Wycombe Wanderers striker Tommy Mooney has joined TheFA.com for the rest of the season.
By Tommy Mooney. Wednesday, 07 February 2007.
Wycombe Wanderers striker Tommy Mooney is the latest name to join TheFA.com's list of columnists.
The veteran forward, formerly of Watford, Birmingham and Swindon, will be bringing you the inside story on his side's race for promotion to League One.
In his first installment, the 35 year old runs the rule over Wanderers' 2-0 win over Wrexham, his side's Carling Cup run, their league form and how he thinks England will fare against Spain.
Hi everyone.
Our win over Wrexham last weekend was a fantastic result. When you are going for promotion you need wins. We have only won once since December 23 so it was a massive result.
Against teams near the bottom of the league you put pressure on yourself to get the points. You almost need to guarantee it, but it's never that easy. Wrexham are fighting for their lives. They need points as much as we do.
We were down to ten men for almost 30 minutes. There had been a few bad challenges and our keeper Ricardo Batista, who is Portuguese, was getting worked up. The crowd were having a go at him and he reacted by kicking the ball at them and was sent off. He could not even understand what they were shouting!
Me managed to hold on, which was good, but we will lose him now for almost a month. Jamie Young will come in for him and he's done ever so well when he has played.
Jermaine Easter scored again for us. He's been great this season. We signed him at the back end of last year for £80,000 - that's a lot of money for a club like ours. He came in to replace Nathan Tyson, which is difficult, but I think he found the price tag a problem too.
If you look at the Jermaine Easter of last season and the one playing now, you would think they were twin brothers. There is such a difference. Last year he could not get in the first team, now he's scoring goals and has been selected for Wales. He's made huge strides in six to eight months.
We complement each other nicely. He is quick and will run the channels while I don't mind taking the knocks and the physical part of the game. Of his 21 goals, he thinks I have set up 11. I want to know when he's going to repay the favour and set me up - I've only got ten goals.
With 15 games to go, you are not going to get any easy matches. We have Notts County on Saturday. That will be another tough game. We have played them twice already, once in the Carling Cup, so we know all about them. When you are going for promotion, you need to do well against the sides around you. They are eighth, one place below us, so we need another result.
As well as we have done in cup competitions, our form recently has dipped. If I'm honest, our run in the Carling Cup affected our league form.
You want the league to be your priority, you want to get promotion, but to get as far as we did was a massive achievement for the club. Jim Gardner, our kitman who has been involved with the club for so many years, said the win over Charlton was the proudest moment since he's been at the club, which is many, many years. Hearing that made everyone feel proud.
We then played Chelsea in the semi-final - at 35 years old I did not expect to be taking part in games of that magnitude. When the draw was made we were concerned that we would just be making up the numbers, but when the whistle went to start the first leg, we made the first tackle after three seconds. We fought them for 180 minutes. Everytime they got the ball we tried to kick them.
They showed us respect at the end. They all shook our hands and Jose Mourinho said some very complimentary things about us. He also clapped our fans, which just shows what a gentleman he is.
Of their players, Michael Essien and Wayne Bridge were strong in the first leg, then the whole of the midfield was impressive at their place - Lampard, Essien, Mikel - they showed what good pros they are.
We lost the second leg 4-0 but they showed us respect by naming as close to a first team squad as possible. Only John Terry was missing.
I will be watching the England game tonight. I think it will be a very difficult game against extremely good opposition. But on paper, I know we have some injuries, we have some world class players.
Spain are one of those sides you expect to do well in competitions but quite often underachieve. Between competitions they are strong though. Spain will be good going forward, but perhaps we can exploit them at the back. They have some older legs in defence - I know as a 35 year old it gets more difficult to keep up!
Do you want to ask Tommy a question? You could ask him about his time in the Premier League, or which teams are Wycombe's main rivals for promotion? Email your questions to editor@TheFA.com.