Just 540 minutes from Wembley
FA Cup time again and once more, my brain is just not working. The FA Cup starts in January doesn’t it… not any more. Northampton away in the 2nd Round and a chance to be in the draw with all the teams we’ve got used to playing over the last few years. We of course, played Northampton in the Carling Cup back in August and won easily enough. Would today be any different?
The team had a few changes to report with Trotman banned, James rested, Davis injured last Tuesday and worryingly, Connolly out with a groin injury. It’s worrying because he’s missed the last two seasons with…. a groin injury. Chris Perry, Paul Wotton and Papa Waigo came into the breach and the formation changed to 4-5-1.
Away we go and Northampton are the first to show with Saints not putting anything together at all. I’m in the car on my way to the cinema at Ocean Village with my nearest and dearest and they are making far too much noise for someone who wants to listen to the radio. Actually, the bits of commentary I do manage to hear are making me think that the babble of children is more interesting.
It all sounds very flat with even the usually enthusiastic Merrington finding little to cheer. He gets all animated about a penalty shout for Northampton when Harding needlessly shoved someone in the back but as we all know, penalty shouts that are not given don’t matter a toss when they’re not given against us.
3.45 and we’re all in place in the cinema and the ‘Please switch off your mobile phone’ screen comes on, just as mine beeps at me, 1-0 Waigo… here we go, here we go, here we go, I want to do the Waigo dance but I think my kids might kill me if they are treated to dad dancing in a populated cinema. Beep beep, 2-0 Lallana. Look back a few weeks and I was having a pop at Lallana and his lack of heading ability and guess what’s just happened… a close range header. I bet it came off his ear or his nose. “2-0 to Saints, half time” I say to no one in particular. “Get in” says a random bloke behind me who I have never met in my life before. I switch the phone off… do I bollocks... I switch the phone to silent.
A good half hour passes before anything football related crosses my mind. Personally I think that the game was over as soon as the half time whistle went but I am twitching a bit when it’s a vibrate, vibrate in the pocket (stop it!!!!). Have you ever tried getting a phone out of your jeans pocket when you’re sat down ? I suffered the obligatory, wrist crush injury but managed to get the phone out and it’s worth it, Hammond 3-0 from yet another close range header.
Ten minutes later and it’s vibrate, vibrate, 3-1 Hammond (o.g.). Nice one Deano. I wonder if it rivals the Trotman own goal at Orient.
Final Score North 2 South 3… where did their 2nd goal come from…. Ah, who cares. 93rd minute penalty apparently, probably a sympathy decision I thought.
Whilst it’s annoying that yet again we haven’t managed to keep a clean sheet, it doesn’t seem to matter today. Job done and through to the next round without going to a replay. Pards agrees with me in his summing up and the world is a happy place, well this end of the M27 is anyway. The Skates have lost 4-1 to Man Utd and are still bottom of the league… which brings me onto the obvious topic of conversation for all Saints fans tonight… who do we want in the next round ?
Again, I’m with Pards when he says that if he could choose he’d take a winnable match at home. I personally have no interest in playing Man Utd or Chelsea after last years game against the Reds. OK, we’d give it a much better go with this team but it’s one of the only matches in 34 years of watching Saints when I was in the ground and wished I wasn’t and at the end of the day, we got dicked 3-0 by their reserve side playing at half pace. If we’re going to play a big club then give me Arsenal away as we’ve never been to the Emirates and I’d love to see a tussle of midfield skills between Fabregas, Arshavin, Walcott, Nasri, Rosicky and Wotton. It’d be like watching Peter Kay in that advert where they’re all playing keep-uppy and he just wellies it three miles.
I would not want to play the Skates, mainly because they’d get a load of cash from the sell-out crowd, especially if it was at SMS. I’d like them to get Hull at home and a) lose and b) lose in front of 6000 fans. Gate receipts from that wouldn’t even pay Storrie’s Bill from the Inland Revenue. Also, deep down I think they’d probably still be too strong for us and I would hate for there to be any interruption in their season of total misery.
I feel that for the Saints, today was just something to get through. It was a novelty playing in the first round and it was a tougher game away at Bristol Rovers, but this match was more of a hindrance than anything to get excited about (and my sketchy blog of the match itself probably illustrates this). It is worth giving the opinion though, that if this had been played last year, we would have lost.. The magic of the FA Cup can come back at full power for the 3rd Round, whoever we get and wherever we get them.
The draw is on Sunday and we’ve got……………….. <> Rotherham or Luton Town at home. Gotta be happy with that...
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