Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

Went to the football up at Stevenage today. Was a glorious, crisp afternoon, blue skies and sunshine, but not so cold you froze to the marrow.

Ground was packed, as it usually is for the seasonal games and I didn't mind, because when there's a crowd, you keep fairly warm :D Stevenage were playing Leyton Orient and dear gods, were the away fans a mouthy bunch. Credit where credit's due, they were making a din even before their team took the lead with a 20 year curler - dunno the scorer but I bet he's getting drunk tonight :) In first half injury time, an Orient player was sent off, for what looked like an arm across the neck of a stevenage player - think a clothesline tackle in rugby or wrestling move. I'll have to see a replay to be sure but the Orient fans were NOT impressed, they spent a great deal of the rest of the game yelling "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!" at the ref :P

Second half, well....Stevenage had a lot of possession, I just don't remember them DOING anything with it. I'd be interested in seeing a shots on goal/shots on target stat for the game, because I'm convinced both were in low single figures :P And that was with 11 v. 10. If someone had just started watching the game in the second half, I doubt they'd have immediately realised Orient had one less player on the park, so inifectual was Stevenage's attack. They brought Luke Freeman on, the kid that's on loan from Arsenal. I LIKE him, he runs at defenders and terrifies them. But even he was having a muted day. If this had been New Year's Day, I'd have said the entire team was hungover.

Anyway, all hopes of salvaging anything vanished when the other Arsenal loanee, Chuks Aneke, got sent off about 5 minutes after coming on as a substitue. Straight red for, I think, lunging high for a 50/50 ball. Looked a lil' harsh but again, I'd have to see a replay to be sure. With the teams back on level terms, it seemed a forlorn hope that Stevenage could break Orient down. So forlorn, I left the game with 5 minutes to go, in order to beat the rush to the car park. Have to say, being able to leave inside 30 seconds, instead of sitting for 20 minutes in a seething mass of cars was a vast improvement :)

But it was a good game in some respects, it wasn't dull by any means, and I had a nice time out in the fresh air :)

Got home in time to see the Fulham v. Arsenal match, a game won by Fulham who stormed back into it in the second half. Cracking game and full credit to Fulham for coming back to win it.

And Leeds won yesterday, saints be praised. After getting thumped 4-0 by Barnsley at the weekend, it was a relief to see them scramble some points at home.