Yesterday's last minute winner at Sudbury was most welcome. 90 minutes of turgidness redeemed by a single moment of quality. This is by no means a recommendation for the "Mullered Sports" Youtube Channel, but Mr Mullered happened to be in right spot to capture the goal quite beautifully, from Thanoj's exquisite, defence splitting pass to Pennant's nerveless finish.
Mr Mullered's appearance at our game in Suffolk had filled me with a sense of foreboding. Like the Grim Reaper, his all-too-often appearance at Poppies games heralds either a shite performance, a defeat, or both, captured by the mobile phone of this Angel of Footballing Death. And, for fully 95 minutes of the 96 minutes played at Sudbury his unloved attendance at the game seemed to signal our usual inability to perform in front of his jowly glare. How unlucky a mascot is he in the grand scheme of things? I can't say for certain, except to say he was thrown out of the ground during our last away win by the ever-officious stewards at Telford. I'm not saying his departure helped us win the game, but I'm convinced it didn't hurt!
So, back to yesterday's game.
Last minute winner = a good thing.
Last minute winner followed by a gumby pitch invasion = a bad thing.
Football is a game built on rules, regulations and accepted norms. The players and clubs have a shit-load of directives and rules they need to follow. Or be fined. Or have points deducted. Or be relegated.
Supporters? We have basically two rules to follow. Resist the urge to pelt the players and see if you can avoid being on the pitch. Sounds easy you'd think? At the moment certain elements of our support seem to be having problems with both of these, quite reasonable rules.
Last week a supposedly pissed-up 15 year old hit the opposition goalie with a plastic bottle. Yesterday a group of pissed-up adults (a blur of pissed-heads?) thought that a jig on the pitch after our goal was literally the only was to celebrate a late winner.
Leaving aside the, admittedly, admirable physical dexterity of (A) hitting a bit of an arsehole goalie with a lightweight bottle from 20 yards, and (B) instantly leaping quite a tall fence when gumped out of your head on grog, you've got to ask what the hell is going on with some of our supporters.
Don't go on the pitch or throw things at the players. Two quite easy things to remember. You'd have thought? Even when half cut. It might not bother the people doing these things (nor, dispiritingly, far too many, not-actually-at-the-game apologists on KTFC Chat), but football clubs can get into a world of trouble when these sort of things happen.
Is it really worth doing a bit of a drunken wobble in front of defenders who have just lost in the last minute (who thankfully ignored our idiots) for the club to be fined? Or the club being forced to employ more stewards or even pay for police to be at games? Or even the club being told by the league not to serve alcohol in the stadium as it's become clear some of our lightweights can't handle it?
What price a grinning, imbecilic waddle onto the turf now?
 |
| One welcome and one unwelcome debutant at Sudbury |
