, but it seems really weird that this has been in the ether since...well, since yer man with the big hair was born and I haven't picked it up. It's like finding out Michael Stipe is from Rotherham or that Kurt Cobain comes from Gillingham. Anyway, here's my favourite Cure track for geographical balance...
I quite fancy, just continuing to post youtube videos no one will watch in an endless stream of vague musical connections but here's the actual football bit cos that's what you don't pay me for at the end of the day.
I've still not quite come down from the Sunderland game. Stepping back, it wasn't actually our best performances in an attacking sense, but a backs against the wall, physics defying scramble of flying saves, heroic headers, sliding blocks, all topped off with a goal worthy of winning a world cup is kind of more fun than a comfortable cruise to victory.
Northampton continue to make the running. The pitch is green but underneath seems a bit like the sun baked rugby league pitch I used to play on in summer as a teenager. Chissy drops in a comment that seems to be about sending his son to private school. A true man of the people.
Then we score. It's a lovely move. Embleton with a crisp, urgent, first time ball to Jerry. Jerry takes it on, runs up against his man, makes as if to beat him then offloads sideways it to Garbutt who is arriving late. The one with the lovely hair hits a pinpoint, laser guided effort, low and precise past the keeper, that nestles an inch behind the far post. There was a tiny space for him to hit and he put it exactly where he needed to.
Simms gets whalloped on the head. Northampton attack a bit more but they already look a bit ragged. Simms gets pushed over and him and his marker make some kind of rolling contemporary dance type movement which sees Ellis turn entirely through 360 degrees and end up on his feet. Fitting for the man with the disco look perhaps? A minute later, Robson brightly heads forward, it loops over Simms' shoulder, he leans into his marker, catches it on the half volley but drags it wide.
The Cobblers attack again. They look quite good at some stuff but at one point, whilst they're racing at us and we're looking a bit worried by it, they literally tackle each other. There's a pair of lovely touches from Simms and Embleton, the first a Madine-esque lean into his man and well weighted ball down the line, the second a clever back flick. Both of them prompt moves, but both moves founder on poor final balls.
Northampton again have a really good attack which works till the edge of the box then, for no explicable reason, they dink it over the top to absolutely no one. The way they wander away from the move tells a story. This has happened frequently you suspect.
Ethan Robson pulls up. Another muscle injury for Pool. You have to feel sorry for him. Waiting since Wigan away in January to get a game, then one game back and injured. Jordan Gabriel comes on as poor old Ethan wanders off, looking more disconsolate than in pain and Ollie Turton goes into central midfield.
A long Maxwell kick bounces right through, Yates drifts across, pick it perfectly, takes a touch, but the keeper is out quickly, blocking the shot and sending Yates to the floor. Northampton try to emulate the direct route in response, but Jimmy tidies up again. Dan Ballard has looked a touch shakier than normal and is caught in possession but all the Cobblers can do is cross it a few times. Later, they work it into the box and are robbed by the bounce of their own bone hard pitch. The turf is designed to disrupt us, but it's done them no favours at all.
The half ends with the Cobblers trying to play out, but end up gifting the ball again because of the lively bounce. Garbutt goes up the middle but the ball is bobbling about and his shot from just outside the box is always over the top.
---
It's not been a classic. They run at us, we defend. They do it again. We defend. Then we break, the ball ping pongs about all over the shop and the whole cycle starts again. They look desperate, we look fairly composed, though the pitch (and maybe playing in a wider role) has unsettled Ballard a few times. Thorniley looks very comfortable in the middle and at one point in the half, he produced a simply sublime bit of control and a turn to play it back to Maxwell. It's incredible he's now playing week in week out ahead of other players considering his start to the season.
Weirdly, the half time tunes are rubbish. The pre match was banging, this is more local radio smooth classics.
---
Northampton make two subs at half time. We make none. A long ball sees Gabriel the wrong side of a run and a nudge gives the Cobblers a dangerous free kick. As per the first half, they make nothing of it, putting straight into Maxwell's hands. Again, though, they come again. They work it well than lash it so high over the bar, it would have cleared two stands behind the goal.
Embleton glides from the right, to the middle, then produces what he does best, a pass so canny that it takes Simms a moment to realise he's smuggled it through to him. He's alert enough to react eventually then force a corner. The corner swings deep, Ballard heads hard and the man on the near post has to spring to divert it over the top. We swing another deep, it's cleared for a long throw. Gabriel hurls, it bounces about, Embleton picks it up, hammers it on the bounce from 12 yards and it's deflected wide.
