The beginning of the match was suitably enlivened by what appeared to be the mother of all cock-ups by the club. It seemed that some season ticket holders who had selected the auto-cup option had had their tickets sold again.
Cue much “I’m sorry but I think you’re sitting in my seat” type conversations luckily all of which were very good natured. The chief steward (or bloke who wears an illuminous green jacket rather than one of the orange ones) was going over and above the call of duty to try and sort it out but he wasn’t helped by a female colleague whose solution to the situation involved walking away and pretending not to hear peoples request for help, just when it was most needed. Thank God nothing more worrying than people having to move from one seat to another was going on as she was worse than useless.
Luckily the situation was resolved quickly as this was the Carling Cup and the Upper Rous most certainly wasn’t sold out. Illuminous Green was heard to mutter something along the lines of ‘they’ve mucked it up again’ because, of course, there was another ticketing incident against Bristol Rovers in the last round. I’m surprised nothing has appeared on the offical site about this one, as it certainly inconvenienced some spectators for the first ten minutes of the match.
And you do think ‘come on this is the Carling Cup’. With due respect to each of our opponents so far in the competition neither should exactly be a cause for queues at the turnstiles and people having trouble getting in. After the first round display you’d think they’d be letting us in for free rather than giving people more reasons to stay away!
The officials got in on the incompetence in the first 20 seconds when the subtly dressed Darlo goalkeeper who looked like he’d forgotten his top and had to borrow a stewards charged out of his goalmouth to catch the ball and stepped out of the penalty area. The whole stadium spotted this except the linesman and referee and they win the award for the earliest abuse ever received at a match by the men in black (or mouldy green as it was last night).
After these events the entertainment subsided considerably for the next 120 minutes. It was more officials incompetence that lead to our goal as the same linesmen missed an obvious offside allowing Damian Francis to fire past the keeper to put us one up.
Other than this Francis was dreadful and eventually was taken off in the second half. Interstingly we then had the second petulant substituted display in two matches as he trooped off straight down the tunnel. Just how unhappy is our midfield at the moment?
It looked like we’d be allowed home early until Darlo managed to bounce the ball over Scott Loach with seconds remaining to make it 1-1.
Extra time passed in a similiar mind numbing double maths type fashion and just when it seemed our patience would be rewarded with the excitement of penalties John-Joe O’Toole blasted the ball into the back of the net to deny us even this small pleasure.
A poor performance in general especially from those who were there to steady the ship for the youngsters in the side with the exception of Sadler and Doyley who were good as always. Lewis Young looks like he might be at least half of the player his brother is, whilst unfortunately Ainsworth began to look like he is only half the player we thought he was.
For the third time this year the opposition got a better reception from the home faithful than the ‘Orns did at the final whistle and deservedly so. The Darlo fans should also have got an ovation. 200 of them made the trip but unlike many in the Rous and Rookery they did all seem to stay until the end, even though they had by far the longer journey home.
