Down in the dumps
It’s now 9pm. Four hours since my mood changed to depressed from varying degrees of anxiousness. Two hours before that I’d been relatively happy if a little nervous. Why is this? Football.
This afternoon all Sheffield United had to do was avoid defeat and we they would have survived a season in The Premier League. That’s all; just not lose to a team below them. Sadly for me they couldn’t, and I should have know they wouldn’t.
Supporting The Blades is like the proverbial rollercoaster - plenty of ups and downs but always ending up at ground level. Take today, the goal that sent us down was scored by a player we gave away back in January. That one goal was the margin of goal difference that meant relegation.
Thirteen years ago to avoid relegation all we had to do was not lose (sounds familiar?) and if we did 3 other teams all had to achieve a positive results. We lost in the last minute having been winning & the other three all got what they needed.
In-between these two we’ve lost a play-off final the last kick of extra time. Put in the worst performance in years to lose another play-off final 3-0. How about an FA cup semi final defeat? You got it. Once, twice, three times including one where the referee sets up the opponents winning goal.
I feel sorry for the players and the staff that put a lot of effort in striving to stay up. I’m sure they feel worse than I do. The pain and the numbness was clear to see on their faces after the final whistle as they just stood there not knowing what to do.
I’m sure and would like to be doing nothing more than celebrating staying up right now.
Plenty of criticism will come their way – “not good enough†“not fit to wear the shirtâ€. Perhaps they aren’t good enough but you can’t have a go at someone for trying their best, which I think they did.
I wish I didn’t feel this way. I wish mine were only a passing interest, but its not and in 3 months time it will all start again with more highs and lows.