Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

Stevenage 4 Southend 2

What a game!! *bounces* THAT'S the reason I go to 23 home games a season, and why I put up with being cold, wet, occasionally bored, angry and frustrated. Games like this make it all worth while!

We took the lead in the first half and played pretty well, but I thought Southend were always dangerous. Proved it in the second half where in the first 20 minutes they scored 2 goals to take the lead. I'm going to have to see the penalty they got again because I'm not convinced it was (I thought the ball was long out of play and it was more of a collision than a tackle but I didn't have a great view.) At that point, most of us were shaking our heads glumly and I don't think anyone thought we looked capable of clawing a goal back.

And then the boss made some substations, key amongst them bringing on our wonderkid, Ben Kennedy. This boy is going to be special, you read it here first! (Although EVERYONE is saying it, I'm not the first!) He signed his first professional contract only last week so to say he's young and inexperienced is an understatement. However when you're young and talented you know no fear and he doesn't give a monkey's, he just gets stuck in and terrifies defenders. He won a penalty about five minutes after he came on, which was calmly slotted home by our skipper to make the score 2-2. And then he scored a beauty to give us the lead and set up the 4th to seal the win! In between all that, he had to be hauled out of an argument with a 6'2" large central defender before he got booked. Full of beans this one! We loves him :)

Anyway, the entire ground was rocking and even though there was a sudden intense hailstorm as we left the ground, no-one cared :D

And even before I went to the game, I was a happy, squeaking football fan, as I got to see Leeds beat Middlesborough on TV! Woo hoo!

Damn, I love my football!

It's that time of year when I start yelling things like "OH TACKLE HIM YOU PATHETIC PRAWN!!" and Rob the Furball files complaints with the RSPCA. Currently watching Scotland v. England, mostly between my fingers. Not a pretty game at all. Currently England have a very slender lead that I'm not confident they can keep.

In other sports related news, I was so out of the loop during the week, I only just found out that Leeds Utd have sacked their manager, Simon Grayson. It's ridiculous. He actually had a winning record with the club and we're only just off the play off places. There's talk that Neil Warnock will be hired. Oh dear gods NO! I HATE him! It's true he's one of the best Championship managers out there but I still don't like him. I want a guy who can get us out of the Championship and do well in the Premiership and that's NOT Warnock. Blech.

I'm home! Really pushed it on the drive up from Cornwall and made it to Heathrow in just over 4 hours. Dropped Jenni off at 2pm for her 4.45 flight, so she had plenty of time. Took me an hour to get home but there were no traffic snarl ups so that was good.

Leeds got promoted!! Woo hoo! We were 1-0 down at halftime and playing with 10 men and I was all "ARGH!" but we came back to win 2-1 and secured the second automatic promotion spot! Go us!! *celebrates*

Just caught up on Dr Who as I missed "Flesh and Stone" last week. Not bad, not bad at all. The Angels still freak me the feck out though :P Now I must scamper for some food before tonight's episode comes on. I do predict I'll nap before I settle in for the Football League Show later :D

Oh and despite the reports of more ash disruption, Jenni's just texted me to say that although her flight was delayed an hour, they're now taking off and she's on her way. Hurrah!! :)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/8433901.stm

LEEDS BEAT MAN UTD!!!!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!



Back home, safe and sound after a fabulous trip to Cornwall. halcyon_shift and doccy are wonderful hosts and I had a lovely time :) Full write up tomorrow when I'm not flailing over the football and recuperating from the trip home :)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/leeds_united/7794419.stm

I'm sorry he's lost his job before Christmas but really, I'm a little surprised they waited this long. I've never rated him as a manager and so far, his track record seems to bear me out.

Oh well, let's see who our new manager will be...

