I'll level with you. I'm worried about this one. It's only October but it feels as if this is a game loaded with meaning. We've been good this year, we've been bad this year. We've not found any sort of consistency. We've suffered with injuries, we've not done especially well in the market and every time it feels like things are coming together, it feels as if they fall apart again.
For me personally, Appleton needs time to do what he's trying to do. Turning us from a safety first, hit on the break side reliant on individuals to an attacking force that can score in multiple different way isn't easy. Doing it at the football equivalent of poundland makes it a harder job still. I'm all for patience, but Wednesday was woeful. It was as poor as anything I've seen in a long time. Whenever we lose, people say that, but I try not to get carried away. I couldn't help it though, because it was dire. It's unthinkable that we play like that today, but it's an unfortunate possibility seen as we're a squad held together with spit and bits of chewing gum.
I watch the hightlights of last year on Twitter. Anderson, Wintle, Bowler, Keogh all feature. All of them out or gone. All good players. I don't want to be that prick who tries to set the narrative for a game like they're an unpaid Sky presenter bigging up the tension to try and hook the neutrals, but it just feels as if this could be definitive in terms of how we go forward. We're seesawing between accepting what we are, what we're doing and who manages us and kicking against it and today will have a big bearing on that. I just hope we turn up. Please turn up. Please.
Wow. He's chucked in CJ. C'mon CJ. Prove us wrong.
---
The game is on. The ground is humming. We breathe in the sea air... C'mon POOL!!!! An early foul on CJ. It's a booking for sure. It's, of course, not a booking. Lets not start with this. I've had enough of refs. Jerry, Hubby and Gaz combine to try and recreate the wonder goal from last year. I can't hear if Jerry calls 'megs' again, but anyhow, the ball ends up sliced wide.
We're doing ok. We've turned up at least. Jerry and CJ have a couple of forays. We win a corner. The noise is superb.
Madine gets pulled up for a handball. 30 seconds later there's a clear duplicate by one of them but the ref plays on. The 'orrible Potts gets in a near post effort from the move that's allowed to build. Then they manage to overwhelm Husband on the left, he's in a no win situation - he can't commit to either player bearing down on him but he has to choose one. He shadows, Woodburn shoots. Maxwell holds. I could not have dealt with Woodburn scoring. At least Potts is half decent.
The game is swinging to them. There's another effort wide and very little from us. CJ isn't getting clear anymore. It's intense. Bridcutt is getting treatment. Why is it always like this? The new Kevin Stewart is helped off to go and join the old Kevin Stewart on the treatment table. On comes Carey. C'MON SONNY!!!
Free kick. Madine... YES!!!! JERRY YATES!!! THAT WAS SO SIMPLE! BALL IN, GOAL MACHINE FLICK AND YATES SNIPING AT THE FAR POST. IT'S AN ASSASSINATION. YES!!!
The air is thick with joy. My hands are tingling with energy. It's like I'm connected to an electric current that runs through me and everyone around me... Preston get battered. Everywhere they go. Everywhere they go. One. Two. Three. Four.
We immediately get pinned back. No one flinches. The sound swirls around. Wednesday, you could hear the players and the grumbling of the crowd was interspersed with thuds of the ball being kicked, today, you can't hear the person next to you let alone anything on the pitch. A couple of saves. That Riis lad who is quite good has a chance. We're ok. C'mon... A corner... C'mon. Hold this to half time Pool. Hold it. They're in on the right. Marvin gets across but is shrugged off, the lad is round him. Oh, fucking hell. You can see it coming. It's like Sheffield Utd again. He's all wrong side and wallowing in the wake of someone... I know it's a penalty 3 seconds before Marvin makes his mind up to slide. He should have slid earlier. He should have done anything but what he did. It's a stonewall spot kick and I'm not even sure the lad was at a particularly good angle to score. Kenny Dougall has a word with Marvin. I guess it's along the lines of 'shit happens Marv. Head up'
Narrative dictates that Maxwell saves this. Narrative dictates that the ex nobber who at least half the ground think shouldn't be starting when Grimmy is sat on the bench will be the hero...
He doesn't save it. He goes the right way, but too far, diving past it, a hand thrown up in vain. Close, but no cigar.
The horrible tinny sound of away fans cheering. The noise flags for the first time from us.
We're rattled. We try to play it out from the back. The effort is horrible. Maxwell has to launch it under self inflicted pressure. We can't get out. They have a corner. They have the initiative. A wild CJ miss is all we muster before the whistle goes.
---
We looked good for a while, but I don't like the way they came into it and took control. They've knocked us off our stride and whilst it's level, it feels like we need to get back into this and put some pressure on as much as anything to take the pressure off.
---
C'mon! Into them!
