The Saints can fly,
And that home win that you dream of,
That dream really does come true.
It has been a spectacularly grey start to 2017 for the Mighty Saints. Not meteorologically-speaking, although we haven’t exactly been flirting with sun burn on the terraces. No this is that flat grey feeling that goes with regular defeat, embarrassing score lines and no win in 8 games. There is only so much us supporters can do in this situation, but in an attempt to brighten things up, TLF took matters into her own paws in advance of the home game against promotion chasing Dartford, with a canny investment in the form of a Club Deportivo Guadalajara home shirt.
“Guadala -Who?” I hear you cry. Why the Spanish Team, Deportivo Guadalajara of the Segunda Division B – Group 2. As you can see their league trips off the tongue as well as their club name. And please do not be confusing them with the Mexican, Club Deportivo Guadalajara, who are sensibly more commonly know as Chivas and have a stadium about five times the size of the one belong to the Spanish version of CDG. Small and unsuccessful they may be, but they do have a rather splendid home shirt which had caught the eye (and wallet) of TLF. With no plans to go and watch CDG anytime soon it seemed like a debut at Clarence Park was in order.
And it certainly does attract attention. It’s not a quiet shirt, but generally it makes people smile, although of course that might have been TLF’s inability to pronounce Guadalajara that had them beaming. Anyway it had the desired effect because at least we were all a bit more cheerful. Well at least until the game started. While it was the nicest day of the year so far, the first half saw us in the shady end. So yes you can see without squinting but it is cold out of the sun and you have of course dressed for the sun to be baking down and you are holding a beer so you can’t even put your hands in your pockets (James has an idea about beer mitts for occasions like this – could be a money spinner…). On the pitch our keeper was getting most of the fans’ praise as he kept us in the game, but John wasn’t having any of it. “We are at home! And all we have got to cheer about is our keeper making saves! Dreadful!” I wish you could hear how he said it, as the typed word cannot do justice to the incredulispair (that’s a mixture of incredulity and despair by the way) that delivered these words.
Still at half time it was 0-0, and it says much about 2017 to date that we were all quite cheerful to have reached such dizzy heights.
Remarkably things got even better in the second half. We scored a goal! And it wasn’t some scuffed shot. Nope. This was an overhead acrobatic goal. The celebrations that John and I undertook were not quite as enthusiastic as perhaps it deserved, but we didn’t want John’s beer to spill and he was still a bit grumpy about the goalkeeper thing.
And Lo! The final whistle did arrive confirming a precious 1-0 win and also the arrival of a new LUCKY shirt.
Towards the end of the game, Trevor spotted a rainbow coloured kite high above the ground and wondered if TLF had been caught by the breeze…but no TLF was still on terra firm, the half marathon diet isn’t going that well.
CDG Fox
Maybe now Saints will hit a purple patch (BOOMBOOM!)