Tag: Play-offs

Que Hurrah Hurrah, Whether By Train, Coach, Or Taxi, We’re Going To Wembley

Doris Day ladies and gentlemen, somewhat traditional for this kind of thing. All the way back to her 1956 chart topper. Not necessarily hoping it’s chips though.

The playoffs continue. After the wonderful 3-0 home win on Tuesday night it’s the second leg, away to Milton Keynes Dons.

I quite often comment to say that I’ve gone straight to home games from writing group, as that finishes at one, and a wander down to the ground gives me my chance to be there as they are opening the turnstiles. It seems most Saturday home games align with writing group sessions which is handy. When they don’t and it is an away game, then it is writing and then home to watch Soccer Saturday for score updates. But today is a first. Writing group in the morning, and then straight to an away game. With it being an evening kick-off, it gives the right amount of time to meet Helen at the train station and get up to Milton Keynes with enough time to check in and drop a bag off at the hotel, and then wander towards the ground finding somewhere to get some food. It’s just a longer wander to the game than usual.

As we travel there four days after the first leg, I’m still pinching myself at the position we find ourselves in. There is a lot of confidence amongst fans. But I’m going around with fingers crossed (which makes typing the first half of this quite difficult), and a mantra in my head of ‘stop jinxing it,’ as I see the wave of social media and forum posts talking about a Wembley visit.

If our home game hadn’t succumbed to ark training and been played on Monday, then this game would have been played Thursday night. But now it’s been rearranged, it isn’t easy to drive up to Milton Keynes. The M25 westbound is closed for the weekend as they continue to work on the A3 junction, and there are roadworks at Dartford, which is why we’ve gone for the train.

Crawley were allocated two thousand tickets for the game; the minimum MK were allowed to offer. There was a lot of moaning about only having two thousand tickets available, but that is still nine hundred more than made the short trip to Sutton a few weeks ago, and we didn’t manage to sell them all anyway, the final tally of sold tickets coming to 1,630.

It was a lovely sunny day for the trip up, a wander to the hotel. The city centre is just bizarre, ghost town, wide open spaces, lots of greenery though, and a grid formation, but it makes the Marie Celeste look claustrophobic. Then out for food in the centre of the city, Ask, which just reminds us how much we miss the one in Crawley. It’s worth ten Prezzo’s.

Their stadium is seriously impressive, a case of build a stadium for what you want to achieve. They had proper searches, sniffer dogs, bag check, pat downs on the way in. The concourse was packed with chanting fans, and the noise is immense. We see Reuben to say hello, and the Mansfield brothers once in our seats. However, for such a modern, supposed state of the art, stadium, the PA system is rubbish, couldn’t pick up a single announcement from their voice over man all game.

I get a programme, it was only three quid, and was thicker than ours on Tuesday, but is half full of adverts. But at least they had the common courtesy to include four pages on their opposition – i.e. us.

It is a repeat of Tuesday night as far as strips are concerned, all red for us, and all white (flag?) for the MK Dons. Two minutes in and there is a poor pass out from the MK keeper, it is pounced on by Jay Williams who takes it into the box and slots it in the corner and we lead 1-0 on the night and 4-0 on aggregate. Can this be happening?

MK get some attacking going, and win a corner, which is put out for another corner, and we clear it. Clever work from Harry Forster down the right, ball comes across to Adam Campbell who chips it over the defenders, but Danilo Orsi can’t get a telling finishing touch on the ball. More decent work, down the left this time, but again we can’t get the final shot away.

The MK toerag, number eighteen, stamps on Williams’ thigh after the ball has gone. The officials are like the four blind mice, and nothing is given. MK as a whole are going for the kick lumps out of Crawley approach at every opportunity. Campbell is barged over with a forearm smash to the back of the head, and again the officials see nothing wrong with it. The MK players are in the ref’s face at every opportunity, as if they’re the hard done ones. A two footed lunge straight through Klaidi Lolos just gets waved on by the ref.

We are having lots of possession. But it wouldn’t be a game without a Corey Addai heart in your mouth moment. A pass out goes straight to a MK player, but their shot is straight at Addai, and we survive. A MK shot from twenty-five yards out is saved at full stretch by Addai for a corner. MK’s number eighteen is down in the box claiming a penalty like the cheating scumbag he is.

