Sport can be cruel and football often typifies this. Our last two games saw us scrape draws from games we deserved to lose; Saturday saw us defeated by one moment’s lack of concentration by a team that was out-played from first minute to last. And how that was shown as the final whistle was blown on an incredibly eventful game, when the Tyneside players celebrated loudly with relief and maybe even disbelief.

It was a cold day with a blustery, ever direction changing wind. The pitch looked like it had been played on the day before by giants having a round of golf with cannon balls. The surface was pot-holed and cratered and the goal we defended in the second half had a pond instead of the area sometimes referred to as the six yard box.

For reasons only known to our players, we decided to play football and our passing and movement were some of the best we have shown for much of this season. This was made all the more incredible given the state of the pitch, upon which we were attempting to play in this style. Yes, occasionally the pitch won and promising moves were frustratingly truncated by a horrible bounce or a skidding ball, but it was still very good to watch and extremely encouraging. We kept the ball well, had good shape and, I must confess, we looked like we were going to win the game handsomely. But the fates had other ideas…

One can never legislate for refereeing decisions. These guys have a difficult job at the best of times, although it has to be stated that they don’t always help their own cause. Tiger, who had his best game for us by a country mile, was scythed to the ground four or five times in the first ten minutes, and yet the first foul committed by one of our players, Matty Horner, resulted in a yellow card. Puzzling and annoying. Minutes later, Tyneside got their goal and a strange and horrible affair it was too. Our back four hadn’t realised that a foul had been blown for against one of our players and the Tyneside left winger threw the ball quickly to the ground, and amidst bellows of “rolling ball”, which it was, humped it forward and their striker suddenly found himself with only Michael to beat. To be fair, he slotted it home confidently.

There was still plenty of time left to make amends and with Jamie, Matty B and John dominating the midfield and Will and Tiger making good runs down the flanks, and with Matty H doing a sterling job up front, an equaliser was only a matter of time. Chrissie, Kevin, Ste and Jinx stood firm, kept their shape and limited Tyneside to only one other goal scoring opportunity. However, we were still not creating chances at the other end. Half time came and it was obvious that playing up the slope would give us our best chance, as the ball wouldn’t roll away. Shortly into the second half, we made three changes. Matty B had to give way owing to a tiny knock on his ballerina toes, and Tiger and Will made way for Richie, Wayne (the bronze idol) and Bridgey.

We camped in their half and had shot after shot that flew high, wide and handsome, had corner after corner and a number of free-kicks. It was inevitable that Tyneside would have one chance, which occurred when a hopeful ball lumped forward sailed beyond our defence and left Michael on another one-on-one. Michael stood tall and the ball whistled past our post.

But the drama hadn’t ended: there were still two amazing incidents still to occur, and it was John (the Hitman) Belmont, who instigated them. After a polite and genteel attempt at a tackle from behind on John by an extremely polite and apologetic Tyneside player, John flew into an absolute, monumental rage, and actually competed for the ball and was promptly summoned over by the ref. No, this simply couldn’t be happening: John Belmont booked! Tiger, our cunning linguist and versatile ventriloquist, registered his shock and disappointment when he declared to the ref that he had made an “awful decision”. The ref promptly came over and berated Rog, who was valiantly defended by his wife, Val. The ref was told that Rog had not said a word and that it was another decision he had got wrong. Rog was red-carded. Thanks, John! Thanks Tiger.

Of course, John had been hacked horribly from behind and had no more deserved a red card than Hartlepool deserve to be playing in the champions league next year. The incident was a distraction and certainly favoured the opposition, as you could see the frustration building in our players. Despite that, we battered at their defences, but ultimately just couldn’t get the goal our play deserved.

What Have We Learnt

Life isn’t always fair; you don’t always get what you deserve.
There was not one word of discouragement amongst our players and we played better for it.
You can’t switch off for a second: we did and it ultimately cost us the game.
We shouldn’t be anything but encouraged by the way we played.

Quote of the Week:

“I never criticise referees and I'm not going to change a habit for him.” - Ron Atkinson – famous football manager and sacked pundit.