Long live the First Division
By Asher Peters
Partners in crap last season, upside down results
this. Sheffield Wednesday looked and sounded almost as
beaten as they did then but still should have scored
more goals than they did in a first half of
unprecedented stupidity.
It was almost surreal - the defences utterly
incapable, chance after chance but Wednesday's giants
unable to score. You know something's up when the guy
in the bookies questions a 3-1 selection on the
grounds the home side would never score; the Watford
Observer had talked up their level of strife. Yet for
most of the first half it was head in hands, Ekoku
missed three or four easy opportunities even before Vernazza
sparked mass betting slip ripping. (Our cockney
Italian is clearly class and we can only smirk at
having nicked someone out of the Premiership for
virtually nish.) A side-foot from the edge of the box
to embellish another commanding performance, combative
not dirty, stylish not elaborate. Even Wednesday can't
pass up as many opportunities as they were given,
though, and both their equalisers were basic and
scything, not that it's hard to scythe through
blancmange.
Sibon lobbed in enough style to ease question marks
over Chamberlain's decision making, at least for a
half hour. It's uneasy viewing when we can get so
close to the Premiership but be so poor in our
defending basics; to be honest though, the sheer, Big
Top craziness of the first half was enough to hide the
evidence of lessons unlearned. Ward stuck in a rare
goal, like Page last year, and deja vu was confirmed
by a second equaliser.
It's hard to explain: the football dumb, simple,
slapstick, shambolic but this is better, for me, than
eking out a Coventry existence in the Premiership
where only your mistakes make any headlines. My team
have got silly weaknesses, but...well...so have I. I
quite like it that way.
Anyway, you have to be crap to appreciate being good,
as we were in the second half. Smith and Helguson
started to resemble a partnership, something we
haven't honestly had for some time. The running was as
excellent as you'd expect but also understanding,
confidence - can we now ignore setbacks like Norwich?
- and no little class. Smith's goal, where as those in
the first half had seemed as significant as points in
basketball, was properly celebrated. Both Sheffield
clubs like to keep the bottom tier free
of fans, so don't believe what you see on Soccer AM.
Stay asleep instead.
Until about eighty minutes gone, we looked like we'd
comfortably close the game out - but we never do that,
and I'm quietly glad really. A mad, inept flurry where,
again, a decent side would have dismissed us, left me
exhilarated not worried - chuckling not grumbling.
We really aren't that good. But we can do slick, shit,
fluid, stupid, tough, fragile - everything I want from
football. It would be boring to win all the time. No,
it would.