0 -v- 1 
Wednesday Bristol City
I can recollect two things from the 4th April 1992 – Bill was born (7lb 3oz) at 4.11am and Wednesday beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 courtesy of goals from David Hirst (whatever happened to him?) and Paul Williams. Eighteen years later after a hectic and fun-filled frolic the previous night at the Transport club, Meadowhead ours was an open house from 1pm onward. As expected all the oldies arrived in the afternoon with the booze and barbecue-hungry youngsters landing in the early evening.
At a rough guess I would say
that upwards of sixty people, with an age range of two to seventy two, came
across our threshold over the course of a very tiring day.
Last Thursday I received a
call from James who purported to be from Owls Mastercard and offered me two
free hospitality packages for the Bristol
game which I accepted with an element of suspicion (it was April 1st).
He told me that my tickets would arrive on Saturday so when the postman
negotiated the jaws of YoshiOwl to deliver two birthday cards I contacted the
club by ‘phone (no reply x multiple calls) and by email (no response), and the
credit card company (“nowt to do with us Guv”).
Thus it was with some
surprise that I took a call from the club on the morning of the game saying
that we should just turn up and there would be tickets on reception. Now, as Sheffield’s
foremost Anarcho-Syndicalist, I’m not a fan of the corporate experience
but me
Dad (who is over from Oz for our Bill’s birthday) and I had a great
time. The
person who looked after us all was smashing, the food was great (and
free) as
was the wine (also free) Alan Irvine made a single change to the
side that had faced QPR on Saturday bringing in Clarke in place of Buxton who
dropped to the bench. In a mirror image of the recent Derby game Wednesday started brightly and
could have taken an early lead had either Clarke or Soares capitalised on half
chances.
It
turned out that we were the
Associate
Matchball
Sponsors so we got the full works including a tour of the ground and a
goodie
bag (Owls Parker pen, datastick and fresh breath mints).
Even the
somewhat rotund
compere was quite funny for a Dingle and he introduced Chris Waddle
which was
another bonus.
The
Match
The Robins though could also have taken the lead with their first attack with Grant tipping over from a decent free
kick. Shortly afterwards Tudders was at his profligate best when he volleyed a
Potter corner well over the bar from close range. Clarke followed suit when
after being played through down the inside left channel he opted to shoot
rather than square the ball for Tudgay who was rightly frustrated by big Leon’s
poor decision making.
To be fair there wasn’t much in it but the Owls just about shaded
a first half that, whilst it was less turgid than the Derby game, felt ominously similar.
Abandoning our first half “effort” at being staunchly non-prawn
sandwich brigade we took to our (padded) seatage for the second half and for a
good twenty minutes it looked as if we would be rewarded with a Wednesday win.
First, Varney tested the Bristol ‘keeper with a low drive then Potter was
unlucky with a quality free kick before Varney failed to get a shot off when he
looked to have time and space in the box.
The old “if we’re going to score then we need to do it now” thoughts came into my head but time and again we seemed incapable of delivering in, as Tommo eloquently described it in a text, the final turd.
Even the rejuvenated and highly impressive Purse got in on the act heading a corner over the bar before advancing into nosebleed territory before shooting rather lamely wide.In an effort to beef up our attacking threat Irvine introduced Jeffers (to much glee from the JP Recruitment team one of whose ranks had had a bet on him) for Potter moving Soares into the middle and pushing Tudgay to the right.
And then the sort of thing that happens when you’re going down happened – Bristol scored with their only chance of the half. Maynard was allowed time and space on the egde of the box by Purse who showed him the wrong way and neither Spurr nor Beevers got a challenge in before he drilled a low shot past the unfortunate Grant.Post Match
entertainment Oddly
enough this setback seemed to inspire the band and they
turned in their best performance to date.
After the game and with JP
in tow we headed straight off to the
Boardwalk where Bill’s band, The Lost Hybrids, were playing their third
proper
gig. It was high drama when we landed as their bass player was poorly
(although
not so sick that he couldn’t sit in the band room backstage) so Dan, the
lead
guitarist, had to give some last minute tutoring to the drummer from the
headline band who had kindly offered to stand in for the first two
songs.
Trying to put a positive spin on the football isn't easy but here goes: with 15 minutes to go and both Watford and Palace winning I had a bizarre thought that (a) we would lose and (b) that it would help us in the long term. The reasoning behind this is simply that when we go into last day showdowns needing only a point to ensure safety we stuff it up (Man Shitty in '70 and Florest in '90) whereas when we need to win (Sarfend in '76 and Naarch in '08) we do so.
Cheers
Sean (Durruti)