A stroll, a saunter, a walk in the park. That's how I'd probably best describe yesterday's FA Cup First Round win against Darlington. Barring the last fifteen where we allowed The Quakers a goal and even a few decent chances which were repelled superbly by the rock in between the sticks that is Jake Cole, it was a simple, routine victory.
Whether you want to describe our performance as lacklustre or not really needing to get out of second gear is a matter of interpretation. We were slow, yes, but we didn't really need to be any faster to put a very poor Darlington side to bed. They showed little of the performance that caused us a fair amount of trouble two weeks back and were always kept at arms' length.
At the other end a strike from John O'Flynn within 20 minutes was a decent enough comfort zone after a tidy finish. Such was the nature of the football on show that clear cut chances were few and far between in the first half and much of it was spent discussing the finer points of life in our temporary home behind the South Stand goal.
Also fairly interesting was a busier North Terrace. Supposedly, the younger lads who regularly reside on the barrier of the East Terrace had moved there for one game just for a laugh, and to apparently move away from 'The Buzz Squad'.
It seems odd that a club so small can have so numerous amounts of 'factions' amongst its supporters. It all seems very silly to me, with these apparent 'rivalries' having reared their heads before. If you want to split everyone into 'factions', you can include our travelling group in this, then so be it, but shouldn't everyone be at least united in one front, i.e. supporting the team?
The atmosphere is diluted enough at home games since almost everyone who stood together and chanted in the East Terrace moved has moved elsewhere. Now deafening silence often filters through the stands at Underhill, not least yesterday where only brief murmurs could be heard from around the ground. To be fair, any noise I heard mainly came from the North, and the conga they broke into was amusing, however the 'faction' business and terrace in-fighting is still massively unnecessary. What was the best atmosphere this season? Northampton away? When everyone was standing in the same place getting behind the team? Thought as much.
Back to the football though and Micah Hyde's tap in first goal for the club opened up clear daylight and killed Darlo early in the second half. More chances followed, Bolasie coming close with a header but it was O'Flynn again with a very well taken header after a lovely Bolasie cross that put us in the hat for the second round.
The dreams continue then, despite some sloppiness in the last fifteen. Darlo scored a well taken consolation that seemed to give them a bit of belief and only for Jake Cole did we survive what could have been an unnecessarily horrible last ten. Panic averted in the end though and we're in the hat for the draw. That's the main thing. Happy days.
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