Sorry for the lack of ramblings… been washing my hair!
It probably sums up the lack of enthusiasm for all things City if Stan is being honest. In fact, that only one of the Stans was present at the game against the league leaders is pretty telling. One went running, whilst another went to… wait for it.. Krakow!
‘For centuries Krakow was the capital of Poland, the seat of kings, drawing great scholars and artists from the whole world. It is their talents and imagination we must thank for the city’s rich legacy of unique historical relics, which reflect the most important trends in European culture’
Mmm!…. No mention of cheap beer then… I’ll leave it for Dr W to explain!
Anyway, back to the point, the fact that this Stan ambled towards the game with only Big Dunc for company merely confirmed the underlying feeling that things ain’t quite what they used to be.
That gut wrenching nervousness of many-a-year past was instead replaced with a slightly disproportionate feeling of excitement at crossing a new bridge!
Whether it was the utter non-event of the Walsall game that had done this, or the predictability of the pub-watched Dons’ defeat is open for debate… but it’s far more likely to be four years of dreadful, largely avoidable, gut-wrenching decline wot dun it!
Games recently have become, above and beyond anything, a routine. Something to be endured rather than enjoyed. Steve Gedge touched on this recently with his declaration that the quality of the football down here in Div Three is generally awful! He’ll get no argument from this quarter on that one!
As if to hammer this point home Jez, a life-long Brentford fan, laughed aloud when the ‘quality issue’ was raised in a chance meeting this week. ‘Don’t say I didn’t bloody well warn you!’
Therefore, it was a pleasant surprise for Stan to have enjoyed a game quite that much as he crossed that, oh-so-exciting, bridge on the return home.
The doom mongers (OK, OK that’s me!) might say that celebrating a home draw in the Third Division is pretty pathetic, but last minute equalisers always feel good, especially when they clearly rile the opposition supporters quite so much!
It’s also dawning on Stan that, whilst it’s always wise to write anything about City with a proviso, we have finally stumbled upon a proper manager.
Lambert’s team look organised, and well drilled and they sure aren’t going to roll over and die when they go behind. In fact, all he needs to do to prove he’s the real deal is spot the defensive link between Saturday’s opposition goals!
At 2-0 down and with defeat staring us all in the face, it would have been extremely easy to have rolled over a la Col U. The crowd were certainly peed off with having, yet again, watched some totally woeful defending allow Burton and Shelby to help themselves to a goal apiece.
You sensed that one more mistake and the scorn would have flooded from the terraces like a poisonous wave, but instead of choking, Lambert’s City were galvanised.
With our new-found attitude epitomised by Holt, we refused to lay down and die, as we have so many times before. His quick throw and Wes’s clinical finish gave us a ‘Get out of jail free’ card to take into the second-half, and we grabbed it like a condemned man who’d been offered a stay of execution.
It’s not that we looked hugely impressive in the second half, it’s just that we are finally starting to look like a proper football team again. There’s a few lads out there who clearly care about that yellow shirt. Give it some time and Stan may even find himself a new hero or two.
Korey Smith didn’t give up for a single second, Daley looked far more like a player who will make the grade at this level and Holt carries every possible attribute he needs to become the next Iwan.
And Stan’s final thought of the day? He’ll give a tenner to whichever steward didn’t lock the gate at the bottom of the Snake Pit just prior to the equaliser…. You can just about catch the consequence on the highlights.. Laurel and Hardy couldn’t have done it better!
Ah well, what’s the point in resistance and pretending not to care, the tickets are already bought for Gillingham, after all.
‘Nie mogę bez Ciebie żyć City’ , as they say in Krakow!
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