Am I dreaming or is it a Saturday Game at home and 3pm
A tricky Cup tie was successfully negotiated at Forest Green in the most inhospitable circumstances. The Vegan world that is the New Lawn in Nailsworth where the visiting fan can find no Bovril or milk produced from a cow is no place for a real football fan.
I presume the grass seed was marketed as something like a heathy snack because there was certainly no sign of any being laid on the pitch, 10 days ago the match was called off because the pitch was flooded. Yet here we were in the middle of January playing on a dust bowl.
In spite of all this, and the setback of an 8th minute wonder goal we managed to navigate through to the 4th round. Wholesale changes were not made and the clever manipulation of the squad meant people who needed a run out got one and all the major players got time on the pitch.
Big mention to Kevin Long who on Saturday had an unfortunate debut. The Cup tie saw him with that shaky start well out of his legs and topped a good show with the winning goal. Jukey who was the only player in the first half to show anything danced through the ” seed-eaters “ defence and slotted home the equalizer.
The moment of the game was Neil Ethridge’s triple save which probability was our match winner. A 25 yarder followed by a shot from 6 yards and finally a block on the line. Neil was literally on death’s door not so long ago has taken a long time to get back to his best. I doubt that save will ever be bettered.
So to Blackburn and hopefully they can let the Blues fans have a reasonable allocation of tickets (5-7000?). Time to revive the FA Cup which has had too many games played before half empty grounds and with reserve players.
Saturday sees Preston in town. We managed 3 points at Deepdale and have an opportunity to complete a first double. This something which Blues have failed to do repeatedly over the last few seasons. A first Saturday home game since the Queen passed is a sad statistic in many ways. The run of defeats is broken so lets see it through, We are looking behind us again at the moment, but one win will change all that.
‘Personally it’s the first time I have been able to get train tickets to see the game for months. Here’s to the RMT and a Blues win.
THE TILTON TALK SHOW
Is Back 6.30 Monday 23rd January
Just off to match but l am not forgetting the next two home games are evening kicks offs on cold February nights.l for one are really angry at the number of evening kick offs we have endured this season which l think was totally unnecessary.Hope to get result today but it is going to be tricky.
It’s getting Zolaesque.😔