Thursday, December 22, 2005
Superstitions - they don't work - or do they ?
It is really odd how much football fans ( not just me) think that the things they do or don't do before or during a game influence the outcome. The chaos theory would make a lot of sense to a football fan - a butterfly flapping its wings in Honduras means that Vale will win 2-0 the next Saturday - or the game after that.
Mind you, you had to know that the wings had flapped, or it didn't work. I had the belief at one stage that eating anything during a game ( from any kiosk) meant they'd lose, and the same applied to buying programmes at one point, too. Buy a programme and they lose, that's it, game over, don't bother waiting for the result. Got very hungry at some away games, and missed out on some key programmes ( if I was sad enough to collect them)
This post is also connected to "Wembley and boing boing you bastards" - all season long, I'd been making a flask of "soup" - a mixture of Yeast Extract (like Marmite) and Vecon - those of you who are old-style veggies will know what I'm talking about. Sounds gross, tasted pretty gross, but it was hot, well, warm anyway, and it meant you didn't buy things from kiosks (see above) To start off with, I brought it because it was cold in the grounds and you needed something to warm you up - the ritual was to share it with BJ and have some myself.
But by April, the ritual was to make it, take it to the game, but not drink any of it, even if you wanted to - and they kept on winning...even on the hottest day, when you got a suntan out on the terracing, the magic flask was there, untouched, unopened but keeping things going.....so what went wrong ?
There we were, at Wembley for the play off final against those boing boing bastards, West Brom - who we'd stuffed twice in the league - and it was nil-nil. We were playing pretty well and looked on course for no worse than a draw. So BJ asks me if I've got the flask with me - he wants some "soup" - I can hardly say to him don't you dare touch it, they'll lose if you take a sip, so I give him the flask and he has a drink. Then Peter Swann gets sent off for something that might just about have been a booking ( referee was a Bristle Rovers fan, getting his own back, much later - personally I've never forgiven the bastard Milford for that ) and we lose 3-0. All down to drinking the undrinkable soup, I reckon - if he hadn't done that, we'd have won it, and I knew at the time it was doomed for that reason.
Even now, I still try not to read anything in a newspaper before the game on Saturday, well at least before kick off, and I always try to remember which T-shirt, socks, pants and jeans mean a win - especially if I'm going to watch the game - and even if they don't work once, I still try to find them, thinking I must have done something different, like played the wrong CD or parked in the wrong place ( by a few mms or so) or got out of the car with the wrong foot first....Kieran's never been to an away game that they've won yet - so maybe I should stop taking him ? Chances are, eventually, that we'll win one away that he goes to - but is it fair of me to doom them to defeat by taking him until it happens ? If they win and we're not there, which has happened a few times, is it because we weren't ?
If you look at it logically, it makes no sense at all , but luck seems to play so big a part in the game that looking for four-leafed clovers makes as much sense as buying a million pound player in the transfer window - someone who cost nothing and is lucky is a much better bet than an absolutely brilliant player who has no luck whatsoever. Problem is, you can't be certain when you get them, how lucky they are. For some players, they are lucky for one team but not for another - maybe it's the colour of the strip, or the badge or the nickname - so you end up going for skill in the end, and we can't afford too many of them! Don't get them often either, or lucky ones ( and the ones we do get we tend to sell - if we're lucky - or they go somewhere else and score against us)
Better stop talking about it before I anger the gods of promotion, relegation and the cups - signing off with all my fingers, toes and eyes crossed - and as the commentator once said, "( name forgotten- the keeper) is having real problems with high crossed balls" See what I mean ? Fingers, toes, eyes - and now this - is he taking superstition a step too far ?
Mind you, you had to know that the wings had flapped, or it didn't work. I had the belief at one stage that eating anything during a game ( from any kiosk) meant they'd lose, and the same applied to buying programmes at one point, too. Buy a programme and they lose, that's it, game over, don't bother waiting for the result. Got very hungry at some away games, and missed out on some key programmes ( if I was sad enough to collect them)
This post is also connected to "Wembley and boing boing you bastards" - all season long, I'd been making a flask of "soup" - a mixture of Yeast Extract (like Marmite) and Vecon - those of you who are old-style veggies will know what I'm talking about. Sounds gross, tasted pretty gross, but it was hot, well, warm anyway, and it meant you didn't buy things from kiosks (see above) To start off with, I brought it because it was cold in the grounds and you needed something to warm you up - the ritual was to share it with BJ and have some myself.
But by April, the ritual was to make it, take it to the game, but not drink any of it, even if you wanted to - and they kept on winning...even on the hottest day, when you got a suntan out on the terracing, the magic flask was there, untouched, unopened but keeping things going.....so what went wrong ?
There we were, at Wembley for the play off final against those boing boing bastards, West Brom - who we'd stuffed twice in the league - and it was nil-nil. We were playing pretty well and looked on course for no worse than a draw. So BJ asks me if I've got the flask with me - he wants some "soup" - I can hardly say to him don't you dare touch it, they'll lose if you take a sip, so I give him the flask and he has a drink. Then Peter Swann gets sent off for something that might just about have been a booking ( referee was a Bristle Rovers fan, getting his own back, much later - personally I've never forgiven the bastard Milford for that ) and we lose 3-0. All down to drinking the undrinkable soup, I reckon - if he hadn't done that, we'd have won it, and I knew at the time it was doomed for that reason.
Even now, I still try not to read anything in a newspaper before the game on Saturday, well at least before kick off, and I always try to remember which T-shirt, socks, pants and jeans mean a win - especially if I'm going to watch the game - and even if they don't work once, I still try to find them, thinking I must have done something different, like played the wrong CD or parked in the wrong place ( by a few mms or so) or got out of the car with the wrong foot first....Kieran's never been to an away game that they've won yet - so maybe I should stop taking him ? Chances are, eventually, that we'll win one away that he goes to - but is it fair of me to doom them to defeat by taking him until it happens ? If they win and we're not there, which has happened a few times, is it because we weren't ?
If you look at it logically, it makes no sense at all , but luck seems to play so big a part in the game that looking for four-leafed clovers makes as much sense as buying a million pound player in the transfer window - someone who cost nothing and is lucky is a much better bet than an absolutely brilliant player who has no luck whatsoever. Problem is, you can't be certain when you get them, how lucky they are. For some players, they are lucky for one team but not for another - maybe it's the colour of the strip, or the badge or the nickname - so you end up going for skill in the end, and we can't afford too many of them! Don't get them often either, or lucky ones ( and the ones we do get we tend to sell - if we're lucky - or they go somewhere else and score against us)
Better stop talking about it before I anger the gods of promotion, relegation and the cups - signing off with all my fingers, toes and eyes crossed - and as the commentator once said, "( name forgotten- the keeper) is having real problems with high crossed balls" See what I mean ? Fingers, toes, eyes - and now this - is he taking superstition a step too far ?
