After starting the first half slowly, and just missing the chance to go ahead before the break, it was important to come out swinging, and that is exactly what we did. I’m sure Michael Skubala will have been delighted with the final 35 minutes of the first half, and his message will have been ‘go out there and make it count’. Boy, did we make it count.
Those long throws will always cause a bit of an issue, as will anything Paudie can get his head on, but even that combo can’t possibly have been part of the plan for the third goal. Sure, get the ball in the box and get something on it, but bouncing out to Erik Ring, could anyone have foreseen what happened next? Shades of Andrade against Everton or Rhead against Coventry, I think, a shot so powerful and on such a straight trajectory that if a net hadn’t stopped it, I suspect it would still be orbiting the Earth like a comet. Ring has taken a little time to settle, as expected, but from the highlights, he had a coming-of-age game yesterday.
There is actually a proper scientific term to define this type of shot, where the trajectory is absolutely straight and the power sufficient to avoid any loss of height. It is normally reserved for strikes from outside the area when the ball has bounced before being struck, resulting in a transfer of power that is significantly more than would be expected from a non-moving ball. It’s called a ‘shit pinger’.
Still, even after a shit pinger, 3-2 is a dangerous score, probably, but 4-2 is a little better. So, within seconds, we went and made it four. It looks so easy, but it’s a great team goal. Before anyone starts, Draper was involved, starting the move which also saw Moylan and Makama have touches. The latter then finds Ring, and his ball across is shifted into the net via a cheeky backheel by Moylan. Is it on a par with Ring’s goal? Yes, in my eyes. It was a great team move with a little bit of skill at the end, and while both are different, they’re both exquisite goals.
It’s such a joy to be talking here about good finishes, about taking chances, and truth be told, if we’d take a couple more, it would have been six or seven. However, this is where we had another big test. Scoring the early goals was to Crawley’s detriment, but suddenly we had two early goals of our own. As I’ve said, they can work in your favour, and a two-goal cushion can, indeed, be dangerous. We get a two-goal cushion with 45 minutes to play, and that’s another test. As Chris said, we learned more winning 4-3 than we would winning 3-0, and it tested us more having to now defend a two-goal lead. We defended it from the front of course, attacking and getting at them, but we still had such a long way to go.
Ten minutes to go, the challenge is ramped up even more when they smash a beauty of their own past Wickens, making it 4-3. At that point, you wonder if there’s more, a sting in the tail, but then Roughan runs the length of the field and sees a shot saved. Even without the aid of actual images, I felt the cup tie nerves because the openness came across in the radio coverage. The game had felt like a journey, not such much a game of chess as a brutal round of paintball, especially given how many shots there were. It does feel a little like the scoreline flattered the home side; they had three shots on target and scored them all. But, with six minutes to go and a side suddenly filled with belief after being battered for most of the game, those stats go out of the window, only to be picked over by the likes of me.
We did get over the line and passed the final test. The game had so much that it felt justified that the only people who could see it unfold were those who made the journey. It’s a reward for the 400 or so that a memorable cup tie, a game with everything (except a yellow card for a foul), is one that nobody else saw. The prize for that unswerving commitment is a scintillating battle that I can write about and watch the highlights of but that only those on the ground can claim to have watched in its entirety.
There were other stories to tell on a frenetic afternoon. Tyreece John-Jules didn’t get on the scoresheet, but he didn’t endear himself to Michael Hortin, who felt our former loanee should have been sent off. Tyler Walker made the bench, much to everyone’s excitement, but it was really only to get him in the squad, seeing the game from the dugout, rather than him being a serious prospect to appear. He’s unlikely to make the squad for the Rotherham game, and that won’t be because of a setback but instead just because we can have fewer subs in the league. Adam Jackson made his return and was probably lucky to get away with holding one of their lads just before they scored, but it’s a huge relief to have him back in the squad.
Another huge plus for me is Lewis Montsma. It’s almost gone without saying that his recovery appears complete, but I want to say it. In the summer, we were told it might be a while before he was able to play for the first team and that he would have to be managed – remember, he’s had an ACL injury three times now. Yesterday, he was just Lewis Montsma. He wasn’t a player coming back from a potentially career-ending injury; he was just another member of the first-team squad, contributing to a goal and being an integral part of a memorable performance. Kudos to him and the medical team around him for getting him back there.
Let’s not gloss over some issues as well. Those first two goals were shocking, and we’re still conceding too many. Three shots on target, three goals, and in reality, Wickens could do very little with any of them. We still wasted chances, 14 on target, and only four goals, which Michael doubtless still wishes to rectify. We shouldn’t have been digging deep in the final minutes because our performance warranted a 6-2 lead at that point. Those are things we’ll be dealing with and processing I assume, over the coming days.
However, we had far more to celebrate in a positive manner. The nature of our comeback, the quality of the goals, and the way we kept fighting to ensure we were in the hat are all massive. Key players, like Ethan Hamilton, are coming back to their normal selves, and new faces like Erik Ring are beginning to emerge as talents. Of course, towards the end of this piece, I have to say Jovon’s goal as well – I’m not sure 50% of the fan base have ever wanted a player to score as badly as many wanted him to score yesterday.
We’re in the hat. Tomorrow night we either get our dream draw, or we have to go away somewhere like Wycombe or Charlton and it all feels in vain. Whatever draw we get, yesterday’s game proved that it is not who you play, or where, but what happens on the pitch when we get there, so technically, any draw can be good or bad. We won’t know until the first week of 2025.
Up the Imps.
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