The Diary

28 February 2006: The Race For The Drop Begins

A bit of a belated start tonight, as ?Im Indoors decided to watch Hereford do battle with Stevenage live on the box, and when that happens, our cats all do the sensible thing, and shift upstairs as fast as their furry leetle bodies will allow. Over the years, they, too, have learned ? usually the hard way ? that when my other half watches live football in which he has something of a vested interest, their tranquil and peaceful existence can come to an abrupt halt very quickly ? and so it was to prove tonight: I generally watch too, if only to ensure that raw emotions don?t get the better of my other half when witnessing such encounters! The final score, a 2-0 win for The Bulls, was a deserved one, achieved in the face of some pretty nasty skulduggery from the visiting side.

As Stevenage were responsible for dumping Hereford out of the play-offs the other season, there?s quite a bit of bad blood between the two sides, even now. For that, I still blame the referee, whose overall control and mastery of that game was on something of a par with someone supervising a Sunday league game on a parks pitch. No, belay that ? a Sunday league referee would have done considerably better. As for their present crew, imagine, if you will, Warnock?s Sheffield United side of three or four seasons ago, but in slightly more dilute form, and that?ll give you some idea of the hostile spirit in which tonight?s game was conducted. During the course of the first half alone, the visitors conceded 16 fouls, compared to only four on the part of the Bulls. Come the second, not only did they amass lots more fouls, and yellow cards, one of their number also saw red.

While the game was still but young, and noticing the ref?s marked reluctance to stamp on some pretty nasty tackles from Stevenage, I forecast that the visitors would be very lucky indeed to finish the game with eleven men, and so it proved. Come the 70th minute, their lad Gregory finally earned ?early bath? status, having already been booked for some previous act of minor thuggery or other, but by that time, it didn?t matter terribly. Hereford were already two to the good, thanks to delightful strikes by Andy Williams, from a free-kick, just before the break, and a neat bit of opportunism early in the second half by Fleetwood, Hereford?s other youthful striker, who rounded his defender with some aplomb, then fired into the net from about six or seven yards out to make it a fully-deserved two.

There was also very much of an Albion connection involved, with Tam Mkandawire giving his all at the back, as per usual, and later in the game still, on came Danny Carey-Bertram, from the bench. Probably too late for him to make any sort of impact on the proceedings, but playing his part, nevertheless. Returning to Tam once more, assuming that The Bulls dip in their quest for League status again, I can?t see them managing to hold on to the former Baggies lad. He really is way too good for the Conference; in fact what surprised me more was the fact no other League club came in for him when he was declared surplus to Albion?s requirements. Their loss was most certainly Hereford?s gain. The other Albion input came, of course, from Tucka Trewick, Hereford?s man on the sidelines, Number Two to former Dingle Graham Turner.

That win now puts the cider slurpers second in the Conference table, with something of a gap opening up just below for the first time this campaign. It?s probably too late to catch the leaders, Accrington, who now look well and truly bound for the Football League, but just like we did with The Dingles back in 2001-02, you still keep nibbling at them in the faint hope they?ll eventually crack, and spectacularly so, preferably. As we saw, sometimes it actually works. Oh, and by the way, don?t fall for any of this ? back in the League after being chucked out of it in 1962? guff occasionally put out by the media, it?s dead wrong ? and they should know better. The Accrington Stanley you see performing today are nothing whatsoever to do with the mob that got their marching orders when I was ten. It?s a similar thing to what The Dingles did back in the mid-eighties: their real title is ?Accrington Stanley FC (1968)? They only got going as an active concern in the 1970-71 season, when a crowd of some 620 brave souls saw them do Lancashire Combination battle with Formby. Even their current ground has nothing whatsoever to do with the old side ? so there!

Enough of the Conference ? and just the frenzied way my other half was whooping and hollering when the ref finally blew his whistle was more than enough to make both myself and the cats instantaneously retreat to a ?better ?ole? ? and back to the serial troubles of being a Premiership club, and a struggling one, at that. As I said last night, Sauce bled my ears pretty badly on our return, and after listening to his various laments, I could certainly see the point of what he was banging on about. The crux of his argument was that we were rapidly running out of road ? true ? and by looking at those remaining fixtures a bit more closely, he was really hard put to find us games where we could have a confident expectation of grabbing all three points ? in fact, even inclining towards generosity, the most he could predict was just six ? nowhere near enough.

We also have to assume that barring a disaster of unimaginable proportions out there, those clubs above us are going to squirm their way out of trouble, and Pompey won?t get out of the bottom three, which will then leave a straight two-cornered fight between ourselves and Blues for the last relegation place. Agreed, Blues also have a mountain to climb ? in fact, their remaining fixtures read remarkably like ours ? but of the two sides, I know which I?d much prefer to invest serious money on them escaping the drop. I had also anticipated us needing at least a further five wins or forty points to get out of trouble. Now it?s down to both Blues and ourselves, it could well be that the forty point thing simply won?t apply, and whoever survives does so with far less on their plate than you would have reasonably expected.

