Firstly, football in England is not supposed to be played in weather like this. It was at a ridiculously hot Plough Lane that we finally lost our unbeaten tag, but not without giving it absolutely everything in the Sahara heat.
It was obvious pre match to anybody who knows about the league that we weren't playing a genuine "20th place" team, and so it proved. Stockport got the win (and in my view just about deserved it) but there is no shame at all in being narrowly beaten by a team which will be AT LEAST in the playoffs.
For so long it looked so different too. We'd shaded the first half, Josh Davison had poked us ahead with some part of his body or other, and Alex Bass was left contemplating whether or not the factor 100 was really going to be enough to prevent him getting third degree burns. On the one occasion the visitors strung a few passed together, Alex Pierce denied them with a heroic block. As the players trudged off at half time we were left to ponder TWO things only.
First obviously was how much of a Trojan Dean is inside the Womble costume (note for kids, not THAT Womble inside the ground, that one's real obviously). The second one was whether to treat our water bottles with lids as "missiles". Incredibly nobody did, they probably needed the liquid too much.
The first four minutes of the second half is the best I've seen us play all season. We were all over em like midgies on a highland camp site, and the second goal looked inevitable. Then, we lost the ball on the edge of their area and Isaac Olafe decided it might be fun to run with it. So he did, then he ran some more. James Tilley was onto him, but like trap six chasing the greyhound at the old Wembley dogs, he was never catching up. Olafe ran some more, and just when Tills was realising that he really should have fouled him when he had the chance, the striker squared it to Louis Barry who buried it with aplomb. It was a good goal for them, a really poor one for us. That a fella can carry the ball sixty yards over the centre circle from one end of the pitch to the other and not see a challenge from a central midfielder indicates something was out of kilter.
The second wasn't a great goal for us either. Isaac Ogundere had played Barrie well, but the one time he got skinned by one of the best wingers in the league, Will Collar arrived as he does to bury it top bins. In the time it was taking for a bead of sweat to run down my back into the crack of my arse (not long) we had given up a lead and were behind.
We chucked on our subs, ALL of which did well, and gave it a right good go. We so nearly grabbed a point (which few would have begrudged us) right at the death, but for once Tills hit it wrong side of the post.
So a defeat it was, but absolutely no shame. We ran a really good team really close.
One final note. The ref was shite, didn't cost us the game or anything but he was shite all the same.
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