A hectic day of pitchside DJs, missed opportunity and very bad burgers
SITTING here now, I realise that this is the hardest article I’ve had to write for as long as I can remember.
It’s not that we lost at Wembley but I found the game past me by in a flash – 120 minutes of football and then 10 penalties, it seemed to be over so quickly, maybe it was that the occasion got to me!
My day started with a 4.30am alarm call, a Sunday sausage sarnie (a weekly tradition in our house) a quick shower before joining the queue for the Fingerpost Flyer and away at 7am, the exodus South was well underway.
We arrived and parked up in the Green Zone with what looked like 30+ coaches. The queue for the “Fan Zone” was far too long and Wembley Way was packed so it was straight into the home of English football.
On the five other occasions I’ve been there watching County I don’t ever remember being as disappointed as I was on Sunday. Match programmes costing £10, over-priced beer and one of the worst burgers (no pies) I’ve had all season, VAR and to cap it all, a pitch-side DJ.
As I said, much of the game passed me by in a whirl, but what I do recall is that without really putting the Carlisle keeper under too much pressure, we did have the majority of the game, certainly in the first half.
It might not have been pretty but we were in control and it wasn’t a surprise when we took the lead, Tanto Olaofe used his pace and shot, the slightest of deflections sending the ball high and into the net. The East End erupted and we ran out the half playing keep-ball.
We held on until the 84th minute, when Omari Patrick found himself unmarked and a simple tap-in restored parity.
I don’t want to be over-critical, after all this is our first season back in the league and I feel we’ve had a memorable season finishing fourth, but, we had two glorious chances to put the game beyond the Cumbrians:
1. Tanto wins the ball and breaks with Ryan Rydel and Calum Camps in acres of space, but he chose to run into the lone defender who won the ball back and cleared.
2. Jack Stretton did the same, saw glory and shot from distance when a simple pass, right or left would have seen us double our lead.
Hyper-critical, I know, but the difference is we’re still in League Two and after such highs it’s awful.
Next season will be a harder campaign, I don’t fear any of the teams relegated from League One, but Bradford, Notts County, Salford and the Wrexham Circus will all throw money at the challenge so we need to get off to a great start.
I’ll be there and I hope to see you all there too.
Roll on August.