As is always the case, after a run of good results, I mosey on over to the stadium with all the expectations of a virgin groom on his wedding night, “gonna do it at last”. I missed the kick off, coz I decided to jump in the bath half way through the Liverpool Everton game and watch it there, and then fell asleep, and was rudely awaken by Phil “grandad” Neville getting sent off and handing the game to Liverpool.
Dressed for a cold day, I soon realised that wearing a fleece was going to be a small mistake, as it was quite warm in the sun At the ground, you can get blinded by the lowness of the sun, on the bus shelter side of the ground, this won’t be an issue soon, it’ll be pitch black by 4.
It doesn’t take long for Retford to demonstrate their Unibond South dominance (currently top of the tree) with their quick, short passing and swift movements. However, our boys seemed to soak up the pressure well and restrict the visitors to a handful of chances. We did have two bookings during the first part of the first half – Joe Brown NUMBER 9 (for a minor scrap with their centre half) and Pete Naylor NUMBER 5 (for a slightly late challenge with studs showing – very harsh). The game changed about 5 minutes before the end of the half when our joint manager won an innocuous header, when their player went down in a heap and the ref calling our lad over. He looked a this number (NUMBER 4) showed him the yellow card and then the red card like it was his second caution, when the player highlighted the error, the ref supposedly said “well you’re off anyway, it was an elbow” and showed him a straight red – what the f*** ? You can’t change the decision from a yellow to a red like that, surely ? It’s bad enough Sepp Blatter wanting to make things up as he goes along, but not the bloody refs too.
It didn’t take long for the visitors to make their numerical advantage count, when ex-pro Adrian Littlejohn came on and virtually scored with his first touch. Not to be deterred, our lads showed some massive courage to try and get back into the game, and it wasn’t long before we were awarded a dubious penalty, brilliant 1-1 – ah shite, last week Smithy spanks them in, today he places it, straight towards the end of the goalies arms. And then the goalie makes another inspired save to keep us out from a well worked move. Before too long their numbers get the better of us and we’re 2 down.
After the penalty miss, I’d had enough to be fair, as I’d resigned myself to that fact it wasn’t to be our day. Then Sheff Wed scored two late goals to beat Stoke at Stoke 4-2 – wtf ?? I seriously hope the England lads come up with the goods tonight (and they’re doing well early on, oh no SA penalty in front of posts, but Wilko responds quickly)