They'll have to attack, we can pick them off. I'm still strangely confident. I'm already wondering if it's not worth seeing Holmes for a bit. We'll get chances. I'm not sure what's to lose in doing it. The fresh legs of an in form youngster could push their defence over the line. Jimmy slides in and we concede a mirror of the free kick that started the half. It's an even worse effort from them than last time. I feel slightly sorry for them, so poor has their final product been after competing really hard elsewhere on the pitch.
There's a slightly alarming split second as they have another long ball and another effort from the edge of the box, that's deflected absurdly high up and then down again like a bomb. Maxwell sees it over, but you can see they've lifted the urgency. I would say they're playing for their lives, but that's not true. There's not a firing squad lined up if they don't get the points, just the sting of relegation and the reality of doing more or less the same thing but a division lower.
We work another chance, again clever passing into the box from Embleton on the right and it's a slight surprise to see Dougall running on and drawing a good save from the keeper from a low, well aimed drive at the far corner. We're on top again. Embleton a step over, across the face of goal and palmed away. Embleton is so much better in the middle than the wing and moments later, is a heavy touch from sliding Jerry in.
Northampton have a corner. Needless to say, it isn't very good, but for a moment, the board behind the taker says 'Pet Monkey' until the taker moves and reveals the first word is actually 'carpet.' I think of Alan Partridge and Michael's fags being eaten before he hurled the monkey off a cliff. At the other end I don't notice any surreal adverts as Garbutt drags a shot from distance a yard or so wide.
Our own real life Alan Partridge purrs over the potential of a Garbutt free kick, which of course, is floated meekly over everyone and out after Chissy assures that Garbutt is basically Zidane, Beckham and Carlos all rolled together in one. Two more Northampton subs come on. The logic of football dictates that as I'm thinking they're looking pretty much defeated now, that makes me simultaneously think 'I shouldn't have thought that' and imagine them suddenly coming to life and scoring twice.
I shouldn't worry unless they've got three in them. Simms shoots from the edge of the box, it bounces three times, each one unpredictable on the dry clay surface, the keeper tumbles, it hits him in the chest, bounces out and Yates nips in and tucks it away without no fuss. Lovely stuff!
Now Brad Holmes surely? Why not? Actually it's Marvin. Big Marv isn't young Brad but a welcome sight none-the-less. Jimmy makes way. They are throwing everyone forward but all they can manage is a cross shot that Maxwell clutches to him without too much bother. Again, Embleton is prompting, sending first Jerry, (the pitch does for his attempt to control and shoot), then Simms, who draws a good save from a viscous effort.
Critch is ready to go sub crazy, sending on Keshi, Holmes and Mitchell but the third goal is a pleasing delay to that. Embleton to Yates, Yates offloads to Turton, Turton to Garbutt, a diagonal line, pass, overlap and pass again. Garbutt drills it, it's saved, but Yates is there. The ball spits about off the turf, but as calm as you like, he just waits,, dummies, then slams it in from a few yards out past a defender whose effort to stop it is as defeated as you can get. Deadly.
Off come Yates, Simms and Embleton. Holmes wins a flick and races to close the keeper down. Keshi does some sublime work on the touchline and spreads play. I've missed him without realising how much. Demi does what Demi does and races after everything like an excited terrier. More sexy stuff from Keshi, a stunning bit of control. Demi stands up his man and plays a divine reverse pass. We're just taking the piss. Keshi gets on the end of a corner, heads over and does a dance of frustration. He looks absolutely buzzing to be back.
Holmes has a run after a one two with Dougall, he's going, he's going, he's still going, but a sliding challenge means it's only a corner, not a triumphant moment to crown a cracking win. What matter more, is he looks completely up for playing with the team.
The whistle goes. Calm as you like, we clench fists, shake hands, share a commiseration with the defeated Cobblers and walk away. Job done.
---
I can't remember feeling so calm during a game for ages. It's not like we dominated it all or racked up 40 shots, but it just felt as if they had no quality up front and we did. They actually did themselves over with the pitch as much as they inconvenienced us and we just seemed to hold them at arms length and pick them off when the chance came.
I thought Dougall was excellent, Thorniley really, really good at the back, Embleton probed and questioned consistently and Jerry was the player they didn't have - someone who could just finish a chance.
What more is there to say? It was great to see Keshi, who injects a bit more of the creativity we sometime lack and lovely to see us looking hungry for the fourth and not just stopping playing at the end. Robson''s injury was a blow as he seemed willing to do the 'running about like a bit of loon' role Matty Virtue does, Sullay is a concern but if he's ok, a little bit of a rest could do him some good.
