One of the benefits of following a football club is that you get to go to places that the ordinary tourst would never think about. Millions flock to Dublin. I doubt many of them make the way north of the city to the suburb of Drumcondra. But there we met with a number of SAFC supporters at a pub called Fagan’s (opposite the house of Bertie Ahern, the one time Taesioch(sp?) whose local it is). What a superb pub. One would expect to find excellent Guinness (although back down in Temple Bar it was crap) but it was simply a great pub. We were all crowded in the beer garden come smoking area (remember the smoking ban is already in place in Ireland) enjoying the warm summer afternoon. It’s a good life.
Earlier in the afternoon we had heard about Quinny taking over as (effectively acting) manager and that he was bringing in Saxton. I would have loved to get O’Neill or Allardyce but this strikes me as a really smart move. Quinny will look after the team well. But as and when the right man comes along, he can step aside and leave us in the best possible position. Saxton has proved his worth as a coach with us in the best period of our post Second World War history. A lot of us track the downfall of Reidy to his moving aside of Sacko and the promotion of that poison dwarf Heath. As with Qunny, as and when the right man comes along – presumably with his own coaching staff, Sacko will move along. We could of course have picked up the easiest chap who was just hanging around (doing a “Roeder” as I think it is known in footballing circles – although I don’t know the origin of the expression). However, one just has to start having nightmares about Hoddle or O’Leary to realise that this is a much smarter move. Thanks again Big Fella. We don’t know what we have done to deserve you – but we’re bloody grateful for what you are doing.
So as we walk along the main stand looking for s seat shortly before kick off, the sizeable number of SAFC supporters in the crowd are going mad. I know I am (quite rightly in my opinion) a popular chap but even I am surprised by the reception I am getting. I suddenly realise I am walking in front of Niall himself. In my Walter Mitty world I seamlessly switch from being Mr Popular to being Kevin Costner in that “I I I I I wiiill aaalways love you-ou-ou-ou” film in that crap film where he is bodyguard to that black singing actress lass, whee can’t sing and can’t act (regular readers may remember at Forest Green I was Tom Cruise – there is a pattern emerging here). Anyhow my fevered imagination had me protecting Niall. I realised that our lass (who was behind me and, unknown to her, immediately in front of Niall) was walking too slow and was impeding Niall – making him a sitting duck for any snipers in the opposite stand). It was this point that Sky Sports News decided to show as their news clip of Quinny going to his seat in the ground. I have had many text messages, phone calls and e-mails pointing out that it looks like I am accosting our lass. I think this is very unfair. I moved up to a step and it does look like I am roughly manhandling her (“slapping one’s bitch down” as I think it is known in modern culture). In fact I am simply doing my job as Kevin Costner and protecting Quinny from said snipers.
Niall and us took our seats. Actually we took ours and swayed worryingly forward. Surely I hadn’t drank that much Guinness? In fact our seats had come loose from the bolts attaching them at the back and one could swing backwards and forwards on them. Lord Taylor would be most perturbed (err, if he is still alive – and if the Taylor Report applied in Ireland, which it would if it wasn’t for that little kerfuffle back in the twenties).
I assume this was now our real team. Alnwick in goal again looked canny – came out and took some potentially dangerous high balls. He got some sloppy back passes in the first half, which seemed to knock his confidence and his kicking was a bit dodgy for a while but he pulled himself back together. Collins N and Caldwell in central defence. Caldwell looked good but I thought Collins N had a rather edgy game and I was a bit disappointed in him. McCartney at left back had a tidy enough game but got clattered by an awful challenge in the second half (really should have been a red) and limped off – I hope he can get back because we really want to see him firing again. In front of McCartney for a very short while was Welsh, who lasted only a couple of minutes. I didn’t even see what did him in but if he is also nacked we are looking very threadbare on the left with Arca off to Boro. Welsh was replaced by Delap, who despite being right footed adapted to the position well. Leadbitter again had an excellent game in my opinion, dominating central midfield with Whitehead alongside him. Lawrence on the right still seemed to get himself in a muddle more than I like. Up front we had Kyle and Murphy. Kyle really needs to start to click. I am giving him the benefit of the doubt that in the CCC he can get back to the form we saw in the play-off season but he is showing precious little sign of that at present. Murphy I think is the player in pre-season that has most impressed me. From being entirely neutral on him pre-Forest Green I think he has shown real maturity and movement. Can control the ball well and is aware of others around him. And he scores goals! Definitely moved himself from “will we ever bother playing him?” to strong contender as a starter I think.
Shelbourne gave us a good game. They took the game to us well and made all of our players work hard. We didn’t really shine in the first half but at least we got good practice of having to hold in defence. The downside of Shelbourne being really up for it was that some of their tackling went well beyond enthusiastic. McCartney and Welsh might well be knacked because of it and I imagine there were a few other sore legs around Tuesday morning.
Second half and early on we got a corner on the left. From it Murphy got a head to it, although it wasn’t clear to me that he knew precisely what was going on. Nevertheless they all count and that ability to get the ball to come off you and into the net is as important to a goalscorer as the 30 yard screamer that TV audiences love.
As with Rotherham the game was probably less useful to us than before as it dented Shelbourne’s morale a bit. Nevertheless it was useful for the lads having to hold a lead and keep a clean sheet against some rigorous physical pressure. Murphy went off and Elliott came on. I still love watching Elliott play. He seems to have such a low centre of gravity and I think he could really shine this coming season if he can stay fit (big “if” that mind given the season he has just had). He caused Shelbourne no end of problems as they couldn’t adjust their game to his very different style. With a bit more sharpness in his final shot he could easily have had a couple.
Late on a long diagonal ball came over from the right and Delap was in a good position to get the knock in. Nice to see him being prepared to move in to support the attack like that. If Welsh is done for I can imagine Delap keeping that left wing position (maybe even keeping Welsh out).
Towards the end Delap came over to the bench and indicated that Whitehead was losing it. He had had a very good view of the attempted de-legging of McCartney and was getting riled by the Shelbourne players’ tactics. He was replaced. Good common sense by Delap. While I sympathise with Deano, this will not be the last game where someone tries to knack one of our players. You just have to be able to keep a cool head.
So another victory. Another clean sheet. Not looking too bad at all at present. Until we start playing CCC teams it is hard to benchmark ourselves. However, most of these players have shown they can do it at this level. So, barring a disaster at Carlisle we head into the new campaign feeling pretty good. With Quinny at the helm we know we can expect passion and commitment. I have always said anyone can support SAFC in whatever way and as frequently (or otherwise) as they want. It is a personal decision. We welcome all our supporters. But surely if ever there was a time we really must all do what we can to support our club, this is it? Quinny owes us nothing but he is bending over backwards to make this club a success for us. All he asks in return is that we do whatever we can. This season, whenever you can, get to the match, home or away, and get behind the lads. This could be the start of something great – let’s do what we can to help Quinny ensure it is.