"Did you see the game last night?" I was asked at work this morning.
"Yes, it wasn't bad, for that standard. Got a bit nippy though..." was my response.
Which is where I lost them. Turns out the football to watch was the European Champions League quarter finals between Liverpool & Chelsea, with Barcelona against Bayern Munich on another digital sports channel. Whaddaya mean? You haven't got a Sky dish on the wall? Tough shit you tight fisted git. Down the pub then, surround by 'lifelong fans' who've never been near a football ground in their life. The most opinionated people in the pub, wearing the newest replica shirts, and they're always right! Who treat you with total distain once they find out you follow a lower division club, or even more pitful, a non-league 'amat-uur' side. What is with people that they can't even pronounce the word amateur properly? And it's NOT amateur it's semi fucking professional you ignorant twat!
You may be a quite interesting person, capable of talking sensibly about football for hours on end. But if you don't go to games just fuck off and stop annoying me! Armchair fans just make me switch up. I reach for my own remote & stop listening. Go away. You bore me! And YES, I am full of contempt for you!
Call me old fashioned, but watching football is something you do standing up. Sure, sometimes you have no choice but to sit down, but at least that's at the ground, with lots of the higher Football League grounds being all seaters nowadays.
Don't get me wrong, I love the atmosphere at big games. But that atmosphere is for grounds. Not pubs! I'd rather watch two sides play down the local park, rather than ducking & diving to try and get a glimpse of a screen in a pub full of pillocks, screaming undying love for 'their boys' despite never having been to watch them in the flesh in their lives!
There's nothing better than watching a game, nomatter what level. But sadly it's never 'in the flesh'. What a 'teasing' expression that is! I'd love to see Cristian Ronaldo ' in the flesh ' on television...what a waste of 'talent' while he's playing or Man. United! ;-)
But I digress! I had a choice last night. Watch one of the European games in a bar, or go to a match. I chose the latter. In what was practically a park. A pitch in the middle of a running track, with no terracing or seating. Three rungs BELOW my team Dulwich Hamlet in the non-league pyramid, which makes it eleven below your Arsenals & Chelseas! Local players who have a run out for the love of the game, paying matchday subs to play! Lewisham Borough versus Rusthall, in the Kent County League Premier Division, case you're wondering. Two one to the hosts, and where it lacked in true quality it made up for in keenness & endeavour. They may not have been the best footballers in the world, but they gave their all. And what more can you ask on a football pitch?
I work every other Saturday, & until seven o'clock at night two evenings a week, so I have to miss more games than I would like to. But it's works that pays the bills, and chips away at my debts, so I can't complain. Despite those restrictions last night was my ninetieth of the season!
And I wouldn't have it any other way! Follow your football down the pub, but I'll be a supporter at REAL games!
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My old man was a bit like that. Only very, very occasionally would he ever watch football on TV. He was a life-long Leeds fan [somebody had to be] and went to every game. He jacked it in when they went PLC. Prior to that he’d ah two season tickets in the West Stand. Same two seats for as long as I could ever remember. The renewal for “your” seat being the last home game ticket in the book.
ReplyDeleteWhen Leeds went PLC he still got his two seats but one was in [what was then the Lowfields Rd stand, now the Lurpak something or other] and the other, while still in the West Stand was tucked away in a corner near the Kop.
This fucked him off more then the fact that the price had doubled. “Bugger ‘em. I’m never goin’ again”. And he never did.
After that he would go and watch the Sunday league on the local park and have a beer afterwards.
I think it’s shit the way some clubs behave [and I don’t follow the damn game]. I think if they paid the buggers a bit less money, it would weed out those who want to play from those who, while they have the ability to play, are only in it for the money [and because they never learned fuck all at school].