I heard this song on the radio whilst driving up to Morecambe before Christmas and thought of it again when I was writing the paragraph on penalty award celebrations. It is a 2016 single from Bastille, which reached number 13 in the UK singles charts and hung around on the chart for nearly half the year. The title of the track are not the words remembered from the song, but the more repeated refrain of ‘watching through my fingers.’ Which succinctly sums ups what it has been like for most of this season as a fan watching Crawley games.
Quiz Answer time – Swindon Town won the League Cup back in 1969, but which other League Cup winning side (in all its guises/names) have we played this season? Swansea City, in that exact competition way back in August.
After another of those games last weekend, away against Swindon Town where we come away scratching our heads as to how the hell we managed to lose that, it is into that ‘holiday’ period around Christmas and New Year where we play a lot of games in a short space of time whilst trying to work out exactly what day of the week it is, and wondering when we need to put the bins out next.
At least the travelling to and from Swindon gave me some time to catch up on the backlog of magazines which needed reading, with the latest copies of WSC, Late Tackle, Mojo, and Uncut being read. Notable to me were an article on it being thirty years since the Bosman ruling, and in an article on The Damned, how (as often preached on the Memories of Crawley Facebook page) UK punk really started in Crawley with a band called Bastard, founded in 1973 in Crawley by Brian James who later founded The Damned.
I had gone to my original fallback year for cards and looked for Colchester in the Proset 1991-92 season, only to not find any. Having forgotten that Colchester were the fourth club to fall foul of automatic relegation from the Football League the season before. So instead all I have is the stickers from this year’s Panini EFL collection, where they are the team which share a page with us.
There are a few programmes dating back fifteen years in the collection as paths have crossed in both League One and League Two and in cup action as well.
In all we have played them twenty-four times, six in League One, sixteen in League Two, and one each in the Football League Trophy and League Cup. Overall we have won eleven, lost five and drawn eight. At home it is seven wins, three losses, and three draws. The last game at home came late in the promotion season two years ago, when we lost 3-2 as Colchester scrambled to avoid relegation.
I was looking for squad crossover, only to not find any current crossover, but prior to last season that hadn’t been the case for nearly twenty years, there is a lot of crossover. In fact the latest programme in the ones shown earlier has Aramide Oteh in our squad who used to play for Colchester, and John Akinde, Kwesi Appiah, Tom Dallison, and Tom Eastman in the Colchester squad list who used to play for us. In fact the latter of those is on the Colchester squad list for all the programmes I have against them.
Others to have played for both include Izale McLeod, Billy Clarke, Dean Howell, Josh Doherty, Sanchez Watt, Josh Payne, Billy Clifford, Thomas Pinault, Magnus Okuonghae, Beryiy Lubala, and Luke Gambin.
Going into the game I did have some words of warning for our fans. DO NOT CELEBRATE IF WE GET AWARDED A PENALTY. The reason being twofold for this, first up obviously is that in the last two games, such a decision has been overturned (after unpunished surrounding of the referee by the opposition players), and secondly, as the three awarded prior to that were either saved (two by McKirdy), or missed (Loft). So if the referee does point to the spot, there is to be no celebrating until after the penalty has been; a. taken, b. scored, and c. not disallowed for any genuine or spurious reason dreamed up by Mr Magoo and the rest of the officiating crew. It is definitely a case of watching through my fingers.
Going into the game we are ten places and thirteen points behind Colchester United, who sit just inside the top half, whereas we are a point outside the relegation places.
We left Morecambe at half seven this morning to drive down, and made it back to Crawley before two, enough time to change and get to the ground, only Helen has been stricken with illness on the journey, which was clear apart from the ridiculous queue on the M40 as people queued for Boxing Day shopping at Bicester Village, and the usual lunacy around the southwest corner of the M25. I got to the ground in time to pick up a programme, which Steve Leake had been doing another sterling job of selling with only a handful of the 250 they’d prepped for today (another 150 held back for Monday night).
Walking out of the underpass I could hear the large contingent of away fans and their drummer making lots of noise before kick-off (something they kept up for most of the game).
We are in the all red with white trim home kit, and Colchester United are in yellow shirts, blue shorts, and yellow and blue hooped socks. It looks as if we have the same starting eleven from the defeat at Swindon Town last Saturday.
An early long throw from Josh Flint is headed back out, and Dion Conroy plays it back to Geraldo Bajrami near the box, he slides the ball into Harry Forster and his shot from a tight angle is saved and then cleared.
Jay Williams wins the ball in midfield and gives it to Bajrami and he plays it out to Dion Pereira on the right wing, and he drives forward, then cuts inside and shoots, but it curls the wrong way and goes wide for a goal kick, Colchester attack down the right and beats Flint for pace and gets a cross in which Conroy puts behind for a corner which is taken low to the near post where Reece Brown is pushed over and we get a free kick.
A ball out from the back by Flint down the left wing to Forster sees him go deep and get a cross into the box where he finds Brown in lots of space, he tries to cushion it down to Ryan Loft but just stabs it wide for a goal kick.
Ten minutes in and the first seasonal ‘get on with it’ is yelled by TAFKAL as Colchester get their first throw on our side of the pitch. Colchester attack and win a corner, it is swing into the near post and headed clear. A Colchester striker pushes Conroy over as he passes back. He gets a long talking to (it’s his third similar offence), but there is no yellow card forthcoming.
From the free kick it is played to Bajrami, and it’s played on to Jack Roles, he slips it to Brown on the edge of the box, he turns and shoots and it beats the keeper and we lead 1-0.
