Huge sighs of relief all round at the news the winner won’t have to face Them in the next round. The fortunate thing about it was it was enough to seduce ITV into naming the game as its fixture of choice, meaning the winner of our replay not only gets to face a proper football club in the next round, they will also pick up a six figure sum once prize money and TV money is taken into account.
While we are on the subject of Them, I notice their old message board has been closed, replaced by a version which is readable without registration, thus subjecting the rest of the world (or anyone who bothers searching for it) to their inane chatter. And it doesn’t cast them in a good light. I thought I was ignorant (last night for example I turned down an invitation for a party celebrating the release of Aung San Suu Khi because I mistook it for a Twinings marketing event…), but they push the boundary that little bit further. Every town has its weirdos and knobheads, up in MK they seem to gather in one place…
But onto more pressing matters… two proper football clubs face off to decide who goes on to play another proper football club in Round Two of the FA Cup. And of course its on a Thursday, for some reason. I wouldn’t mind Thursday games if the positive (being closer to the weekend) wasn’t overwhelmingly outweighed by the negative (Kettering game switched to a Sunday…). What is strange is its only November and this isn’t the first time we have been asked to play on the weirdest night of the football week. We are of course both getting paid a load of money, and at least the TV company involved isn’t the same one that thinks its a good idea to switch our longest away trip of the season to a Friday night (and that could have been worse, it could have been a Monday…).
You wonder exactly how this is going to affect the Dons players. They had the chance to play in what they rightly or wrongly considered to be THE fixture, and now Stevenage have taken it away from them. My advice to them will be make them pay. But first, make sure you beat Ebbsfleet in the ultimate banana skin game. It will be easy to suggest Ebbsfleet have missed their chance, but the Dons patchy couple of road games since the initial fixture won’t have Dons fans travelling in complete confidence. Plus Ebbsfleet themselves have developed a nice little habit of winning football matches. Oh, and TB, despite being a cautious type, somehow mentioned the Third Round in his pre match O/S comments – the ultimate bad omen if ever one was needed.
It seems as though we won’t have to rely entirely on the youth at the back, thanks to the return of the not-exactly-veteran Brett Johnson. Christian Jolley serves the final game of the ridiculous ban for his laughable red card in the first game, and Lee Minshull appears to be injured again, which ever the observant one I managed to miss… At least the virus that swept the club at the weekend seems to have died off, with Jon Main returning.
I’m not going to guess the side because for some reason I think TB might have something up his sleeve for this one. Maybe thats wishful thinking, but I’ll be interested to see what line-up, and more importantly formation, he chooses tomorrow night. Whatever he decides, one thing is important and that is our support. I hope not too many of you have been put off by the televised status/potential cold and rain… tomorrow your team may need you…
The Anonymous Don 