Page 13 - All at Sea Fanzine Issue 68

February 2018
13
a tight angle – he made it look easy as he smashed the ball home via the underside of the bar. The lead had lasted three minutes.
It was anyone’s game now. Cox hit a swerving, dipping drive that Watson did brilliantly to tip away, and Michael Kightly also forced the youngster into action. Marc- Antoine Fortune was hauled down with an arm to the neck inside the box, but the referee saw nothing wrong.
At the other end, Stephen McLaughlin was in the right place to clear a Curtis Goode header o the line, and Scunthorpe forced a series of corners which had the home fans shu ing nervously in their seats.
Powell seemed reluctant to make changes with the game on a knife-edge, but did bring on Theo Robinson for the tiring Fortune with ten minutes left.
As the game headed towards stoppage time, Blues abandoned their agricultural approach by passing the ball out from the back, into the mid eld where Yearwood picked out the onrushing Kightly. His progress was cynically ended by Burgess, and as a result his afternoon was terminated just as suddenly with a second yellow card.
The big defender’s absence was immediately felt as McLaughlin whipped in the resulting free kick. It was not a erce e ort but Watson had been unsighted by his wall and could only palm the ball out to his right. From a tight angle, Michael Turner slid to send the ball back towards the goal, and Watson could not recover in time. He got a hand to the ball, but could only force it into the side of his own net.
It was a moment of pure ecstasy for the vast majority of the 6,700 inside Roots Hall. Turner wheeled away to the south east corner, arm aloft in celebration and every blue shirted player followed him as they celebrated with supporters who had left their seats to hover by the exit. Not that I noticed this, as I was in my own throes of ecstasy, resulting in keys ying one way and my phone in the other direction (fortunately both were recovered). It exacerbated my hangover headache by about 40 per cent but it was well worth it. Blues rode out a couple of late corners, and the nal whistle was greeted with huge joy and relief.
After the match, we headed to the Spread in a change to our normal routine. We had
intended to go straight home, but after that nale it seemed impossible not to celebrate with a pint. The place was completely jumping, a disco was in full swing, there was barely room to hold your drink and everyone seemed to have a smile on their face as punters embraced and slapped backs in pure joy.
The consensus among people I spoke to was the togetherness and the spirit had returned to the side. They battled for each other and it was such a di erence from that limp display against Fleetwood just a fortnight earlier. It was hard to believe it was the same set of players. Powell’s post- match comments were impressive, singling out people for praise and giving a balanced assessment of the task ahead. He had made a point of shaking the hand of every player as they left the pitch at the nal whistle.
Who knows what Chris Powell’s tenure will bring? Obviously it’s far too early to try and assess his managerial capabilities. But as starts go, we could hardly have asked for more. Previous games had left us wondering why we bother. This one answered those questions emphatically.
Jamie Forsyth @Jaimundo_ESX