There was absolutely no problem either finding a parking spot or a place at the urinal at the STRIKERS' game last night. I think the Sunday Wail estimated the crowd at 1700 this morning. Seventeen bleeding hundred! The despondancy was almost palpable with small numbers at O'Leary's before the game and the Banana Army both diminished and fragmented at the ground. It looks like the run of bad results and the negative publicity are really biting now and we could be in very serious trouble. Just before the game I noticed Kossie staring up in a rather resigned manner at the rows of empty seats.
The game itself was, to be generous, pedestrian. Sydney United are a very poor side. So bad that I didn't see a single Croatian national strip in the crowd and they used to turn up in numbers in the good old days. The Mad Bull was out, according to the paper, recovering from an injury, but he did play a full game for the Institute earlier in the evening. I hope he will be picked again before the season is over. He has deficiencies, but is, nevertheless, usually up for it.
I guess the STRIKERS more or less held their own in the first half and created two very good chances. Fossie heading over the top from under the bar when to do so deliberately would seem to have been a difficult task, and another powerful shot into the left side netting. I can only recall one long range effort from United and Clint had a very easy time in the first 45 minutes. It was very frustrating not to put away such weak opposition and by half time several were pessimistacally predicting that we would dominate and lose again. Heaven knows, we had played much better and lost earlier in the season.
If anything, I think both teams were a little worse in the second half. Eventually, however we did craft a reasonable series of passes on a couple of occasions, "It's just like watching Brazil", and ultimately Velimir Kupresak (who had been accused of pie theft several times) and Jeromy Harris contested a ball in the Sydney United area and the ball deflected into the net. One nil and quite a subdued response from the diminutive home crowd. Suddenly United started to play a bit, and I wondered why they waited until they were losing before they did. For five or ten minutes they looked superior to us and , but for Bolton, would have scored.
Then they settled back into mediocrity which we had no trouble matching. We survived 6 minutes of added time and and left the stadium feeling rather less than elated then is usual after a win. One good thing to come out of the evening was the nicknaming of Wade Baldwin as Baldrick. Unfortunately, if he did have a cunning plan , it didn't work. Come to think of it, we really do need a cunning, or any other kind of plan, for that matter, to save our team up here. As our revered leader asked in the "Free Kick", where are the club's leaders now, when we need them most? Are the STRIKERS really being run by Jane in the office with group of volunteers, Kossie,, the team and us, the supporters? "All we are saying, is give us a leader!"