A Funny Thing Happened at Football

Last night saw Crawley Town playing Swansea City in the Capital One Cup, which is the new name for what was the Carling Cup. Swansea have recently been promoted to the Premiership, which meant that it was a big game for Crawley. The ground was fairly full with 3500 football fans in attendance, 900 of whom were from Swansea. In all it was a very good turnout for a Tuesday evening, despite the rain. The record at the Broadfield Stadium is about 4500, which was achieved at our recent League 1 game against Portsmouth. Unfortunately we lost that game 0-3 and we had 2 player sent off. Not our finest 90 minutes by a long way.


The game itself was very close, with Crawley giving Swansea a real game. Our performance overall was surprisingly good compared with our recent performances and bearing in mind that Swansea are now a top flight team. The banter between our fans and theirs really made for a great atmosphere and we even managed to get the others in the West Stand singing, which is virtually unheard of. Chants of “Are We In A Library?” from away fans are not uncommon. Ultimately, the visitors beat us by 3 Goals to 2, their 3rd goal coming in the 90th minute, just as the 4th official held up the board to let us know there was 4 minute of injury time to play. Such is life.

At halftime, Chunky, Steve, Ray and a few others always gather around to discuss the first half game play and drink tea, eat biscuits, etc. This time however there was a new face in the group and it was someone I instantly recognised as my Supervisor when I was an Apprentice over 20 years ago. I couldn’t for the life of me remember his name, so I didn’t mention it. I later found out from Ray that his name was Brian and they worked together. After the game Ray re-introduced us and when I told him my name he instantly remembered me. It then became clear that I had also worked with one of the other guys in the group. I’ve been chatting with him for the last 3 or so years without realising. It just goes to prove that it’s a small world.


Regards



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Woosh goes time

The weather here in England has taken a turn for the worse and not for the first time this year. Last Autumn and Winter saw very little rain fall. The Spring was showing no sign of easing the problem either. Many areas of the country, including my corner of Sussex, had hosepipe bans applied. Water levels in our local resovouir (spell checker can't cope) were significantly lower than they should have been for the time of year.

Then the heavens opened and it seemed to rain endlessly for months. It wasn't until August that the Summer arrived. However, it only really lasted for 3 maybe 4 weeks.

Now September has arrived and the Autumn is back with a vengeance. The temperatures regularly fall below 10c and it won't stop raining. We've had it easy here in the South. Most of Northern England has been washed away. I can't even begin to imagine how it must feel to have your home full of muddy water. My heart goes out to those people affected and I pray it never happens to me.

All we have to look forward to now is the chill of Winter. It seems only yesterday that I felt the joy of seeing the first Daffodil of Spring.

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