I played scrabble with a mate whilst listening to the Chester City 2nd leg - won 302 - 292 and 323 - 314 and I got all 7 letters out in one go in the second game. Plus we hammered Chester City. Not a bad night, all in all.
It was then just a case of who we got in the second round. Ah well, a little praying did not work. I had previously booked the last week in September as holiday intending to do some touristy things and I was hoping for a plum away leg in the second round of the League Cup in an exotic place such as Chelsea, only to be robbed on both counts! A home tie against Port Vale. I listened to the away leg via the Radio Cumbria commentary. Nick Barnes was commentating again in his usual style and his co-host was new signing Dylan Kerr. Shades of the Magic Roundabout?
Our disciplinary record appears to be on the slide again - Dean Walling was sent off against Port Vale, for example. Mervyn Day stated that he would be cracking down on offenders, but players are still getting booked. Admittedly, new FIFA rules and "by the book" referees take some of the blame, but we have a small squad and we can't afford too many suspensions in a season, although luckily the cup bookings don't carry over into the league.
As for the second leg against Port Vale, what can I say? "We wuz robbed" immediately springs to mind! I cannot understand why the goal was disallowed and as for Reeves getting booked - diabolical. I am a goalkeeper (occasionally) but I believe 'keepers are over-protected these days. From the East Stand it didn't look like there was anything wrong with the way Reeves took the ball away from the 'keeper. Maybe someone in the Paddock saw something wrong with it? Still for all this, we can reconcile that it is a cup that we probably wouldn't get too far in and that all we lost out on was a plum home leg against a big club.
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