Post-match thoughts v Spurs

The afternoon after the afternoon before. At least in my timezone. I guess this will be more reflective than the hot take I normally give as a stream of consciousness. The match has had time to settle in my mind and I even watched the highlights on catchup on MotD when I got home, although I was three sheets to the wind so can't remember much about it.

Onto the match. I was genuinely perplexed by the selection, which seemed to be accepting that we weren't likely to get anything from the game and so the better option was to protect Smith from getting a suspension. No proper RB against Son? Even if he's having a poor season, that still felt like insanity.

Looking past the end result, the reality was every time they hit that RB channel in the first half they looked dangerous. It was a glaring hole asking to be exploited and we can count ourselves lucky that it only cost us one goal.

And yet... against Arsenal we were tragic gladiator figures. Doomed to left as bodies on the Colosseum floor, a memorable story for those watching with a tearful ending. Against Spurs, we were an indomitable movie boxer who doesn't have the talent of his opponent but has the heart of a lion, taking the blows and standing up to them until you can see fear creeping into the eyes of the classier pugilist.

It's fair to say they didn't expect the resilience we saw out there. After the early first went in, there seemed to be an expectation that we would then roll over. Quite the opposite. And, I have to hold my hand up, I didn't expect to see that level of fight either. I thought the match was probably over, it was just a matter of the score and how many times they found that RB channel.

Say what you like about him, but GON has instilled steel into the mentality of these players. I wonder if the dressing room has a Ted Lasso style 'Believe' sign on the wall because that's the kind of goosebump raising spirit and fight we're seeing from them. It's never quit, never surrender stuff. His tactics might not always be there, but you can't deny he's inspired this group to leave everything on the field of play week after week.

We took our chances with aplomb. Vina looked great out there, a very tidy finish to go with a very tidy performance. Hopefully his injury is only minor as I'd like to see a lot more of him before the season is out.

Solanke menaced them and showed a deft touch to finish. Dango was as cold as ice to get the winner. It just shows if you don't cede the entire pitch against these teams, and put them under pressure when the opportunity arises they aren't invincible.

What a performance of heart, skill, and belief. Memorable stuff from the Cherries.

I posted a while back about how the refs openly admitted in an article how they want to ref the games between the 'special teams'. They call them the Golden Games, and therefore there's an incentive for them not to upset those teams. We saw it again yesterday. Even after last week's VAR disgrace, somehow Kane evaded a yellow card on multiple occasions, and as for the equalising goal not being disallowed... as I said, they wouldn't want to do anything to annoy those teams. The biases as so blatantly obvious something should be done. It won't be though, as football is now so geared toward trying to please the global fans of six teams. As I said prematch, the sooner they piss off to the Pizza Hut World League in association with Coca Cola and Bet365 the better. Football would be so much improved without them and their refereeing cronies corrupting the game to their benefit.

Enough of that though. Yesterday was the day AFCB were an unknown boxer from Philadelphia up against the world champion, and the way they played can be best described in his words:

"It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!"

That's how we won.

----- Positive Performances -----

Solanke - Two assists and a goal to go with his usual tireless running and harassing. Brilliant.

Rothwell - He's waited a long time for his chance in the PL, and he's taking it with both hands. Also brilliant.

The CBs - Snuffed out "England's greatest ever goal scorer", despite the ref giving him every single thing that he could find. Were a touch fortunate not to be punished more by Son but in a great victory you're allowed a little luck.

----- Room for Improvement -----

Nobody I want to highlight in particular. To a man, they gave absolutely everything.


----- GON Watch -----

I'm still not sure which way it's going to go with GON, but this match can be his calling card if he ever has to find himself a new job. It was the kind of performance that should get him interviews elsewhere almost on its own. That's how much he inspired the team. Credit, and more, where it is deservedly due.

I will still point out faults, even in victory. Leaving the Son channel wide open was madness, and we were fortunate to escape without being mauled there. We also started to drop 11 men into our defensive third from the 60th minute. Even in my imbibed state, I was moaning at the screen that we couldn't do that for thirty minutes. Fortunately, it seemed a more sporadic tactic this time and we did sometimes still leave someone pushed up. A slight improvement there.

Still, the day belongs to the man on the sidelines. Like Mickey Goldmill did with his charge, GON had all eleven AFCB players on the pitch eating lightning and crapping thunder out there, and Spurs didn't know how to deal with it. They expected a clean knockout, but we dragged them into a scrap and kept going at them again and again in a relentless style GON instilled until we could land that injury time, final bell punch to win it. All it needed was Tommy to lift Gary up on his shoulders so he could shout "Yo, Adrian, we did it. We did it!"

It's a day we'll never forget as AFCB fans. Not because it was Spurs but because of the manner of the fight, the heart, and the last minute winner in a match we didn't expect to get anything from. At Arsenal, we left bodies on the ground, against Spurs we swaggered out of the stadium with three points and the heavyweight belt around our waist.

That's it. There ain't gonna be no rematch. Until next season.
 
Jim_AFCB said:
For those who have Sky, there will be a full re-run at 8.15pm as our game is now Game Of The Day
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Anyone know if you can watch back the Sky Game of the Day?

Among a load of fails yesterday was allowing my Sky disc to become so full of highlights that recording ceased at 31 minutes.
 
Having watched the second half back, my God we were lucky that Richarlison fluffed that free header at the end. Very poor defending from a set piece again, luckily it didn’t cost us this time. Both Kelly and Solanke nearby but neither challenging. That just can’t happen. My one small gripe about yesterday. We will need to be a lot more switched on than that it the coming weeks.
 
DJ said:
It’s hard to think of anything other than incompetence without turning to big club bias.

It’s all the niggly things as well that can have big influence, like booking Christie for diving when he has been pushed over. Is it a penalty? No, but that doesn’t mean it’s a dive.

Kane fouls Stephens with a nudge, nothing given, seconds later Stephens fouls Kane… free kick to the attacking team in a dangerous position and a booking for Stephens.
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Kane's dive in the penalty area was a simulation but no booking for him?
 
Yes, Kane absolutely definitely wasn't blocking the keepers view or anything. It isn't like Neto is leaning to one side trying to peer around him.

goal.jpg

Another absolute bs decision. I'm glad they got nothing from the match and hope they crash and burn in their CL hopes, and end up in that crap third tier European competition where they can enjoy Thursday nights away in Kazakhstan. The UEFA GM Vauxhall Conference or whatever it is.
 
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