On half an hour after some MK pressure we play the ball out well, flicked on towards Orsi, the MK defender misjudges the bounce, Orsi pulls in under control goes outside the defender and pulls a shot back across the keeper and into the corner and it is 2-0, and a 5-0 aggregate lead.

Another two footed lunge, this time through the back of Jeremy Kelly at least wins a free kick, but again there is no yellow card. FFS ref, some protection from the MK thugs would be good. Lolos is clattered in the back again and down injured, but nothing is given. A couple of minutes later, Lolos wins a tackle in midfield, but to everyone’s bemusement, the ref awards a free kick to MK and books Lolos. So, the blind twat does have his cards with then.

There is an injury to Forster, and he is subbed off to be replaced by Kellen Gordon. MK win a free kick on the left-hand edge of the area as the board goes up for five minutes of added time. The ball is swung over to the back post and an outstretched leg plays it back across for the cheating thug number eighteen to score. 2-1 on the night and 5-1 on aggregate.

It looks as if we have restored the advantage almost immediately. Lolos plays it through to Orsi, who helps it on the Jeremy Kelly, and his touch beats the keeper. We are all up celebrating the goal, but it is cleared off the line. There is another hefty challenge, this time on Will Wright and yet again it goes unpunished. After seven extra minutes the ref finally blows for half time.

The second half kicks off with Wright having been replaced by Joy Mukena after the heavy challenge at the end of the first half. Two minutes in there is a ball to Lolos, who drifts inside, and plays a perfect ball to Liam Kelly, who is in on goal with just the keeper to beat, but he squares it to Orsi for a simple tap in and it’s 3-1 on the night and now 6-1 on aggregate. This is dreamland.

The MK toerag dives in the penalty area again trying to cheat for a penalty, and a goal kick is awarded. Lolos is pulled back in midfield and appears to be smacked in the face for bad measure. A free kick is given, but still no yellow card for any MK player. Lolos is subbed off, and Campbell is at the same time, Ronan Darcy and Jack Roles come on for fresh legs.

MK get a corner and force an Addai save, but the offside flag was up anyway. There is a foul by Mukena in his own half, and somewhat unbelievably, the ref books him. They play it wide, and the cross is blocked away by Addai, and he saves the follow up shot. There is finally a booking for MK as one of their players drags Roles down thirty-five yards out. It is played into the box, but cleared, played back in from the other side, two players stretch to try and get a shot away and both fail, but the flag has gone up for offside anyway.

We make the fifth and final substitution, with Williams replaced by Nick Tsaroulla. MK attack and a cross is blasted against an arm two yards away from where it is hit, and the ref has no hesitation in giving MK a penalty. Which Addai saves, and justice is served. MK attack again, but their shot from twenty-five yards out is high and wide.

A break down the right sees a cross come in only to be collected by the MK keeper, but his ball out is won back quickly and a cross from Tsaroulla is blocked for a corner. We are having a lot of the ball and passing it around amongst ourselves all over the pitch, accompanied by a series of ‘oles.’ MK get hacked off with this and hack down Darcy. Another hack on Liam Kelly follows quickly, there is a serious lack of yellow cards for such thuggish play from MK, it is deliberate brutality.

Roles gets the ball in midfield and his shot from thirty yards sees the MK keeper make a hash of the save, but he is lucky as the deflected ball comes back off the post. Another MK lunge through the back of a player, this time Gordon, and no yellow card.

On eighty minutes we break down the right, the ball is played into Orsi, who tries twisting and turning every which way trying to get a shot away to get his hat trick, and the ball ends up with Roles, who slots it in, and it is 4-1 on the night, 7-1 on aggregate. A mass exodus is occurring in the home end now.

There is finally a second booking for the thugs after a foul on Tsaroulla. Scumbag number eighteen kicks the ball away after another foul, but somehow doesn’t pick up a booking. Is he immune or something?

Four added minutes are indicated. Thankfully, it is shown how long on the big screen, as no one can make out a word the bloke on the PA is trying to say. We move the ball down the left after more sustained possession, just playing it around and having MK chasing shadows. The ball comes to Darcy, but his shot is over.