Let?s look at the next month, then. On March 4th, we kick off early, and Chelski are the opponents, so no change there, I reckon. Just getting the draw would be a major achievement, never mind all three points. Blues? They travel to Boro: in view of what happened to us yesterday, I really can?t see them getting off very lightly there. I?m willing to bet March the 11th will ultimately prove the cruncher, though ? Blues play us at their place, of course, and it could well be whoever loses that one says bye-bye to the Prem. Come the 18th, we host Man United, still chasing a Champions League place, while our Small Heath chums play their last in a group of three home games, this one versus Spurs, who also have similar ambitions to United. Come the 26th, Blues go to Old Trafford, while we play Spurs on Monday night ? at Tottingham. It?s on the box, you see. As I said, it?s pretty close ? you try and pick the bones out of that lot, because, try as I might, I can only see us grabbing three or four points, max, come the end of the month. Blues? I think they?ll weather the storm far better than we can.

Back to yesterday, and now the dust?s well and truly settled, the way I see it, the principal agent of our downfall was the lack of a striker sufficiently experienced to turn half-chances, of which we had more than our fair share, into genuine goals. It?s all very well to have loads more of the play than the opposition, but unless you can translate that superiority into palpable strikes, then you?re stuffed even before you start. It?s games such as that which make me regret bitterly us passing up the chance to grab a decent front-man during the January transfer window. Even a half-decent Nationwide chappie acutely feeling the hunger to better himself might have done. It now looks as though we?re going to pay dearly for our tardiness in that department ? so who should rightly carry the can for that one, I wonder? Robson? Jeremy Peace? The board as a whole? We supporters, for chanting such nasty things whenever everything starts to go pear-shaped for us? All answers on a postcard to the usual address.

Meanwhile, while Rome burns, our manager, in ture Nero style, steadfastly maintains that both Aston Villa and Middlesbrough can still be dragged into the equation. And, despite convincing evidence to the contrary, he also maintains that it is not simply down to a battle between him and Steve Bruce?s lot to avoid the final relegation place. "We've been in a worse position last season to where we are now," he said, "As long as you can keep it to six points, the teams around are still in the fight.? Do you buy that? I sure as hell don?t. It?s between us and Blues, no-one else, and it?s most certainly going to end in tears for one or the other come the end of the season.

And the news gets even better ? assuming you?re a Blues supporter, of course. The word on the streets is that our erring chum Nigel Quashie is not going to appeal against that Sabbath dismissal, but since yesterday, even more dismal news has emerged from the Albion camp. While in the process of leaving the pitch, the lad also gave the fourth official a huge chunk of his mind, which means a possible disrepute charge and the strong likelihood the eventual ban could be even longer still. The figure quoted before that particular Nastygram hit my PC was four games max: now, we could be quite easily looking at five. Maybe more, if our chums at the FA get out of bed on the wrong side that day. Do these people genuinely leave their brains in the dressing-room when they venture out of the players? tunnel, or is that just a vicious rumour calculated to spread alarm and despondency, I wonder? Whichever way you want to look at it, if Nigel Quashie had brains, he?d be bloody dangerous right now.

But enough, enough. My back?s playing up once more, so I?ll love you and leave you. Back again next Friday night, when I look at Saturday?s early encounter with Chelsea. Get some points from that one? Do I look as though I?m on drugs, or something?

And finally?.. Sorry to keep banging on about that Dubai thing again, but word has now reached my capacious ears as to what really did happen out there. ?No names, no pack-drill?: that?s my motto, but I can categorically assure you, my source is a reliable one. Sadly, because of the nature of the info, I can?t reveal either the source, or who was really responsible for what happened that night, but from what I?ve been told about it, the incident wasn?t perpetrated maliciously at all, and the person responsible ? I was absolutely astonished when told who it was! - truly mortified when that fire extinguisher went off inadvertently.

Despite media assertions to the contrary, it didn?t "wreck the hotel", it just involved the wetting of a bit of carpet and a nearby wall. It sounds very much to me as though the extinguisher was one of the type you have to invert, hit a knob, (doing that releases dilute acid into bicarb solution), then open the nozzle to get it going. It works by producing lots of water laced with carbon dioxide gas, the pressure of which forces the stuff out of the nozzle onto the fire, and you?ll find ?em in offices everywhere. In actual fact, a few years back, I inadvertently ended up setting one off myself ? all I did to do that was accidentally knock it over. If it?s the same type as the one I?m talking about, it really is that easy to get one squirting in all directions. Oh, and one other final thought. You can take my word for it the above info?s genuine ? so can we all now stop getting onto our moral high horse about what happened, and start doing what we?re best at, supporting our football club in its hour of need? Thank you ? and good night.

 - Glynis Wright

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