Robbo's World 1 - Gillingham Away - 27/03/2010
Well first of all, can I just say what a lovely day it was? It's always a bit of a worry when you go to a ground like Gillingham's with an open terrace, as a bit of rain can really spoil things for the fans, but we were in luck - the sun beat down on us all for the full 90 minutes - I just hope that you all had sunscreen with you.
Our preparations couldn't have gone better - we did the journey in what I believe was the fastest ever time, and we arrived at the ground in time to soak up some rays on the pitch ourselves.
We'd decided on an exciting new formation today, which we decided to call 4-2-3-1, as that's what it was called in the book that I read last night. We hadn't told the team about the new formation, partly because that would risk the opposition finding out about my clever plan, but mainly because that would have spoiled the surprise.
Once the match had kicked off, the players decided to play a bit of a trick on me, by pretending that they didn't have the faintest idea what to do with our new system. It's a trick they've played a few times, and one of the things that makes them out to be different class is that as the season goes on they're getting better and better at that game.
One thing I was very, very pleased to see from the start was that our team were, once again, quick to give the referee their full support. To see players like Leven following the lead that Paul and I set from the touchline, and that Lewie sets so well on the pitch fills me with pride, and makes it clear to me just how much progress we're making. Wherever possible our players were talking to the referee and his assistants, and were making sure he knew how strongly they were supporting him - at times they shouted loudly to make sure he knew, and they also did a lot of pointing, which is certainly something that there wasn't enough of under the Italian who we don't mention around here these days.
Another thing I was very pleased to see was how keen the players were to keep myself and Paul involved during the match. Whenever we had a throw in, or a free kick or set piece of any kind, the players instantly played that other game that I think some of them remember from when Martin thingummy was manager here. Instead of looking like they knew what they were doing, they all stand around looking lost and ask Paul and I who should take the throw in. It's always fun to be involved, and I do have a large number of books on how to do sport, so I can always offer help and advice to the players, but of course they really don't need it. When Paul and I first arrived here, they never used to play that game. They simply used to get on with it themselves, so as you can imagine, I'm really pleased that it's becoming much more of a team spirit around the place. It really shows the progress that we're making.
One rather disappointing moment came just before half-time. The little winger Jermaine left his post a few times and kept wasting his time going into the penalty place, and just to prove how silly an idea it was, he only went and scored a goal. It doesn't matter how many times we've told him how important the system is, he still seems to want to go and spend his time away from his post, and spend more time closer to Aaron. If we wanted another striker we'd have gone and brought one - don't let's see you leaving your post again young sir! You're a winger, and that means you must stay away from the striker man, otherwise who knows what would happen...
Anyway, we were quite excited at half time - we had scored twice as many goals as they had, and they had less players than we did for some reason or other (I know I've read a chapter about that in one of my sport books, but I can't remember much about it) so we had the opportunity to show just how good we are at doing sport. Paul and I chatted for a while about what we should do, and it seemed clear to us that there was one thing that we've not been very good at over the past entire season, and that was this:
We hadn't been very good at not throwing away leads whenever we got in front and started mucking about with the defence! What a brilliant opportunity to show how much progress we are making! So at a stroke, we decided that we'd better jolly well get on with mucking about with the defence, and so we did!
First of all, we swapped one of the central defenders for another one who's not very fit yet, to make sure that no-one could say that we weren't mucking about properly. To be honest, it worked very well, and we were passing the ball around, sideways and back, sideways and back, but I still didn't feel like we'd proved how clever we were at doing sport yet. That's when I came up with an even better plan! I brought off one of the players who play in the middle (I'm not sure if he was one of the 2 or one of the 3, but I checked with him, and neither was he, so I don't think it's important) and replaced him with one of the players who play closer to the goal minder. That's caused us problems just about every time I've done that this season, so what better way to show how much progress we're making, than by doing it again!
Now we may have conceded a goal within minutes of that last change, but that was definitely the referees fault. The referee made the player from the other team completely outrun the not-yet-fit player that I'd put on, and the team followed the lead from that and played the "we don't know what we're doing again" game for pretty much the rest of the match.
Now you probably now that my friend Paul was made to go and sit somewhere else by the referee, and I'd just like to state for the record that Paul was simply showing his support for the referee in his usual way. Some people out there (who certainly don't have as many sporting books as I do) have suggested that the way Paul and I complain and moan and shout and scream and stamp and yell and point (a lot of pointing of course) at the officials all the time is nothing more than the behaviour of spoilt, petulant children, but they couldn't be more wrong. It's something that we're very proud of, and shows the progress that we're making as a team - they players have got a record number of yellow commendation cards from the officials this season, and that doesn't happen by accident. We even got another five today! And people say we're not making progress?
Anyway, the players and I are off to the beach to soak up some more of this lovely weather - see you for the Charlton match...
Robbo.