Back down the left again, it is worked through into the box and Darcy squares it across two yards out and Orsi is there at the far post to chest the ball into the net for his hat trick, and to make the score 5-1 on the night and 8-1 on aggregate. Seriously, how fucking good is this?

From the restart MK attack and they crash a shot that comes back off the crossbar. Their number fourteen hauls Darcy down, both hand pulling the back of the shirt and throwing him to the ground, and there are ironic cheers as he finally gets booked.

The final whistle goes. We have done. Crawley Town are heading to Wembley for the first time in their history. They will be up against Crewe Alexandra, who upset the odds to come back from a first leg deficit against the steamroller that was Doncaster Rovers and beat them on penalties. I don’t know if the crowd was announced, it was impossible to tell what was being said, but the MK website had the official crowd as being 10,053 with 1,630 away fans.

It took quite some time for the elated fans to come down from their seats up in the gods and may take them some time to stop pinching themselves at what they have witnessed over the two legs. The long journey home is probably still ongoing for most fans. Meanwhile it was back to the hotel to write this, watch highlights and be generally deliriously happy, only to find the lead I have to charge the camera doesn’t work as a data transfer lead, and so the photos from the night can’t be added to this.

Roll on the bun fight for the tickets for Wembley, there should be more than enough to go around. One more win for that unexpected promotion.

Come on you reds.

Third Time Is Not A Charm

Choosing a name for this blog post was a bit of a test. I had a lot of ideas, and usually when I start to write I already know what the title is going to be, but as some of this was written before the game started, some as it was played and some after it was all over, I didn’t want to jinx the game either way with a too confident or too negative title before I knew the final outcome. I really wanted it to be Silencing The Lambs, but it wasn’t to be.

So here it is, Conference final weekend, after winning it all two years ago, we finished bottom of our division last year, but we are back, and it’s against our (very) long-time rivals – the Los Angeles Rams. Ever since our first season in the NFL in 1950, we have been in the same division as the Rams, even when they tootled off to St Louis for a while, we have played them twice a season every year (even in the strike shortened 1982 season).

But did you know they weren’t even the first team based in Los Angeles the 49ers played? That honour went to the Los Angeles Dons, one of the teams in the fledgling AAFC that the 49ers were founder members of in 1946. In fact, the Dons were the first team to play in Los Angeles at all. They beat the Rams by two weeks, as even though the Rams had moved from Cleveland in 1943, they didn’t play a game until 1946.

The Rams can’t even claim to be our oldest rivals, as the Browns and Colts have also survived from the old AAFC when it was merged into the NFL in 1950. (NB, the Colts were then in Baltimore, and technically formed in 1947 after the AAFC had seized the Miami Seahawks and sold it on to Baltimore businessmen – so the 49ers played a team called the Seahawks in their first ever pro season.)

We have only played the Rams once in the playoffs before, that being 32 years ago in another Conference final, where we properly beat them up 30-3 and headed on to win the Superbowl against the Broncos racking up the biggest margin of victory in the Superbowl, and the most points scored in the Superbowl in our 55-10 win.

Overall, we lead the series 75 – 67 – 3. And we have won the last six games straight against them. Since their Rams return to Los Angeles, we lead 9-3, and 5-1 in Los Angeles, including a clean sweep at their new SoFi stadium. But it is always difficult for any team to manage a three-game sweep in the same season.

Which is where tonight’s game is being staged. After briefly having a “toys out of the pram” moment in conspiring with Ticketmaster to try and stop 49ers fans to get tickets, it looks like there will be a serious red invasion at SoFi as it was in the last game of the regular season, where out overtime win saw us squeeze into the playoff by the skin on the skin of our teeth.

Meanwhile the Rams are looking at following the precedent set by the Buccaneers last year by winning and getting to play the Superbowl at their home stadium.

On the whole I’ve been trying not to think about the game too much. Yes, I was thinking about titles for this piece, and I’d done a bit of research, oh, and there was the pick six stuff I’ve been doing, but I’ve not been reading all the posts on Facebook or trawling the NFL website. I’ve been trying to stay as calm as possible and be as uninvolved as possible.

The only exception was some talk around how we stop Cooper Kupp. I’m not going to say my idea was the most sensible or even sensical (seeing as I deliberately went phonetically). It went “Hold all his relatives to ransom to get him to drop everything. All of them – Paper, Tea, Coffee, Bra, Suction, Sippy, World, Stanley, FA, Calcutta, Gold and Chocolate.”

