Only a cup game, but footballs back and I love it! Following a steady drive over, I did what all people should do upon arriving in Accrington….. had pie, peas and gravy.

As with previous visits, we headed to The Crown; there’s loads of pubs next to football grounds that thrive on the basis of being next to a football ground ~ but The Crown is a great pub….. clean, loads of staff, decent beers.

Our owners tend to divide opinion, anyone who’s read this blog regularly will possibly have got an inkling for my thoughts on the pair of, (alledged), clowns, (game of opinions as always). CM , to be fair doesn’t hide away and given the dynamic of a few those at games and Charlie being accessible – they’ll always be people who want to talk to him. “Talk to him…..”, is not really an accurate description, as after introductions…. it’s just like a corporate bollocks presentation by CM. Still he drinks pints eh? Anyway, both SD and CM will be long gone when we still care deeply for this club. (No facts there ~ just the opinions of a section of our support).

Beautiful evening and a nice stroll to the away end.

Anyone who was at the washed out game in December, will likely still have flashbacks……

Warm ups complete, the players retreat to the portakabins for a final team talk

Accrington is a great trip and we’ve never lost there, as always our fans were class. Although it did get me thinking as to the last time we had less than 1000 at an Away game??? (proper game, not Checkatrade, friendlies etc)

We played pretty well first half, although Accrington offered very little – I think, (and hope), their home form will see them survive; but I’m not convinced.

They equalise about 10 minutes into the 2nd half, a definite penalty, (perhaps could have been a red card on another day?), was comfortably slotted home.

So it’s 1-1 and we draw 1-1 quite a lot…… it’s decision time for SAFCBlog….

We look great last 25 minutes, McGeady shows his class with a fantastic goal, another decent goal in stoppage time seals the win.

Anyone who’s been to Accrington will know they have a stupid drum, in a surreal moment in stoppage time, a drumstick flies into our end from the walkway, (I.e. home fans leaving the ground). Surely won’t be too hard to find the culprit come Saturday????

Having had a simple journey over earlier in the day, it’s time to head home. Sat Nav is a really good invention and SAFCBlog is lucky enough to have a decent German car with a shit hot Sat Nav…. but sometimes Sat Nav just goes bonkers? There’s some pretty dark, (literally and metaphorically), places in that there Lancashire…..

In the next 3 minutes the following events occurred……

• We nearly wiped out a load of sheep who were sat in the road
• We passed a busy lay-by, and there were a lot of lights flashing us, (strange time for a picnic)
• We nearly ran over a man, who was stood at the gate of a field holding a carrier bag and showing an interest in the livestock at said gate, (can’t imagine his hard drive is a great place????)

In the past SAFCBlog has occasionally been liberal with its account of events…. but…. in a 3 minute period, all of these events 100% happened! I decided to keep my foot down rather than stop, although my travelling companion did make the effort to stick his head out of the window and shout BAA lots of times at the sheep.

Whilst that pretty much covers the game, I’d just like to offer a short comment on Will Grigg……

I’ve been critical in the past…….but…..

• 2 of the 3 subs acknowledged the fans as they left the pitch, (it’s a fucking long way on a Tuesday night Will)
• I don’t know if he’s fit, got personal issues etc….. but he looks like a man who doesn’t want to play football, (certainly not for us?) Danny Graham and Jozy Altidore both only managed to score one goal for us, but I never criticised either as they both put a shift in, it just didn’t work out for them.
• Lots say there’s no service to him? Well in 13 minutes Charlie won headers, ran his arse off, showed heart, showed desire, scored a good goal, nearly scored a second goal…….. In 69 minutes Grigg had a few nice lay offs and waved his arms around a bit.

The key moment of the evening for me was after about 85 minutes…. at 2-1, McNulty hassles their centre half to rush a pass out to the left back, McGeady is right on him, forcing him to make an arse of it and we have a throw in an attacking area. Complimented by our quality, this type of intensity, passion, effort etc can get us out of this league.

Momentum is everything in football.

Amended prediction for Saturday vs Pompey is a 3-1.

FTM