We didn’t really come alive in this game until the last twenty minutes or so when the team were galvanised after being frustrated by the long delay. This is one of those games that almost feels like a win, for a while at least, after we’d snatched a great equalizer from what had looked like a defeat.
BEFORE
Can we make it three wins on the trot tonight? Yes, I think we can. I was pleased to hear that Roberts will be available as we lost momentum when he went off on Saturday. Like many of us, I’d like to see Mayenda and Isidor on together as they can create chances out of nothing by their speed, deft body movements and good ball control. With the games coming thick and fast there may well be some rotation and perhaps Cirkin will start in place of Hjelde. Sheffield United are at home to Bristol City, which won’t be easy for them, while Burnley entertain Tony Mowbray’s West Brom so I hope Tony can inspire them to do us a favour there. Preston are currently mid-table but they haven’t won any of their last five and I think we’ll beat them. I’ll be at the game before heading back to London tomorrow and my match prediction is 3-1 to us.
I happened to get to the stadium very early, around 6.45 so I decided to have a good look around the East Stand for the first time, even that bit at the very top. Anyway, when my friends arrived, their match predictions were 4-1 and 2-1, to us of course. I checked the team-news and Cirkin, Isidor and Watson were starting in place of Hjelde, Moore and Mundle. That all sounded good to me. There was an announcement about our long-term coach Carlton Fairweather, who’s currently undergoing treatment for cancer, and he received a big round of applause from the fans. The crowd looked well under thirty thousand to me as we kicked off.
THE GAME
Isidor committed a foul, on Porteous, within the first ten seconds, which was maybe some kind of record. We had the best of the opening stages with a tentative Jobe shot going wide of the right angle of the post in the fifth minute and next thing a good move down our left led to a cross into the box that Mayenda almost reached before Woodman in goal got to it. Shortly after that Watson received a pass in their box but his shot was well wide. After that bright but fruitless spell we then indulged in a spot of serious farting about around our own penalty area, passing it about needlessly while Preston players crowded in like sharks. In the thirteenth we put together another fine move down the right that ended in Cirkin crossing for Mayenda to head just wide. We were pressing their back-line closely and I could see us forcing an error there. We kept plugging away but Preston’s defence were resolute and we were getting little change out of them. Preston had a rare chance in the twentieth when a low shot from Meghoma was turned out for a corner.
Gibson was yellow-carded in the twenty-third for a foul on Watson and as we waited for the free-kick to be taken I could suddenly hear a ghostly sound that turned out to be a mini hail shower rattling on the roof. That was actually more exciting than what we managed from the free-kick. Isidor was set up very nicely for a shot in the left area of their box but he suddenly slipped over and that was that. Preston were showing some pace down both flanks and we were having trouble keeping up with them. Our fans hadn’t really got going with their chants and as the game went into a
bit of a lull the sparse Preston contingent had a chorus of, “Is this a library?” In the thirty-fourth Watson fed Cirkin and his low cross went right through their box but nobody’s toe was their to tap it in. Just after that we won a corner but after we’d taken it short our players didn’t seem to know what to do with the ball. Five minutes before the break I thought we’d scored but Isidor’s header from Hume’s cross went narrowly wide of the post. Preston were having plenty of the ball and they also looked threatening on occasions with Thordarson’s long distance shot going narrowly wide of our left post just before the break. There was only one minute of added-time and it remained goalless as the half-time whistle went. We’d had some good chances to score but had lacked a clinical finish.
I was very pleased to hear ‘White Man in Hammersmith Palais’ by The Clash booming over the p.a. during the break.
There were no changes for us as we kicked off again but I was looking forward to seeing Mundle come on for Watson as we’d lacked his bite. We kept punting high balls up the centre of the park for Mayenda and Isidor to get on the end of but they were winning very few of them and we would have done better to have kept hem lower or on the ground. Preston put a lot of pressure on in the early stages of the half and many of our fans were sounding frustrated. We escaped in the fiftieth when Preston broke following a corner to us and Riis had a one on one with Patto but he managed to hit his effort wide. Five minutes later Isidor and Mayenda really connected for the first time in the game but it ended with the latter shooting just over the bar. In the fifty-seventh we made a double switch, bringing on Mundle and Rigg for Watson and Mayenda. Watson received a good ovation but I was pleased to see Mundle entering the fray. The Mayenda-Rigg switch had a lot of people around me puzzled but I thought Rigg went on to play well, hitting a lot of accurate passes as we eventually pressed forward. The game ebbed to and fro and then in the sixty-sixth we were one-down. We allowed their attackers plenty of time before a Riis shot from outside the box flew into the bottom-left corner. My heart sank as it had felt like one of those games where we could play all night and not score.
There was a delay while Kesler-Hayden was down injured for a while and their players had shown a tendency to hit the deck a fair bit. With around fifteen minutes to go we won a couple of corners within a minute but we couldn’t convert either. Then the whole game seemed to go mad for five minutes or so as two more Preston players went down and didn’t want to leave the pitch despite some of our players helpfully trying to pick them up and cart them off. There was some argy-bargy going on around the technical areas while our fans were simmering at the hold-up. In the midst of this Preston made three substitutions and appeared to have twelve players on the pitch at one point. The ref, Lewis Smith, looked like he’d lost control of the game but after what seemed ages but was probably five or six minutes the game finally restarted. All this unnecessary delay had riled our fans and our players but it had the positive effect of giving the team a real boost and for the rest of the match we played our best football by a mile. Mundle had often looked threatening as he dribbled down our left and then in the eighty-sixth he was heading towards the left edge of their box when he unleashed a tremendous shot that whistled straight into their net and we were level. The place went doolally and not long afterwards when nine minutes of added-time were announced there was a great roar. I really thought we could get the winner. Woodman was booked for repeated timewasting but he didn’t speed up much even after that. We came close to a second when an O’Nien shot went wide and that was about it from us and it ended 1-1 to a trickle of applause around me.
