There’s a moment in the game when England beat Germany 5-1 in 2001 when the camera cuts to Sven-Goran Eriksson on the bench and he’s wearing a face like the guy whose number’s just come up on the roulette wheel in Vegas, a look of almost embarrassed disbelief.
I suspect Craig Nelson’s had one or two of those moments over the Bank Holiday weekend. First we dismantled Cray on Saturday, then we stuck a last-minute winner past Whitehawk in the Sussex derby in front of a massive crowd. “What the hell’s happening, Baz?” someone asked me after the game yesterday. Buggered if I know, John, but let’s enjoy the hell out of it while it lasts.
Of course, all the forum pundits have their own theory as to why we’ve started so ridiculously brightly. We’re defending like a unit, none of that tippy-tappy nonsense around the box, two Shredded Wheat instead of three. Only Craig and his team know, but (and, yes, here comes my personal theory), I bet it’s not guesswork.
Because if there’s one thing I’ve noticed in the four games I’ve seen so far, they take a very different approach to the half-time break than most Non-League managers.
Yesterday, we didn’t have a great first half. Whitehawk pressed the hell out of us, created the better chances, were perhaps a little unfortunate to go for a chug on the Lucozade with only one goal to their name. Chris Whelpdale (recently of this parish) was magnificent, no more so than when Charlie Walker lobbed a lovely ball over the top for him and he ran on to plant it past Toby Bull.
Much work to do at half-time, then, and most managers (including some I’ve worked with) would have raced up to the dressing room so they could slam the door behind the last player to get up the stairs and let them have it. Instead, Craig and his team – as they have done for every game so far – spent a couple of minutes on the pitch, listening to what the iPad-wielding analyst had to say and calmly discussing a plan before taking it up to the dressing room. (I mean, I assume that’s what they were discussing. They could have been talking about last night’s EastEnders for all I know, but let’s give them the benefit of the doubt.)
The second half was better. Much better. We won more of the 50-50s, moved the ball more quickly, got Danny Bassett running the channels instead of fighting a losing grappling contest with the massive number 6. And it was this switch to running at the centre-back instead of wrestling with him that led to the equaliser, with Bassett giving himself five yards of space to pick up Sablier’s deft through ball before breezing past the 6 (who’s not built for speed) and planting a lovely shot into the top corner.
With no disrespect to Danny, that goal was merely the warm-up act for the big finish. Josh Williams had been fairly quiet after replacing Shae Hutchinson midway through the second half. He was eventually switched to the right when Tolu Ladapo entered the fray, and that proved to be a wonderful decision.
He picked up a Bassett ball that a defender failed to cut out, but by the time it reached him, he’s in the arse end of nowhere. If he’s driving a minicab, even the office wouldn’t have the front to say he’s “five minutes away” when you ring to find out where he is.
No matter, because this boy’s got afterburners fitted. He blasts pasts the substitute Taggart like me racing to the burger stall at half-time, then cuts inside our WWE friend, the unit of a centre-back. Now about ten yards from goal, he lets fly. If there’s not a net in the way of his shot, he’s just knocked down one of the most iconic buildings in Non-League. But there is a net, and he’s found the back of it, and I’ve not heard noise like it in The Dripping Pan for a long, long time. If ever.
Middle-aged men and women are leaping around like puppies at dinner time. Even some of Terry Parris’s Lewes/Whitehawk legends, who paraded on the pitch before the game, are dancing around and they’ve got 86 hip replacements between them.
The Pan went ape mental bonkers.
There’s another moment from that brilliant Sven documentary that sticks in my mind. They’re interviewing him about that Germany game and he says: “I think we are all proud to have played that game, but maybe it would have been better winning 1-0.”
Banging in five raised expectations so high, that everyone assumed the next World Cup was ours, just as starting the season with five straight wins is fuelling perhaps unrealistic expectations we’re going to win the league.
I don’t want to piss on anyone’s chips. I’m loving this as much as you are. But let’s not hoist expectations through the roof, either (not least because we couldn’t afford the repairs). Soak it up, enjoy the ride and let’s see where it takes us. After all, life’s too short to not enjoy these moments.
RIP Sven.
Lewes: Bull, Warren, Kaiser, Puemo, Enkh, Sablier (Ghannam), Muirhead, Allen (Ladapo), Allsopp (Mundele), Hutchinson (Williams), Bassett (Jeffrey).
Supporters Club man of the match: Can’t disagree with Badgeman Brian’s call of Marcus Sablier, but at some point we have to talk about Kaiser and Puemo, who’ve been immense at the back.
Highlights from Your Instant Replay:
Boyesy’s brilliant photos:
