Very good SuffolkSuffolk Blue wrote:Well the highlights speak for themselves. However the post-match with PC reveal a man deeply disappointed with our first half performance. For those who weren't there it is really difficult to overstate how rank we were. They slept walked onto the pitch, allowed the opposition as much space as they wanted, conceded virtually everything in the air, were completely dominated by a positive, mobile and versatile Aldershot, played hoof ball extremely badly and when they did break the defensive line (in truth the Aldershot defense looked a little brittle when tested) couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo (Bennetts header excepted). The mood amongst the travelling support at half-time was funereal and the consensus was that based on that performance our play-off hopes could be laid to rest. We were expecting 3,4 or god forbid even worse. I was steeling myself with memories of numerous thrashings at Rushden & Diamonds, remembering Bromley last season, and how miserable those days were.
However this was not an ordinary day. As a supporter, you can have some good days, certainly many pretty uneventful ones and definitely many poor or bad ones. But on rare occasions, very rare, the experience transcends the normal and becomes emotional. That's what happened in the second half. Don't get me wrong, in truth we weren't that great in the second half - though we couldn't get much worse. But the mixture of bile, frustration, anger, disappointment and embarrassment began to build an atmosphere that enveloped players, management and supporters (both home and away) alike. When this happens things can go off script and you end up with something completely unpredictable. That's that's what happened in the last thirty minutes. It become a match played to a different set of rules.
The Tuton goal was pivotal in this and typical of what I mean. The move started with Diarra shanking the ball in front of Flatt to a howl of anger from the BAFC contingent and jeers of derision and laughter from the home fans. What happened next as you can see from the highlights was so out of keeping with our previous efforts, that I think even we in the away end struggled with a bit at first. Out of chaos came one of the best individual efforts I've ever seen from a Barrow player. This really stung Aldershot who until then were in total control. It changed their approach to the game. What they should've done is to keep coming forward - we were still the same team they had outclassed in the first half. However they chose to hold on to what they had and began to play keep ball.
My view is that it was this combined with the BAFC players continuing frustration with themselves that created a very tetchy physical last 20 minutes - though it has to be said that we agreed at half time that we wouldn't end the game with 22 on the field. The referee contributed to all of this obviously at one point appearing to wander along the touchline trying book members of the BAFC subs bench. 10 men then nine. God knows how many minutes injury time. The game was now well out of anybody's control. But Aldershot sat back - 11v10, 11v9 - the game was in their pocket. Only they had forgotten the law of sod - which says that in these circumstances what should be highly unlikely is almost bound to happen (does anybody remember Red Dwarf and their improbability machine)? Hannah's strike (which most of us were screaming for him to lump it on to Bennetts head in the box) was probably a 1 in ten, maybe even a one in 20 - from 30 yards minimum he actually puts it over the keeper into the top corner - just about the only place he could score. Cue pandemonium, the away end in meltdown, the home fans in shock. The little cameo that lasted a minute or so after the re-start illustrated just how bizarre this game had ended up - Aldershot making a cavalry charge straight down the pitch trying to barge their way like a rugby pack towards the barrow goal. Completely nuts. If that game had lasted five or ten minutes more I really believe we might have won it - probably by means of an Aldershot own goal from outside the box.
I will let others pick the bones out what was otherwise a dire performance and what happened in the end should not in any way disguise this. But its a very long time since I got so wound up that I actually ended up having a man hug during a game which might seem a little pathetic......but then again you just had to be there.
Sounds a poor performance but the 2 Barrow goals and celebrations must of been worth the trip and the entrance fee alone......
