I Want To Cry

GPR 2 AFC Heathrow Reserves 4

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve been to a game, having been out with injury, but upon my return it was nice to see that the Salads upheld the traditional festive spirit, and proved that this time of the season really is all about giving. What for 87 minutes looked like being the first win in this cursed club’s history tragically morphed into complete disaster as we were routed by Heathrow with minutes to spare. Normally I take pride from turning an L into a fun tale of good chat, light-hearted self deprecation and a chance to show Southgate who he really should have taken on the plane to Qatar. This time, however, I’ll just be sticking to the facts.

It’s important to take positives from any game, and Sunday’s relegation 6 pointer was no different. We finally broke our record of conceding in the first few minutes owing to some gutsy defending from Sean and Jack. Better yet, we went up the other end and Rory’s surging drive into the penalty won us a spot-kick that he coolly converted to give us our second ever lead of the season. Ant looked excellent in the number 10 role and gave their back line hell, while Yannick won ball after the ball to keep the game in the opposition half. A great through-ball put Rory ahead and made it 2-0, but was given offside for reasons we still don’t understand.

Soon after, they bundled in a goal from a set piece to equalise that was not given offside for reasons we still don’t understand. By this point we were pretty furious, but the boys went into the break having been the much better side. We kicked off again and scored early on from a corner through Rory yet again, and by this point his goal to game ratio is reaching Mbappe levels, much to the delight of the home crowd. The rest of the second half was tense and nervy, with both teams struggling to defend or attack with complete authority, which was more than understandable given that the two sides were playing with skeleton crews for most of the game. With minutes left it looked certain that we were going to close out the match and take a hard-earned 3 points, and sambucas were being prepared on the touchline.

Then they scored 3 goals in rapid succession. As the title suggests, I wanted to cry. I still do. Fair play to Heathrow though, at least someone left with smiles and a couple of their boys had some unbelievable talent that belies their position in the league.

MOTM 🏆 = Rory’s brace earns him another MOTM, but Sean comes close for some great marshalling and superior aerial threat.

DOTD 💩 = We win as a team, we lose as one. Well, we lose as a team and draw as a team. The elusive first W is yet to come, but come it will.