I'm watching Histon v. Leeds. I've been to Histon, it's a small village north of Cambridge (I think my friend Mel still lives there). So you can appreciate the football ground and, more importantly the pitch, is, umm, basic. And it's pelting with rain. In fact it's so bad, the TV company covering the game keep having to switch camera views to give the main cameraman time to wipe the water off the lens so we can actually SEE what's going on. These are exactly the sort of conditions that see big clubs get knocked out of the FA Cup *bites nails* I'm actually kinda praying they have to give up due to a waterlogged pitch, which is looking feasible at the moment *watches what would normally be a pin point pass stall in a spray of water....*

ETA: ARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! *foot-stamping, remote-throwing, door-slamming, swearword-screaming, white-hot rage temper tantrum*

Histon 1 Leeds 0

Fucking useless overpaid bunch of incompetent FUCKWITS. We got beaten by a goal from a fuckin' postman who probably earns less in a year than one of our fuckwits gets paid in a week. It couldn't fucking happen in a Disney movie. Our striker missed THREE GOLDEN CHANCES and he couldn't even get the fucking ball on target! I could do better than that! A blind man with only one leg could do better than that! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!

Leeds 0 Doncaster 1

League One football for us again next season.

FUCKIT!

Wow, what a rollercoaster day.

Not for me, specifically, because I don't support any of the teams involved, but no football fan worth his or her salt wouldn't have been affected by today.

It's the final day of the Premiership season. The winners have been sorted out, today's games would work out who was going to be relegated. It was complex. West Ham had to travel to Manchester Utd and get at least 1 point to be safe. Sheffield Utd were playing Wigan; a draw for Sheffield Utd would be enough to save them and condemn Wigan. Wigan, however, of all the three clubs, absolutely positively had to win to stay up.

Final Scores:-

Manchester Utd 0 West Ham Utd 1

Sheffield Utd 1 Wigan 2

Dear gods, it was almost too painful to watch. I refused to watch the West Ham game, in case I jinxed it, so I watched the other match instead. Wigan were leading 2-1 after having taken the lead with a (deserved) penalty, but had had a man sent off and had to survive the last 20 mins plus 5 mins extra time with only ten men. Sheffield Utd saw two shots bounce agonisingly off the woodwork, denying them the draw they needed. It was frantic stuff, Sheffield threw everything but the kitchen sink at Wigan but somehow, on a boggy pitch, with tired, aching limbs, Wigan hung on.

I'm really pleased for Wigan, because they're my kind of fighting team and I'm so pleased for West Ham. I am gutted for Sheffield Utd and their fans. As a supporter, I've been there 3 times in my lifetime and it's bad enough to be relegated when it's a done deal a week or more in advance, but to lose it on the last game of the season, that's a heart breaker.

I'm a wreck now. I need tea. Condolences to all those who have been relegated this week. Congrats to the lucky bastards who've stayed up. Bring it on in August.

ETA: I forgot to mention but last week Leeds Utd went into administration with debts of £35 million. They were promptly re-purchased by a new company headed by our current chairman, Ken Bates and are now working out a financial package to ensure survival. They should be ok. However, we were docked 10 points by the FA so ended up bottom of the Championship table. The good bit is it means we won't start next season with negative points. Hey, I'm taking the good news where I can find it when it comes to Leeds Utd right now :P

Crap.

From www.bbc.co.uk:-

"It is still mathematically possible for Leeds to stay up, but they would need to win their last game by at least eight goals, and for Hull to lose."

And apparently there was a pitch invasion during the game, after Ipswich scored the late equaliser, so that'll mean more trouble. We could start next season with a points deduction and a massive fine.

About all we can hope for is that the financial situation is stable enough now that relegation won't mean going into receivership. Gods, if people ran public limited companies as incompetently as Leeds were being run a few years back, they'd be sued. I would desperately, desperately like to get hold of the chumps who were in charge five years ago and smack them about with a baseball bat.

Bah.

I'm consoling myself by watching Rob the Furball play with his new plague rat like the overgrown kitten that he is :D Thank you, sallyinwales! He loves it as much as the first one :) Cat lovers, go check the plague rats out at http://www.sallypointer.com :)

I don't think I can bear to look at the football results today. If Leeds don't win and Hull do, we're relegated to League One and I will be an upset Mitchy. Seriously, don't even mention football to me for at least a week. If we draw and Hull win, it's not official that we're relegated but we'd need ridiculous amounts of luck not to be. If we win and and Hull win, then it goes down to the final game next week when we'll need them to lose and us to win to be sure.

*bites nails up to elbows*

UPDATE: We drew, Hull won....I'm waiting for confirmation but I think we need a very unlikely combination of results and goals scored for/against to stay up now :(

F*** :,(