Cobham

The last time I was in Cobham was in the very early part of the 22/23 season, as we travelled to the stockbroker belt to take on the side- then a step below us- in the FA Cup. We'd avoided relegation by a ballhair the previous season and our preseason form hadn't been great. I was nervous going into the game, our first competitive fixture of the season. We humped the home side 3-0 and I went home thinking everything was going to be ok.

Aye.

Vibes were better going into Saturday's league game with Cobham. We'd had a couple of pretty poor defeats last two, but generally Tooting and Mitcham are looking up, not down these days. We're inconsistent, but we're winning games and it's never boring.

I could take a bit of boredom.

Cobham's a decent away day, all-in. A single train out of Wimbledon is always appreciated, less so the hike from the station to the ground, which is too long and too sparsely populated by pubs to be deemed worth it. The travelling Irish Lot, of which I am part, found a couple of the watering holes on the route. The Plough isn't my cup of tea, particularly. It was full of people who look like they mostly drink their pints during apres ski. Hordes of 20 somethings eating £20 fish and chips in Hackett gear, and tables of three generation diners, with a designated driver in a gilet. The pint was fine but it's not the natural environment for your common away supporter, which is very much what the Irish Lot must have seemed to the denizens of Cobham. We doffed our dunchers as we left, of course, leaving the regulars to try to figure out which of the local gardens we were off to tend to that afternoon.

The next pub, the Running Mare, was a better bet it turned out. We arrived in time to see Liverpool equalise and left before I'd had enough to drink to say hello to former West Ham, Chelsea, Portsmouth, Liverpool, Sunderland and ENgland full back Glen Johnson, who was drinking Italian lager at the bar in much the same way I expect every financially comfortable former footballer to do in the south east of England. The Guinness was fine, we got on our way.

We should be able to beat Cobham, really. That's a fixture you look at and think "let's beat these now". Right or wrong, we're Tooting, they're no big deal in this division and we're probably trying to make play offs. Or at least we should be. They're well down the league, although above Epsom who made light work of us recently. But I just expect Tooting to win these games.

On Saturday we didn't. They weren't that good, but neither were we, really. I guess it's hard when half of your back four are making their debuts. Shay had two chances and scored them both. Tom Theobald mercifully saved a penalty when they were winning 1-0, or one worries it might have panned out worse. Andy O'Brien started his Tooting career well enough and one hopes that eventually there'll be a strong relationship between himself and Jayden Hutchings. It was great to see Sid back, and his assist for Shay was great.

I feel we're missing some of the fizz we had early in the season when Marcus and Warren were giving sides real issues in wide areas. I feel we miss the goal threat and nouse that Kieran Campbell brought. Blake has started brilliantly at Tooting, but I definitely feel there's room in this squad for another lad who looks capable of double figures of goals.

We didn't lose, and that was important. But we have to find a groove, we have to put some results together and look up the table. These blips, or troughs, they're tough and they cost a lot because you lose ground really fast. I dunno.

The travelling support was fucking brilliant, by the way. Tim, Ant, Ty, the lads were in fine voice. It was *relentless* from the travelling Bog End, genuinely. We never stopped. I know the lads appreciate it, I know they do, so we look to them to fulfil their side of the covenant. No slow starts, no rescue jobs, let's get out and just beat some teams without it being a thing. As Harry said in last week's podcast- learn. Learn from other sides, learn from defeats.

This is the least vibey piece I've written in ages. Probably says more about me.

Anyway, fuck it. Come on, Stripes. Back up that table.