Monday, January 09, 2006
Nuneaton 1 Boro 1
Oh dear, oh dear! What next? The third round of the FA Cup is filled with romance, everyone knows that - it is the only time that non-league sides can compete with top flight opponents and potentially upset them. Burton held Man Utd and Tamworth are still in the hat too, so no disgrace in failing to overcome a team almost 100 places below us in the pecking order... Yes there bloody is!!! I mean come on, even at half pace this should have been 5-0 to the Boro, I wouldn't have been too happy with anything less. But no, it's yet more embarrassment for players earning 20 times more money than our lowly opponents who, let's face it, outplayed us for most of the game.Typically, things looked OK early on when Mendieta curled in a delicious free kick to put us one up after 14 minutes, but after that we used the game as an excuse for a bit of a rest and turned on the auto-pilot. Always fatal in this competition, and so it proved as the underdogs fought and fought until their hard work finally paid off in the 89th minute with a deserved penalty following a Gareth Southgate hand ball. Hats off to them, naturally, everyone loves to see the little man have his day in the sun and now they will have the thrill of a run out at the Riverside. And if they play like they did on Saturday they just might win...
Surely things cannot get any worse? Let's hope that this is the low point and everything will start to look up from here. The winner of this tie will face beatable Coventry away from home and in-form we should coast past them. Unfortunate to say that in-form we are anything but.
My MOTM: Gaizka Mendieta for the only touch of class in a shabby display.
