The New Meadow is less of a meadow and more of a Lego build on a retail park. The walk to the ground is a paen to big brand shopping. The strange thing is, despite the whole place having an air of only recently springing from the drawing board of an architect that specialises in 'high footfall opportunities combined with social drivers' they seem to have overlooked the fact that people might need to actually get to the football ground. It's a case of taking your life in your hands and dodging cars before wending your way down mysterious and muddy paths.
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We start ok. We have a couple of chances. None of them are particularly convincing but we briefly look like a good football team accelerating from a standstill. We'll go through the gears and there will be goals! Lovely goals. Loads of goals. Goals from the left, the right and the centre. Goals to warm the soul.
That isn't how it pans out. In fact, we're really frustrating. We're being penned in by Shrewsbury. We cannot get a foot on the ball. We cannot get up the pitch. Grimmy looks for a pass. Everyone stands still. Norburn picks it up. He looks to the right. CJ stands still. Jimmy tidies things up. He looks for a pass. He misses the pitch.
Fucking hell Pool. This is crap. I should be more patient than this but I'm not. I haven't got it left in me after all the dismal away games. I've used up all the 'things will come together' and 'you can't win them all' and 'they'll learn from this.' We get away with one woeful bit of defending where we lose it complete because Shrewsbury play a dreadful final ball. We get away with another because of a rank bad finish.
There's a long injury delay after Lavs clashes heads with a Shrewsbury player. The white Pele is clearly hurt but he carries on. C'mon Pool. I'm sick of watching football that feel like 2 day old cold porridge whenever I go away.
A long ball. Beesley (who has been decent) leaps. He doesn't win it but the ball comes off their defender as if he'd achieved the perfect flick on. Coulson who has been as good as anyone on the pitch pounces, drills into the box, pulls it back and there is the little genius, the diminutive magician, the fucking insane talent that is Kaddy to take a touch, set himself and angle a low shot precisely where it can't be stopped, right into the corner. It's a bit of sheer class in what has been a crappy, scrappy game and it feels wonderful.
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We're better. We start with a series of attacks. We look more direct. We drive into the space instead of tentatively prodding at it and turning round. We force a series of corners.
Critch makes a good change, bringing on Joseph for Lavery and keeping the physical levels up front high. Joseph looks a threat immediately. We create a bit more. Coulson has a shot blocked at the far post after a good move. Joseph has one squeezed away. Jimmy ends up with a really good chance from a cross from the right and only a last ditch stop saves it for the Shrews. The reactions of the three players vary. Coulson looks as if he's furious, Joseph looks in pain, Jimmy looks rueful and smiles to himself as if he knows he's just not destined for those moments of glory.
Gabriel replaces CJ. Christopher Hamilton has not had a good game. He's been indecisive, static and his touch looked as if he put the boxes his boots came in on his feet, rather than the boots themselves. Oh CJ.
Critch also chucks Jordan Rhodes (Rhodes!) on. He doesn't look so much indestructible as a bit leggy and off the pace (as you would be after a while out) but he's a threat. Husband almost has him in with a very good long ball that finds his, frankly ridiculously intelligent run.
The Shrews have a moment. We've been a lot better and we now deserve the win. They put together 5 minutes though and it culminates in one horrible little sequence where we don't seem to be able to clear and then Grimmy makes what looks like from a pitches length an absolutely incredible double save. We chant his name even though the flag goes up.
Coulson has had an excellent game. He's been tigerish and even in the turgid fist half, driving forwards directly and linking play with quick, intelligent and incisive play. As Kaddy's ball stands up between the far post and centre of the goal, Coulson is reading the invitation and charging onto it, hurling himself at it with a controlled intent. The crossed ball meets the head of the runner in a very satisfying way and then emphatically hits the back of the net.
There's general delight, relief and joy. We've deserved that. It would be ironic had our first half performance been the decisive factor because the second half was a distinct improvement.
Pleasingly, we stay on the front foot and see the game out looking for a third.
As I've intimated above, it wasn't a vintage display but by the time the the final whistle game we definitely deserved the points. Critchley seems oddly subdued at full tame. Curt applause and turning his back at the short but clear start of a demand for his trademark celebration. Perhaps this was about showing intent or letting the players take the limelight. Maybe it's just because really, we've just seen what has to be and probably should have been and largely hasn't been to date, a minimum in games of this nature
Byers, I haven't mentioned in the main but, really grew into the game. He made us tick in the second half. Marvin was really good. I could be wrong here, but it feels as if Grimmy has played a lot higher and made to give Marvin a further escape route in moments of pressure. Beesley I though led the line really well and ran his arse off.
It was, in the end, the sort of win you'd expect a good team to produce against a side out of form and near the bottom of the table. It was the sort of win we've almost never achieved. In some ways, this sort of win (ugly, sticking at it, earning the right eventually to play a bit) is a more important thing than hammering Pompey or Bolton. It's the kind of win that should have been much more frequent. It's a very welcome win.
It's worth it isn't it?
We're still in this...
Onward!
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