Saturday, October 29, 2005
Shirtless
My article from the Grecian Matchday Magazine for ECFC v Tamworth 29/10/2005
English philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) is quoted as having said: “Fear is the main source of superstition and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom." This seems a little extreme, as most superstitions these days are harmless. For example, they are very common among sports players and sports fans. Many people have certain routines they have to go through before a match or certain things they have to wear. Whether or not such things should matter, they clearly have an effect on the person involved. If the person is a player, a break in routine could affect their concentration during the game and therefore affect their performance.
This week the World Series of Baseball has been taking place in the USA between the Houston Astros and the Chicago White Sox. I’ve watched a bit of the series and the commentators made the odd reference to various superstitions of players. With this in mind I did a bit of digging on the Internet and found many sites claiming that baseball players are the most superstitious of all sportsmen or women.
When you look at some of the things baseball players have done in the past that claim is quite believable. Wade Boggs, for example, would eat chicken before every game. When you consider the baseball season lasts for over one hundred matches, that’s a lot of chicken. Turk Wendell, a pitcher, would brush his teeth between every inning. Presumably he was worried how his teeth would cope with the four liquorice sticks he would religiously chew while pitching.
Tennis players also tend to be quite superstitious. Goran Ivanisevic, the wonderfully unpredictable Croatian, is right up there with the quirkiest of them. If he won a match he would repeat everything he did that day before his next match. You can only imagine how dull a week he would have if he won a tournament. A common superstition amongst tennis players seems to be to avoid walking on the lines of the court. Belgian world number 6 Justine Henin-Hardenne, for example, lists this as her superstition, as does former world number 1 Martina Hingis.
I guess I’m a relatively superstitious person. I always salute a single magpie and try to avoid walking over three drains. Also, I no longer bet on City matches as I’m convinced that if I bet on a win, we’ll lose or draw no matter who we’re playing. And I clearly can’t bet on us to lose. This doesn’t stop me from participating in the GNET (an internet mailing list of City fans) prediction league and predicting City wins every week. As long as there’s no money involved, I feel safe.
Recently I’ve stopped wearing my City shirt to home matches because I realised that, when I wore it, we played poorly. This idea came to me after sitting on the train during the Cambridge home game a few weeks ago on the way back from holiday. That day, according to most reports, we played very well and I wasn’t wearing my shirt. The link seemed indisputable.
The fact that we lost to Stevenage last week when I wasn’t wearing my shirt may force me into a rethink. But that rethink certainly won’t result in me staying away from home games. It was just a coincidence that I wasn’t at that Cambridge game…
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Away day memories
My article from the FA Cup game against Stevenage 22nd October 2005
The pictures of those who went to Crawley last weekend celebrating the late goals from Jon Challinor that won us the game brought to my mind some of the great City away games I’ve been to in recent years. Away games seem to rank high in my list of most memorable City games. In fact, my top two all-time favourite City games are away ones, both coming in the same season.
In second place we have a wonderful trip to York City. I’ve been to York a couple of times and always seen us win. The one that takes the runner-up spot is the 3-0 win in February 2001, with a goal from Christian Roberts and two from Steve Flack. (Incidentally a certain Alex Inglethorpe scored the winner for us the following Tuesday, at home against Barnet.) A friend and I travelled up the night before to stay with his brother in Nottingham. We took the train, which was supposed to take about four and a half hours. Over 9 hours after leaving Exeter we finally arrived. Our return journey on the Sunday was equally bad. But I won’t dwell on that. Needless to say the trip was worth it.
City were, surprisingly, involved in a relegation battle at the time and desperately needed points. We got them in some style. The game had been designated a “purple away day”, so there were purple shirts, purple wigs, purple faces, purple balloons and, of course, purple pineapples, everywhere. A good 300 fans had made the trek up there and had a great time. As always seems to be the case at away matches, we were in good voice and thoroughly enjoyed the excellent performance Flacky and the lads put on for us. My friend was so impressed he wrote to our then manager Noel Blake to thank him and the team for making up for our terrible journey. It was a great weekend despite the best efforts of a train company who shall remain nameless.
In first place though is a game from a few weeks later in the season. It was the penultimate weekend and we faced a trip to Scunthorpe United. They were challenging for a play-off spot while we still needed a win to be safe from relegation. There seemed little chance that we’d get anything but a sound hammering out of the game. I made a late decision to go and hopped on the supporters’ coach early on Saturday morning. About 200 City fans made their way there and took over the pub just next door to the ground.
Totally unexpectedly we beat them 2-0, with goals from Christian Roberts (again) and Gary Birch. The celebrations at the end of the game were amazing. The fans ran to the front of the stand to mob the players who came running over. We chanted Blakey’s name, we chanted Steve Perryman’s name. It was like we’d won promotion. I think it’s the combination of the fact we were safe from the drop and that we’d won a game few could have thought we would that makes this game my all-time favourite. It was a great day.
There is certainly something extra special about away games, whatever the result. This must be to do with the journey and the fact that the atmosphere is always so much better than for home games. No matter how many make the trip, City fans always make themselves heard. Perhaps we could try this at home games too? Just a thought.
