BFC 1-1 Reading, Saturday 30th December 2017

‘They crucified Jesus.  And that turned out alright.’

Be Proud!

Voice of doom here.  I don’t know what everyone’s on about, all this ‘played well, shoulda won’ nonsense.  It was yet another game where we never looked like scoring – and didn’t, till the ball fell to a defender who headed home in injury time.  Yes, Thiam ran about a bit and looked lively.  Like one of his subs performances, but this time for 70 minutes.  But did he ever look like he would bag?  No.  So Hecky took him off in a three-pronged substitution and received boos for his decision-making. The same decision-making which took us from losing to drawing.  Proof indeed that some of the crowd are turning against Hecky?  I mean, I’ve not heard it from any of the LONDON Londontykes, but Wadd, Molly, and, to a lesser extent, Nozzer, have all been uttering anti-Hecky jibes while turning Little Lee into a managerial god.  Talk about a Stalinist re-writing of history.

424 away fans.  Did I hear right?

One thing we can all agree is that Ugbo isn’t the answer.  Though as has been pointed out, one of the three (I thought it was two!) touches he had in his 25 minutes involved nipping in front of Mannone and clipping a goalbound header over him which a defender cleared.  This was as close as ANY of our attacking players came to scoring and for that, I salute him.  He made the right run and got his head to the ball.  As for our other 6 shots on target (the stats tell me) I have no idea where they came from. If you’d said 3, I’d have said that was more like.  But when one of them surely includes Mannone tipping over a shot which was going over anyway…

The view from the Ponty...for a change.

Actually, I do remember one decent bit of link up play between Thiam and Bradshaw which ended up with a good shooting opportunity, Bradshaw testing the keeper.  But you know when the crowd have lost hope: even when we had 2 corners at 0-1, there was no chant from the Ponty of ‘Come on you Reds’. They were met with shrugs.  The team deserve better.  (Support did come, as we threw men forward late on.)

The old Main Stand at half time.

The problem was, we’d seen it all before. A side had come to Oakwell looking to secure a goalless draw and had somehow found themselves winning.  Howthehell does this happen? Well, today Matthew, a 40 yard cross from their left was headed in from 4 yards out by a disbelieving centre forward.  Where was Davies?  Still stood on his line, watching it.  Now, I like Davies, but his shot stopping hasn’t been great this season and his ability on crosses has never been there.  Surely time to bring in someone who will challenge him for his position, rather than a bloke who couldn’t get a game in the Conference.

The Ponty v Reading.

At least the crowd didn’t leave this time, or at least very few did.  But that was probably due to the new game show in town: see how long it takes before Ugbo touches the ball.  I know they were playing it around me in the Ponty, and it was the talk of the pub later. 25 minutes for maybe 3 touches.  No wonder everyone thought Thiam was amazing.  At least he could occasionally hold onto the ball.  Can Ugbo REALLY be the finest 18 year old centre forward in the land?  I’d weep for England’s chances, if only I could give a s***.  It’s like that Arsenal loanee we had in division 3, ‘the best 17 year old in the land’.  Last seen being sent packing from another loan spell with Oxford.  I forget his name, such was his amazingness.  Well, yeah, Uggboot’s like him.  Though Uggy did play well at Spurs, so perhaps, a la Odejayi, his real level is the Premiership!

The East Stand.

Fortunately, with time running out, Pinnock (and half the team) were pushed forward…and we scored.  Do you think there’s a correlation there somewhere?  Isgrove (on as sub; thank you Lord Hecky) whipped in a super ball and Pinnock crashed home a great header into the opposite corner.  Unstoppable.  Cue big hugs from Jonesy and jumping around like loons.  Well, you have to make the most of these things, 1^st home goal in 5 matches.

So, yeah, the game was slightly less s*** than usual…cos we scored…but it was still s***.  The pronounced opinion was that Reading are a poor team – a poor team we failed to beat (and wiped the floor with us at their place, where I can confirm they looked a poor team there as well).  We are in big BIG trouble and as things stand, I think we’re going down.  It was good to hear pre-match that no-one shares my opinion (do they ever?) but given the disconnect between our view of Hecky, I can only think that some people imagine the only way out of this is to find a new manager.  As Wadd told me in the pub ‘our new owners won’t let us go down’.  I’m not sure this is how promotion/relegation works, but I live in hope.  We are now one point above relegation and a mere 3 above bottom.  Permission to panic, Captain Mainwaring?

Onwards and upwards!

The away end.  Does it look any closer to 424?

*** Pinnock.  Twitter MOTM. I thought he had an excellent game at centre half and the goal was the cherry on the icing.
** Thiam.  Ran around for longer than usual looking keen.
* Hammill.  Some fabulous delivery, particular in the 1^st half – met by nobody.  (File under: why Thiam isn’t good enough.)

Londontykes' MOTM: 1. Pinnock  2. Thiam  3. Hammill

Despatches:
In a change to the programme, my plans were completely thrown pre-match.. Slacki’s sister had tickets to the darts final on New Years Day and couldn’t make it, so, having banged on about the darts on the train up, here was my chance.  Cue tickets bought, one very happy partner, Sunderland away cancelled, no visit back home and quick deliberations on whether to get smashed with the Londontykes on the train back after the game….or get smashed ‘in tarn’ with the Slackmeister.  The latter it was.  I still can’t decide if I regret it (see later).  I know I gave away my ear muffs to the cute girl behind the counter in Greggs in the early hours…
Then it was back to the pub for too many pints before I was taken to top Barnsley gentleman’s emporium ‘Wildcats’ where entrance was free (cos no-one had any money to be out between Xmas and New Year?) and Carling was £3.50.  Slacki and I have decided this is our new drinking hole of choice.

Our players?  Barnes showed flashes of his earlier brilliance for us.  Fryers had a dodgy start, letting a player run past him for a cheap shot.  Yiadomlooked good, but was injured as Reading crossed from his side for their goal.  (I later learnt this was Hecky’s fault too, for not subbing him before the goal.  Then it turned into the physio’s fault for not getting him off sooner.  I’m exasperated.)  Williams had his usual game (and Jonesy can now concur he does lose the ball cheaply at times, cos there was more than one occasion where I said ‘who gave that away?’ before following the man to find out it was Williams.)  I have to say though, he did put some decent balls out wide.  Bradshaw was half decent, and linked up better with Thiam today.  Gardnerwas…I dunno.  Didn’t do much wrong, didn’t do much full stop.  Kept possession?  Lindsay kept it tight, while Davies didn’t.  And when Davies loses his confidence, the first thing that goes is his kicking.  So after conceding, one of his hoofs went straight out for a throw…which gets fans on his back, which makes him lose more confidence…etc

Where it all began...steps into the Ponty end.

Drink du jour: 
Arcade Ale House: Sierra Nevada 7.2%, Rhubarb cider, some bottled IPA or other
Old #7: Erdinger
Wildcats: Carling

Me and and my erstwhile buddy got in a terrible, terrible drink-induced mess.  We blame our Barnsley-based acquaintances for leaving us by 8pm.  At least Hicksy and his Mrs stayed out – and they don’t even live in Barnsley.

Away: 424.  Allegedly.  (There must have been a helluva lot under the stand, cos there were never 424 in it.)

The Damage:
£12 train from London
£12 train to Durham (which I obviously didn’t get)
£36 train from Durham to London (ditto)
= £60

The Tunes:
Days Are Gone (Haim)

Did I say I’m off to the darts final??? WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1st half panorama v Reading.

Half time panorama from the back of the Ponty.