Football

Some time ago a beautiful woman of my acquaintance gave me a little fridge magnet she, in here womanly manner, thought appropriate. It read, 'If a man watches two football matches in a row, he should be declared legally dead.' Now this woman, beautiful, highly intelligent, full of knowledge and common sense, was unfortunately female! This as any intelligent person (e.g. Male) will realise leads to a lack of proportion in understanding just what exactly is important in this world! An unfortunate lack you will agree, but one we have come to expect from the majority of lassies in this world. They will consider wearing the same earrings two days running a sin but never appreciate just how important beating Stirling Albion in the League Cup might be. Tsk!

However, had that lass been around on Saturday she might have flipped her lid a little as I managed to watch three games that day, one after another. How good was that! First I managed to pick up the mighty Heart of Midlothian's struggle against half of Glasgow's evil twins. Now when Celtic arrive in Edinburgh the place is always buzzing. Not only are they a 'big team' (in their own minds) but they share the 'Old Firm' self importance with the other half, Rangers. It is always a delight to rip them apart in that loving football manner that men understand so well. However, although the game started well it soon faded into a dour, dreich encounter that will quickly fade from the mind. Effort and some skill showed up, but goalmouth action was a rarity. Usually these games are played before a baying, howling crowd, with tackles unfit for human consumption appearing all over the park, not on Saturday. Often the ref will fail to control the outburts of temper and bad feeling, none showed on this occasion, and the game, was lifted only by a goalkeeping error and a deserved, blatant last minute penalty. In the days of prehistory I played in more exciting games myself, and played extremely badly I must add!

I followed this up with Portsmouth v Everton. here the best of the English Premiership failed to impress! The English love to claim they have the best league in the world, ignoring Spain of course, and telling the world how good they are. This quality is shown by the lack of English managers and players at the top clubs, but I will not mention that. The Everton display did not inspire respect for any league, defending away from home when one of the top clubs in the league was a poor decision. The second half was better, but although a draw at Portsmouth is commendable this was poor stuff.

Much better was the Aston Villa taking on the mighty Arsenal. This was how to play away from home, all out attack with bundles of skill from Arsenal and deserved goals. As the break approached I thought Villa were about to implode. How wrong I was! The second half was a display of all out attack from Villa that had me on the edge of my seat, except when I fell off!
Excellent game, and the best of the weekend. But I was glad when it finished. Those little Saturday jobs that I had meant to do were still waiting for me, and it was too late by then! Shame eh?

Sunday. A day of rest. Now what better way to rest than to watch the Harrogate Railway play Mansfield Town in the English Cup? Actually, having watched this I consider listening to a woman talk about her baby more interesting, but maybe I am being harsh! To upset the lassie, if she was to know, I also finished up by watching an excited Birmingham City travel to Spurs and beat them 3-2. Jolly good that, much as I would like to see Spurs move up the league, which the will.

All in all a very good football weekend. We held our own, some good, exciting football observed, and now I am surrounded by squalor that has built up from nowhere over the weekend. How come? Anyway, back to the real world. Job seeking is not easy when you are an ageing, injury hit idiot, especially at this time of year. I had invested hopefully in the Lottery as a means of changing the world around me, but that seems to me an unfair system, in so much as someone else always gets what i consider 'my' winnings! Tsk!

I wonder if there are any games on tonight............