View From The Dolan: Cautious Optimism
Reading beat Wigan and new owners are there to see it happen - things are looking up!
Cautious optimism. A term used for people or groups that are cautiously optimistic about something.
Could be an event, a project, a plan. Could be Reading Borough Council hoping that their horrendously outdated roads (and by extension, road system) hold up to its annual pounding of the arrival of 500 million youngsters flocking to our town to once again pay an obscene amount of money to stand in a field which is left barren and useless for 360 days a year to listen to music that very few people like. Could be anything, really.
In this case, it refers to our band of supporters. Furthermore, it refers to me. As the week turned into the weekend (as it always does), news of the takeover spread like peanut butter over hot white toasted bread. It was close, very close. And with those new, proposed, cheeky owners doing all they could on social media to positively stir the pot, excitement was reaching boiling point.
You could tell something was up. The queue for the mega shop was at least 102 metres long. I imagined people in there who’d not been since the “no cash” rule was implemented, gathering their merch and being told that the king’s dollars would no good, having them tut, look to the generously tiled ceiling to then pull out a physical bank card and mutter “I’ll just have to pay on card then” before removing both themselves and their purchases out of a packed shop, like Chris Hemsworth rescuing a child in the popular movie “Extraction”.
Yes, it seemed business was gooooood. The hotel was no different. Chaps and ladies wearing old replica strips as if they’d suddenly realised they were a Reading fan. People buying both a pint AND a pie.
Customers huddling round the TV screen to watch Ipswich Town vs Liverpool, nervously checking their fantasy team to see if they’d put Salah and/or Jota in their final draft. You could smell the hope, the optimism, the overall banter of a new takeover. It was glorious.
Out into the seated bowl and the vibes were just the same. The blue and white goal nets had returned, the pitch looked like a very high-budget carpet, people were wearing shorts and sandals, the sun was blaring down and RG2 was in party mode. It was like the dark clouds of the past 18 months had been blown away with some massive American-made garden equipment.
The players were up for it and Wigan Athletic had clearly got the memo, playing dead for the first half while Ben Elliott, Charlie Savage and Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan made fools of them. It was like they’d read the script and were happy to oblige by being very bad at football, allowing our lads to have a literal field day. It should have been 2-0 or 3-0 at the break, but we had to settle for one. We were fun, lots of fun.
Half-time was busy in the Dolan concourse. I was able to remove my drinks (one lager, one cider) from the bar successfully like Chris Hemsworth removing that Georgian family in the popular film “Extraction 2”.
Sadly, they were warm (the drinks, not the family) but could it dampen my spirits? No it could not. Back up to the seat for more of the same for the second period.
Admittedly, we were a little sluggish compared to the first 45 but it didn’t matter as Wigan still didn’t know how to play football. A killer goal from big Kelvin sealed the deal to leave us one shy of my prediction of a 3-0 win.
While it was great to get the win, it was largely playing second fiddle to the news we are all desperate to hear: that the takeover is done and signed and dusted. I’m confident that the next time I write the column, we’ll be owned by new people with a fresh outlook and the start of a new era.
As I say, cautious optimism.
Until next time.