This is a low

It’s late on Monday night. I’ve been tentatively checking the BBC Sports page all day half expecting to hear that Lawrie Sanchez has been called to an emergency meeting at Harrods. Its not happened yet, but I’m not ruling it out before the end of the week. As previously posted I didn’t go on Saturday as it was Mrs C’s birthday weekend. It looks like I picked the right game to miss.

My friend Mark turned up to collect my season ticket about an hour before kick-off. He was cutting it fine and didn’t look particularly excited about going. It was cold and getting dark and for the first time since I can remember I didn’t feel a pang of regret that I was not going as well. I might have missed a key game, a turning point in the season, a dramatic return to form, but my gut feeling was that I wouldn’t. I avoided checking on the score until quite late on. Still 0-0 but not much to write home about. I turned off the PC and waited to hear from my “roving reporters”.

Mark’s text summed it up fairly succinctly, “Lost 1-0, Sanchez Out”. Bugger. I got a late text from my Dad along similar lines, which he followed up in the previous comments thus “As for the game, I have never felt so disappointed with our team. Nothing to cheer or get excited about to make it worth going. You know my thoughts on LS from the first day he was appointed and he has done nothing since to prove me wrong! I don't hold out much chance of us beating Wigan next Saturday unless the players start playing football - on the ground with some decent passing instead of this persistent head-tennis. Junior was really unlucky if the penalty was down to him but he is the only one who seems to know what they should be doing. Also who advised Al Fayed that LS was the manager we needed? Also who persuaded him to spend more money than Chris Coleman saw in his entire management period? That is someone else who should be given his cards!”.

Not good then. Our worst fears realised. The end of the road for Sanchez? I think it’s certainly close. If it’s not then he has a massive task to pick the team up ahead of Wigan on Saturday. I will be going to that game and, perversely, I am actually looking forward to it. Wigan are in a bit of form, I watched a very entertaining MOTD on Saturday which included their 5-3 goal-fest against Blackburn. We’ll have to up our game 200% if we’re going to win but I wonder if having reached a new low we might find we can play with less fear of failure.