Trivial matter that brought light into our lives
AND there you have it. That’s all she wrote for the maddest season we’re ever going to see, or not see, at The Crown
Ground.
The final couple of weeks have ended with a whimper as our run through March and April cost us any play-off excitement, but it’s been nothing but a magnificent year for us.
The club has managed to achieve it’s highest finish since returning to the football league and that can only be deemed as a success. Coleman and
Co have proved themselves to be the masters of fighting above their station and gathered the most talented group of players we have seen so far.
The likes of Russell, Uwakwe, Butcher, Burgess have been superb for us and it’s a real shame we probably won’t see the loan players do their thing in person.
Don’t even get me started on Nathan Baxter, seen by many of the team as the best Keeper they have ever played with, I can only imagine how well he would have gone down in with The Clayton End faithful.
Next season will now prove a further test of what we are up to, both on the field and off it. I can see our front two attracting attention from the bigger clubs in the division, if not, Championship sides willing to take a punt.
If that happens we have an almost 40 goal hole to fill, daunting to say the least.
I don’t think any of us could have imagined how well those two would play this season, and all the best to them if they do choose to move on.
Holt says we’re no longer a selling club, I feel like with a new clubhouse to build and training ground we might just be for a little while longer, although he won’t care to admit it.
Throughout this season, this team has provided us with ups and downs, the likes of which we’ve very rarely seen as fans of
Accrington Stanley.
From beating the top teams when it’s mattered to being beaten by seven goals, from scoring six in the February snow to losing 10 players to injury in March: it has been remarkable to be part of the journey.
Covid-19 has ravaged through our community and we will be feeling the repercussions for some time. People we normally share the terrace with have all lost friends and loved ones. The lads who do your head in standing at the bar because they think Coleman can’t make a substitute have experienced fear, anxiety, and uncertainty in every aspect of their lives.
Our town has lost jobs, had countless sleepless nights and the past 15 months as a whole have brought us closer than ever to breaking point.
Not just in Accrington, but throughout the county and beyond.
Throughout this time, the team have been wonderful. Football has seemed trivial, and of course, in the grand scheme of things, it is.
But, it has also shone through doing what it does best, providing escapism for all of us every Saturday afternoon and most Tuesday evenings. It was never going to be the same, but it’s been about as good as we could have hoped.
We’ve now gone through a full 12-month period without seeing each other, laughing, drinking, hugging and singing as we cheer on the team.
As we approach the end of what has been a quite unique season, I hope that we can always remember just what it is that we missed in 2020-21, and ensure that we never take it for granted again.
Thank you for reading my take every week, see you all in August. Up the Reds.