The desired change in momentum doesn't manifest itself. They force more corners. They create more half chances. We're chasing about. I think we miss Bridcutt. Mind you, we've been missing Kev for months, so it's only the same thing really. It's not like we're playing horribly badly and it's not like they're ripping us to bits, it's just that they're the ones deciding what happens and doing so at their pace. Madine has a bit of an exchange with someone in the crowd. It's getting edgy this...
We finally get a bit on the right. Carey slips one of the greatest passes I've ever seen, sort of a toes poke- come-lofted wedge that spins and holds up perfectly. It's wonderful. The resulting ball in takes (I think) a deflection and then drops for Jimmy who takes a touches and then drives a rising effort inches wide. That gets us going again. He did something similar at Wembley, a moment that won't show on the highlights where he set up Demi Mitchell with a thumping tackle whilst were under the cosh. The game pivoted on that moment. Like then, everything turns on Jimmy Husband showing the way. He's ever unsung and yet, somehow, I think that's the way it should be.
Carey. He ghosts inside his man. He finds a space that didn't seem to exist. His man is spinning in his wake, he makes beating him look like he's shrugged him into a revolving door... He's through with the ball. He looks up, he's sizing up an effort but now he's just laid it off and here's Patino... OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! YES!
Patino has found the bottom corner, shifting his feet and hitting it so sweetly that it might as well have been a blow dart delivered by an Amazonian warrier. Carey made it. Patino took his moment perfectly.
The ground is absolutely rocking. CHARLIE PAT-I-NO... HE KNEW THE PLACE TO GO... The team is on fire. Carey is sensational. Madine is winning the ball. Jerry is dancing and coming deep, peeling off and going wide, tucking in. Dougall is snapping into everything.
Sonny hits another outrageous pass. This one is clipped wide and I have no idea how he saw it was on. I have loved this kid since I first saw him in preseason 16 months ago and he just looked to have something. Today, he's magical. In the whirlwind of midfield, he takes the ball. He touches it off one foot to the other and makes a space like he's moving dark matter, playing with the fabric of time and reality then sets off like an early victorian locomotive, bustling, legs and arms going like pistons, all the way, go on! all the way Sonny!!! I love how he's daring and direct... he lays off beautifully... a little later, the ball comes to him on the bounce, he hits over the top of it and it fizzes just over. He's bustling, he's fighting, he's buzzing. He's fucking fabulous and... he's ours.
Dougall drives from the edge of the box. It's saved low. C'mon!!!
Hang on. Jud is down. We don't need this. 'Williams' I say to the fella next to me in a portentous tone. 'Fucking hell, we don't need that' he replies, confirming what most of us feel. I can't do Sheffield United again. I can't. I can't handle that. We've been superb for 20 minutes but we're only one ahead. We cannot fall to bits. We really can't.
Hamilton. A little diagonal inside. Patino, oh... YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! Jerry has got accross his man and headed into the roof of the net. The little fucking diamond. He's moved and moved and moved today and there he was. Head shot. Bang. Camouflaged and rising up out of the darkness to hit his target. THey never even saw him coming... YES!
Breathe. We've got this. We've got it. Madine goes shoulder to shoulder for a long ball. Their lad bounces off him about five yards, sprawling on the turf. Do. Not. Fuck. With. Gaz. He takes the ball down, kills it stone dead and spreads play. What a touch. We've got this. We've really got it. Preston get battered. Everywhere they go...
Now Husband is down. He's limping off. It's cramp or a calf or a hamstring or something. On comes Thommo. Why is our defence falling to bits like an ill designed rocket reentering the atmosphere, breaking up at the crucial point having done so much of the journey? We get to Mars, we set up the base and then we're going to burn up on the last leg with home in sight? No. I'm not having it. I will not fucking have this.
Thommo heads away. It's ok. We've got it. We've got it.
Have we though? A ball in from wide and there's a scramble and suddenly they're wheeling away, grabbing the ball out of the net and running back. Oh, fuck me. WHY IS IT ALWAYS LIKE THIS? WHY DO WE HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS?
My hands are tingling again but it's not a good thing this time. At least we've not got 9 on the pitch. Williams does well, he hacks the ball pretty much into the petrol station in the gap between the North and East A real nobber wouldn't have done that.
---
C'mon! Into them!
The desired change in momentum doesn't manifest itself. They force more corners. They create more half chances. We're chasing about. I think we miss Bridcutt. Mind you, we've been missing Kev for months, so it's only the same thing really. It's not like we're playing horribly badly and it's not like they're ripping us to bits, it's just that they're the ones deciding what happens and doing so at their pace. Madine has a bit of an exchange with someone in the crowd. It's getting edgy this...
