And…..THEY’RE OFF!!!!!!!
Welcome back into my life football. My friend, my strength, my infatuation and, of course, my eternal frustration! Weekends are inconsequential without you football my darling. The big kick off symbolises a return to midnight (or 1am) kick offs before retiring to bed usually accompanied by liberal doses of fatigue and deflation. It’s August, time to start all over again.
Every game has it’s own story. The story behind our 1-1 draw at Reading is a tale of Stoke City’s two dropped points. The match started with a familiar look as we defended deeply and struggled to impose ourselves on the game. For all Reading’s possession they rarely threatened to unlock us and as the first half wore on we were increasingly comfortable. After half an hour we started to carry the game forward and we quickly found the ultimate reward. The ball dropped in the box to Michael Kightly who tried a shot. Fortuitously, Reading keeper Federeci completely misjudged the scuffed effort and the ball bobbled guiltily into the net. Fortunate or not it was great to be ahead away from home and fantastic that Kightly could mark his debut with a goal. For over an hour it seemed likely to be the winning goal. Until the 89th minute we defended our lead in comfort and controlled the game. We put pressure on Reading and while we didn’t create much we still looked more likely to add a second goal than Reading were to equalise. Then came that fateful 89th minute. We were caught out at the back and Dean Whitehead’s lunge resulted in the penalty that provided Reading their escape route to retrieve an unlikely draw. As a result we got one point from a match we should have won comfortably. The very simple lesson to be learnt is that if you fail to finish games off whilst on top in them you’ll be vulnerable to sucker punches. Reflecting on the entire game we really have nobody to blame but ourselves for those two dropped points. And that is the story of Reading v Stoke City.
As an aside it was pleasing to see Robert Huth start the game and compete as vigorously as ever. Less than a fortnight ago our very own Berlin Wall was in hospital with a serious illness. It’s just so frustrating that we couldn’t mark his rapid recovery with a clean sheet and three points.
Our next challenge arrives in the shape of Arsenal. Last season’s game was marred by tasteless chants regarding the Shawcross Ramsey incident. That incident occured two and a half years ago. It’d be a refreshing change if everybody dropped the vitriol so that terrible moment can be well and truly confined to history. There are some aspects of football that are truly awful and that was horrible for all concerned. It’d be a refreshing change if everybody just let it go and concentrate on supporting their team. Please, no more.
The London Olympics contained many special moments. For many football supporters the most poignant moment was Sepp Blatter being roundly booed before the womens gold medal match. Despite the hostility Sepp generates he clings on to his prestigious role like grim death. Only last week his bruised battered organisation announced further investigations into the activities of disgraced ex official Mohamed bin Hammam. This is merely shooting fish in a barrel hoping it’ll deflect from other more relevant discrepancies. For the good of the game Blatter and his sycophantic cronies should be dragged from the trough and replaced as soon as possible.
As the cliche states it’s early days for Brendan Rogers at Liverpool. Even bearing that in mind few could argue that the 0-3 defeat at WBA was an horrendous start to his reign. While at Swansea, many were impressed by his teams style of play and the confidence they showed in their first top glight season. To receive similar plaudits at Anfield he’ll need some resilience to accompany panache. At The Hawthorns his team waved the white flag as soon as the ref waved the red card. It looks as if some of their players are too comfortable. A huge clearout is required. It’ll be a long painful process but the powers that be must be prepared to give the manager time fulfill his vision.