For the seasoned campaigner, and Stanley is now of the age where he is most definitely seasoned in whatever activity he finds himself engaged, there was nothing surprising about Saturday's defeat.
The surprise would have been City actually winning. Mildly hysterical build-up; poor opposition clearly there for the taking; long unbeaten City run; large travelling support; gorgeous sunny day; pre-breakfast run tacked safely under the Stanley belt; large bowel of porridge warming Stanley's vitals in preparation for the dash across the fens; good company; a lift off Mr 'myfootballwriter.com' himself; a general feeling of well-being.
Yep, the perfect set up for a classic City no show.
It wasn't as if Stanley and his travelling companions didn't expect it. Been here too many times before I'm afraid. Not even having Stanley's dear old friend “Rabbit Foot 'Never seen us lose at Leicester ever…' Millar” in the car was enough for Stanley to expect too much from City later in the day. And in this one area City didn't disappoint.
Beyond the bad feeling in Stanley's water and the unfavourably alignment of the tea leaves at the bottom of his Saturday morning tea cup, there were a number of possible reasons for City's pretty poor performance. The pitch wasn't one designed for smooth passing football, for sure.
Hucks would have taken one look and not fancied it, you couldn't help feeling. The Huckster's absence was negligible in determining our fate, to be honest. Bertrand going down with the flu probably wasn't, however.
On the pitch against that team you needed a solid 4-3-3 line-up. No Bertrand and Glenn obviously felt obliged to give Henry his chance, meaning we were playing 4-4-2, with two wingers. That means a big onus on the middle of the park, Rusty and Fozzy had to get on top and stay on top if City were to get any kind of a foothold in the game. Once the first goal went in, what little chance of that happening evaporated.
As Glenn said afterwards the players are only human and you have to expect a bad day at the office every now and again. Especially after such a fine unbeaten run.
It's all about bouncing back straight away and starting another loss-less streak. All very true, but the defeat all so demonstrates the fact that our team's centre is too soft. These players have done brilliantly for us by dragging us out of the hole that Granty dug for us, but if we are really to go places the team does need re-building, a fact that St Glenn is obviously aware of.
There's a chance that we might be in for a dodgy little spell, 'a regression to the norm', which cements our place in mid-table rather than in the play-offs.
Still a trip to Leicester is always a reason to be grateful to be a city supporter in some respects. Can you imagine the club moving from Carrow Road to somewhere near the showground and a plastic rent-a-kit stadium called B&Q Stadium? Why are all these new stadiums so soulless and plastic?
When the Americans build new Baseball Parks (never 'stadiums'; always parks) they respect traditional designs, use traditional materials, brick and steel, and effectively replicate older grounds – but with modern facilities. Why can't we do the same? As for the pubs, don't get Stanley started, just be glad you come from 'a fine ale city'.
Now what? 'Regression to the norm'? Play-off hopes over? Mid-table mediocrity for the rest of the season ?nailed on with your eyes shut?? Stanley back to his cricket nets and day dreams about running 90-minute half marathons, football on the mental backburner till the summer team re-building gets into swing?
No chance. Come Saturday it will be City thumping a cup be-witched Barnsley and Ipswich being duffed up and dumped in a bin by the Bouncers on the door of the nightclub 'the Prem', sometimes referred to as Stoke City.
The gap between us and the play-offs back to six points with Blackpool at home to come. Mild hysteria will once again begin to build and Stanley will once more consider embarking on the daunting task of seeing City win away in the company of 'Rabbit Foot' Millar?
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