All this aside, there was also the serious business of what to wear. There are a load of jerseys in the wardrobe, but since having lost enough weight to drop a couple of sizes over the last year or so, I’m feeling the cold more and more, and with the heating going to be off come kick off time I went with something dragged out of the bottom of my drawers. Something I had forgotten all about (and that hadn’t fitted for years) – A 1995 Lee Sport baggy armed sweatshirt. No jinxing of individual players allowed. (Mainly because Fanatics failed to deliver the Kittle hoodie and Bosa long sleeved t-shirt on time.)

And now I’m watching the AFC conference game and stringing this together, and I can’t help thinking about what happens if we do win tonight. It will mean a repeat Superbowl regardless of the outcome of the AFC game. Those new to this will still know the Chiefs managed to beat us in the Superbowl two years ago. Those of us longer in the tooth will remember the two Superbowl victories against the Bengals in the eighties, including that first Superbowl win for the 49ers in the 1981 season. The game after “The Catch.” It would only be the 2nd time two teams have played each other in the Superbowl three times (the other being the Steelers and the Cowboys).

And it will be the Bengals, another playoff game that goes to overtime and is won by a walk off field goal, after they equal the largest ever comeback deficit in a playoff game according to the announcers. (Though I’m not convinced that’s right, surely the Patriots over the Falcons.)

The game starts and, oh my god, there is a lot of red in that crowd. It shows up more, but it looks more like a home game for the 49ers than the Rams.

An exchange of punts to start the game, only for the Rams to put an ominous looking drive together. But hold up, what’s this, a Ward interception on third and goal in the end zone. Woo and hoo. A decent return as well, and then our first first down. But it fizzles out and it’s another punt. Which we down inside the five, the special teams carrying on where they left off last week. A side note is that we got away with a couple of calls that should have been penalties. A late hit on Stafford by Warner was missed, and a facemask on offence the following drive. We would be screaming if they were the other way, they need to cut it out and quickly as we will get called for them the longer the game goes on.

Yet from that the Rams drive 97 yards on eighteen plays over a load of time to score a touchdown, unsurprisingly to the aforementioned Kupp. A much shorter drive is finished by a long yards after catch touchdown trot from, who else, Deebo Samuel, and just a couple of minutes later it’s all level.

Another reasonable drive from the Rams, but the defence hold and force a field goal which was missed, and it stayed tied at seven apiece, with a chance at a two-minute drill for some points before half time, with the bonus of receiving the second half kick-off. A scary looking hit on Deebo didn’t seem good, but he was back in a couple of plays later and we got into field goal range and of course, Gould is as good as gold, and we go into half time with a 10-7 lead. Time to find something, anything, to do to avoid the half time natter.

A stuttering drive, extended by a couple of Rams penalties starts the second half, but it ends with a punt. And then we hold the Rams on a fourth and one for decent field position. Which we take full advantage of with a touchdown pass to Kittle and a 17-7 lead.

And on the next Rams drive, there it is. That dumbass penalty. Taunting. Not particularly obvious but called as the officials missed the two more obvious penalties in the first half. And a few plays later the Rams have a touchdown. To that damn man Kupp again and it’s back to 17-14.

We’re forced to punt, and on the first play on the next Rams drive it looks as if it’s an easy interception only for Tartt to drop it when it was easier to catch. Next snap, a long completion to Beckham Jnr was compounded by a dangerous hit by Ward for another 15 yards. But we hold them to a field goal to tie it up at 17 apiece with just over six minutes left. And that additional bundle of nerves kicks in.

A delay of game penalty, a near pick, and a drop and it’s time to punt to that well known sinking feeling. Although why the hell a helmet-to-helmet hit isn’t called will be as big a mystery as those non calls in the first half against us. Why is it such a wringer watching this season? And why the hell are the Rams not getting delay of game penalties called, that’s at least three in the fourth quarter that should have been called. Hello? A time out perhaps. Why let that second and eleven run down over thirty seconds to the two-minute warning? But the stop comes to force a field goal, and with less than two minutes we’re 17-20 down with only one timeout.