Colchester break quickly, good passing and they are in the box in no time only to be stopped by a great sliding tackle from Bajrami. Another Colchester break and the cross in isn’t really dealt with, a shot forces a decent save from Harvey Davies, but it falls to another Colchester player who curls it past Davies and into the net and we’re all square 1-1.
We respond with decent move out of defence with a ball to Roles in midfield and he plays it out to Pereira on the right wing, he plays it back to Charlie Barker and he puts a cross in which is deflected wide for a corner. It is taken deep and the keeper is out well to claim. We win a free kick on the right wing, Forster takes it short to Brown, and on to Roles, who’s cross is put behind for a corner. And again the keeper claims easily under his crossbar.
At the other end the Colchester number nine finally picks up a yellow card, it appears to be more for a dive than a foul this time though. We have some concerted possession with it being pinged around all over the place and I think every player on the team getting involved before we get a corner which is swung in and there’s some head tennis in the box until the offside flag goes up.
Lots more possession but we lose it in midfield and Colchester break quickly and fortunately play it forward too quickly and the offside flag goes up. But Colchester are looking dangerous on every attack / break. A cross in is not fully dealt with, and half cleared, put back in, cleared again, only for Colchester to go down the other wing and get a cross in which between Davies and Conroy they manage to bundle behind for a corner.
There is one added minute at the end of the half. The corner is tipped over the bar for another one, it is punched half clear by Davies and the shot back in deflects twice before Davies gets his body on it before the half time whistle goes with the scores level at 1-1.
The second half starts with us at least trying to be on the front foot. An attack down the right sees the ball worked into the box to Forster and his shot nutmegs the keeper and nestles in the back of the net, but the flag is up for offside, so it doesn’t count. Roles gets fouled heading towards the box, only the ref doesn’t see it like that and Colchester break and have a shot which deflects for a corner. It’s taken low and hard to the near post and is put behind, the ref gives a goal kick, we’ll take that but not convinced it shouldn’t have been a corner.
Going up for a header see Bajrami get steamrolled by the brick shithouse, which is the Colchester number 33, who picks up a booking for it. We make a couple of substitutions before it is taken, with Bajrami and Roles going off to be replaced by Gavan Holohan and Harry McKirdy’s return from injury.
A free kick in our own half is pumped into the Colchester half and there are lots passes and keep ball, but it seems – as usual – we can’t find that final killer ball or shot and Colchester clear. It’s starting to get a bit chippy out there and the referee is letting a lot of it go. Only for Jay Williams to pick up a booking, which the ref suggests is from totting up, which is weird as he hasn’t made any previous fouls, and this one wasn’t a foul.
More subs, with Forster and Brown being replaced by Ade Adeyemo and Kabby Tshimanga. It doesn’t take long for Adeyemo to get involved, exchanging passes with Flint down the left and the latter gets to the byline and crosses, but it’s put out for a corner. It’s taken deep and the ref blows for an infringement.
A ball into our box sees the ref give us a free kick, whilst the fans behind the goal are screaming for a penalty. Their number 14 stops the free kick being taken quickly and hits the deck like an extra from Platoon, the ref ignores him and the free kick is taken when he gets up. Colchester make a whole raft of substitutions with the number 14 and 33 both being withdrawn as part of them, probably for their own good.
Colchester win a corner as we fail to deal with a couple of crosses into the box. We just about manage to clear the corner. Colchester attack again and a player is down in the box. The ref waves away penalty shouts. We may have got away with one there as there was definitely a shove in the back there.
We make our final substitution with Pereira being replaced by Louie Watson. Colchester attack again and we just about manage to clear, only for them to come again and they have a shot from the edge of the area but that goes well over the bar. We do manage to get out with a ball from Flint to Adeyemo down the left and he puts a cross in, McKirdy shoots and it is saved, Tshimanga follows up and his shot is saved well, but it falls to Loft, only for him to put his shot wide.
There are four added minutes at the end of the game, a long throw from Flint goes into the box but it is cleared and Watson picks up a booking for stopping the break. A Colchester clearance goes way over the west stand for the first ball loss of the day. Barker slings in the long throw and Loft flicks on only for the ref to blow for a foul somewhere in there. Colchester come away with the ball, and it ends up going for a goal kick which as we take the ref blows the final whistle and it finishes all square 1-1.
Another drawn home game where we had chances to get a winning goal but are unable to convert chances. It is ridiculous just how many failure to converts we have had this season, so many points dropped from either an unwillingness to shoot, or the inability to be able to hit a cow’s arse with a banjo when we do deign to shoot. Whatever, there is no shortage of moments to have to watch through our fingers.
The crowd was announced as 3,993 with an impressive 796 of them being away fans. And for the first time in a while there was a sponsors’ man of the match announced, with it going to Reece Brown.
Anyway, a point somehow lifts us up a place in the table to the heady heights of twentieth, as Shrewsbury lost, and Bristol Rovers somehow managed to throw away a 2-0 halftime lead to lose 3-2 against Bromley, who we face next.
Quiz time. After I mentioned it in the cards and stickers section of this piece, Colchester United were the fourth team to suffer automatic relegation from the Football League after it was introduced in the 1986-87 season. Which three teams suffered that fate before them?
It has taken me a lot longer than usual to type this up as I’ve been sat with Helen as she’s been watching a Bridgit Jones marathon which has been a lot more distracting than I thought it would be possible to.
There is little rest time at this time of year, on to Monday night next and another home game, this time the first return fixture of the season as we welcome (possibly stretching the word really) Bromley to the Broadfield, twenty days after we visited them and had another of our trademarked second half capitulations. Here’s hoping for two first half performances.
Come on you reds.