AS I SEEN IT
RUNNING MONKEY gets wound up again
This game will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. We had a perfectly respected two minutes silence before the game -apart from the turnstiles clicking all the way through it. Memo to chairman on the way.
We were treated to a march on by representatives from the armed services. It was a very fine sunny day, a bit like an August first game of the season, A poor turn out but nice to be amongst friends again - all 2744, including the travelling fans. The thick and thin regulars, not the whingeing cheap jack smart a*** that bellow from the kick off at every Pools player that kicks the ball.
Sadly this turned out to be a war to end all wars between the fans and the referee. I know we should not blame the ref for our shortcomings but to fall for the three-card trick on Stevenage’s first attack was unforgiveable. Flinders dived full length for a ball that was being carried wide anyway and did catch a trailing ankle, which the attacker turned into a triple salko with pike and won his team a very dubious penalty. Aussie had already taken the ball and another pools player was on the line so it was not a last man and a scoring chance situation. OK a penalty maybe in the ref’s eyes who must have twenty twenty vision because I was closer than he was to the play. Now I am not an expert on footy rules but how many times have we seen a penalty given and not even a yellow card shown? Once again the footy rules that say a team should be punished twice for an incident like this need to be changed. Why should we be deprived of any player let alone a goalkeeper for eighty-eight minutes of a first round cup-tie to a dubious decision?
To rewind a bit, our troubles started at training the day before when three players were ruled out injured: Sam Collins, Brownie, and Nish. Brownie, according to the night Mail was raring to go in this one, and of the three my guess is he was the one so sadly missed yesterday. Young Andy Rafferty came in to replace Ned at the expense of Horwood who you have to feel sorry for. Rafferty could do little to stop a well-taken penalty. From then on it was backs to the wall stuff as they targeted Richie down our left side with cross after cross raining in on Raffertys goal. The lad did good, and apart from one punch that went astray handled him self very well indeed throughout the game.
"Flinders dived full length for a ball that was being carried wide anyway and did catch a trailing ankle, which the attacker turned into a triple salko with pike and won his team a very dubious penalty."On the day all you ask for is a good clean entertaining game of footy and to have a win at the end is a bonus. What we do not need is a ref who was so biased against the home side on fifty fifty decisions I had to ask the question did he travel here on the visitors coach. I only ask because later in the game he did all but carry one of their subs off the pitch to save him the effort. OK I will not moan about another ref this season as long as I can do it here. He was probably the worst I have seen and even excusing the sending off I would never want him here at the Vic again, although records say he has done the same thing to us away from home too.
After a very tough first half playing a man short I welcomed the half time whistle just to ease the tension in my mate Ken who was warned by a steward that if he persisted on roaming up and down the town end with his Mr Angry from Ditchburn face on "it will be out the gate for you sonny boy". I can understand Ken’s frustration, which was not helped by our performance, which for the first half was desperate defending and a single header from Monky that went over the bar.
Pools did try to turn it around in the second half but the extra man made all the difference, I am not a believer in this theory that it is harder to play against ten men - give me eleven against ten every week. You have to feel sorry for Poole who ran his legs off, but was literally marked out of the game by the extra defender. There were cheers of derision when the ref actually gave us the odd free kick, but always in the middle of the park where it would cause no grief to the Stevenage team. You have to put your hands up and say they used the advantage very well. They were quick on the counter attack and played it to a fine line with the ref on the little niggly tackles and blocks, something we as a team need to learn. Apart from a header from Hartley and a couple of chances from Monky - one another powder-puff header from two yards, straight at the keeper's midriff, and a long range effort from around the edge of the box that hit the bar, and that was the end of our F.A. Cup experience for this season.
Pools did try to turn it around in the second half but the extra man made all the difference, I am not a believer in this theory that it is harder to play against ten men - give me eleven against ten every week. You have to feel sorry for Poole who ran his legs off, but was literally marked out of the game by the extra defender. There were cheers of derision when the ref actually gave us the odd free kick, but always in the middle of the park where it would cause no grief to the Stevenage team. You have to put your hands up and say they used the advantage very well. They were quick on the counter attack and played it to a fine line with the ref on the little niggly tackles and blocks, something we as a team need to learn. Apart from a header from Hartley and a couple of chances from Monky - one another powder-puff header from two yards, straight at the keeper's midriff, and a long range effort from around the edge of the box that hit the bar, and that was the end of our F.A. Cup experience for this season.
Ps. I spoke to a lady at the reception today as we collected our team sheets and as we perused the team she said ‘that’s good Nish is out’ I said to her "Would you like to write for the bizz?" she said "Yes but it will get me into too much trouble". I thanked Mrs Hodcroft for her input and went off to the terrace to stake my claim.