I'm glad the TV cameras are there because I will be able to watch it in a pub in Sydney, albeit at 6:45 am on Saturday morning and not at 2am in the morning as usual (Yes, we are lucky here because the pubs are still open).
I haven't managed to go to a live match since August 2020 because we haven't been able to leave Australia for over a year and I hate watching matches on TV with no fans present just like everybody else. I have read all of the understandable criticism of the team, the managers and individual players over the last couple of weeks, but it seems with the exception of Blackpool and possibly Hull, Sunderland and Peterborough that no teams are being very consistent at the moment. They are all going through this relentless schedule of playing matches every Saturday and every Tuesday without a break which they have never had to do before, without any crowds to provide support. Of course they have to rotate players and inevitably players will get injured. Our record is no worse than Doncaster, Ipswich, Charlton, Portsmouth or Lincoln. Doncaster and Portsmouth have both lost their managers over the last couple of weeks. The KR bashers should have listened to MAPP after their home defeat to Gillingham. Read the fans forums of these teams to see how delighted all of their fans are at their teams/managers/players performances.
Wycombe will be back down next season without having had any fans to see their year of glory. Coventry and Rotherham are not doing much better.
With no income from crowds, they are all struggling just to survive. It is never the same watching football on TV compared to watching it live, especially with no crowds and no atmosphere. It is easy to knock them from the comfort of your armchairs. I remember going to a match at Altrincham when we had to go past Old Trafford to get there. Let's please get a sense of perspective. We are not a "big" club, we do not have massive resources, we have no "divine right" to get promotion to a league above which we would probably struggle in any way, we do not own our own ground but have to pay rent to someone who never really had an interest in the club, we are owned by a group of Indonesians, Thais and Hong Kong based Germans and have no idea who they are or why they are interested in us. We are not Milan for gods sake and never will be.
Think yourselves lucky. The top "soccer" match here on Monday evening between Wellington (who Alex Gorrin used to play for) and Melbourne Victory was played in Wollongong, about 60 miles south of Sydney. The Wellington Players have to live in a bubble because they can't travel back to New Zealand. Crowds are allowed but there were only 1100 there to watch. There is no promotion and relegation. Teams can be created like the MK Dons. A team was created this year called Macarthur who play in Campbelltown, about 30 miles south of Sydney. Another team was created called Western United, who play at various grounds around Victoria. There is no sense of loyalty or feeling. The matches are shown on free to air TV in virtually empty stadiums and it doesn't really matter whether they win or lose, there are no away fans (Perth is a 4 hour flight away from Sydney) and the same teams will be playing in the same league next year whatever happens.
We all want to be back watching matches live again. It just seems to be a matter of just getting through it at the moment until we can do that again.
My prediction of the result based on recent experience is that I haven't got a clue!
