Match Report

With a decent record down here in recent years, the sun out and another excellent travelling support, there was a lot to be looking forward to going into the match but despite the four goals, it wasn’t a match that will live long in the Mag memory.

We lined up with Edgar replacing Faye and we never got going from the start. Ex-SMB McCartney (actually a canny player) put over a bit of a nothing ball but Noble was able to sneak in to steer it, almost in slo-mo past Harper with the defence all over the show and Barton and Butt ball watching. The goal didn’t serve to give us the kick up the arse we needed and we were soon two behind. Edgar, who had a nightmare for the first half hour, allowed Ashton to turn him and fire home and bearing in mind this was only 20 odd minutes in, it was impossible to count the number of times Ashton had already got in front of him to lay balls off and make runs. Edgar wasn’t alone though with the rest of the defence, who have been great in recent weeks looking very disorganised and if anything, it looked like we could go further behind.

With 5 minutes left of the first half, I got nominated (telt) to go to the bar and half of our end seemed to be down there. Just gets in the queue, mass cheer, get the fuck in! Get about two paces further forward in the queue, mass cheer, fucking brilliant now I hope those twats choke on their pints! Fortunately, for the sake of journalistic integrity, the ‘Sports Bar’ on Old Street later on (there was definitely a few Polish ‘gymnasts’ in there like) had MOTD on the one tiny screen in the place and Martins goal was a lovely finish after a smashing ball through from Barton and Geremi’s was a bit of a fluke after Oba screwed a shot straight at his head and into the net.

Up until that point in the game, we’d been awful and looked to have our minds on summer holidays (where is it yuz gannin Jose? A divvent knaa Costa Fuckin Packet or summat) but in the space of three minutes we were level at half time and talking about winning the game. ‘Ron’ Geremi also managed to continue his ‘enigmatic’ streak of being totally gash but then popping up with a massive contribution. Funny little fellow.

We never really kicked on in the second half and it reverted back to being end of the season stuff. There were a few tackles flying in, notably when Barton didn’t kick the ball into touch as West Ham hadn’t just before for an injury. We still looked quite shaky at the back, with Enrique having his poorest game for a while and they had a couple of half chances but nothing really major, whilst we huffed and puffed but never came that close ourselves, bar an Oba run and shot near the end, fashioned out of nowt. Martins was excellent all game, chasing down and winning lost causes, darting around all over the shop and looking a real threat and their defence never really got hold of him. Nobby was brought on for the last few seconds to an absolutely fantastic reception from our lot, which was totally deserved for a magnificent footballer and all round top lad and we went home happy with a point.

In the end, a draw was another good result, which stretches the unbeaten run further and sets us up nicely for Chelsea next weekend. All the crack in the pub before the game watching their match was of how class it would be if Man United stumbled against West Ham next weekend only for us to pagga Chelsea and fuck up their title. Lesser of two evils if ever there was one, but literally anyone (assuming the Mackems aren’t going to be challenging for the title anytime soon) is preferable to Chelsea and if SJP gets itself radged up again, we could have a real go at them.

Keep the Faith

Man of the Match – Oba – No contest

Ref – Rennie 4 – The man is an arse, undeniably, but he got most things right. He’s still an arse though, so he’s not getting any more than 4.

Their Fans – 7 – Best of the Lanndan fans, no real booing of ‘Curbs’. Canny.

Gareth Harrison