Batted. Short pass for a loss. Trying to escape a sack a ball thrown from god alone knows what angle and it’s intercepted. And that’s it. Barring a miracle, it is all over. And there is no miracle coming here.

In our record-breaking 17th Conference championship game, it’s a record-breaking 10th Conference championship game loss. And to the fucking Rams. To come so far and really give it away is such a wrench. The luck, the guts, the effort, and the sheer ridiculousness of this season has come to an end for us. There may be some anger (pointed in various directions). There will be some tough questions to be answered, and it will seem a long, long, long off-season, full of “what could have been”.

Yet despite all the rawness right now, I can look back to before the first Rams game this season when it felt like a loss there would have killed the season at the half way point, and we can point out we had the best second half of the season of any side (no other team had a better record over the second half than us), and to drag ourselves into the playoffs with that overtime win in the regular season finale against the Rams meant the season was better than I could have expected or hoped for back when we were 3 and 5.

The defence has been awesome over that period, let’s try and keep that group together and see what we can do to breath a bit more life into the offence, and let’s come again. Extend that Conference game record next season, but only with a win this time.

And most importantly in a couple of weeks’ time, root for the Bengals. (And if possible after the game kidnap Burrow and brainwash him to come and play for us.)

Postscript

A few questions the day after the game having slept (badly) on it.

5 issues that I can see.

1. Special Teams (not including the kickers). We don’t seem to improve, yes a good play won us the playoff game against the Packers, but our return average is dire, and general defence against special teams has been in the toilet. It’s been like this for a few seasons. Why can’t we seem to improve.

2. Secondary. So many long plays given up, especially on third and long, and if the opponents don’t get the catch then you can be pretty sure the defensive pass interference flag will be flying. It’s criminal when the front four and linebackers are doing such a great job week in week out. Again this isn’t a “this season” problem, it’s been an issue for a few years.

3. Dumb Penalties. Seriously. At terrible times. Besides the PI mentioned above. How many delay of game, false start or holding penalties come on crucial third downs? Taunting, late hits, facemask penalties, on both sides of the ball. We might have improved a bit on this, but there are far too many brainless penalties given away. We’re not the Raiders (or the Cowboys for that matter), surely this should be being coached out.

4. Play calling. It’s baffling. So many sideways or draw plays are called. We have a couple of speedsters, but we so rarely go for the deep ball. We get away with this a lot because we have players that are outstanding at yards after catch, or yards after first contact (or both). It’s covering up cracks in the play calling, as if those players are out then we’d struggle to get to double figures (think about the games Kittle has missed over the last two seasons).

5. Is it time for a new coach? This may seem harsh on a coach who has got us to two Conference championships in five years (the words luck over judgement spring to mind). Yet, all four of the issues raised above (although the secondary might be laid at the door of the GM) fall on him. We hired him as an offensive mastermind, and yet this season we only broke 40 points in game one against (what we didn’t know then) what was a very poor Lions side. And on his scripted first 24 plays each game, we failed to score in the first quarter in over a third of them. Another four games we failed to score in the last quarter. The quality of the players at his disposal have dug him out of holes of his own making too many times for my liking. And don’t get me started on wasted time outs.

Pack It Up, Pack It In

Another weekend, another playoff game. This time a Divisional weekend matchup away against the Green Bay Packers in the frozen tundra of the Lake Michigan shores of Wisconsin.

Two years ago, on the same weekend we played the same opponents if not in the same stadium; only in the Conference Final, and we came out as Conference champions and booked out trip to the Superbowl. There stakes aren’t quite as high this time around, but a similar result would see another conference final in much warmer climes.

We had played the Packers this season, way back in heady September days. It was a close affair and when we scored to take the lead with 36 seconds left to play it was looking good. But it was too much time to give to Aaron Rodgers to get within field goal range, and Mason Crosby kicked the winning field goal as time expired. There was a certain irony in him kicking that winning field goal, as if he hadn’t already had more misses than Bill Wyman in the eighties then they would already have been out of sight.

