If there’s any sense of “nothing to play for”, I’d be making the players take a look around the crowd at those who’ve paid their hard-earned cash to continue to watch and support the team. There’s always something to play for, whether that’s pride, the moral stance of commitment and work ethic or just purely from a selfish, egotistical perspective of getting regular game time or even putting yourself in the shop window. I don’t recollect a game where I’ve felt the team didn’t try or give of their best; seen plenty of games where their best simply wasn’t good enough, the plan of work didn’t appear appropriate for the circumstances, or individual errors scuppered plans that may well have worked.
I’d be happy with a performance where we concede no soft goals and create a few chances ourselves, that could even lead to a 0-0 result (now, that’s not setting the bar too high for a home game……or is it!). I often read about fans expectations being too high, in reality that’s not always the case and sometimes we can be easily pleased.
It is difficult to get excited about the game but, all the same, I’ll be there and interested in what transpires, hoping to exceed my 0-0 baseline; who knows, come 4.45pm (or thereabouts) I might have thoroughly enjoyed the bank holiday occasion and be eulogising about it later with the rest of us as we wallow in a rare moment of satisfaction.
