Wednesbury Athletic 1–1 Llandaff Athletic: the stubborn symmetry

Match report

On Thursday 27 August, Matchday 33 ended as it began: a 1–1 draw between Wednesbury Athletic and Llandaff Athletic, a result one expects when a side scores early, spends 68 minutes against ten men and still cannot find a winner. Wednesbury, eighth on 49 points and in good nick, met Llandaff, thirteenth on 38 and evidently having a difficult time of it, and what they produced had the texture of a handshake between two people who would rather not be touching.

It all began according to plan. Three minutes in, Hermann Albertshofer finished a move started by Gökhan Bezirci and did what he has done on three separate occasions in the last week: he scored. (One: a goal against Crookes on the 24th, a goal against Sussex on the 20th, an assist against Crookes on that same 24th, and now this. The man is a production line.) Wednesbury led, and everything pointed the right way.

The comfort lasted nineteen minutes. At 22', Heinrich Dombrowski received a straight red card, and here the history sits awkwardly under the moment: Dombrowski scored in the earlier 1–1 between these sides on 8 August. Today he left his team a man down, with 68 minutes to survive.

Survive is the wrong verb. At 29', Samuel Cardew rose to meet Owain Penllyn's cross and headed Llandaff level. A goal conceded is bad: a goal conceded while a man down, against the whole shape of a game you had been winning, is an irritation that lingers. The momentum flipped completely. For the rest of the match, Wednesbury hunted a winner with the conviction of a man looking for his keys in a room he knows he left them in, while Llandaff defended with the fierce organisation of a side who know a point is one more than they deserve.

The previous meeting finished 1–1 too, suggesting a certain symmetry to the fixture, or a certain lack of imagination, depending on your mood. Anyway. Both sides take a point on Thursday that feels slightly odd: Llandaff's like a gift with the price sticker still on, Wednesbury's like a receipt for something they never bought. They play again tomorrow. Somebody will have to work out how to win it.