For the Cobblers, I've seen them twice and both times, they've looked quite good at some things, but just not very good at scoring or not conceding. That's seems a stupid comment. What I mean is, some other teams have employed zero ambition, spoiling tactics and both times, Northampton have had a go at winning the game, but lost it by some margin, largely because they've seemed to fall apart whenever they get near the goal.
For us, resist the urge to shout 'nothing can go wrong now!' and go and put in some more good performances. We've got a few players hungry to get back in and if we could add Supe Bigr Gaz Gary Goals Goal Machine Madine to that before the play offs, then I really fancy we can cope with whatever combination of circumstances are thrown up and whatever any opposition try to do. Put Maxwell in cotton wool till the first leg and we're golden*.
*Tangerine.
Onward!
utmp
This game is very different in that we expect a win and that's when I always worry about us. What's great about the lower leagues is there isn't that much difference between the top and the bottom. Yeah, we're clearly better than them but not by such an absurd margin as to make it a carefree walkover. It would be nice for a bit to win most games without really having to try, but it would soon get boring and it's part of the curious appeal of football that this year, I've been more nervous about playing the bottom half sides than I have the teams in the promotion slots.
As simple minded blogger, as opposed to an actual bonafide composer of tactical masterclasses, I want to see us just go all out. They need to win, so I'd just say, 'Ok' and go at them from the first minute, backing my team to a) defend better b) manage the ball better and c) score more goals. Some times, I think we feel a bit like an F1 driver with a fast car, who doesn't go all out against a slower car because he wants to conserve fuel or tyres. It's only when we come up against someone with a car as fast as us, that we really put the pedal to the metal.
That's human nature I suppose. We're influenced by what goes on around us. So my plan would be to get Big Gaz to put together a compilation of 'banging mad craic' tunes for the ghetto blaster and tell them if they stop attacking, Colin will rabbit punch them at half time.
The roulette wheel is spun but not much: In theory taking out a workhorse midfielder like Grant Ward and putting in a striker is an attacking move. Are we going to see three at the back and Sullay behind the front two? Maybe. That might work.
Northampton DJ is the best yet. The tunes are banging out. Toots, Underworld, a nice bit of the Liquidator.
---
Where is Sullay? He's hurt in the warm up so Embleton is in the starting line up, presumably in the same hole Sullay was due to play in. Will Chissy spot the difference? We're off.
Someone (Ballard?) misses an interception and Northampton are in wide on their left, crossing low and hard but Jimmy tidies up and the only damage is a corner which Maxwell (the world's greatest keeper in all of football history) takes easily enough. The Cobblers soon come again, they force a bit of panic and a wild clearance then a corner from which there's a penalty claim. Weather this storm and we'll score at will... I'm worryingly confident.
Finally we have an attack, a little clipped ball from Embleton for Turton to run on to, a low cross and a corner to Pool. We wait an age to take it as a Cobblers player is nastily injured and has to be replaced. It's swung under the bar but then cleared and the Cobblers break back at us. We have it covered until the last man slips and they're in but then their striker slips as well. It's all a bit comic and lucky and unlucky all at once. Their lad limps agonisingly away looking like a 1950's player when stretchers were only employed if you'd lost a limb or died, as he's helped along by the physio, one of legs not working at all.
The roulette wheel is spun but not much: In theory taking out a workhorse midfielder like Grant Ward and putting in a striker is an attacking move. Are we going to see three at the back and Sullay behind the front two? Maybe. That might work.
Northampton DJ is the best yet. The tunes are banging out. Toots, Underworld, a nice bit of the Liquidator.
---
Where is Sullay? He's hurt in the warm up so Embleton is in the starting line up, presumably in the same hole Sullay was due to play in. Will Chissy spot the difference? We're off.
Someone (Ballard?) misses an interception and Northampton are in wide on their left, crossing low and hard but Jimmy tidies up and the only damage is a corner which Maxwell (the world's greatest keeper in all of football history) takes easily enough. The Cobblers soon come again, they force a bit of panic and a wild clearance then a corner from which there's a penalty claim. Weather this storm and we'll score at will... I'm worryingly confident.
Finally we have an attack, a little clipped ball from Embleton for Turton to run on to, a low cross and a corner to Pool. We wait an age to take it as a Cobblers player is nastily injured and has to be replaced. It's swung under the bar but then cleared and the Cobblers break back at us. We have it covered until the last man slips and they're in but then their striker slips as well. It's all a bit comic and lucky and unlucky all at once. Their lad limps agonisingly away looking like a 1950's player when stretchers were only employed if you'd lost a limb or died, as he's helped along by the physio, one of legs not working at all.
