Stanley had just gotten into his seat and was telling Stan's '59 veteran Uncle how unconfident Stanley was about City winning due to our in ability to score and recently poor record against Burnley when Dion scored, a mere 61second s into the match…
As regular readers of this column can testify that incident just about sums up Stan's predictive punditry at times. Stan is the kind of man who has a tendency to back horses called Tripod.
Anyhow, after the euphoria of celebrating the unexpected, did this early City strike help to calm old Stan's nerves? Nah, of course not, it just heightened them. We now had something to lose and as far as Stan was concerned we seemed hell bent on losing it.
Not that City played badly, just that the game, especially in the first half turned into a very expansive, open, end-to-end game of neat passing football. Burnley being the latest in a line of Championship sides to visit the 'Wensum Redoubt' and play properly.
With Blake, Cole and Akinbiyi all in the Burnley squad and all nailed-on certainties to score against us, in the eyes of Stan the Punter, the game was not the most enjoyable Stanley has sat through. In fact, Stanley was nervously shifting around in his seat throughout the second-half – much like Paul Jewell watching his wife dusting around the video cabinet…
But we held out. In fact – retrospectively; looking back on the game from the comfort of the bar – that's being too harsh on City. We played well, as did Burnley.
Both teams just tended to squander their chances, apart from a couple which fell to Dion and Ched. Thank 'Evans for Ched was the consensus during the post-match discussion over a beverage.
The boy's a class act. Stanley hopes all parties realise that the best for all parties is for Ched to come back here for the whole of next season to complete his footballing education. The one problem with Ched, as far as Stan is concerned, is the fact that he tends to show up Jamie a bit.
Jamie, you just can't escape from feeling, is classic League One. He had a brilliant season last season in the Championship but that was the pinnacle of his career, not the norm. Jamie spurns far too many chances. All strikers miss chances; it's as much part of their job description as scoring goals.
But Jamie just misses far too many. You hope he'll score, but are just not certain. He is just too profligate. With Ched you presume he'll score and when he doesn't you're surprised. He's a Premiership striker in the making rather than a League One striker who has done well for himself.
Now Stanley feels a bit unclean 'dissing' Jamie like this, especially on the eve of the derby. Stanley loves the green haired larrikin as much as the next City fundamentalist, but City's profligate ways this season have cost us dearly and dear old Jamie epitomises this profligacy. After this weekend, can you envisage Glenn starting with a front two of anything other than Dion and Ched next Sunday?
The situation is still very messy at the bottom. All that can be said is that eight more points will guarantee us safety at this moment. In reality five more points will probably be enough or wins in the last two home games. Stanley suspects that we'll be going into the QPR game needing something no doubt to guarantee safety, if only it's hoping for Leicester, Southampton, Coventry or Barnsley to lose to do just that.
Hillsborough seems distinctly less likely to be decisive following today's result. Stan can therefore start to tentatively plan his fancy dress outfit for a fun day out in South Yorkshire on the last day of the season.
Before then of course there is the small matter of next weekend's 'Bin day'. The insufferable smug superiority of the 'binners might have taken a temporary knock following Col U's piece of effective refuse collecting but situation normal will be resumed pretty 'smartish' if City don't leave their profligate ways behind them in Norfolk next Sunday.
Bin Central will be absolutely desperate to win, not just for local bragging rights, but to breathe some life into their flagging promotion push. One which is flagging because of Town's own recent profligacy in front of goal. So a 0-0 bore draw then? That somehow seems unlikely.
What price a Jamie winner straight off the bench then?
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