That game span our seasons in opposite directions. We seemed to lose confidence and control and went on a poor run to leave us with a losing record and only an outside chance of making the playoffs. Meanwhile the Packers, who had been looking decidedly dodgy, especially after a week one shellacking against the Saints, went on a winning run that ended up with them finishing as the NFC number one seed. But they finished with a couple of losses in their last few games, whereas we had managed to dig our an improbably come from behind victory at the Rams to make the playoffs, and then somehow managed to survive to win the “Shoot Yourselves In The Feet” Bowl against the Cowboys last weekend. We’re coming into the game somewhat battle hardened, whereas the Packers have had a bye week and a half game against the Lions as preparation.

Including the aforementioned conference final two years ago, we’ve played the Packers eight times in the playoffs and the series is equal at four apiece, although they hold a 2-1 record over us in Divisional weekend games, something that would be nice to even up. Plus, we have won the last three playoff games against them, all with them being under Rodgers as quarterback.

For me, the main question was whether I was going to stay up and watch it live in the early hours of Sunday morning and zombie it through Sunday; or would I record the game and watch it when I got up Sunday morning. I went for the latter as it meant I could fast forward through Neil Reynolds and his cast of sycophant morons, and the adverts, which is always a bonus. I just had to stay off social media Sunday morning until I’d finished watching.

Oh dear, that first drive looked ominous. Nowhere near Rodgers at any point and yards at will. A decent kick-off return, but the run is stuffed up for us, and it didn’t take long for the first brain dead penalty of the day, or for the first sack. This has the hallmarks of a very long day.

It has to be said I am used to watching games by myself, it’s why I’m rarely on the game group chat on the NEGB, apart from to make flippant comments. I like to concentrate without distractions, as those who went to the meetup for the Superbowl in Liverpool two years ago will have noticed.

Drive two started ominously again, but Warner forced a fumble. Only for us to look like we’d fumbled twice, once blown dead for forward progress and the other reversed as an incomplete pass, but it still led to a punt. And signs of life from our defence force a punt from the Packers. Only for our receivers to be afflicted by dropsy, and another punt. It took a quarter to warm up, but the defence has arrived, getting a sack of Rodgers, and forcing a punt. Only for Jimmy G to get sacked for the third time and another punt back to the Packers. Starting the game with four three and outs is a terrible start. But another sack of Rodgers leads to a punt again.

And finally, on our fifth possession we have a first down, two of them. No, make that three. Four. Five, and a first and goal. About fucking time. Only for a penalty to knock us back, and the Jimmy G Brain Fart ™ ends up with an interception and no points. And to pour salt on to the wound a seventy-five-yard completion sets up a field goal attempt as the first half expires which we managed to block and to limp into half time 7-0 down.

A decent kick off return starts the second half, which arrived with the snow in Green Bay. A first and goal run is wiped out by a facemask penalty, and then an illegal formation knocks us back. We can’t make the yards, and then Deebo looks to be injured. Could this get any worse? At least we get a field goal and finally some points on the board.

We make the Packers punt; they make us punt. They wander down the field casually eating up yards and eating up the clock and it’s depressing as hell as they get to a first and goal, but a penalty and a sack forces a field goal attempt which unfortunately isn’t blocked this time, and it’s now 10-3.

We convert a couple of third downs and get to field goal range and a fourth and one, which we go for only to come up three yards short and hand the ball back to the Packers. The new prayer is now “hold, hold, hold, hold, hold.” And we do with another third down sack of Rodgers and they have to punt. Which we fucking well block, find the ball eventually and Hufanga picks it up and rumbles into the end zone for a touchdown and we are miraculously level.

A three and out. Another punt forced. No block this time, but we have the ball with a little over three minutes to go. A first down pass to Kittle. A five-yard run by Mitchell and it’s down to the two-minute warning. Another first down from Deebo. A three-yard run from Deebo. No yards from Deebo. And another first down from Deebo but hops off injured. A yard from Mitchell. A yard from Juszczyk. Four seconds left and out comes Robbie Gould for a 45-yard field goal attempt.

AND IT’S GOOD.

The 49ers win, the 49ers win, oh my fucking god, the 49ers win.

On we go. We win, with special teams, can you seriously believe this fucking shit.

WOW.

There is no doing things the easy way for us, but a win is a win is a win, and for the third week on the trot we beat a division winner and progress. Whether it’s the Rams or Buccaneers it gives us the chance to make it four on the trot to make the Superbowl.

Go Niners.