What A Fool Believes

Millwall 0-0 ITFC April 1st 2013

On the back of that great win over Leeds we went to the ticket office after the final whistle and brought tickets for the game at Millwall on Easter Monday (along with the Derby ones that we had intended to buy). This year the bank holiday fell on April 1st, were we about to be made fools of for this hasty decision?

Before leaving for London I managed to "fool" Max and Sharon, telling them that I had read a tweet about Michael Chopra being arrested for drink, driving on Saturday night. Imagine the response! When I later fessed up to Max he ironically asked me to put a bet on Chopra to score last in a 2-1 Town win.

A friendly face 

Cold Blow Lane certainly lived up to its name as once again the weather was freezing and I was grateful for the Russian hat that Sam brought me back from his recent Trans Siberian Railway journey. I might look a bit of a dick wearing it, but it helped to keep me warm!

Sharon putting on a brave face, trying not to look cold.

Dockers day at the Den

Football wise the game will not live long in the memory, having said that it was far from a "scoreless bore". Millwall had a first half goal ruled out for offside and Shane Lowry hit the post from a free kick twenty minutes from time. 

Luke Hyam came closest to scoring for us in the first half with a speculative shot from the half way line. He intercepted a poor clearance from keeper David Forde only to see his goal bound shot held up in the strong head wind, defender Mark Beevers got back and cleared the ball before it crossed the line, thus saving his keepers blushes. Soon after Forde produced a fine save to deny Hyam again. 

Another clean sheet and an away point is never a bad thing, especially at the Den.

Before the Easter programme kicked off we were sitting four points above the drop zone, we've picked up a win and a draw and now find ourselves just three points clear! The league has gone crazy with all the bottom teams hitting form and bar Bristol City who are seven from safety it's hard to predict who will go down. We have now hit the "magic" fifty point survival target to stay in the Championship, although that isn't going to be enough this time around. 

I couldn't see the threat of relegation as a reality earlier in the season, however I now believe that had we not changed managers when we did we would have “been gone” by now. Under Paul Jewell we might have scraped through in a “normal season” but the increased points total now needed for survival would have proved too much, especially after that bad start that we made. We could still drop down a league, although I don't think we will - ever the optimist!

It might look warm!

The playlist

What A Fool Believes by Doobie Brothers - April 1st and all that!