Anth Pearson saves Greenwell’s job.
Greenwell’s job was hanging by a thread and it took Anth Pearson, a player I and Neil Richardson had discarded during our reigns in the past few months, to save it. Pearson was the reason why Greenwell can now relax with a six-month rolling contract which was confirmed after the game.
It looked so different in the first half. Greenwell was readying himself for the axe, with Mickey Pearson lined up to replace him. The team were 3-0 down, with Greenwell’s tactics coming under fire for failing to utilise Mark Muers, Mickey Pearson or Mark Middlemiss in centre defence. Instead opting for Paul McConville. Pearson slotted a supposed consolation goal at 3-1, but second half saw the anger come out. Within moments of the restart, Anth Pearson had reduced the deficit to 3-2 and the pre-planned changed came. Both McConville and Dixon were removed, much to their disgust. Dixon actually stormed off and left to go home. Fancy Dan, McConville had a slanging match with me, where I responded that we’d be happy for him to de-list from the squad if he didn’t like being subbed. In any case, it was quite obvious that McConville was struggling in centre half, in contrast to his performance in the opening two games in Portugal.
The other questionable point is how the hell Emu still retains his spot up front. It’s quite obvious that him and Greenwell have a thing going, because based on this performance, he must be doing special tricks with Crunchies and Maltesers to retain his place.
There was also a welcome return for Gareth Stoker, fresh from the sex offenders list. Oh how we missed him calling everyone(including his own team mates) “Paedos” or “Fiddlers”
Greenwell himself struck the equalising goal. We could have gone on to win – but that was too much to ask.