We finally get a bit on the right. Carey slips one of the greatest passes I've ever seen, sort of a toes poke- come-lofted wedge that spins and holds up perfectly. It's wonderful. The resulting ball in takes (I think) a deflection and then drops for Jimmy who takes a touches and then drives a rising effort inches wide. That gets us going again. He did something similar at Wembley, a moment that won't show on the highlights where he set up Demi Mitchell with a thumping tackle whilst were under the cosh. The game pivoted on that moment. Like then, everything turns on Jimmy Husband showing the way. He's ever unsung and yet, somehow, I think that's the way it should be.
Carey. He ghosts inside his man. He finds a space that didn't seem to exist. His man is spinning in his wake, he makes beating him look like he's shrugged him into a revolving door... He's through with the ball. He looks up, he's sizing up an effort but now he's just laid it off and here's Patino... OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! YES!
Patino has found the bottom corner, shifting his feet and hitting it so sweetly that it might as well have been a blow dart delivered by an Amazonian warrier. Carey made it. Patino took his moment perfectly.
The ground is absolutely rocking. CHARLIE PAT-I-NO... HE KNEW THE PLACE TO GO... The team is on fire. Carey is sensational. Madine is winning the ball. Jerry is dancing and coming deep, peeling off and going wide, tucking in. Dougall is snapping into everything.
Sonny hits another outrageous pass. This one is clipped wide and I have no idea how he saw it was on. I have loved this kid since I first saw him in preseason 16 months ago and he just looked to have something. Today, he's magical. In the whirlwind of midfield, he takes the ball. He touches it off one foot to the other and makes a space like he's moving dark matter, playing with the fabric of time and reality then sets off like an early victorian locomotive, bustling, legs and arms going like pistons, all the way, go on! all the way Sonny!!! I love how he's daring and direct... he lays off beautifully... a little later, the ball comes to him on the bounce, he hits over the top of it and it fizzes just over. He's bustling, he's fighting, he's buzzing. He's fucking fabulous and... he's ours.
Dougall drives from the edge of the box. It's saved low. C'mon!!!
Hang on. Jud is down. We don't need this. 'Williams' I say to the fella next to me in a portentous tone. 'Fucking hell, we don't need that' he replies, confirming what most of us feel. I can't do Sheffield United again. I can't. I can't handle that. We've been superb for 20 minutes but we're only one ahead. We cannot fall to bits. We really can't.
Hamilton. A little diagonal inside. Patino, oh... YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! Jerry has got accross his man and headed into the roof of the net. The little fucking diamond. He's moved and moved and moved today and there he was. Head shot. Bang. Camouflaged and rising up out of the darkness to hit his target. THey never even saw him coming... YES!
Breathe. We've got this. We've got it. Madine goes shoulder to shoulder for a long ball. Their lad bounces off him about five yards, sprawling on the turf. Do. Not. Fuck. With. Gaz. He takes the ball down, kills it stone dead and spreads play. What a touch. We've got this. We've really got it. Preston get battered. Everywhere they go...
Now Husband is down. He's limping off. It's cramp or a calf or a hamstring or something. On comes Thommo. Why is our defence falling to bits like an ill designed rocket reentering the atmosphere, breaking up at the crucial point having done so much of the journey? We get to Mars, we set up the base and then we're going to burn up on the last leg with home in sight? No. I'm not having it. I will not fucking have this.
Thommo heads away. It's ok. We've got it. We've got it.
Have we though? A ball in from wide and there's a scramble and suddenly they're wheeling away, grabbing the ball out of the net and running back. Oh, fuck me. WHY IS IT ALWAYS LIKE THIS? WHY DO WE HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS?
My hands are tingling again but it's not a good thing this time. At least we've not got 9 on the pitch. Williams does well, he hacks the ball pretty much into the petrol station in the gap between the North and East A real nobber wouldn't have done that.
A corner to them. I'm struggling. I really am. Everyone goes up. Usually, I love a keeper going up but that would break me. I'm envisaging scenes of mayhem as they run on the pitch, their keeper running away arms aloft, our players on their haunches, that horrible feeling of deflation. That's what happens in the game in my head but in the game on the pitch, the ball is in. A flick. A clearance not made. They have it again, Jerry grabs it though, Jerry pokes it away, he's running like he's on the edge of his limits, a kind of waddling sprint, racing to it with Woodman, leaping, winning it and it's wide. CJ is charging, Jerry is pointing, CJ has his head down. Shoot! FUCKING HELL CJ! SHOOT! He shoots, it's going wide. FUCK'S SAKE CJ... It's not going wide, it's curling in I think. It is! It's going in! YES! FUCKING HELL CJ FUCKING HAMILTON HOW YOU DESERVE THAT YOU BEAUTIFUL FUCKING FREAK OF A FOOTBALLER I FUCKING LOVE YOU! I AM SORRY!!! YESSSSSSS!
