Welcome to the Abbey
Andrew Pincher - Cardiff City, Saturday 3rd April 1999
Transfer Deadline Day came and went without the outgoing activity many supporters feared. It was a quiet day on the football front, with the only activity in the afternoon being the Youth game on the pitch against Japanese Under-18 champions Osaka. The telephone did ring red-hot later on in the day as calls were received just after the 5.00pm deadline from concerned supporters who were checking to see if we had managed to keep the likes of Martin Butler. The relief and delight was easily recognisable in their responses when they were told that nobody had been sold, "Really? Brilliant!"
On the previous day we had secured the services of Neil MacKenzie and Paul Bruce on loan from Stoke City and Queens Park Rangers respectively, both of whom made their debuts at Shrewsbury last Friday. These additions to the squad have come at an important time with today's game being crucial as we approach the final straight which is the run in to the end of the season. Ben Chenery's fifth booking of the season at Shrewsbury means he will serve a one-match suspension for the game against Halifax Town. The threshold for receiving suspensions for five bookings ends on Sunday, 11th April 1999 and so there is not much longer for a couple of our players to keep it clean. Our last home game, which resulted in us setting a record for our highest home League victory, earned us the Scottish Mutual Assurance Performance of the Week Award for the second time this season. The 7-2 victory over Mansfield equalled our previous record victory, ironically in an away game against today's visitors Cardiff City, With the teams now 1st and 2nd in the Third Division table I can't see a repeat occurring this afternoon. The Sky TV cameras were here last Friday to film the presentation of the award to Roy McFarland and this was scheduled to be shown on Sky's Soccer Saturday last week. They then followed the team up to Gay Meadow to witness the 1-1 draw. With that game and the Brentford away game, our results haven't been too good in front of the Sky cameras. Tuesday night's game against Brighton & Hove Albion will definitely be played at Gillingham's Priestfield Stadium with a 7.45pm kick-off. The match at Swansea City has been re-arranged for Wednesday, April 21st 1999 with a 7.45pm kick-off. With this in mind we have switched our Reserve fixture at Wycombe to Thursday, 22nd April 1999. Why not pop-in to Adams Park on the way back from Swansea? With re-arranged fixtures coming thick and fast it becomes increasingly difficult for the loyal supporters to get the time off needed in order to travel to away games. Take last Friday for example, which would normally be a simple two-hour journey. I went up to Shrewsbury along with Trevor Peer in Mark Johnson's car. We left just after 2.30pm, stopped for petrol for ten minutes and eventually arrived at Gay Meadow at 6.30pm. The M6 is notoriously bad on a Friday evening, but the radio reports stated that there was a 21-mile tail-back. Once we had passed through the M5 junction at Walsall it started to ease and the M54 is usually clear. However, two junctions on and the car in front flashed his hazard lights and the traffic slowed down. We could see smoke billowing across the road and as we approached we could see that there was a Fiesta on the hard shoulder with flames coming from beneath the bonnet. Whilst a fire engine was hurtling up the hard shoulder to the scene, further up the M54 we saw a man, presumably the driver of the car, with a jug of some sort. I think he may have needed a little bit more water than that! Today is the first of our three all-ticket games, the others being the home games against Peterborough United and Brentford. Both Clubs are still in the hunt for a promotion spot, be it automatic or via the Play-Offs, and the games will no doubt have a bearing on the final outcome of the season, so please make sure you get your ticket in advance. Andrew Pincher |