Then we score. It's a lovely move. Embleton with a crisp, urgent, first time ball to Jerry. Jerry takes it on, runs up against his man, makes as if to beat him then offloads sideways it to Garbutt who is arriving late. The one with the lovely hair hits a pinpoint, laser guided effort, low and precise past the keeper, that nestles an inch behind the far post. There was a tiny space for him to hit and he put it exactly where he needed to.
Simms gets whalloped on the head. Northampton attack a bit more but they already look a bit ragged. Simms gets pushed over and him and his marker make some kind of rolling contemporary dance type movement which sees Ellis turn entirely through 360 degrees and end up on his feet. Fitting for the man with the disco look perhaps? A minute later, Robson brightly heads forward, it loops over Simms' shoulder, he leans into his marker, catches it on the half volley but drags it wide.
The Cobblers attack again. They look quite good at some stuff but at one point, whilst they're racing at us and we're looking a bit worried by it, they literally tackle each other. There's a pair of lovely touches from Simms and Embleton, the first a Madine-esque lean into his man and well weighted ball down the line, the second a clever back flick. Both of them prompt moves, but both moves founder on poor final balls.
Northampton again have a really good attack which works till the edge of the box then, for no explicable reason, they dink it over the top to absolutely no one. The way they wander away from the move tells a story. This has happened frequently you suspect.
Ethan Robson pulls up. Another muscle injury for Pool. You have to feel sorry for him. Waiting since Wigan away in January to get a game, then one game back and injured. Jordan Gabriel comes on as poor old Ethan wanders off, looking more disconsolate than in pain and Ollie Turton goes into central midfield.
A long Maxwell kick bounces right through, Yates drifts across, pick it perfectly, takes a touch, but the keeper is out quickly, blocking the shot and sending Yates to the floor. Northampton try to emulate the direct route in response, but Jimmy tidies up again. Dan Ballard has looked a touch shakier than normal and is caught in possession but all the Cobblers can do is cross it a few times. Later, they work it into the box and are robbed by the bounce of their own bone hard pitch. The turf is designed to disrupt us, but it's done them no favours at all.
The half ends with the Cobblers trying to play out, but end up gifting the ball again because of the lively bounce. Garbutt goes up the middle but the ball is bobbling about and his shot from just outside the box is always over the top.
---
It's not been a classic. They run at us, we defend. They do it again. We defend. Then we break, the ball ping pongs about all over the shop and the whole cycle starts again. They look desperate, we look fairly composed, though the pitch (and maybe playing in a wider role) has unsettled Ballard a few times. Thorniley looks very comfortable in the middle and at one point in the half, he produced a simply sublime bit of control and a turn to play it back to Maxwell. It's incredible he's now playing week in week out ahead of other players considering his start to the season.
Weirdly, the half time tunes are rubbish. The pre match was banging, this is more local radio smooth classics.
---
Northampton make two subs at half time. We make none. A long ball sees Gabriel the wrong side of a run and a nudge gives the Cobblers a dangerous free kick. As per the first half, they make nothing of it, putting straight into Maxwell's hands. Again, though, they come again. They work it well than lash it so high over the bar, it would have cleared two stands behind the goal.
Embleton glides from the right, to the middle, then produces what he does best, a pass so canny that it takes Simms a moment to realise he's smuggled it through to him. He's alert enough to react eventually then force a corner. The corner swings deep, Ballard heads hard and the man on the near post has to spring to divert it over the top. We swing another deep, it's cleared for a long throw. Gabriel hurls, it bounces about, Embleton picks it up, hammers it on the bounce from 12 yards and it's deflected wide.
They'll have to attack, we can pick them off. I'm still strangely confident. I'm already wondering if it's not worth seeing Holmes for a bit. We'll get chances. I'm not sure what's to lose in doing it. The fresh legs of an in form youngster could push their defence over the line. Jimmy slides in and we concede a mirror of the free kick that started the half. It's an even worse effort from them than last time. I feel slightly sorry for them, so poor has their final product been after competing really hard elsewhere on the pitch.
There's a slightly alarming split second as they have another long ball and another effort from the edge of the box, that's deflected absurdly high up and then down again like a bomb. Maxwell sees it over, but you can see they've lifted the urgency. I would say they're playing for their lives, but that's not true. There's not a firing squad lined up if they don't get the points, just the sting of relegation and the reality of doing more or less the same thing but a division lower.
