Opponent : Home to Plymouth Argyle

Date : 28/02/09

Result : L 1 - 0

Game :

Report :

 Saturday 28^th February 2009 October KO 3.00pm

 What a shocker – we conceded a goal after just 38 seconds! A long ball into our half was being cleared up field by Craddock when it hit Foley and went out for a throw-in a lot closer to our goal than intended, from the throw the ball was allowed to bounce in the box, and in the hesitation, PA reacted quicker with their striker scoring with an overhead kick. After this, I thought we would go for the jugular and attack them with flowing football like we did for the first 30 minutes against Cardiff. Alas, no – the play was lethargic and PA were creating the better openings.  

The ref, as usual, was a plonker. He gave them a free kick for a ‘knee-d’ pass back by Berrea – doesn’t he know the rules? Then he changed his mind, and caused confusion for everybody with what he was doing, including wanting to have a drop ball re-start. He also overruled the linesman who awarded us a throw-in and gave it to PA, and despite all the general time wasting by them, he added just 1 minute additional time! He wasted more time than this with his idiocy over the pass-back!  

In truth we didn’t really create any clear chances, and you could not have picked a man of the match from the first half performance.  

Half Time: WWFC 0 – Plymouth Argyle 0 

In the second half the ref was still a plonker. We should have had a blatant penalty when Kyle Reid was pushed in the box, but you just knew that this ref was not going to give us anything. We played better in the 2^nd half – only because we couldn’t have got much worse. We did manage to get the ball in the net, but there was a foul on the keeper before it was knocked in. When Iwelumo came on he was winning headers in the air, and we had our best spell when the crowd (25,710 – supplemented by the ‘Family 4 Forty Quid’ offer) really got behind the team. Probably the best chance we created was the one that fell to SEB, who hit his shot from inside the box over the bar.  - As usual McCarthy left it very late to bring on the last 2 substitutes (Vokes and Friend) hardly giving them a chance to influence the game, and at the end there were a lot of downbeat players with their head in their hands.  

Full-Time: WWFC 0 – Plymouth Argyle 1 

At the final whistle (and not before) there was a chorus of boo’s from some sections of the crowd, and MM (or his replacement if we are to go the way of Chelsea) needs to do something to get us back to winning ways straightaway – not least because there are only 11 games left - but also because I am going to the next match away to Crystal Palace. As one chap said to me, we would all have taken being top of the league at the end of February, at the start of the season, but now that we are well and truly into the ‘business end’ or ‘squeaky bum’ time of the season, we need to knuckle down and grind out a lot of wins. In looking forward, I note that Reading have 8 away games from their remaining 13 matches, whilst Birmingham have 6 away and 6 home from their remaining 12 games. These two also play each other in the last game of the season at Reading, and we still have to go Birmingham as well. Although we have had a very bad patch, we are still top of the league, and God willing, will be come the end of the season.  

Keep the faith!