i'd typed up this entry yesterday, but we were having site issues of course, but i think it's still pretty relevant :-
Well, I am naturally very grateful to Kerry and co. for making alternative arrangements for us, following my missing tickets saga, so I could see the game with my lad today. Naturally he enjoyed it as much as me.
Unfortunately, it did mean being surrounded by rovers fans and, although we were in the "club officials/directors guest box" area of the west stand, the surrounding rovers fans definitely didn’t like me being there !! every time i opened my mouth, someone or other told me to f**k off and it wasn't as if i was being in any way disrespectful, just the occasional shout, and cheering the goals, along with the TUFC staff who were there too. Maybe i was just a little more animated, but i am a fan, i can't just switch it off. you'd think those gas fans over that side, would know there would be "away fans/staff" there every week, but there you go. Some bearded weirdo rovers fan said after the game he would “f**kin’ whack meâ€Â, but as it took him four attempts for me to understand him, and when I did finally hear him and laughed at him, he just turned around and walked out. A rather bizarre end to the game, and all I was doing at that point was applauding our players off the pitch.
Would have loved to have been in the tent as planned, and despite the excellent support and noise coming from the blackthorn stand to my left, I could hear and see the yellow army doing us proud at the other end. Well done to all of you. Good to see some of you in the Wellington pre-match. Cracking cider on tap by the way ! Loved the t-shirts too Thomas.
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Thanks Dave/forevertufc, for the TQ1 programe from last week, much appreciated.
Anyway, the football. Rovers will play worse than that and win games, they have a lot of quality, but in my opinion, resorted to the long high ball far too much, probably more in desperation, but Saah and Robbo handled it well.
Nico was excellent, and Robbo had Harrold in his pocket, again. only my opinion, as i noticed elsewhere it was mentioned that Harrold was in charge, but i was fairly close to that action 2nd half, and although harrold did get the ball down or knock it on a few times, his only successful contribution was his flick off the chest for the goal. other than that, he was just as guilty of shirt pulling and holding on as Robbo, and Robbo definitely won the overall battle. in the end, harrold resorted to falling to the ground, and no ref is going to give them every time.
from a rovers point of view, on ex-tufc players, Bevan played as well as i've ever seen him play - was there any banter with him 2nd half, it sounded as if there was a little ?? I thought Stanley was poor, one very late deliberate challenge on Eunan which he should've been booked, but didn't contribute much more. Muzzy was really bad 1st half, but once oastler got booked he looked dangerous until he got subbed. and Zebba, pfft, one chance, totally ballsed it up, nuff said.
i thought our boys looked very solid, havnig heard a few horror stories about the ball over the top, and bad communication, i thought we looked pretty tight yesterday. Bobby did well, and communication was reasonably good, but could be more vocal, but i'm sure that will come as he gets more confident and settles in more. defence in general were all good. i thought Oastler was good, but i was a bit concerned when he got booked, but buckle sorted out that problem for us. the other 3 were immense. midfield, we didn't offer much out wide, although credit to Danny, he worked hard, and looked pretty good at times. Morris showed promise, and also worked pretty hard. Manse was fantastic, the central midfield player that buckle wasted, did everything. O'Kane i don't think was at his best, but even so, looked so comfortable in a busy midfield, but did get caught on the ball a few times, but seems to have a new found confidence and is always looking to influence the game. and the strikers worked very hard, and deserved their goals. Subs, each contributed to the cause without any fireworks. all in all, a good solid performance, created a lot, against a good side and a very noisy home atmosphere.
I've already touched on this, but clearly Bucks still hasn’t learnt yet, as in 2nd half Carayol looked very dangerous (dreadful in first half mind), especially when Oastler got booked – and then he took Muzzy off !! I don’t miss that particular brand of tactical genius !!
I think some rovers fans have been a bit unfair, yes they might feel they did enough to get something from the game, but the save that bevan pulled off early in the second half when it was still 2-0, looked a fantastic save from where I was sat. Had that gone in, it would’ve been game over, and we still had other chances after that, so it certainly wasn’t as one sided as some gas fans would have you believe.
Anyway, well done again to everyone there yesterday, the yellow army were awesome. I’ve seen many highs and lows over the years, but today will go down as one of the most satisfying results in recent times. Nothing against rovers, their staff and supporters were great (apart from the aforementioned beardie weirdie). some would today was all about TUFC v Buckle, some would say it was just a game of football between 2 good sides, either way, TUFC won, and that'll do for me
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