No it’s not Clash karaoke time. And I’m not about to celebrate my first 12 months of living in St Albans by moving. The dilemma is much more important than that. It being of a footballing nature.
You see last weekend, the plan was get back from Bangor after a four hour train trip having been away from home for the best part of three days including for the biggest event I have ever been vaguely responsible for (I say vaguely only because it was one of those things where you’ve got experts working for you, you are only ever asked to sort out internal politics issues BUT if it all goes t*ts up…your neck is on the line) and go straight to the mighty Saints FA Cup qualifying round game. Trouble was a combination of sleep deprivation, being brain dead (self inflicted or not it still means you’re brain dead), a strike by Arriva conductors and some nagging part of that brain dead brain saying ‘it might be a nice gesture to see Mr TLF now rather than after the football and 3 pints of Stella’ (or probably four looking at the time I was likely to get to the ground) left me thinking that maybe I should do the decent thing and make a romantic gesture. Yeah I know…Well technically people talk about the ‘romance of the Cup’ so I was engaging in half of the cliché.
I am not sure who was more surprised; me as I typed the text or Mr TLF as he read, “Would you like to go out for lunch instead of me going to football?” So there you go good deed done. Regular text updates from John, Hatboy and Davy Mac – good things always come in threes. And good news it was as the Saints progressed to the next round of the Cup (one game away from the first round PROPER) and were rewarded with another home fixture.
And therein lies the dilemma – you remember the dilemma thing I mentioned awhile back before I took you on a short journey to Rambleville…..DO keep up for goodness sake.
St Albans have won their FA Cup games in my absence. Should I go to the next one?
I want to go but what if they lose? Should I ignore the precedent that has been set, i.e. my absence is lucky for the Saints in the cup, go to the game and risk coming home rechristened the Lost Jonah?
It would all be my fault (not the ref’s, or the opposition’s or indeed my team’s). And please don’t tell me to stop being silly, that this is superstitious nonsense. Next thing I know you’ll be telling me that the seven steps I take on the ‘lucky wall’ when I walk to Lesta’s ground have no effect on the outcome of their games whatsoever and that me forgetting to wash my St Albans shirt after the last home defeat had nothing to do with us losing the very next game. Purleeease. Don’t be coming round here with your logic. This is football. Logic does not apply.
If I go there will be trouble if I stay it will be double.
Casbah Fox (Rockin’)