Oh No ! It's ....Another Great Escape
Gillingham V Notts, 3.5.15
The Pies end-of-season 'Great Escape' run was getting more of a regular occurrence than a bank holiday showing of the film itself. Still, having looked dead and buried the team amazingly won at home to Doncaster to once AGAIN take it to the last game. Unlike previous last games however, whilst the maths made it possible it didn't really look probable. They had to play a decent Gillingham outfit and win to be sure of survival or rely on none of their closest rivals - Colchester, Crawley or Crewe or Orient winning to put them into the drop zone instead. Still with me ? Keep up ! We do this virtually every season.... Just think it couldnt have been any closer. It all looked irrelevant anyway as the afternoon went on. Orient went 2-0 up away at Swindon, leaving Notts to win as their only way of ensuring escape. Crewe and Crawley meanwhile continued their battles. Colchester were the only team that looked destined to lose as they were playing Preston who really needed points to get automatic promotion. Amazingly, it was game on as The Pies went 1-0 up through a superb Burke strike; this despite having relied on veterans Roy Carroll's great saves and Gary Jones to clear off the line in the first half. Although more than two thousand fans made the journey, many more were listening at home to Radio Nottingham commentator 'Uncle Colin' Slater. It was his voice that had described the close shaves of recent years but this, frankly, looked like the greatest escape of them all. It went all the way to the 88th minute of the final game of the season. Notts, with their slender lead, looked safe. Then they conceded. Within two minutes one goal had become three and the win had turned into yet another loss and one that would cost The Pies dear. Even so, the final death blow came from an unexpected source - Colchester. The plucky home side had taken the game to Preston, ignoring the huge gap between second to bottom and second to top and had won 1-0. The one game thought a certain banker, for Notts, to go the way we needed, had reversed. More suprisingly, all the other fixtures finished in such a way that had Preston got even one goal back, County would have survived; notwithstanding their own defeat. It was a bitter pill after all the struggles to stay in the division in recent years and the strength of the side that gained promotion such a comparatively short time ago.
As an ultimate irony, the devastation was a complete contrast to another game going on that afternoon at Goodison Park. Some unfortunate match scheduling led to Notts Ladies playing a huge FA cup Semi Final against Everton and overcoming them to book a place at the first ever ladies final at Wembley Stadium. How ironic then that when Mike Edwards, Colin Slater and the great Mark Stallard had joined together to read Kipling's 'If' to inspire the team again, they had included the poem's invitation 'to meet triumph and disaster' equally. Surely even Notts fans, with their record of relegations and promotions can't have expected them both to arrive together, on the same day.
Yet this is Notts and on the evening of the final day one fan was posting his thoughts on Facebook. As can be imagined, this was a searing and largely unrepeatable indictment of the players, the board and the owners. Two minutes later his brother responded by asking him whether he was still going to the 'Legends' game hosted at Meadow Lane. His reply ? "Yeah, of course...only bout eight quid to get in" I guess if you suffer so much disappointment so frequently, you can't let it linger....only at Notts !
No motivational poster from Notts for this latest version of the Great Escape so Notts went to Gillingham with the sound of 'If' by Rudyard Kipling (as read by assorted Notts luminaries) ringing in their ears. It proved to be too big an 'if' for the Pies though as they finally blew it. In hindsight it might have been better to make the team recite the poetry and let Stall and friends take their place on the field...
Veteran commentator 'Uncle' Colin Slater joined in on the poetry....'If we go down, can we really get back up again...ever ?''
Mike Edwards, the only participant in both 'if' and, later, 'what if'.....
