Reality bites

We all had something of a reality check on Tuesday evening. Hopes were high before the away game at Gillingham that the Glovers would be able to put their frankly dreadful away form behind them at last, but there's many a slip twixt cup and lip as the old saying goes and it was the same old story in the end. The team started poorly and got worse, going 1-0 down to a Simeon Jackson penalty that was in the end the difference between the teams. I was going to have a mini-discussion with myself regarding what Skivo could do about our away form, but Badger has beaten me to it, so I won't re-invent the wheel here.

Our good home form has up 'til now disguised our failings on our travels, but until or unless Skivo can come up with an answer to our away woes then all thoughts of the play-offs can be discarded. Indeed, should our home form start to falter then we could yet find ourselves in trouble at the wrong end of the table again, so let's hope that however the gaffer decides to change things that his changes are effective.

Sigh. As I type I'm watching the Northwich Victoria v Lincoln City 2nd round FA Cup tie on the tv. 2-1 to the Imps at the moment but the Vics are piling on the pressure. It's nice to see a team in green-and-white hoops live on the box but it's also a reminder of our own abject failure in the competition over the last few years. Oops, Lincoln score another on the break - 3-1 to them now.

Muffwatch: Time for yet another new era for our, er, friends on the south coast. This time last week it looked as though a consortium led by yet another property developer and an undischarged bankrupt was going to take over the reins at the Wessex. A week is a very long time in Weymouth club politics however and that consortium has now gone the way of so many others. Liquidation looked the odds-on bet at one point in the last couple of days but literally with 10 minutes to go until the club's self-imposed deadline for serious bidders to come forward, cometh the hour then cometh the man. And that man is George Rolls, former chairman of Cambridge United, who left that club in unusual and acrimonious circumstances earlier this season. Some might say that takes the Terras out of the frying pan and places them firmly into the middle of the fire, but not this blog. Regardless of Mr Rolls previously chequered history I wish him the best of luck in dragging the Muff, well, into the 20th century will do for now, the 21st century can wait for a while. The only alternative to Rolls would appear to have been liquidation and no-one would want that. At least we've still got someone to laugh at for the time being.

Just read: Under the Dome by Stephen King. Another monster of a book (800+ pages) and very much a return to form from the master of the horror genre. I've read most of King's stuff over the years and enjoyed most of it too but while his later novels have been very readable they've not quite hit the heights of his earlier works - until now. Under the Dome - the story of what happens to a small Maine town when it's cut off from the rest of the world by an unbreakable barrier - bears comparison with The Stand, It, and The Talisman to name but a few. King is back, long live King.