Fleet

The headline is, or should be, that Fleet are probably a team that we should be beating. For my money we were better than them all round the pitch.

It’s very Tooting, though, that games start with the support thinking “we’re better than these and should win” and ends with the support holding its collective breath for fear that the opposition might sneak one.

The day started beautifully and Fleet away is one that support should do. One train from Clapham Junction, a delightful distance of “just under an hour”. Couple of train beers in that time, speeding through the stockbroker belt. Amusement on the journey was off the back of the train conductor, who is the kind of guy I imagine is really enjoying the direction of travel of Keir Starmer’s new New Labour. With the promise of cracking down on feet on seats (“it is CRIMINAL DAMAGE and the police will arrest you”) and fare evasion (“if there are any officers on board, can you please come to carriage 6 where we have a fare evader. Ladies and gentlemen the train will be delayed at the next station due to a FARE EVADER”), you imagine this is the kind of cunt who presses his trousers before getting a boner in them for low-rent public transport tyranny. His love of his own voice did not extend to actually conveying useful info regarding the splitting of the train, which he told us was going to happen, but steadfastly didn’t give us any advance warning as to which end was going where. Briefcase Labour. Crackdowns on shit no-one cares about and no genuine help. This lad will be on the ballot next autumn.

Fleet, though, the perfect away. 10 minute walk from the station to the high street, couple of nice pubs, a Wetherspoons for those who observe them, and 10 minutes beyond that a very pretty ground. Nice bar with the sport on, a cute stand, a match day announcer who rather enjoyed the travelling fans’ amusement at his efforts to name the Tooting team. Bless him he was tired by the time he got to Kieran Campbell, so to arrive at Justus and Piotr as the last two names on the bench must have been an absolute pain in the hole.

And yes- Kieran Campbell. Seeing his name on the team sheet was a very pleasant surprise as he had mentioned on his socials that he was taking some time off Saturday football. Kieran’s been great in his short time at Tooting, racking up plenty of goal involvements and we need him in the team. Doubly so when Shay Brennan is unavailable. Of course, the priority is that Kieran’s well in himself, but I hope he knows he is appreciated in a Tooting shirt.

Tooting started brilliantly and we could have been a goal up within a minute or two. Marcus was busy as ever, Nathan Best was a problem on occasion and Kieran was doing Kieran things. Deji and James are strong in the middle and will, hopefully, develop a good partnership in there. Warren was playing a little too deep for my personal taste, but he was all over the park and never less than 100%.

We didn’t score and their ‘keeper didn’t have a save to make, as far as I can recall. The bottom line is that we’re far, far less of a problem to opposition defence when Shay’s not available. Now it is of no surprise whatsoever that missing your top scorer is going to be an issue, but if Shay’s regularly unavailable I figure plan B can’t just be plan A but with Kieran playing at 9 and A N Other behind him. It’s shayme Brennan wasn’t around, because it was an eminently winnable fixture and it would have been good to overturn poor recent league results. I think we absolutely would have won the game if Shay plays 45 at Fleet. Is what it is.

On a positive note, after shipping 9 in our previous two league games we kept a clean sheet. Sonic played well at right back and it was good to hear a bit of vocals from Jayden Hutchings. We need more of that. A lot more of that. We started the season with Sol and Penfold at centre half and we effectively had 90 minutes of surround sound scripting. Losing Sol to retirement and Penny to injury has seen a fairly detrimental downturn in chat on the pitch. Perhaps yesterday was the start of lads taking on that mantle. That would be good.

So yeah, a point. We’ll take the point, the clean sheet, the lessons up front. We’ll take Fleet Town away in an Indian summer.

A win next, please.

Up the Stripes