I’ve been a bit quiet on here for a while as am on the 12th day of a 17 day, twice cancelled and rearranged due to covid, holiday in Tobago. It was quite a feat to get here, to be honest, and my first proper holiday in four years, so have been making the most of it and generally staying offline. I didn’t even follow the Sunderland game, but had to tune in today on iFollow, legitimately for once with no VPN needed! I had a few Stags (the local beer far superior to the overly sweet and more popular abroad Carib) around the pool and tuned in to the Priestfield action. I got a bit carried away watching the match and national and knocked back the leftover beers from yesterday, about half a dozen or so and forgot that it’s only just gone 1pm here, but have sent my wife out for some more! Anyway, as Partridge would say - “lovely story”, but the match…
The first half was rank and untidy. We continued our messy recent performances, but being fairly tight at the back. Wycombe are a very similar team to us who largely pump everything long and are even more physical and dirty than us. They have maybe 2 or 3 players better than us, such as the forward who scored, the keeper etc., but other than that they had no quality and clearly don’t have a good squad as Hanlan started (he’d be nowhere near the squad of any of the other playoff and promotion chasers). For much of the season, I’ve said that there’s a huge gulf between the bottom and top of our league, but I think Wycombe probably disprove that to an extent. I have respect for them and their manager for over achieving and outgunning teams with bigger budgets, but to be fair Plymouth and Rotherham have too and do it in a lot more attractive style. It shows with good management on and off of the pitch, you can challenge for promotion in this division with or without style - we’ve now achieved the former and hopefully can uptick the latter soon, ideally under the current owner, if he finds that long awaited and elusive backing.
Sorry, off on a tangent again anyway, Wycombe edged a poor first half and the first 60 or 70 mins really and showed just that touch more quality when it mattered in the final third, albeit that their general play was poor and scruffy, just like us And I am struggling to remember a good chance they created beyond the goal, although Chapman looked tidy again but didn’t have a lot to do - ditto their good keeper.
There was one reason we got momentum in the last 20 minutes and that was an awful referee, who gave us absolutely nothing - even the ultra mild mannered NH slated him at the end of the game and rightly so. I think everyone in the ground and viewing from afar realised that, apart from Peter ‘I can see why he’s give it’ Lloyd. Even though the ref had no choice but to send their man off for a two footed leg breaker. Personally, I’d argue that the foul second before on Thompson was just as bad and a red card and at least a yellow, but ignored by the ref. Thompson was again hacked down from behind in injury time with an awful foul which could have been a red card on another day, but not even awarded a yellow card. Oliver on the other hand was cautioned for being persistently fouled which culminated with him being sandwich by their two donkey centre backs with the result of him being booked. There was a clear handball from a Thompson cross (I saw the replay - arm by the guy‘s side but from a long distance from cross to contact and he had time to move his arm out of the way which he didn’t and in today‘s directive that is a pen). There were shouts that we had one that crossed the line from an Oliver dink (he may have done better). From iFollow (even the replay) I can’t comment whether it crossed the line, but I had no doubt it would not be given regardless.
However, biased officials and coming up against a clear thuggish side brought the best out in our crowd and fortress Priestfield and surged us on to a draw which we at the very least deserved and could have easily won in the end. Had we had a better squad, we‘d have brought on better players and won that - sadly, Reeves and DP doth butter no parsnips for me and, TBF I would rather have had an Akinfenwa or Hanalan to bring on. Poor home crowd again, under 5000 but good noise and passion at the end - awful away following of 500 for a promotion chasing team on a nice day and not a long journey at all.
All in, I’d have taken a point before, but with a fairer referee and a bit more quality, we’d have won that, but we’re in a good position now, given where we were when NH took over. Pompey and the Chuckle Brothers in the last two matches will be very very hard. We must be looking to sew things up v Cheltenham away and Fleetwood at home - we must go for two wins, 4 points minimum. That may well be enough.
