I don’t know how I fitted in going to this game with the amount of footy on the telly this weekend. The first game of the day was Aussie Rules from Adelaide – not the best of spectacles for Aussie Rules, but its still a belting game. The first Premier game kicked off at 1’sh and featured last years FA Cup winners and Premiership 3rd best team v those lucky sods from Humberside who escaped relegation by a gnats gonad – aka Chelsea v Hull. Hull actually took the lead against one of the Title favourites, however, they lost 2-1 with a brace from Drogba (the winner coming in injury time).
We played Esh Winning of County Durham in the First pre-qualifying, qualifying preliminary round of the FA Cup, where I reckon we will draw Chelsea at home in the 3rd round – i’d like to see Mssrs Drogba, Anelka & Bosingwa tackle the hostile environment of Queensgate on a very cold, windy and wet January weekend – in front of about 185.
Esh certainly came to give it a good go, and really put us off our stride. The confident swagger of a week ago was gone, ou get up and go seemed to have got up and gone.We had some early chances, which I’m sure, if we had nailed one, would have settled the nerves. Esh had their chances too, but found our keeper in marvellous form, and who should quite rightly, win the man of the match award. No disrespect to Esh, but we just didn’t turn up today and the reaction of the players and Phillo at the end summed it all up – total dejection. It now means a play off at their place on Tuesday, which for the hardy souls will mean a 5-6 hour round trip.
On a positive note, Stoke beat Burnley 2-0 for an opening day win. Home to watch the gunners absolutely destroy Everton 6-1 at Goodison, perhaps all the talk of Lescott going to Man City has de-stabilised the Toffeemen, their defending was woeful, though the Gooners were absolutely brilliant, they weren’t missing “Adebayor who ?”
Sunday meant a family meal for lunch, so the United game would be missed, but more than made up for by Liverpools defeat to Tottenham – they only lost 2 games last season in the league, they’ve already lost one this. Monday meant I was able to catch up with the Football League highlights on iplayer, Tuesday means Champions League Arsenal v Celtic and more Prem games, and Wednesday Stoke travel to Liverpool to hopefully maintain our 100% record.