GET IN!! YESSSSS! I think I might have perforated my lad's ear drum when we got that. He'll be reet. It's character forming.
*PRESTON GET BATTERED EVERYWHERE THEY GO*
---
And breathe. And then he said to me! I fucking hate PNE!
Breathe again. Charlie Patino... He knew the place to go!
On the way back, I see an angrily swaggering PNE kid who gets headbutted by a horse in Lidl carpark. It's not a dignified moment...
FFS! FOCUS!
Before the game, I just wanted us to turn up. We turned up. If I'm honest, PNE turned up too. They were pretty good for long periods of the game. I can see why they've done ok this year. They looked a world better than this time a year ago and I think if they'd been more determined to turn the screw on us either side of half time, we'd have been in trouble. They controlled the game without creating a weight of good chances. I guess that's more or less what they do.
We did what I worried we couldn't do - finding a way through a resolute and well organised side. Our best displays have been against more free flowing, open sides and PNE aren't that. Our worst have been against sides that do what they do, start with solidity first and then try and break from that base.
Carey was magnificent, Patino was glorious and he coped incredibly with the moment and the expectation for a kid, Jerry, I honestly think I can't say anything else about him. Last year, I thought he was a bit maligned by fans and manager alike. He got 10 goal involvements and that equalled anyone else - it wasn't a shit season as some might have it but this year... Wow! It's mid October and he's equalled his own tally already. 8 goals, 2 assists and he's not even up front.
Appleton deserves praise for realising what he is - a player who thrives on playing. A lad who will just keep going until it comes right and who, in team that create chances will eventually find the form to take them. Husband was steady and steely and deserves a shout for coming in off an injury and giving his all. Madine ran for 90 minutes and seen as he's reportedly carrying two injuries, he was an absolute warrior. Dougall did a lot of graft, a lot of unheralded work that let Carey and Patino find the space. CJ ran and scared the shit out the PNE defence. He won headers, he showed for the ball, he put a lot of pressure on and I could not be happier for him, taking that moment as he did. He had a lot of pressure on him today and I think that goal will do him a lot of good. It did me a lot of good.
Another classic. We may be up and down, we may be shit sometimes, but when we're good, we're fucking amazing. I'll take this over grinding it out every week any day. If we ever find that consistency, we'll be unreal. Who cares about anything else though. What. A. Day.
WHERE WE GOING?
Onward
GET IN!! YESSSSS! I think I might have perforated my lad's ear drum when we got that. He'll be reet. It's character forming.
*PRESTON GET BATTERED EVERYWHERE THEY GO*
---
And breathe. And then he said to me! I fucking hate PNE!
Breathe again. Charlie Patino... He knew the place to go!
On the way back, I see an angrily swaggering PNE kid who gets headbutted by a horse in Lidl carpark. It's not a dignified moment...
FFS! FOCUS!
Before the game, I just wanted us to turn up. We turned up. If I'm honest, PNE turned up too. They were pretty good for long periods of the game. I can see why they've done ok this year. They looked a world better than this time a year ago and I think if they'd been more determined to turn the screw on us either side of half time, we'd have been in trouble. They controlled the game without creating a weight of good chances. I guess that's more or less what they do.
We did what I worried we couldn't do - finding a way through a resolute and well organised side. Our best displays have been against more free flowing, open sides and PNE aren't that. Our worst have been against sides that do what they do, start with solidity first and then try and break from that base.
Carey was magnificent, Patino was glorious and he coped incredibly with the moment and the expectation for a kid, Jerry, I honestly think I can't say anything else about him. Last year, I thought he was a bit maligned by fans and manager alike. He got 10 goal involvements and that equalled anyone else - it wasn't a shit season as some might have it but this year... Wow! It's mid October and he's equalled his own tally already. 8 goals, 2 assists and he's not even up front.
Appleton deserves praise for realising what he is - a player who thrives on playing. A lad who will just keep going until it comes right and who, in team that create chances will eventually find the form to take them. Husband was steady and steely and deserves a shout for coming in off an injury and giving his all. Madine ran for 90 minutes and seen as he's reportedly carrying two injuries, he was an absolute warrior. Dougall did a lot of graft, a lot of unheralded work that let Carey and Patino find the space. CJ ran and scared the shit out the PNE defence. He won headers, he showed for the ball, he put a lot of pressure on and I could not be happier for him, taking that moment as he did. He had a lot of pressure on him today and I think that goal will do him a lot of good. It did me a lot of good.
Another classic. We may be up and down, we may be shit sometimes, but when we're good, we're fucking amazing. I'll take this over grinding it out every week any day. If we ever find that consistency, we'll be unreal. Who cares about anything else though. What. A. Day.
WHERE WE GOING?
Onward
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