07-04-2015, 16:22
The Circle of Life
It is 43 years ago this week that I attended my first away match. I mention this because of so many parallels with yesterday. It was a week into April. Our season was heading towards mid table. We had little to play for but most significantly, it was away to a Norwich side that were on their way to promotion to the top flight.
On that day, I was an excited kid, finally being allowed to watch a Wednesday away match after months of nagging my parents and six years of being a home matches only fan. Now I am a cynical bastard who goes out of habit and that excitement I got on that sunny day back in 1972 only happens periodically on my Wednesday adventures.
In those days, football didn't get the TV coverage of today. There was just highlights of two games each week on MOTD plus one regional match on Yorkshire TV plus the goals from one other region. It was a surprise to me how small Norwich's ground was compared to our ground. In those days also, home advantage was much greater than today, so much so that the football coupons had a "Four Aways" section which was bloody hard to win. I was shocked that Wednesday hardly got a kick, as I was used to in home matches, that Norwich dominated possession, they got almost all marginal refereeing decisions and inevitably won by a single late goal.
Whenever we play at Norwich, I think back to that day with great affection. It was the first step outside Sheffield to watch my team and has taken me to over 80 different grounds so far. Although I no longer have the thrill of a young school boy, I always have hope. My thoughts on the match from yonder year apply equally to yesterday's match.
Norwich dominated possession. We played with little belief. It seemed like our best hope was to get a 0-0 draw and once we went behind, our only intention was damage limitation. Wednesday fans have a great sense of humour which shows itself best on the darkest days and you know it is bad when the "Let's pretend we've scored a goal" chant is our top song of the day.
I don't mind losing 2-0 away to a team challenging for promotion. In fact the score is about par for what I would expect. What I do mind is that we played with no ambition to win the match. We played 90 minutes without a shot on target. If Norwich had gone for it, we could have lost by several more goals so we should be grateful that they were saving their energy for another day. Even when we went behind, our tactics were very much defensive. It was as though SG was more concerned about keeping the score down than trying to get back into the match.
The first half consisted of Norwich attacking and us lumping the ball up to Lavery and wondering why it kept coming straight back. SG said after the match that if we had taken one of our two chances then it might have been different. He failed to mention that Norwich had at least a dozen similar chances.
At half time, Isgrove was sacrificed to bring on Nuhui but Lavery was switch to the wing so we continued with the 4411 that had failed in the first half. With less than 15 minutes to go, Bus was brought on but it was too little, too late.
Westwood - 6 - kept the score down
Vermijl - 4 - all at sea
Lees - 6 - a rock in a stormy sea
Dielna - 4 - ill at ease
Mattock - 5 - struggled all match
Maguire - 5 - not really involved
Lee - 6 - battled well
Melo - 6 - Looked good in first half
Isgrove - 5 - bright but no end product
McGugan - 5 - little influence
Lavery - 5 - game passed him by
.............................................................
Nuhui - 5
Buxton - 6
Bus - 6
I ask myself, "What have we gained from this match?" The answer is nothing. I look at Forest playing at Brentford, Birmingham at Bournemouth and Leeds playing at Wolves (three other teams with nothing to play for) and they blooded youngsters and gave it a go going toe to toe with promotion contenders. Instead, we meekly gave in. It was almost as though we were happy with a 2-0 defeat.
I haven't hidden my view that I don't think SG is the man to take us forward. Yesterday provided more evidence to back that assertion. Not the defeat; I don't give a fig about results now this season. It was his negative attitude. His inability to try anything. Poor tactics, poor substitutions etc. etc. Even Wigan won at Norwich last month.
If SG wants to lead us into next season and be the man at the helm when we get promoted then he needs to prove it by sending out a bright attacking side against Charlton next Saturday where we attack from minute one until the final whistle and hopefully score more than two goals for the first time at home this season.
It is 43 years ago this week that I attended my first away match. I mention this because of so many parallels with yesterday. It was a week into April. Our season was heading towards mid table. We had little to play for but most significantly, it was away to a Norwich side that were on their way to promotion to the top flight.
On that day, I was an excited kid, finally being allowed to watch a Wednesday away match after months of nagging my parents and six years of being a home matches only fan. Now I am a cynical bastard who goes out of habit and that excitement I got on that sunny day back in 1972 only happens periodically on my Wednesday adventures.
In those days, football didn't get the TV coverage of today. There was just highlights of two games each week on MOTD plus one regional match on Yorkshire TV plus the goals from one other region. It was a surprise to me how small Norwich's ground was compared to our ground. In those days also, home advantage was much greater than today, so much so that the football coupons had a "Four Aways" section which was bloody hard to win. I was shocked that Wednesday hardly got a kick, as I was used to in home matches, that Norwich dominated possession, they got almost all marginal refereeing decisions and inevitably won by a single late goal.
Whenever we play at Norwich, I think back to that day with great affection. It was the first step outside Sheffield to watch my team and has taken me to over 80 different grounds so far. Although I no longer have the thrill of a young school boy, I always have hope. My thoughts on the match from yonder year apply equally to yesterday's match.
Norwich dominated possession. We played with little belief. It seemed like our best hope was to get a 0-0 draw and once we went behind, our only intention was damage limitation. Wednesday fans have a great sense of humour which shows itself best on the darkest days and you know it is bad when the "Let's pretend we've scored a goal" chant is our top song of the day.
I don't mind losing 2-0 away to a team challenging for promotion. In fact the score is about par for what I would expect. What I do mind is that we played with no ambition to win the match. We played 90 minutes without a shot on target. If Norwich had gone for it, we could have lost by several more goals so we should be grateful that they were saving their energy for another day. Even when we went behind, our tactics were very much defensive. It was as though SG was more concerned about keeping the score down than trying to get back into the match.
The first half consisted of Norwich attacking and us lumping the ball up to Lavery and wondering why it kept coming straight back. SG said after the match that if we had taken one of our two chances then it might have been different. He failed to mention that Norwich had at least a dozen similar chances.
At half time, Isgrove was sacrificed to bring on Nuhui but Lavery was switch to the wing so we continued with the 4411 that had failed in the first half. With less than 15 minutes to go, Bus was brought on but it was too little, too late.
Westwood - 6 - kept the score down
Vermijl - 4 - all at sea
Lees - 6 - a rock in a stormy sea
Dielna - 4 - ill at ease
Mattock - 5 - struggled all match
Maguire - 5 - not really involved
Lee - 6 - battled well
Melo - 6 - Looked good in first half
Isgrove - 5 - bright but no end product
McGugan - 5 - little influence
Lavery - 5 - game passed him by
.............................................................
Nuhui - 5
Buxton - 6
Bus - 6
I ask myself, "What have we gained from this match?" The answer is nothing. I look at Forest playing at Brentford, Birmingham at Bournemouth and Leeds playing at Wolves (three other teams with nothing to play for) and they blooded youngsters and gave it a go going toe to toe with promotion contenders. Instead, we meekly gave in. It was almost as though we were happy with a 2-0 defeat.
I haven't hidden my view that I don't think SG is the man to take us forward. Yesterday provided more evidence to back that assertion. Not the defeat; I don't give a fig about results now this season. It was his negative attitude. His inability to try anything. Poor tactics, poor substitutions etc. etc. Even Wigan won at Norwich last month.
If SG wants to lead us into next season and be the man at the helm when we get promoted then he needs to prove it by sending out a bright attacking side against Charlton next Saturday where we attack from minute one until the final whistle and hopefully score more than two goals for the first time at home this season.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
would make the games more entertaining if the players were tipsy
goals scored by us in those 8 games, thankfully the opposition only scored 5 too