The Diary

12 September 2006: The Twin Towers, Swindon, Deepdale, Five Years On.

As per his oft-quoted thoughts on the subject, a week might well have been an enormously long time in politics for former Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson; in footballing terms, though, five whole years represents a fully completed and laid down geological rock-strata. Take tonight?s televised game, for example, the one between Reading and Man City, in which the home side just about squeaked a 1-0 win. (Also monstrously giggle-making to see their chairman, John Madjeski, resplendent in what looked suspiciously like a badly-fitted toupee to me, but who am I to mock, eh?).

Joking apart, though, precisely where were Reading just half a decade ago? Stuck well into the mucky morass of what was then the Second, that?s where (and playing City in a Division Two fixture not long after the Madjeski Stadium opened its doors to paying customers for the first time ever, eventually going down 3-1 to their very-much-fallen-from-grace Mancunian guests. I know that because we were there to get the ground in at the time!), and not destined to re-emerge until this planet had circled the Sun for a fair number of times more. Tell their supporters back then that within the time it normally takes for a child to progress from birth to school age, they?d be gracing Britain?s most prestigious football competition, and they?d have either jeered you out of existence, or approached the rozzers with a view towards getting you immediately taken off the streets then sectioned on the spot on grounds of irrevocable insanity. Even the bookies would have doubly laughed ? at you, and on their way to the bank, getting to exercise those chuckle-muscles at your expense twice in the process. Yep ? it sure is a funny old game, football.

As for ourselves, five years ago saw us busily embarking upon the first lap of what was to ultimately prove a historic nine months or so for everyone connected with the club. Let?s face it, after so many ?false dawns? and hopeful managerial expressions ? with distinct emphasis upon the ?hopeful? bit, of course, in some cases - that this would truly be ?our year?, Albion supporters would have had more than ample reason to round on those who habitually expressed them, then send them packing with a resoundingly-cynical chorus of ?Yeah, yeah?..? Just shows how much we knew, then, didn?t it?

Equally, I?d have defied anyone in their right mind to predict what happened in New York City that same day we played Swindon in what was then the Worthington Cup. It?s true what they say: as far as my generation is concerned, everyone and their cat remembers what they were doing the day President Kennedy met his Waterloo in Dallas ? I was visiting my big sister at the time, and despite my tender years, was shocked to the core when the Beeb?s ?Harry Secombe Show? was interrupted for the first newsflash - and the same goes for September the 11th. My personal introduction to the harrowing scenes relayed across the Atlantic came at around two that afternoon, while I was catching up on the Sunday supplements; as I did so, ?Im Indoors rang. Before I could get a word in edgeways, he said: ?Turn on the telly, quick ? we?ve just heard a plane has flown into a skyscraper in New York?.?

At that precise moment, my mind was still registering ?accident?. How come? Well, strange as it may seem, it wasn?t a unique occurrence. Back in early 1945, the Empire State Building was the scene of a similar mishap, the cause that time being a US Army Air Corps bomber that somehow badly misjudged its height and smashed into the top storeys of the famous building, killing quite a few in the process. All I could think of, when I turned on and tuned in, was that freak collision, and little more ? and nothing I can say now can accurately reproduce the sense of complete and utter shock I felt when realisation suddenly dawned that this wasn?t an accident at all ? and there were much more awful scenes still to come.

Should we have gone ahead with the game that night? A difficult call to make, that. Albion dispatched Swindon 2-0 with little trouble, goals from Scott Dobie and Jordao settling the issue, and in front of what was a quite respectable crowd (14,536) considering both the opposition, and a certain amount of post-disaster hysteria postulating other possible terrorist targets in this country, e.g. football grounds. Certainly, as we gathered in the Throstle Club that evening, the atmosphere was awfully subdued. Not for the only time that evening, a chill of sheer revulsion started its slow journey up and down my spine as we all reflected on the day?s horrific events.

In retrospect, I suspect quite a number of supporters were still suffering from a combination of shock and denial at the time. Better to carry on with the familiar things in life ? like supporting our favourite football team, even though there remained the strong possibility of Armageddon erupting around our ears while doing it. The same denying mindset that featured so strongly in the Neville Shute post-nuclear war novel ?On The Beach?, in fact. And in any case, not to have gone (or the game being called off in view of the circumstances) would have undoubtedly handed the psychological victory to Bin Laden and his mates on a plate ? total anathema as far as I was concerned. That was my personal view at that time, with others still remaining vehemently opposed ? and I can see the logic of their argument also. Maybe we should have called it off, if only out of respect for the dead. As for what the attacks on the Twin Towers and elsewhere led to militarily and otherwise over the course of the intervening period ? well, I guess you?ll be well able to figure out my thoughts on that little lot by now.

Back to the present, once more, and our forthcoming midweek tryst with Preston North End tomorrow night. Again, much water has travelled under the bridge since season 2001-02, when, by sheer coincidence, we also happened to play them at their place in midweek. February the 26th 2002 was the date, and the final score 1-0 ? to bloody Preston. I particularly remember that night for two reasons; first off, the awful injury to Jason Roberts that saw him well and truly out of the action for our final run-in, and secondly because of The Noise. Literally.

The lad?s ? erm ? ?noise-level? was nowhere near what it was, say, back in our Third Division days, by then, but when he really put his mind to it ? like our gloom-and-doom-ridden homeward run down the M6 post-final whistle, that night! ? he could still induce industrial deafness in the unwary quite easily. Talk-about ?machine-gun delivery?! Most of his decibel-laden spleen-venting concerned the injury to Roberts, and with that the rapidly-increasing likelihood of our promotion push ? strong, and getting stronger by the week, until then ? fading rapidly, with inevitable descent through the play-off places, then a bumpy landing among the ?also-rans? looking very much on the cards that night. And the strong probability also of seeing The Dingles nick it. We didn?t mind so much the thought of missing out on promotion ? it was the infuriating concept of them going up instead that really made us mad. (Just shows how good we were at the old ?prediction? business, wasn?t it? That was to be our final defeat anywhere that glorious season, of course, but we didn?t know that back then, did we?)

