{"id":7311,"date":"2023-01-23T01:01:03","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T01:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7311"},"modified":"2023-01-26T16:15:01","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T16:15:01","slug":"red-red-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7311","title":{"rendered":"Red, Red Wine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Team turned up and you could tell they meant business. Sure, there were some guys who would be missed. In a season as long and demanding as this, that will always be the case. The commitment to do it for them was physically observed. But there were shades of the old days. Some truly Storey-like, calm-but-deadly serious commitment; some Bergkampesque fluidity and speed of movement in the warm-up. Some of the practice routines were well worn and commonly understood. Move into position; Grab the target; Pour. You could see that many there knew when to hold and when to pass. Kick off. The red stuff flowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But enough of the third pre-match GFH get together of the season, held in the now traditional favourite restaurant of our very own Bathgooner. There was a game to be played and this was why we were here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arriving at the ground, the pre-match crowd was equally clearly up for it. The mob at the bar of Block 10 of the North Bank were in great voice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game kicked off and it was a pretty even affair. Early on United fashioned a break with the man with the most punchable face in football, Bruno Fernandes, in a one-on-one with Ramsdale. The keeper clearly got to the ball first. Of course that wasn\u2019t to stop the man with the worst case of labyrinthitis outside of N17 hitting the ground as though Lee Harvey Oswald was shooting at him from the Blackstock Road Book Repository. The referee manged to recover his composure, stop laughing and wave play on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To their credit, United had come to play and, despite not getting too close to us never gave up on their press. They soon earned their reward when Partey was pressed and lost the ball to Rashford who moved forward like silk and applied the steel with an unstoppable shot down to the right-hand side of Ramsdale. An excellent goal. Frankly, he should play for Arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

United fans were ecstatic. It took a few seconds, but the home crowd really lifted it. I remember George Graham describing what the crowds were like when you went \u201cup north\u201d \u2013 never giving in, always behind the team.   \u00d8degaard and Zinchenko visibly appealed to the crowd. The request was heard. The link between manager, team and fans was evident. The crowd roared their support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka was running at Shaw and United weren\u2019t giving him the kind of support that, for example, Newcastle did. Perhaps because United are a club which has a proud history of playing on the front foot which, were they to change their approach it would actually be called out by the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It didn\u2019t take long for the team to repay the faith shown by the crowd. After 23 minutes, following a super period of play, Zinchenko, in an advanced inside left position, pushed the ball forward cleverly to \u00d8degaard who in turn pushed it wide for Xhaka to put in a teasing cross from the left. On its flighted path to the far post Eddie ghosted in front of his nominal marker, Wan Bissaka, and headed home. Well-worked and well-deserved. It is almost like Ian Wright has been mentoring him….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next flash point was when Saka was fouled for the umpteenth time by his supposed marker, Shaw. Arteta dared to question the omnipotent intellectual midget with the whistle and received a yellow card. Plus \u00e7a change, plus c\u2019est la m\u00eame chose, as Ollie might say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half time came. It had been breathless. Suitable refreshment was needed which was, fortunately, supplied to your reporter by a Canadian Gooner who managed to sneak it into the stands in a way that would have made James Bond proud. You know who you are and it was both welcome and needed. White, who had been booked, presumably for actually turning up and playing in red, was replaced by Tomi. We started at a fearsome pace and after 53 minutes, Saka scored what will be one of the goals of the season. The ball came out to the right of the United penalty area, and Saka came inside Eriksen and hammered a low, unsaveable shot into the right-hand inside netting of the goal. It was a thing of beauty. Saka is becoming increasingly unplayable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 58 minutes United won a corner and there followed a calamitous mix up between Ramsdale and the defence. The ball dropped to Martinez who, to his credit, propelled himself towards the ball like a missile and forced it home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, the crowd immediately rose to the occasion and roared their support. There followed a sustained period of Arsenal pressure, resulting in Saka nearly scoring an identikit goal to his first, in the 70th<\/sup> minute. After 82′ Martinelli, who had toiled to no little end against a resurgent Wan Bissaka was replaced by the new boy from Brighton, Trossard; shortly thereafter the Pillsbury Dough Boy tribute act that is Shaw was finally booked by the referee, who had by this time miraculously regained either his sight or his access to his whistle. From the resulting free kick Eddie had a reaction shot which de Gea saved with equally smart reflex save.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game crept towards the end and Arsenal were pushing for the win. In the 89th<\/sup> minute some patient build up play resulted in the ball coming to Trossard who turned and played it to Zinchenko on the left wing. He crossed and the ball cannoned off the hapless Fred, towards Eddie who performed something of a pirouette in order to direct the ball into the net. Cue chaos in the ground. We had done it. Justice had been served.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credit where it\u2019s due. United came to play, unlike Stokecastle United. They gave it a go and weren\u2019t good enough. We played with a power and passion which described an underlying belief in the mission and the club\u2019s ability to bring it to fruition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Red, Red wine, goes to my head\u2026..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Team turned up and you could tell they meant business. Sure, there were some guys who would be missed. In a season as long and demanding as this, that will always be the case. The commitment to do it for them was physically observed. But there were shades of the old days. Some truly Storey-like, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7311"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7311"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7332,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7311\/revisions\/7332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}