21-11-2018, 16:57
After the first game, I said that I could see us winning at Billericay and wouldn`t put it past us to beat Grimsby. It seems that I got at least the first half right and I`m still holding out hopes for the second – innocent, naive fool that I am. I know that it`s very ungracious to say “ I told you so” but being right about anything to do with this stupid bloody game is such a rare event for me that I hope nobody minds too much if I wallow in it just for a few minutes.
I thought long and hard about whether to make the trip, but in the end I did. I lived in west Essex for a while, many years ago, and one of my sons lives on the Herts / Essex border now, so the missus and I decided to combine a trip down memory lane with a family visit and a couple of nights` stay. As it turned out, I`m glad we did.
I haven`t seen any of the highlights but, yes, we played okay. Having said that, Billericay will undoubtedly be feeling this morning just like we`ve felt a few times this season; if only...... For a good 10 minutes before they equalised they had us on the rack and it really was only a matter of time. They missed one or two golden chances, helped by our defence being in full panic mode at times, and I think it was lucky for us that we got our second so quickly afterwards. (Credit to our lads for nor bottling it at that point though, as they might have done in the past, and for coming straight back at them; that suggests good spirit in the team.) That put them on the back foot again straightaway, made them come at us and gave us the chance to play on the counter more and more as time ran out. If we hadn`t got our noses back in front so quickly, they could easily have taken the game away from us, I reckon; as it was, we could well have scored a couple more on the break.
Billericay are a decent side, no doubt about it, and they have the confidence that comes from winning regularly – which we don`t as yet. Their midfield looked just as tidy as it was at the Proact and their forwards looked a lot more ‘co-ordinated’ than ours at times, I thought, particularly in that first 15 minutes or so after half-time. Apart from that spell, though, we looked just as threatening but ours threats seems to come more from individual pace than inter-play (if that makes any sort of sense).
Anyway, we made it through and we were all able to walk out of the ground without being pissed off as well as pissed on – it really did chuck it down all through the game. As I said to the bloke next to me after we got back in front , the way things have been going for us this season it would be just our luck if the ref abandoned it.
Didn`t happen, fortunately, so it`s Grimsby ahead. Somebody said it`s scheduled for Sunday afternoon so we get part-coverage by the BBC and earn £65k from it. Does anybody know whether that`s true?
I thought long and hard about whether to make the trip, but in the end I did. I lived in west Essex for a while, many years ago, and one of my sons lives on the Herts / Essex border now, so the missus and I decided to combine a trip down memory lane with a family visit and a couple of nights` stay. As it turned out, I`m glad we did.
I haven`t seen any of the highlights but, yes, we played okay. Having said that, Billericay will undoubtedly be feeling this morning just like we`ve felt a few times this season; if only...... For a good 10 minutes before they equalised they had us on the rack and it really was only a matter of time. They missed one or two golden chances, helped by our defence being in full panic mode at times, and I think it was lucky for us that we got our second so quickly afterwards. (Credit to our lads for nor bottling it at that point though, as they might have done in the past, and for coming straight back at them; that suggests good spirit in the team.) That put them on the back foot again straightaway, made them come at us and gave us the chance to play on the counter more and more as time ran out. If we hadn`t got our noses back in front so quickly, they could easily have taken the game away from us, I reckon; as it was, we could well have scored a couple more on the break.
Billericay are a decent side, no doubt about it, and they have the confidence that comes from winning regularly – which we don`t as yet. Their midfield looked just as tidy as it was at the Proact and their forwards looked a lot more ‘co-ordinated’ than ours at times, I thought, particularly in that first 15 minutes or so after half-time. Apart from that spell, though, we looked just as threatening but ours threats seems to come more from individual pace than inter-play (if that makes any sort of sense).
Anyway, we made it through and we were all able to walk out of the ground without being pissed off as well as pissed on – it really did chuck it down all through the game. As I said to the bloke next to me after we got back in front , the way things have been going for us this season it would be just our luck if the ref abandoned it.
Didn`t happen, fortunately, so it`s Grimsby ahead. Somebody said it`s scheduled for Sunday afternoon so we get part-coverage by the BBC and earn £65k from it. Does anybody know whether that`s true?