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There's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend
Getting a point away against the team that’s second in the league, in absolutely horrible weather conditions, is undoubtedly, objectively, a good result. Getting a 94th minute equaliser, especially away from home, ESPECIALLY against the team that’s second in the league, is definitely cause for celebration.
So why weren’t we happier at 5pm last Saturday?
Thanks to a Connor Ripley masterclass for Swindon, Barnet suffered their first league defeat of the season the Tuesday before we played them, so it was arguably a good time to face them. Given our own shitshow of a performance that Tuesday, we had little reason to feel confident. Mellon made two changes, bringing in Fondop for Drummond and Payne for Pett, and the lesser-spotted Hawkes and Chilvers were both on the bench.
Storm Boelo made it horrible conditions to watch football in, never mind play, and the first half went how we feared it might. After we only half-cleared a corner and Lakin played the ball back into the box, Hudson did well to save from Gallagher then Tshimanga at close range. After Daniels took forever on the ball then lost it, a passing move from Barnet culminated in Kanu playing the ball across the box to Lakin, who hit the post.
The inevitable was coming, and the opening goal was slightly reminiscent of the first two Walsall goals. Crichlow-Noble played a long ball from inside his own half to Tshimanga, none of our defenders were catching him, and once he went one-on-one with Hudson, he was always likely to get his ninth goal of the season.
Here we go again…but to be fair, we didn’t throw the towel in (and it’s a sad indictment of how poor some of our performances have been that it’s worth saying that it wasn’t game over 20 minutes in). Sutton made a good run down the right and played it to Appiah-Forson, but Fondop couldn’t get on the end of his ball into the box.
Mellon didn’t wait until five minutes into the second half to make changes and brought Drummond on for Appiah-Forson after half-time. I wonder if he reads the blog?
We were much brighter in the second half, and Drummond’s pace created a good chance 57 minutes in. He broke down the right and played a great ball to Fawunmi, who was sprinting down the left, and his shot was just over the top right corner. Fondop couldn’t beat the keeper when one-on-one, and Fawunmi looked gutted that he hadn’t squared it to him.
Barnet brought Noel-Williams on for an eventful 8-minute cameo an hour in. He fouled Fawunmi on the edge of the box and got booked after just four minutes; Kavanagh’s close-range shot from Fawunmi’s free kick was saved.
Fondop then went close with a free kick outside the box that Kavanagh was clearly supposed to take. He’s done this before, but it’s one thing taking a free kick off Mark Shelton’s toes when we’re already 0-2 up at Yeovil. It’s quite another when we’re 1-0 down, it’s glaringly obvious that the squad has not been a happy camp for some time, and you don’t score.
Anyway, the heat was taken off him when Noel-Williams led with his elbow challenging Robson for a header and got sent off after just eight minutes on the pitch. What a stupid thing to do when you’re already on a yellow. Did Robson go down easily? I couldn’t give a shite. You’re not obliged to stay on your feet when someone hits you in the face. When you’re 1-0 down and the person who hit you in the face has already been booked, you’d be daft to, quite frankly.
We had attacking options on the bench, and we did eventually use them to press our advantage. Hawkes came on for Fawunmi on 82 minutes. Fondop had a header saved at close range three minutes later; Hawkes then shot wide from outside the box. It looked like we were going to lose to, and fail to score against, ten men for the second time in five days, and it was inexplicable that we waited until the 91st minute to bring on Chilvers for Payne.
We sent Hudson up for a corner in stoppage time. It came to nothing, and it looked like it wasn’t going to be our day, again, but we kept the ball and continued to press. Eventually, it paid off. Norburn played a cracking ball into the box, and Fondop headed it past the keeper with almost the last touch of the game.
You’d expect a 94th minute equaliser to induce delirious celebrations. Maybe we’re all reading too much into it not looking like that was the case. Maybe the players were just exhausted after a tough game and a draining few weeks. Maybe they were running to celebrate with the fans and/or Mellon instead. It did look strangely like they weren’t exactly rushing to congratulate God’s number 9, though. Or maybe it just looked like that in the context of, y’know, all the shite of recent times.
The oddness continued after the final whistle, with Norburn having to break up an incredibly silly bit of handbags between Fondop and Kavanagh. If it was about the free kick, then I can understand Kav being pissed off, but a) it was 20 minutes later and b) it could hardly have been a less appropriate time and place.
📸 Oldham Athletic
All of which made it hilarious that Fondop talked about the boys showing “strength, belief, togetherness” after the game, and Mellon praised the players for showing “a lot of togetherness and a lot of fight there today”. Ahahahahaha top bantz, lads. Mellon also had a wee pop at Fondop in his cozy little chat with Phil Brown: “with Michael, you kind of hope you know what you’re going to get…he’ll be disappointed that he hasn’t taken another one-on-one, Phil, because he’s good at missing them”.
It was, whatever the circumstances, a good result in the end. But all is clearly not well in the squad. Whatever is going on between Fondop and Kavanagh needs sorting out, because there’s potential for them to forge a good partnership up front. They don’t have to be best mates, they just need to be professional. Let’s face it, though, it isn’t just those two. It looks a lot like there’s a wider malaise, and it needs dealing with as a matter of urgency.
We were at Bury and missed all the fun. The weather was even worse than it was at Barnet, we had to queue for half an hour at the bar because Bury underestimated both how many supporters Cables would bring and how much Prescot people drink, and Cables lost 3-0. But at least I got to hear some slanderous songs about Neville Neville.
Neville Neville was found not guilty by a jury of his peers
Thank the never-ending fuck for our women’s team, who battered Winton Wanderers 8-1 on Sunday. Chelsea Cook opened the scoring five minutes in, and new signing Kayleigh Mack made it 2-0. Kady Powers’ long-range effort and two goals from Paige Stopford put us 5-0 up before half-time. Stopford secured the match ball with another two goals in the second half, and Melody Seagrave got the eighth with a superb free kick. We didn’t watch it because I was convinced that the game would be called off due to the weather. I’m sorry, girls. You are glorious fearless warriors and I am soft as shite.
📸 Oldham Athletic
Crawley are definitely going down and if we don’t beat them today, at home, then fold the club. Surely a perfect opportunity to get the resounding win that will restore peace, love and harmony to the squad? Even if we’re 4-0 up and Fondop’s on a hat-trick and we get a penalty that he’s been told in no uncertain terms to leave for Kavanagh? Fingers crossed. KTMFF.
Written by Arlene Finnigan
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