Town fan Karl Fuller is proud of Town’s fans... And the noise they made at the Hawthorns
A week ago, I was very much feeling down and out after a defeat against Reading all but confirmed our relegation.
I feared for the remainder of this season and while nobody had given us a real good beating all season, I must admit to fearing the worst for Saturday’s game at West Brom with thoughts of conceding as many as four goals for the first time this season crept in on Saturday morning.
‘Oh ye of little faith’, I hear you say.
When West Brom scored as early as the fourth minute, it looked like those fears would become reality and I was cursing the predictability of us caving in so easily.
MORE: Lambert: ‘We were the better side’
I was also bemoaning how yet more bad luck found its way to us which is really the only way to describe how Stefan Johansen’s free-kick found its way into the back of the net.
But from thereon, we became the better side and put in one of our better performances of the season.
Yes, Bart had to make some decent saves but so did Sam Johnstone in the West Brom goal. Albion fans were very complimentary about us on social media on Saturday evening too.
While of course it’s too little, too late, I can’t but help feel a bit more heartened this week that perhaps the future does look bright after all.
If we are going to flourish in League One, we certainly need more performances like we saw from Jon Nolan and Teddy Bishop.
Those two might just be the heart of the side on which to focus next term.
Those of you that saw the video just after the final whistle posted on Twitter by the clubs’ media team will be proud of both the number of Town fans present and the noise they made.
In fact, the noise they made during the whole game.
MORE: Stu Watson’s five observations from Saturday’s game
We might be down but we’re certainly not out.
Those scenes post-game was a far cry as to how the atmosphere was played out this time last year.
There are some fans not happy with the lack of wins managed in the Paul Lambert era and I get that. But the support and backing is much better now than it has been in recent times.
It’s true when Lambert says it’s not normal.
The Hawthorns brings back some good memories for yours truly and none more so than my first visit there in 1998 and I nearly did not make it to that game!
I travelled on the Clacton branch coach (as I so often did in those days) and one of our pick-up stops was Witham which was generally where the fun started once ‘naughty’ Stuart Vernon boarded the coach. Nobody was ever safe from his antics!
My girlfriend at the time was not feeling too good and she decided that she needed to get off the coach and make for Witham train station to catch a train back to Clacton.
I was in a dilemma.
Should I go with her or stay on the coach for the game?
MORE: Town fans on Twitter after West Brom draw
She insisted that I stayed on the coach and not to have my evening ruined by how she felt. I needed no second invitation, stayed on the coach and left her to make her own way home!
I do always look back with a sense of guilt that I allowed that situation to happen and as most men know, when a woman says it’s ok to do something, that’s not always the case.
It’s probably one of my downfalls that saw here eventually leave me!
I had to get to the game however, as I had recently purchased a Dutch football shirt and for some unknown reason, had ‘Uhlenbeek’ printed on the back and I wanted to get the then Town player Gus Uhlenbeek to sign it for me which once we arrived at The Hawthorns, he duly obliged.
To top the evening off, I had a couple of quid on Matt Holland to score the first goal of the game, and despite going 2-1 behind, Town went on to win 3-2 thanks to an equaliser from James Scowcroft and a late, late winner from Jason Cundy.
Happy days.
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