Blimey this season is dragging on a bit! It will soon be the cricket season and we’ll all know the outcome of our fate. The last few games have not exactly provided us with a lot of hope which is a shame really. I guess when all is said and done in a normal season we would not expect to get anything out of Arsenal at home or West ham away. Certainly in a season when we’ve been like an Iraqi religion, and I don’t mean shia, the points accumulated were what was expected, nothing.
The Arsenal defeat was disappointing because the Gunners were there to be beaten. They were low on confidence and short of players but still had enough to ease past the Blues. The West Ham loss was even more upsetting because most of us genuinely believed we could take something from the match. All we went home with was a feeling of humiliation that we could put in such an apathetic performance.
Every match we hope is ‘the one’ that kick starts the fightback. Matches are coming and going though and the points total is not increasing exponentially. The next few games are crucial and whether we happily watch cricket or mope about the house for a few months depends on the points collected against Sunderland, Middlesboro and West Brom. Firstly we have to bridge the gap to the Albion and from then on maintain touch with a few other relegation potentials and move away from the bottom three. All that counts is that when the season is tallied up there are three teams beneath us. It doesn’t matter who. I would love both Blues and Albion to survive but fear one of them is going to sink.
Everyone keeps saying how tough the run in is for the Baggies but when you are fighting for survival every game is tough. The vast majority of teams are above you and are there for a reason; they are better than you. Fact.
The FA Cup has once again this season provided a brief interlude. So far we have struggled painfully to beat three teams from lower leagues. Torquay should have beaten us. Reading looked to have booked their passage only to be stumped by a late equaliser and in the replay we failed to convince. It comes to something when in a game against poor Stoke our goalkeeper is nominated for a performance award. That best sums up how well we did.
But forget all that. Today is another day. Sunderland, bottom of the table and nigh on already down, visit St Andrew’s. Three points today, a point at the Boro and another three against the Albion added to a Quarter Final victory over Liverpool and suddenly we are out of the bottom three and in the Semi Final of the FA Cup. The season doesn’t look so bad then does it? Of course it can happen, this is football. Anything can happen in the next ninety minutes. We have to have faith that it can be pulled off. Keep right on to the end of the road and all that.
Certainly it could also go the other way and we could have the ignominy of being relegated at Villa Park. But so what? We’ve been relegated before, down and down. No one can accuse us of supporting the Blues for the glory. Allegedly there are some people who have jumped on the bandwagon. Of what? Success? I think they are best summed up as supporters who have drifted away over the years and slowly been tempted back by the quality of football on offer! Maybe? They don’t count as bandwagoners (nice word!) but more like returned lost sheep.
I don’t know many Sunderland players. I wish them luck. They earned a lot of respect at St Andrew’s on their last visit as they were relegated. Their fans sang throughout and you have to have some sympathy with them. You think we’ve watched some crap, imagine what they’ve had to put up with!
Keep right on because when you think about it, there’s nothing else to do!