Since then, we?ve played them in the Cup ? our last ever meeting, if I remember correctly ? winning the game at their place quite easily. That was then, though ? this is now. Saturday?s victory over Leicester I regard as the equivalent of a lazy examination candidate revising only a few topics on the off-chance that some at least would miraculously come up on the day, then joyously finding on turning over the question paper that just about every question featured there neatly covers what small area of the curriculum he or she?s condescended to mug up on. Hartley?s jam applied in liberal quantities, in other words. As I said yesterday, what happened versus Leicester last weekend simply isn?t good enough. A draw or better would help get things back on track again.

As for team news, Steve Watson will be out again tomorrow ? and that?s a cert. A thigh problem, apparently, and picked up in training last Friday, according to the club website. This leaves a bit of a worry for Robbo, who is now down to just four defenders totally sound in both wind and limb: Albrechtsen, Perry, McShane and Paul Robinson. Our gaffer is now very much on the lookout for someone to bring in on loan, apparently. Also on the injury front, Joe Kamara is now back in full training, so it won?t be too long before we?ll have that additional option to call upon once more. Another mystery cleared up is why Houlty was on the bench this weekend as opposed to young Luke Steele; because the lad had made some errors while playing for the reserves, apparently, Houlty also getting the nod because of his relatively good showing in training of late.

One other thought ? after his excellent showing versus Leicester, during which he was unlucky indeed not to land on the scoresheet himself, our injury problems will now allow young Darren Carter an extended first team run. No-one was more delighted than me to see him get the MoM award on Saturday, if truth were known. He?s had more than his fair share of downright abuse, has Darren, over the course of the last two seasons ? some deserved, but a great deal more, not ? so more power to his elbow, say I.

As for North End, they?ll be missing David Nugent tomorrow night. Two yellow cards versus Cardiff last weekend saw him get an early bath, hence his enforced absence tomorrow evening. The lad Agyemang came off the bench to replace him, and on that showing, is expected to step straight into the breach, as it were. Among the Deepdale lame and halt are midfielder Brian O?Neill, rated ?doubtful?, with strikers Brett Ormerod and Neil Mellor reportedly totally out of the running.

Jason Koumas? Well, getting back to what Albion regard as ?full fitness?, apparently. Incidentally, on the Sunday just gone, while sampling both the glorious early-autumn sunshine and marvellously-photogenic resident animals at Sandwell Park Farm ? an absolute treasure to behold, stuck as we are in the grimy Black Country murk, and council-run, too, the best bit of business they?ve ever done, in my opinion ? I happened to run into a Baggies supporter who recognised us both, and during the course of the conversation, he just happened to advance a point of view I can readily identify with. The thought that in many ways, Jason Koumas?s personality is not all that dissimilar to that of former Hawthorns favourite Clive Clark aka ?Chippy?, of course. I?m not talking about playing skills here, mind ? even Koumas himself would probably acknowledge that, once supplied with a full run-down of all Clive?s achievements when with the Baggies ? more to do with what they were both about as people, mannerisms, etc. Well, all those veteran Baggies who had occasion to meet him either before/after matches or socially will probably understand, even if no-one else does!

A word about the ref detailed to run tomorrow?s Deepdale encounter, a Mr. Carl Boyeson. Not a familiar name to me, I have to say: must be one of the new bunch that came into the Football League while we were still enjoying a sybaritic Premiership lifestyle. An East Yorkshire man through and through, according to the Preston website, in the four games he?s officiated in thus far this season, he?s shown no less than ten yellow cards to various people, and one red ? to Burnley?s Wayne Thomas during their game versus Hartlepool. Clearly Not To Be Messed With? Ooer.

As ?Im Indoors isn?t going tomorrow night, and because he?ll have to leave for work early the morning after, I?m not heading north with Robbo?s Army for this one ? although I might well have done had he not been doing his bit for Queen and Country this week ? I?ve left it to The Fart to do my share of the necessary shouting and singing. But I will be getting to see some live football, though, at Edgar Street, where eleventh-placed Hereford host third-placed Wycombe in a Second Division encounter. Note the absence of the word ?Wanderers? in my last sentence, mind: although that?s about the only trait they happen to share with the Dark Side lurking just a few miles further up the A41, anyone silly enough to bear that title is to be constantly loathed, in my book ? nay, utterly vilified, even! So there.

And Finally?.. Oh, dear ? Im Indoors has just gone and done it again?? This time, it?s all to do with bedsheets, and his immediate declaration yesterday morning to the effect that he?d gone and changed them. A moment?s pause, on my part, then: ?Er, hang on a mo ? didn?t we change them BEFORE we went away for the week last Sunday morning?? Oh Lordy, is that the second sign within days of rapid descent down a distinctly-forgettable slippery slope? Where are The Satanic Nurses right when you really need ?em, eh?

And another thought?? Dot Lepkowka tells me that I?m not as ?out of the loop? as I?d previously thought! Apparently, brother Chris became a doting dad only last Thursday, so congratulations are even more in order, it would seem. Just one thought, though. Did Chris?s pride and joy emerge from Mum toting a note-pad and rapidly scribbling in shorthand, even as the midwife did her work, I wonder? Or, perish the thought, dictating copy to some editor or other via a miniaturised version of a mobile phone? I think we should be told.

 - Glynis Wright

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