7 games to go, 15 points neededOK, 8 games to go and I think we are now down to the nuts of the season. As pivotal weeks go, this one is pretty bloody pivotal, oh yes. We have Leyton Orient away today and Rochdale away on Tuesday who are 7th and 8th respectively in the current league table and I would think that 4 points from those two games would be a major step on the way to getting an automatic spot.
So, off to Brisbane Road or the Snooker Loopy Stadium as it is now known to play in the shadow of the new Olympic Stadium, soon to be the home of West Ham and putting Leyton Orient’s future at risk, if you believe Barry Hearn, which I do. Unfortunately for Barry and Leyton Orient, no one will have given the slightest shit about them when any decision was made. Good luck to him in whatever he wants to achieve with his protest.
The injury worries from the last game have eased slightly with Lallana being fit for the bench though there is no sign of Stephens, Schneiderlin or Chamberlain. There is also no sign of Frazer Richardson, not even on the bench which one can only assume, is down to injury. Chappers comes back in for Stephens and Harding comes in for Lallana with Dicko pushed into midfield. Butters returns at right back and we’re all still N’Guessen where Dany is. Orient are usually mentioned regarding having drawn with Arsenal earlier in the season and getting a trip to Las Vegas as a reward. They have Russell Slade as manager who was Brighton’s manager before Gus Poyet. Bet Brighton prefer what they’ve got now… The referee today is Mark Clattenberg who is reffing his first game after stress leave. He was the ref who decided that Wayne Rooney elbowing a Wigan player in the head was a 'normal coming together' of players.
Saints start well and Dickson is soon flying down the wing from his new and advanced left of diamond position and he gets brought crashing down with a tackle that would have earned a booking had the game been more than 4 minutes ol. The free kick is a bit wide but fear not, Sir Rickie does not recognize’ too wide’ or ‘too far out’ and fizzes a free kick just wide of the far post with Jones the keeper, not very close to it. Following on from that, Orient produce a wonderful move down the left involving Cox (little shit), Tehoue (just shit) and Dawson which ends with Smith getting in front of Fonte to bundle in the cross, only to be given offside. Marginal – I think is the word but we’ll take it.
As we often find, many teams deal with our strength up front and on the wings by adopting a less than subtle approach. Barrett obviously skipped the day in class when they were teaching ‘standing up’ as he decided the best course of action to take when Barnard received a throw in with his back to goal was to smash into the back of him. Another free kick and this time far too wide, so Sir Rickie chipped in for Fonte to smash a free header straight at the keeper when he really should of scored. The reason I know he really should of scored was because Dave Merrington told me so fifteen times in the next five minutes.
Dave only shut up when something significant happened and that significant something was Dickson fastening onto a pass from the Gulyman and setting off down the wing. When he was blocked by the full back, he checked out before managing to somehow (dopey defending) whip a cross over to the near post where it dropped in between the centre backs for Sir Rickie to steal in and thump home a header. Superb cross, dream ball for a centre forward.
Saints continued to look the more likely for the rest of the first half with the best chance falling to Sir Rickie who stabbed over after a flap from Jones at a Harding cross. Orient and Smith had the ball in our net again from close range (6 inches) only to be denied again by the flag which many an Orient fan were threatening to stick up the linesmans arse. It was one of those funny one’s where the keeper was out further than the attacker in question so there has to be two defenders to play him onside and though you could argue that Fonte is a four man defence on his own, the ref wasn’t having any of it. Half time and 1-0 up and Peterborough were winning at Huddersfield by the same score.
Orient start the second half the better and the best effort is an overhead hooked volley by 45 year old McGleish which is tipped over the Superkelv who must have been surprised that a man with a zimmer frame managed to get it goalbound from there. The Radio Solent boys are talking shite as usual but in amongst this is the observation that we are very narrow in midfield and it’s not really offering much defensive cover on the flanks. Nigel however, thinks its time to address a completely different problem and on comes Oscar the Ninja for the Gulyman. On the face of it, it looks like a defensive move until you realise that Ninja has gone to play in the hole behind Sir Rickie and Barney.
Two more subs are made in the next few minutes as Seaborne comes on for Harding and Aaron Martin comes on for Butterfield after the latter picked up a knock and a yellow card when hoofing an Orient player up in the air. These substitutions give us that thing of footballing beauty, a back 4 made up entirely of centre backs, the shortest of which is probably Fonte at 6 foot 2ish.
It is Fonte however who dribbles out of defence with 2 minutes to go and instead of belting it into Row Z and getting back, plays a lovely ball over the top of the left back to Sir Rickie who pays a first time ball across the top of the penalty area to where Barnard steams onto it for a nice sidefoot finish. Superb goal and points in the bag. Barnard has a little goad at the Orient fans behind the goal, no doubt provoked by a shoddy loan spell he had there once.
Orient’s day is summed up when they manage to fashion another chance, only for Dawson to see his shot bounce off the inside of the post and straight to Davis. You have to laugh, don’t you …
Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Have it, up to 2nd we go. Fabulous win given the importance of the game and it’s added to even more by both Huddersfield and Peterborough dropping points. Love it, Love it, Love it. Also worth mentioning is that we won without Adam Lallana being required to play. Bournemouth took advantage of us beating one of their nearest rivals for a playoff spot by ….. oh, hang on a minute, they shagged it up and lost at home to Tranmere.
Nigel the Bus Driver was in full flow in his interview and repeated what he has said after every game for the past couple of months about our support being fantastic and the motivating powers of it. I have to say, the support sounded magnificent and when you can provide 50% of the gate for an away game, it really must make a difference. Leyton Orient manager, Russell the Buddha opined that they were the better side and deserved to win. I can’t say because I wasn’t there but he’s entitled to his delusion.
Rochdale on Tuesday night and we all remember the abysmal performance we put in against them at SMS when we lost 2-0. If additional motivation were needed then this should provide it – again, I’d take a point but I back the boys to go and get all 3 again.
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