Yes, its a lot better than several Mondays past, in fact its been 66 god-awful Mondays since we last had an away win, in the Premiership at least, to cheer us up. Too long.
But now that we've sat down, got our early morning coffee to stir our brain cells into life and enjoyed the radiance permeating from our beaming smile for a few hours, there's just a little bit of the old aching worry starting to form at the back of our minds. Was it Frankie V that said Pompey were such cack and was that the reason we won? Was it only because it was Fratton Park, and we only win at Fratton Park? And if it hadn't been for the ex-player always having the sign over their old team it would have been a goalless draw.
And as the doubt takes on a life of its own and turns from a seedling into a gigantic nuisance we'll need to get out the papers again and have another look at that table thing. It'll show us still down in 19th spot, now just 1 point behind West Ham and closing fast. But there's now a growing 5 point gap between Fulham in 15th with 29 points and Sheffield in 16th with 24, leaving just Wigan 22, West Ham 20, the Addicks 19 and Watford 12 below them. Looks increasing like 3 out of the 5 for the drop.
But, as you know, looking at numbers all day can drive you mad, ask any accountant, and Pardew wouldn't be looking at any tables, except maybe in the privacy of the john, he'll be telling everyone to concentrate on one thing, the next match against Bolton.
And talking of Bolton, isn't it nice to enjoy those sadist thoughts and read that somebody else is suffering like we used to. And after smarting from our own surrender to Middlesbrough last weekend its a comfort to see that other teams are finding them, currently anyway, difficult opponents.
The independent therefore gives us some pleasant reading material this morning - "Middlesbrough ruthlessly exposed the limitations of a Wanderers team supposedly chasing Champions' League football. Quite apart from a dire defensive display, the dismissal of the perennial troublemaker El Hadji Diouf was enough cause for dismay. Allardyce deserved more from the surly Senegalese after resurrecting the spitting forward's Premiership career than the show of foul-mouthed petulance which brought a 66th-minute dismissal. The referee, Alan Wiley, had ignored Diouf's expletives earlier in the game but when he was told to "fuck off" in front of the Middlesbrough bench, a red card was the only reasonable course of action.
"We're without another key player for two games now and that really puts us under pressure," Allardyce said. "
Ah, that old word pressure again, but don't get too excited, a report a few weeks ago reckoned that teams suffering a heavy defeat, such as a 5-1, usually, 60% was mentioned, bounce back in the next fixture and avoid defeat.
No, far better this morning to look at the fate of poor old Wigan, without a win in 10 games and 8 defeats in there as well. And while we sit enjoying the heady heights of 13th place in the 6-game Form Table ( a much better read than the other one) with 7 points from the last six games, the 4 teams currently at the bottom read Sheffield 4 points, West Ham 3, Watford 1 and Wigan 0.
I rest my case, The Great Escape is On...................
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