We work another chance, again clever passing into the box from Embleton on the right and it's a slight surprise to see Dougall running on and drawing a good save from the keeper from a low, well aimed drive at the far corner. We're on top again. Embleton a step over, across the face of goal and palmed away. Embleton is so much better in the middle than the wing and moments later, is a heavy touch from sliding Jerry in.
Northampton have a corner. Needless to say, it isn't very good, but for a moment, the board behind the taker says 'Pet Monkey' until the taker moves and reveals the first word is actually 'carpet.' I think of Alan Partridge and Michael's fags being eaten before he hurled the monkey off a cliff. At the other end I don't notice any surreal adverts as Garbutt drags a shot from distance a yard or so wide.
Our own real life Alan Partridge purrs over the potential of a Garbutt free kick, which of course, is floated meekly over everyone and out after Chissy assures that Garbutt is basically Zidane, Beckham and Carlos all rolled together in one. Two more Northampton subs come on. The logic of football dictates that as I'm thinking they're looking pretty much defeated now, that makes me simultaneously think 'I shouldn't have thought that' and imagine them suddenly coming to life and scoring twice.
I shouldn't worry unless they've got three in them. Simms shoots from the edge of the box, it bounces three times, each one unpredictable on the dry clay surface, the keeper tumbles, it hits him in the chest, bounces out and Yates nips in and tucks it away without no fuss. Lovely stuff!
Now Brad Holmes surely? Why not? Actually it's Marvin. Big Marv isn't young Brad but a welcome sight none-the-less. Jimmy makes way. They are throwing everyone forward but all they can manage is a cross shot that Maxwell clutches to him without too much bother. Again, Embleton is prompting, sending first Jerry, (the pitch does for his attempt to control and shoot), then Simms, who draws a good save from a viscous effort.
Critch is ready to go sub crazy, sending on Keshi, Holmes and Mitchell but the third goal is a pleasing delay to that. Embleton to Yates, Yates offloads to Turton, Turton to Garbutt, a diagonal line, pass, overlap and pass again. Garbutt drills it, it's saved, but Yates is there. The ball spits about off the turf, but as calm as you like, he just waits,, dummies, then slams it in from a few yards out past a defender whose effort to stop it is as defeated as you can get. Deadly.
Off come Yates, Simms and Embleton. Holmes wins a flick and races to close the keeper down. Keshi does some sublime work on the touchline and spreads play. I've missed him without realising how much. Demi does what Demi does and races after everything like an excited terrier. More sexy stuff from Keshi, a stunning bit of control. Demi stands up his man and plays a divine reverse pass. We're just taking the piss. Keshi gets on the end of a corner, heads over and does a dance of frustration. He looks absolutely buzzing to be back.
Holmes has a run after a one two with Dougall, he's going, he's going, he's still going, but a sliding challenge means it's only a corner, not a triumphant moment to crown a cracking win. What matter more, is he looks completely up for playing with the team.
The whistle goes. Calm as you like, we clench fists, shake hands, share a commiseration with the defeated Cobblers and walk away. Job done.
---
I can't remember feeling so calm during a game for ages. It's not like we dominated it all or racked up 40 shots, but it just felt as if they had no quality up front and we did. They actually did themselves over with the pitch as much as they inconvenienced us and we just seemed to hold them at arms length and pick them off when the chance came.
I thought Dougall was excellent, Thorniley really, really good at the back, Embleton probed and questioned consistently and Jerry was the player they didn't have - someone who could just finish a chance.
What more is there to say? It was great to see Keshi, who injects a bit more of the creativity we sometime lack and lovely to see us looking hungry for the fourth and not just stopping playing at the end. Robson''s injury was a blow as he seemed willing to do the 'running about like a bit of loon' role Matty Virtue does, Sullay is a concern but if he's ok, a little bit of a rest could do him some good.
For the Cobblers, I've seen them twice and both times, they've looked quite good at some things, but just not very good at scoring or not conceding. That's seems a stupid comment. What I mean is, some other teams have employed zero ambition, spoiling tactics and both times, Northampton have had a go at winning the game, but lost it by some margin, largely because they've seemed to fall apart whenever they get near the goal.
For us, resist the urge to shout 'nothing can go wrong now!' and go and put in some more good performances. We've got a few players hungry to get back in and if we could add Supe Bigr Gaz Gary Goals Goal Machine Madine to that before the play offs, then I really fancy we can cope with whatever combination of circumstances are thrown up and whatever any opposition try to do. Put Maxwell in cotton wool till the first leg and we're golden*.
*Tangerine.
Onward!
utmp
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