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“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same....”
So said Rudyard Kipling, in his famous poem If. Kipling was a racist prick and an idiot, though. If you can’t celebrate your triumphs, however ‘minor’, then what the fuck is the point of anything?
We didn't go to Maidenhead, so I had the pleasure of catching up with last Saturday's action through the highlights on Maidenhead's YouTube channel, which I highly recommend. Their commentators were taking the piss out of Sutton for having scored an own goal on his debut: "it can only get better for him!". It will do today, dickhead.
I don't know who was offside for Hogan's goal, but given that he doesn't score many, it seemed a bit mean spirited to chalk it off. We took the lead not long after, and can we all take moment to appreciate the sheer magnificence of Sheron's assist? Put their player on his arse to win the ball then put it on a sixpence for Garner, who made a great run in anticipation and finished it beautifully. Sheron can be brilliant at times and you all need to put some fucking respect on his name.
Mikey, bless 'im, missed a few chances in the first half, including an absolute sitter from a great cross by Green, but he made a nuisance of himself and eventually got his reward. Hogan was unlucky to not score from Conlon's corner in the second half, but Fondop was there to bury the rebound. He topped off another great performance in the final minutes, when he seemed to have all the time in the world in the penalty area to pick his shot for our 3rd. We missed out on a clean sheet due to sloppy defending from a corner in injury, but it meant I got prediction league points, so I didn't mind.
Mellon was disappointed with us conceding late on, which is reassuring, but said that Maidenhead had the best set piece delivery of any team we've played this season. When asked what he's done to bring out the best in Fondop, he gave the most Scottish reply possible: "just telt him to move his arse!". Well, good, it's working. He was also made it clear that he won't tolerate anyone complaining about how much travelling we're doing at the moment: "not as much as Frank, so we've not really got anything to complain about!".
If you went last Saturday, I hope you had a great day. I know some have argued that we shouldn't get carried away over beating Maidenhead, but we were unlucky enough to watch the abjectly awful game there last year, so beating them comfortably is progress. Treat yourself. Enjoy winning at a Southern leisure centre. You've earned it.
York's ground is one of these funny new ones on an out-of-town retail park, and you have to walk through an actual Northern leisure centre to get to the away turnstiles. They had a library as well, I was tempted to stay there. It probably would have been more entertaining. It wasn't a bad game, but it was scrappy and frustrating.
Both teams had a lot of chances; both teams wasted them. Mellon commented that their keeper didn't have much to do, so he'll be pretty gutted that our goal came from him coming flying out, missing the ball, and Fondop throwing himself at it and burying the header (which was especially pleasing, he should score more headers). Nice rowing celebration too. Classy. Well done, Mikey.
As Mellon pointed out after the game, their goal looked offside but we should be more disappointed with how we defended from a corner, again. He thought we should have got a better 1st and 2nd contact on the ball, and we need to defend the 18 yard box better. There's definitely work to do on defending set pieces.
A little disappointing, then, but it was a battling point away from home against a team that have invested heavily in their squad and should probably being doing a lot better than they are. Even if they are tinpot unprofessional wee guys who spelt our name wrong on the tickets.
It's exactly the sort of game we'd have lost in September. 4 points from 2 away games in 4 days is a decent return if - IF - we win today.
Today should be a great day at Boundary Park. It's our first sell out crowd in ages, so please sit in the seat your ticket's for or it'll be fucking chaos. The game will definitely kick off late because Frank's speech will take twice as long as was planned. Good. Let him talk for as long as he wants. It's his party, and he's more than earned it. Hopefully the atmosphere will inspire a suitably enthusiastic performance and the pitch. And if we do win, you bet yo ass I'll be celebrating. KTMFF.
Written by Arlene Finnigan. Photos (well most of them) by Thomas Lee Stacey.
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