Once again I left my seat early, only to run to the exit nearest to stairs so that I can see the last few minutes, then leg it to the car and get away as soon as the final whistle is blown. I hardly ever leave a game early, but it is matches like this that have me rocking in my seat, fighting the urge to give up. Mostly it is the frustration - and the metaphorical tears that want to turn literal, that come about as a result. Our inability to impose ourselves against "limited but well organised" teams. Our ability to shoot ourselves in our collective feet. Officials who are hopelessly inconsistent, or just hopeless.
Reflecting on the match on the drive home, those metaphorical tears were initially in danger of clouding my vision of what had just happened. But as the veil lifted, the reality set in. A red card that, apparently, was justified after all - even if nobody really knew exactly what for (how anybody can confuse an elbow and a stamp is beyond my musculo-skeletal knowledge). A penalty that, from side on, looked stonewall. A goal they scored from a beautifully driven free-kick and tidy flick header. A (probably) correct yellow for Leigh, following a yellow that was an embarrassment to all officialdom. A failure to understand the offside rule as it now stands (although it is now so complex that errors will inevitably creep in). Maybe KR got it absolutely right in his comments last season about this ref.
Did the ref cost us the game? Probably not. But his and his assistants' performance did nothing good for my blood pressure and tear ducts. Lots of nice play and great moves, up to the point where it mattered if we were to create decent chances. A lack of urgency? Apart from McGuane, possibly. Flashes of ManningBall, but are we really once again condemned to come up short against those "limited but well organised" teams?
BUT. Whoever the first caller into RadOx was after the game showed the sort of arrogance that just makes me angry. We could see going into the match that were we to lose, Vale would go above us. If we had had a great start to the season to be top of the table, then so must they to have been that close behind. But the most surprising thing for me about being top was that we were two points clear after just five games. No team had won five games. As things now stand, only Pompey have not lost a game. This is going to be a very tight league, maybe even more so than usual. We are going to have to find ways to beat all types of opponent. It is still early days (insert your own cliché here). This is one best shrugged off and put down to early-season inconsistency.
Veil of tears
Re: Veil of tears
I didn't go due to train strikes and also the A3/M25 junction roadworks. It took me 2 1/4 hours on Friday to drive this route to Oxford for a 70 mile journey.
Anyway, I tend to agree this will be a tight league, but should be a bit easier to get into the top seven. League 1 has lost the big boys of Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday to the Championship. The relegated teams of Reading, Wigan and Blackpool aren't doing that well so far. Apart from Stevenage so far, I am not expecting the promoted teams to do well either.
Funnily enough, I had one of those timehop reminders and two years ago yesterday we had played six and were on 13 points and top of the league (might have been midway through a match). Today we are played six and 12 points.
Anyway, I tend to agree this will be a tight league, but should be a bit easier to get into the top seven. League 1 has lost the big boys of Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday to the Championship. The relegated teams of Reading, Wigan and Blackpool aren't doing that well so far. Apart from Stevenage so far, I am not expecting the promoted teams to do well either.
Funnily enough, I had one of those timehop reminders and two years ago yesterday we had played six and were on 13 points and top of the league (might have been midway through a match). Today we are played six and 12 points.