Post by a more piratey game on Aug 20, 2016 18:10:24 GMT
I got there early and sat feeling the breeze blow through the stand. It was sunny, but not an easy day to defend or pick a cross. August always seems too early for competitive football to me, but as soon as the team came out the Gas struck up and we were all well up for it. Like the sunshine, the mood was brilliant, and the Gasheads gave Southend's miserable musical accompaniment an appropriate welcome, asking who the gentleman with the drum was
We were unchanged from 'in the week', and set up with 5-3-2, with Bodin out with tummy troubles and Macca, Rory, Broom, Monty and Jamma among others on the bench
Mildenhall came out in fetching peach, whereas their goalie was in offensive luminous pink, so I had us morally winning before a ball was even kicked. When it was kicked, we ran around 2 yards behind it for the first 25 minutes and, although they didn't really create many chances (one cross went just behind two unmarked strikers who would have had a tap-in), it felt like we were hanging on
Then we finally managed to keep calm and pick a few passes in an impressive move, and the team seemed to take confidence. Ellis was having a good game, particularly when he chased back and denied a header to their striker, though Browner seemed uncharacteristically out of sorts. Hartley was effective as a lump, though his distribution never looked much (although to be fair, that was true of many of the team)
Leds was a bit slow to get into the game, Lines was a bit all over the place (though not in a good way), and only Ollie C seemed to me to be able to put a foot on the ball (including one shot which required a very good save from their keeper
Though we probably shaded the last 15 minutes of the half, we were relieved to go in honours-even, and maybe to be playing the second half with the wind at our backs
It had been an interesting and nervy half, without much goalmouth action but with plenty of entertaining football. Sarfend stroked it around well in their pass-and-move style, but seemed to lack a cutting edge at the front - either on the ground or in the air. And I thought the Gasheads, when they piped up, were pretty deafening
The second half started with no changes, and it continued in the same vein with Rovers just about edging it. There was a big goal-mouth scramble at Rovers' end, which we couldn't see very well but we could feel the panic, and then Matty Taylor had a very good shot tipped over (invisibly, I thought) for a corner
The Gasheads were loud now, including an Abba song about Matty. It reminded me of my father's remark that 'Abba's music is surprisingly complicated and difficult to sing'
Lines stepped up and put the corner just outside the far post, where Hartley and another Rovers player were free to nod it about 4 feet down into the goal. Great stuff, right in front of us, and there was happiness all round
The Gasheads were in full flow, suggesting an appropriate place to insert the drum and singing the Peter Hartley song (I don't know who came up with it, but it seemed to me to have the stamp of the usual suspects all over it, and is no worse for that)
The game opened up. Jamma Easter came on, to put a foot on it and pick the killer pass through the holes opening up I thought, but he rarely got much chance as every time he got the ball (and it was often), he had a Southender up his jaxsie. Love You Rory came on too, and his first touch was a lovely bit of control before he chased down a hopeless ball and forced a corner, and Leds was starting to feature
It felt like either team could score when suddenly, out of nowhere, the ref gave them a penalty. Apparently Ellis had handled/had his hands up when a cross came in. I didn't see it, I didn't see the players appeal, and the Gasheads were so loud I didn't hear the Sarfend fans appeal (and apparently Darryl is fuming at the decision), but there it was
The converted the pen, and there were about 10 nervy minutes to play, when both teams could have got a winner. Rovers were denied a last-gasper when one of our players headed a corner goal-bound but into the back of another one, after which a scramble ensued, but both teams were probably a bit relieved to finish with a point
Their manager said on the radio afterwards that the penalty 'might have been harsh but he had his hands in the air'. My mate said that overall Rovers shaded it, but not necessarily by enough to justify a win, and I thought that bang on the money
I left pretty tired from the tension, but feeling that it had been an entertaining and gripping game of football, with a brilliant atmosphere among the away fans. Its still a good time to be a Gashead. In the crowd with the Jam - there's a joke there somewhere
