ENGLAND FINALLY WIN A CLOSE ONE
Peace, or at least quiet has broken out. I don't mean in Israel, host of the Euros this season. I'm talking about the forums. Perhaps the weekend saw a 48 hour truce.
Meanwhile, the England squad put a fractious week back home behind them as they took on Estonia, hoping to win, and have results go our way, to enable us to finish with a winning season, and finish 3rd in the group.
In fact, this is what happened. We won a thriller that was decided very late (aren't all games?) and Armenia lost to Romania.
This is an improvement on two seasons ago, but, a failure that is slightly better than another failure is still a failure.
Today's game is going to prove fairly easy to sum up. It was close at the beginning, it was close at half time, and remained close all the way to the end.
Once we got a slight lead about half way through the 4th, we did look the stronger. Our D stiffened, stopping Estonia from drawing level, and offensively we did just enough to close out the game.
For possibly the first time Barker top scored, and also led in assists. Thanks to zander, his former coach for boosting his PA initially and to Vecx for finishing it off. MacAusland had 8 rebounds in a fairly paltry team total of 39.
Sadly, this is the end of our NT season. Its also probably the end of a few England careers. Disappointingly for some, not for me. I have a season to go. Terrell Hongs and Alan Sharpling are 34 now, and in the former's case his England days are certainly over. Sharpling has a slim chance, but thats all it is. Sad to say that about an English legend but age wearies even the biggest hero. Of the 33yos, Elopolis and Harris are on the edge. Armada at SF has possibly the best chance to stay on the team. Gascoigne is the only 32yo, and he is certain to be on next season's squad.
I'm not going to add anything for now, about my thoughts on the future of England. (And they are just my thoughts, I'm only one man, I can't decide how we proceed as a community.) Today is about winning against Estonia. We haven't won for a few weeks now, so I'm just going to savour the relief for a while.