Victims of man's frustration

Ugh. Writing about 0-0 draws is fucking shit. I don’t blame you if you want to sack off reading this and doomscroll Twitter instead.

The starting line-up v Barrow made a bit more sense than the one at Notts County. Pett was back in, albeit playing wide, and was captain as expected. Apparently, he didn’t start at Meadow Lane because he’s carrying an ankle injury, which made playing him in the Vertu trophy all the more inexplicable.

We were on top from the start and had a good few chances first half. Wyll Stanway (Georgia’s brother, and what kind of Olde English way is that to spell Will?) fumbled Ogle’s cross into the box, it fell to Hannant, but he blazed it over the bar. Hannant had a decent shot after the referee played a good advantage when Woods was fouled outside the box, but it was deflected wide for a corner. Loads of shots, never quite looked like scoring.

The familiar story continued in the second half, as we increasingly dominated the game without making it count. We should have taken the lead from a free kick early on – Mellon’s shot across goal hit the post, and Quigley’s shot from the rebound was cleared from not far off the line. It was clearly going to be one of those days. Well, nights. Stupid tea time kick off.

📸 Phill Smith

Barrow had a few chances, with Harper’s header from a corner going not far over. We were by far the better team, though, but just weren’t sharp enough up front. Mellon jnr made a great run into the box, and his shot from a lovely ball threaded through by Pett was just wide. Caprice came on for Ogle and had a couple of shots that were also just off target.

72 minutes in, we saw the very welcome return of play-offs hero Joe Garner, coming on for Quigley for his first appearance since Wembley. He immediately won a free kick and got someone booked, and later got booked himself for diving. Never change, you magnificent shithouse.

Oh GOD but we should have won it in injury time. From a great bit of play from Pett’s corner, the ball came to Will Sutton, and if he’d only headed it either side of the keeper…. It seems harsh to berate our centre-half/right-back/wherever the hell Unsworth played him for not taking his chance, in a game where none of our forwards did either. Maybe if it had fallen to Fondop, who knows.

📸 Phill Smith

A very frustrating evening, again. One of the most entertaining moments of the game was the Athleticos singing “who’s the sexiest owner in the Football League? It’s you, Frank Rothwell”. Just glorious stuff, I hope the TV cameras picked it up. They make me so proud sometimes. And wasn’t it a lovely sunset?

I was already annoyed, and the sight of David Dunn on Sky as the (LOL) expert analyst when we headed to the fans’ bar didn’t help my mood. It ended up being a good night, though. We headed into town to watch some bands at the Bank Top Tavern, and the scouse lead singer of Gdansk81 dedicated a song to our mate Redmond, because “his football team is as shit as ours”. Solidarity and everything, mate, but out of the two teams, one has won a trophy in Joe Quigley’s lifetime, and it ain’t Everton.

Another dopey-arsed KO time today. If you can’t be arsed getting up early and getting multiple buses and trams (how the hell is a ground less than 7 miles away such a pain in the arse to get to on public transport?) to what is quite frankly a bit of a dump, get yourself down to Boundary Park to cheer on Lancashire v Yorkshire in the women’s rugby league Roses match. KO is 2pm (Waterhead U13s play Hindley Stags beforehand at 12 noon) and entry is free.

Have a great day out if you are heading to the (ahem) Peninsula Stadium. Fair play to their fans for voting to revert to their traditional colour of orange next season, in a bid to look slightly less like the vanity project of man of the people Gary Neville. It’s only 10 years since they were playing Prescot Cables in the league, so it would be nice if we could remind them how much more massive we are than them. KTMFF.

📸 Phill Smith

Written by Arlene Finnigan