SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

I can remember the good old days when Thursday was a day of rest after our latest midweek game,a day when we renewed our energies for the usual riotous weekend to come. Well,some things never change-like the latter part of my opening statement!-but it is likely that we will have to get used to playing our midweek European matches on,yes,a Thursday evening.

Actually,I’m struggling to remember the last time we had a European match on a Wednesday and acquitted ourselves well,so maybe the Thursday evenings is our lot for a while,and we should be grateful. I get a distinct feeling though that AP will be going all out to change that next season. It is,of course,too late for this season. A couple of ninety minute draws against The Great Danes followed by an extra time winner that we NEVER looked likely to pull back saw to that.

I know there is an argument that we didn’t play European football after Christmas from 1980 till only a few years ago,but those were the days when there were only eight teams left in each of the three tournaments. There are twice as many sides still competing post-Christmas nowadays,and that will only increase with the addition of the new Europa Conference League.

Is it really too much to ask for that a club like ours should be one of them? It sure seems so,for every year it finds that meagre target a bridge too far,a mountain too high. And that simply is not good enough.

But enough with the negative waves…

Tonight sees us take a two-goal lead to AZ Alkmaar. The result last week really could have been anything,as the action and the chances see-sawed with each side taking the ascendancy for periods of the match. AZ will feel hard done by to be two down-while we can equally argue that we could easily have scored more. It was that sort of game,and the tie is far from over. AZ are a very good team indeed,and we should take heart from our performance against them last week.

I’m sure that AP will have been busy reminding the players of that,and also that he will not send them out to do something that they cannot do,or at the very least are ill-equipped to do. I really can’t see him simply trying to hold what we have,ours is not yet a team capable of such as we really don’t have the players for it. We do though have the players to make it that bit more difficult for the Dutch by scoring over there,and I suspect that will be a big part of the game plan.

No predictions from me on the outcome,that’s for sure. It really could go either way. But if our players perform to the level that they did a week ago,we can go into the game With Hope In Our Hearts.

Do us proud,lads.

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Above article by BMCUWP