My match report. Crawley v AFC Wimbledon

Average teams find excuses, killer teams find a way. If we were an average team, we wouldn't have had to search too hard to find reasons we didn't win or even had lost this game. As I suspect most are now beginning to appreciate however, we are far from being average. What we are is a very good team which is evolving into being a killer one. It's happening quickly too, right before our eyes.

For the first hour last night we were utterly dominant. That domination and swagger had begun an hour before kick-off. Johnnie Jacksons three striker team selection had "We are not here to arse around" written all over it. We were getting off the team bus, kicking the door in and having the points, simple as that. I loved the team selection and our attitude. No more "difficult place to come" and "great clean sheet" mentality, we tore into them from the off and could have been four or five up by half-time. The only barrier to us destroying Crawley at this point was a card happy referee who was in the early stages of what was to become an utterly extraordinary performance. In the first half he disallowed a headed goal from a corner for offside, sent off our manager into row G of the stands (the back row, it's a small stand) and booked everyone connected with our club. By now I was eating a not too Shabby (Alonso) meat pie which had been heated to a nuclear temperature. I burnt my hands on the thing and cursed, the ref flicked me a glance as he was booking someone else and for a moment I thought I too was walking a tightrope. We made Crawley look utterly abject, and Josh Davison justified his selection with a fantastic first 45 minutes.

As we contemplated why there is never any half time beer at Crawley, most of the chatter was that our only danger was the referee. Just when we thought that he couldn't possibly surpass his first half exploits though, he decided in the second half to completely put aside any concerns of obvious bias. If Kim Jong Un played football in North Korea, the ref would officiate the team he was playing for in a similar way to how this ref handled Crawley last night. Each time we went near the ball he gave a free kick and carded someone, each time Crawley committed a foul he tried his best to ignore it. It was all getting a bit "Kes" when Brian Glover won a self awarded penalty for Manchester United, but still we were the better team. Just when it looked like we were about to kill the game off, Joe Lewis made the mistake of committing a foul. Not a bad foul, not an assault nor a shirt pull, just a foul. That was enough though, before he could say "Aw come on ref FFS" he was off.

Cometh the hour though, cometh Alex Pearce. As is his usual way he emerged off the bench like a fella who had been folded into the back seat of a mini Clubman for two days, but we needn't have worried. When it's all hands on deck there is no better warrior, and along with the rest of the lads who hadn't yet been sent off, he dug in and dug us out.

We couldn't have done it without our goalkeeper who made some magnificent saves. I've felt a bit sorry for Alex Bass these last few weeks. He's had that "bloke in charge of the crazy golf at a seaside resort in November" look about him recently. Here though, those who hadn't been sent off were pretty much all booked so Crawley surged forward looking for Edward Woodward (think about it). Sensing their numerical advantage and the fact that we seemingly weren't allowed to tackle anyone, shots rained down. Alex Bass was magnificent, his saves got us over the line. There were heroic blocks and slides all over the pitch, and gradually the clock ran down. Right at the end the ref realized that in all the chaos he'd forgotten to book Jack Currie, so thirty seconds before the end carded him while our brilliant left back was taking a throw in. Nobody knew why, but by now the whole thing had descended into Christmas Panto farce and at least Jack didn't feel left out, so no matter.

That belief pill that I've been talking about for a while is really kicking in now, it's a Mitsubishi. Even the most sceptical of fans are starting to believe, how could they not? I'm not tempting fate when I say that we will smash Sutton on Boxing day, I'm merely stating a fact.

I stick with my prediction of a few weeks back. If we keep this team together, we are a live bet for automatic promotion. We are also in my view certainties for the play-offs. What a night. COYD