Halloween, and it looks pretty nightmarish as we
arrive late. A bit too late really.
Although it’s only five past three the walk
along the side of the Memorial Ground was a painful one. One nil down inside
three minutes was pain enough but two nil inside the first four minutes is
probably like having to pick up a remote control box up.
Two goals down, almost
certain defeat, the rain in full effect and I hand over a tenner for admission.
A tenner (or in modern currency four Kebab vouchers) to get soaked watching us
lose again. Now to be honest the blokes in white coats should be having a quiet
word by this time but it never once crossed my mind to save the money and
return to the pub. This surely means I am either mentally unstable, pissed or
blindly loyal. All three are a probability.
Rammell and
Green return from injury with Roper and the unlucky Platt stepping aside.
Rovers had the chance to make it three inside the first ten minutes but the
impressive Hayles took too long when he should really have scored. The boys
seemed to take heart from this and inched their way back into the game. Wrack and Brissett had chances before Pingu
smashed one home from the edge of the area. We were back in a game that was out
of reach twenty minutes ago.
We created more chances with some top quality
movement and Rammell causing the Bristol defence problems with both his
strength and his desire for the ball. On the stroke of half time some great
movement and interplay left Pointon with the chance to cross low and hard into
the danger area and OG popped up again to steer the ball beyond the helpless
keeper and into the net. The 500 or so Saddlers fans went barmy. 2 - 2 at half
time was more than we could have asked for.
Five minutes into the second half
Hayles scored for Rovers and our number looked up. Coming back again was going
to be very hard. Rovers seemed content to smother the game by using the offside
trap and this, with the aid of a poor linesman, helped to break our game up.
Rovers then tried to break the game up even more by making three substitutions
while we were pushing hard but they just couldn’t stop the Red baron that is
Andy Rammell.
Ten minutes to go and the ball broke to Brissett on the left side
and a perfect cross was met on the six yard box by the big fella and the rest
is obvious. To have to type he scored is probably insulting to Rambo because he
was never going to miss from there. 3 each and a salvaged point from the ruins
of the first five minutes was a more than creditable return. We tried throw it
away but Walker saved brilliantly from the ever annoying Jamie Cureton and a
point was ours.
Not on your life. In the last minute of normal time, instead of
doing the sensible thing and holding the ball in the corner of the pitch and
keeping possession Lambert crossed deep into the home penalty area and Pingu
snatched the points. I can’t really remember what happened because I went
apeshit but after all that went before who cares?
The referee,
a certain Paul Dirkin, played nine and a half minutes overtime following a
lengthy pause in the second half and it felt like nine and a half weeks. We
kept the ball brilliantly in this time and killed the game off as well as we
did against Blackpool. Pingu probably took man of the match but to say we have
missed Rammell would be one hell of an understatement.
In many ways the match itself typified the
spirit of Andy Rammell as we simply never gave up and in the end we got
everything that we worked for. Perhaps we could start a new religion - ‘The
Church of Rammell’ or preferably a footballing
philosophy - ‘Rammelism’. What a man.