The waiting was over and the first game was here and there was plenty about our line-up to give us cause for concern. No worries in goal though where Kelvin Davis had decided to stay with Saints despite being offered a bench warming contract at West Ham. The defence looked strong as well with Graeme Murty having signed on a free transfer at the age of 43, Chris Perry still going strong at 48, Wayne Thomas astoundingly actually passing a fitness test and another new freebie, Dan Harding who I knew little about. So far so good.
Midfield…. Oh dear. Two wingers who have never played in those positions with Lloyd James on the right and Adam Lallana on the left, augmented by Paul Wotton, the worlds slowest man (by the time he makes the tackle, TV are usually showing the action replay) and Morgan Schneiderlin, a 19 year old French whizz-kid who in his first season with us had provided no whizz at all.
Up front we had want-away striker Marek Saganowski – a strange player who obviously has ability but at times, has problems applying it and Matt Paterson, another kid whose career highlight to date was booting a Man Utd player and getting sent off. The subs bench – a good indicator of the strength or otherwise of your squad – consisted of seven players with an average age of about 13 and a half.
So plenty to worry about there and now to the other tradional first game worry. I took my normal seat in the Kingsland and wondered who would be sitting around us…. Will the incredibly irritating bloke and his mate (Dumb and Dumber) still be sat directly behind you ? Will there be a 30-stone salad dodger in the seat next to you ? Will the girl with the enormous personalititties be sat anywhere in sight? The one thing that you can guarantee in the Kingsland is that the people round you will be old. As it turned out, I’m 40 and the youngest by far, my dad is 64 and the next youngest. The ancient bloke who was next to me last year is missing, presumed dead. He is replaced by a sprightly youngster of about 70. All in all it is what I expected and it is five minutes to kick off and Dumb and Dumber haven’t turned up yet…. But there are two empty seats. Oh joy, here they are.
Last year I ignored him all season aside from one incident. I remember it because it was particularly rare in that it involved us scoring a goal. We scored via a scuffed shot and a deflection etc but it went in and we all went mad except for Mr Dumb who looked sad and whined that ‘it wasn’t a very good goal’. I got Tourettes at that point. So anyway, he’s back and I have vowed to not put up with it this year…. The first load of BS is getting both barrels.
Away we go and the mighty SFC are looking ok. It’s a physical game and Millwall look a half decent side but we are competing well and trying to play when we get the chance. Talking of chances…. There aren’t many until Schneiderlin tries to chip the keeper from 45 yards who backpedals like a madman and shovels it over the bar. It is altogether different from last year in that we have a defence and they are all playing well. Murty is a bit of a pie man but a good player, Perry reads the game brilliantly, Thomas provides the grunt and gets stuck in winning tackles and headers and Harding is very very solid. I like what I see. Half time, 0-0, quite happy.
10 mins into the 2nd half and we take the lead, a throw in, a bit of head tennis and Matt Paterson scores his first goal at SMS. He looks as surprised as we all do and runs to the crowd like a man who has not been practising goal celebrations in the mirror. After jumping up and down for a minute I listen in to Dumb and Dumber who are moaning about not expecting it. Jeezus. Sadly, the celebrating Kingsland Standers around me had not had time to pop their artificial hips back into place before we conceded a penalty when the ref decided that two half fouls equalled a full foul. Tv replays proved ‘inconclusive’, which means they proved he was totally fucking wrong. Never mind, up cam the Millwall right back and Super Kelvin saved it… and the rebound. Buoyed by the reprieve, we switched off and failed to clear two successive corners, more head tennis, goal, 1-1. Bugger.
The rest of the game was exciting without being real ‘edge of the seat’ stuff and I personally never felt that either side was going to score. We utilised our strong bench as three subs came on brought the average age of the team down to about 15 and on about 80 minutes, the traditional very annoying Kingsland exit started where you have to stand up as a continual stream of walking frames go past.
Overall, I’m quite happy and would have taken a draw beforehand. Millwall lost the playoff final last year so it’s safe to assume they’ll be one of the better teams in League 1 this year. The team looked promising and there were some decent performances from quite a few (Schneiderlin being the pick of the bunch I feel) and the team shape looks good which again is a symptom of having a competent manager as opposed to a moron.
We are now on Minus 9 – it’s a start.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_2/8192333.stm
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