Silly me – what was I thinking? I missed the first part of MoTD in the evening and the subtitles didn’t say we were coming up.
So I assumed that I had missed our game – but of course we were in our rightful place – at the end of the programme. So I set my alarm for next morning and watched it again – well, alright, not Manure though, as for the first time in many years I wanted them to win. And we had all of six minutes – more than we had on most of the Championship programmes last season.
Was it a good result? Depending if you are a half-full or half-empty person. The pessimist (aka wrist-slasher) would say it was two points lost, that Birmingham and Wigan lost which was expected against the Premiership Top table.
The optimist (aka deluded or stoned) would say Reading lost, so did the Mackems but we didn’t lose. And let’s be reasonable about this – Blackburn, Bolton and Portsmouth were all in the Premiership Central league last season. Central league? Yes - you know - those teams with no hope of ever winning the Premiership but have hopes of getting into Europe and shouldn’t be thinking about relegation.
Those doomsayers however will be complaining that our team isn’t good enough – of course it isn’t. But look at our team compared to two years ago on the same weekend when we lost 3-1 to Leeds (ah memories…). The team was: Camp, Kenna, M Johnson, Davies, Whittingham, Bisgaard, Fadiga, S Johnson, Smith, John, Peschisolido. Subs: Bolder, Holdsworth, Tudgay, El Hamdaoui, Poole (gk).
Or even last year’s team? When we beat Southend 3-0 – this was the team: Grant, Edworthy, Moore, M Johnson, Camara, Bisgaard, Oakley, Malcolm, Bolder, Lupoli, Howard. Subs: Smith, S Johnson, Nyatanga, Jackson, Boertien.
Would you expect either team to get a point against Bolton? No way. At least our team now has a chance. Two years ago, an international break was mostly a rest week for us, if we were lucky we had one or two Under 21s on international duty. This season, how many did we have going away? One? Five? We have seven recognised internationals now. Okay, most of them are for Scotland, not a top side - but at least, they get to play with and against some of the best players in the world and that’s always a valuable learning experience.
No disrespect to last year’s team but the quality is going up – Miller, Barnes, Pearson, Jones, Davis, Mears are all better players. The optimist will say that we will keep picking points up and we will get a few more in January and we may just make it. The pessimist will counter with the view that there aren’t enough and the Board are too tight to pay through the nose for more international players.
There’s merit in both viewpoints, but for me, for my inner happiness, I prefer to be half-full and am looking forward to going to Reading.