Amazing Away Support
Today I was up at 6:30 as I was travelling up to Scotland……ah
no, I’m going to London on the train and want to sneak in a cheeky pub
breakfast.
A full breakfast for me, a fuller breakfast for Steve and a
posh breakfast for Eloise (pancakes, bacon and maple syrup )
A splendid start to the day.
We jostled for position on Poole platform and stormed onto
the train securing one of the tables. Unfortunately 3 women were equally
focussed and baggsie’d the other adjoining table.
This was problematic for me as I was unsure just how gauche
it was going to look for me to open my first can of beer with them so close –
this was quickly put aside as they ordered wine from the buffet trolley –
result.
After a brief tube scare where the doors had to be held open
for Eloise (her own personal fear) we found our way to the Red Lion in
Leytonstone. If only I had a real reason to go to the pub….
Of course, it's warm inside....
We tried various speciality beers and after Matt’s posh
lunch (see picture below) we headed off to the ground.
not a football lunch
We still had time for a stop off for the scariest ginger
bread men on earth but it was time to think of the football
Scary gingerbread men
...but very tasty....
It was as hilarious as I’d remembered with flats in each
corner of the ground and a hopeless set up of food and toilets – surely today
was the day we put our “blip” to rest
No
No it wasn’t
Despite a bright AFCB start with O’Kane’s swing and a miss
from inside the box and a good couple of Ritchie crosses, Orient looked
resolute in defence and more than useful going forward with Cox given way too
much time on the ball despite even the crowd knowing that he was the O’s danger
man.
On 23 minutes I wrote the following 3 words–
Jalal fu****g distribution
I’m not sure whether this was the time when he delivered yet
another pinpoint pass to Francis’ throat (brilliant) or whether it was the
pigeon on the roof he stunned but it was there to remind me again to ask why he
was being selected ahead of James, let alone Allsop
This was further emphasised 4 minutes later as an aimless
Orient ball was pumped into the area. Inexplicably, instead of walking (yes I
do mean walking) 8 feet to pick it up, he walked 4 feet, stopped, walked 4 feet
back and was a mere spectator as the O’s attacker caught up with the ball,
crossed it to an unmarked colleague who side footed it home.
Oh my God!!!
AFCB then had 2 penalty claims turned down in 2 minutes –
the first from a Seaborne header that appeared to be handled on the line (too
harsh) and the second from a bouncing ball that struck a hand (seemed less
harsh) but neither were given and the
half ended 1-0
The second half started badly as an Orient long ball was skilfully
headed on by O’Kane into the path of their attacker who ran on and slotted past
Jalal – 2-0
Pitman was brought into the game and I’ve not been a fan of
his as I’ve felt he lacked team spirit and a work ethic. But not today. Today
he put the rest to shame
When I think back at the number of tackles or headers that
were pulled out of by AFCB players in general, and McQuoid in particular,
Pitman, unbelievably, was a breath of fresh air.
Whether it was the indignity of being benched or the fact
that other less skilful players had much more colourful boots than he who knows,
but today he fought, jumped and battled
It was he who on 66 minutes waved to O’Kane to show him
exactly where he wanted the ball and upon a perfect delivery despatched the
ball with a glorious left foot volley to
bring the score back to 2-1
It was at this point that we truly believed that we could
get something out of the game – but we just stopped. No challenges won, no
headers won, we were simply second best to a well organised Orient.
This was confirmed on 78 minutes as Ritchie was turned
inside out and the pass found Lisbie. He put down his gin and tonic, wiped his
mouth from his cheese and pickle sandwich, finished his book (war and peace)
and side footed home
All over – 3-1
Summary – We have no confidence in the back – Elphick and
Daniels are huge losses and Jalal is just not commanding enough to control the
defence. We bottled every tackle/header/challenge and for every cross we made
into the box we had zero attackers to take advantage. What has happened to
Grabban? Awful first touch, poor second – just looks knackered. Unless we can
find a formation where crosses convert to goals we are not going to make
play-offs, let alone promotion
Star Man – Josh Whitehouse – An AFCB junior Cherry who goes
home and away and quite frankly deserves better than he was served today
Addendum – While I do like a good sing song – I’ve not been
quite as embarrassed as I was when trapped on a tube with AFCB fans singing “we
shit where we want”. I did understand
more when the song continued in the Waterloo toilets, but did think that surely
that’s shitting where THEY want….. :-)
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