The road to Wembley, so effectively closed by
PNE on Saturday, is open again thanks to
the contraflow that is the Auto Windscreen Shield and Bristol Rovers are the
cones that represent tonight's challenge.
Our last sojourn in this compo left a devastated Saddlers contingent to
make their way home from Hampshire on a Heroic Tuesday night and now having
paid our dues and had our card stamped and we've simply got to win this poxy
competition. Wembley is the lifetime ambition
I have no control over and I’m not certainly going to die until we get there.
At five past nine we were out, 2 - 0 down and having created umpteen chances
and converted none things were looking pretty dire. Seventy five minutes later we were through, I’m not really sure how but in a cup tie the
result dictates. Details about how good or bad we were are exactly that.
Details, in cup ties simply don’t matter.
Pingu, from the spot, reduced the defecit
then Walter Otta levelled matters for the Saddlers and following a tense half
hour of golden goal extra time, or
golden no-goals as it can now be known,
we entered a penalty shoot out.
They scored, we scored, they
missed, we missed and so it went until
Rammell stepped up.
Clearly not wanting
to take it the walk forward was a long one, as was Bob Willis style run
up. The scars of Lincoln still hadn’t
appeared to have healed and despite hammering to ball into the centre of the
goal you got the feeling that they still hadn’t. The net bulged however and we were through. Rambo
was again the hero in an already heroic season and if we continue in this vein
we may just make those Magical Mystical Towers.
To again comeback from two down shows the
level of commitment and character these players have and perhaps one or two
people are beginning to take us seriously.
Maybe even I am.
Manchester City plummet to even greater
depths as they are beaten at home by Mansfield Town 2 - 0 in front of 3007
paying customers. Patience may be
wearing a little thin in Moss Side.