what a difference a week makes

Phew, what a difference a week makes eh…last weekend England and Everton had been beaten victims of varying degrees of dodgy refereeing and Waterloo had been beaten tamely at Cambridge. Bit depressing let me tell you.

Thursday’s UEFA game again Larissa was a real tonic for our battered egos so Saturday was “once more onto the breach” as we tripped out to Blundellsands for Waterloo v Blackheath. As I’ve mentioned before in this blog Blackheath are a club dripping with history and it’s a real privelige to line up against them. Getting there nice and early we got a pint & watched the teams warm up. Blackheath certainly looked like they meant business the coach extolled them to drive Waterloo back over their own ruck *insert thick cockney accent* “They can’t piggin’ well play a game if they are goin’ backwards”. His team took these words to heart. A knock-on and a scrum penalty resulted in a penalty within the first minute, then a rolling maul had Waterloo retreating most of their half and a try was touched down. Oops, 8-0 before we’d even got hold of the ball. Blackheath were one of the top teams in the table so things were looking ominous. Waterloo finally woke up and gradually began to hold their own and a great try meant it was 11-8 at half time. Waterloo could be pretty happy with that after the start they’d had.

Second half it has to be said Waterloo were fantastic...out front & backline defence, attacking, kicking, lineout everything clicked into place. The game hinged on a ranging Blackheath attack that was just bumped into touch on the line. From there Waterloo did everything right and Blackheath seemed to wilt allowing the team to play most of the last 20 minutes in the opposing 22 and us to barrack the Blackheath scrum-half for is shamelessly casual rolled down socks. The end result was a great home win including a bonus point for a try right at the death. Joyous atmosphere, the clubhouse was bouncing because everyone knew that Blackheath were no mugs. It has been a bit ropey so far this season...this was a brilliant performance.

Blackheath Website Report

Winning following a European game is a real test of a team. Everton’s Sunday trip to Derby County had “Banana skin” written all over it. It would have been very ‘Everton’ for us to balls up in a game we really needed to win to get our league season heading in the right direction. Thankfully a tame Derby County succumbed to a 2-0 defeat without having a shot on target. Arteta and Yakubu grabbing the goals for us.

All of a sudden everything seems rosey.

BBC Match Report