More chaos but a win
By Leipziger
December 15 2008
“Each game tends to have at least one quirk” said this supporter just 2 days ago. For a long time, yesterday was a pretty ordinary matchday, memorable only for the disappointment in a rare and vital win, and the Slackers' chocolate chip shortbread. Mmm. But somewhere in the Midlands and around 8pm last night, it all kicked off as Leipy Trains lived up to its unfortunate reputation once again...
First though, to matters on the pitch. This is how the match report I wrote on the way to York last night looked:
Our Falcons struggled and spluttered to a tight win against Overmach Parma yesterday to keep alive hopes of a quarter-final place in the European Challenge Cup, although we missed out on what would've been a vital bonus point in the quest for a home tie.
That's all assuming we beat Brive at KP next month of course, which isn't at all certain after we struggled to put away the team from the town of cheese, milk and ham. Yes, they are the best Italian team we've played in years, but we should still have been looking for a bonus point.
As it was, we had to be content with three tries, but Parma played well so maybe we should just be content with the win. It was out first at home or over two months after all.
Parma started better and took the lead with an early penalty as the Falcons found it hard to move forward, even with a succession of box kicks from Micky Young. Hold on, I thought Tom May was the secondary kicking option? Then again, regular full-back Steve Jones is for me one of our best kickers from hand. Another bizarre decision.
It was Young who scored our first try, spotting a gap on the right and diving in, and Rob Miller, who bar a couple of little errors had a decent game, scored the tricky conversion. The score came after a spell of possession forced Parma to repeatedly infringe and Attie Winter was eventually sin-binned.
Young was the eventual man of the match, and indeed he was very efficient at the breakdown, in contrast to Jimmy von Waveyerarms. I personally thought the pacy and dangerous Tim Visser was our best player, but Young did well too. Why are these people wasting their time in Division 2?
Barry Irving scored a second penalty for the visitors but a try and conversion by Miller put us in control of the scoreboard, if not necessarily the game, at 14-6.
So far so good, we haven't been ahead at half-time very often this season, but the same again in the second half and we'd have the required five points.
Parma looked to repeat the course with another early penalty, and although we pressured earlier in the second period, the Falcons were still making things hard for themselves, missing an overlap on the right and meeting with strong defence while dropping a few balls, until finally a move left saw Jamie Noon free on the touchline and our captain scored easily.
Miller maintained his perfect kicking record for the afternoon with the conversion, but that was the last we South Standers saw at our end for a while as the game became a midfield battle on the cut-up KP pitch.
Parma ensured a nervy finish with a try of their own by replacement Juan Martin Soffredini, and the conversion put them just five points behind.
Predictably the Falcons camped in the away 22 in the last five or ten minutes, roared on by the crowd of 3,902 who seemed to forget that we were winning and focused on the bonus point.
But it wasn't to be, Parma ending the match by kicking into touch, seemingly happy with a losing BP, even though the result all but ended their interest in the competition.
Compared to when we beat Northampton, Bristol or even El Salvador, the mood was subdued at the final whistle, maybe because we hadn't achieved exactly what we needed to. But it was a win after four home defeats in a row, and the players deserved recognition for that.
Yes, most of the time this performance probably wouldn't have been good enough to beat a Premiership or French side, but in the context of the season we just need wins, a bit of confidence and hopefully over the last two weekends the team have found some.
I'm a firm believer in trying to win every game rather than prioritising when we don't really have to, after all it didn't do us any good in the semi-final last season. But if it could guarantee us beating Worcester and Gloucester in the coming weeks I'd have been happy for us to lose yesterday and to Brive next month.
Yesterday's win was a bonus, and if we can go far in the Challenge Cup then great, but on Saturday the real business resumes at Welford Road.
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Yes, so I got the train from Newcastle at 18.55, expecting to be in London by 22.15, home by 11 and then sleep a bit for work this morning. All was going well until we arrived in York around 8pm, to hear that there were overhead line problems in Newark, and that we'd be held in York for a while. A few further announcements gave no more information.
Until at almost 9pm, it was announced that tickets for yesterday would be valid today, suggesting we weren't going to be going anywhere anytime soon. Now I was considering whether to just go back to Newcastle and work from there this morning.
The only other option was sticking it out, and if I got to London in the early hours I could've just gone to our office in North London to work on other projects with my night shift guys up there, freeing up the day people to cover my work later. The normal office I work in is just two Tube stops from Kings Cross, and easily within walking distance, but I didn't have me keys so that was a non-starter.
That was presuming I actually made it to London. If I'd ended up having to find somewhere to stay in York, I wouldn't have been in London until after 8am, with no internet access before that, and I wouldn't have been any use to anyone, so...
There was a train going to Newcastle at 21.08, and the later ones were all delayed (whether from London or Manchester), so I rang the gaffer with a heads up, called my man Patrick to make sure he wouldn't forget his keys again, and headed back up north, warning Ma Leipy of my impending return. Seems to have been a wise decision, as anyone who saw the news this morning will have seen that some trains were delayed up to SIX HOURS during the night!
Ma wasn't too happy to be woken up at 11pm to have to let me into her house, but I was desperate. And then this morning, I got up at half 5, straight downstairs to work before getting an 11am train back to London as I'm in the kitchen tonight.
It's three and a half years since I moved to London, and after a Sunday game I've never even been delayed so much that I've had to unexpectedly get a night bus home. Indeed, the first Sunday game after I started the job I didn't get home until almost 1am, but was in for 7 the next morning. I suppose it all had to come at once!
At least I already have the day off after the Gloucester game in January, as I know I won't get home until at least 1am that night. What a pulaver! But don't regret a bit of it, great to see everyone at the match yesterday and cheer the team to a rare win! Roll on Leicester!
I really think we'll sneak a win against Wuss and we pushed Glaws really close last time. The beating Bristol on feb 13 is a must.
We'd better beat Worcester, we are in the middle of a relegation battle and if we lose that, with the games we have left, it'd be hard to see us staying up.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:12:16:14:27:42 by Leipziger.