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"Bring on Everton!"
I sometimes wonder if I am a glutton for punishment, or just an idiot. Born and bred in Carlisle, a city of nothing in particular, Rory Delap, Kevin Beattie and Roxanne Pallet is about it. Yet it's a city I completely and utterly adore and don't imagine myself anywhere else in the near future. I was also a mediocre tennis player who did average at best in local tournaments, unsatisfied with keeping my mediocrity in my own county I ventured to Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle to share it with all who cared to observe.
However, the most interesting part of my glutton for punishment? Sunderland AFC. Nothing screams pain and punishment quite like being a Sunderland fan does. Yet there's that little part of me inside me, that dares to say it, kind of loves it. I would trade that little part for year-on-year improvement from my beloved football team of course. I don't want to see them suffer, never have wanted to and never will – but that heartache of being a football fan is magnified so much more when you support Sunderland. In just a couple of hours time the Lads will go into wage war with Everton on a cold Tuesday night in Liverpool. Not only have away days scarcely provided anything but abject disappointment and unanswered confusion as to whether we are actually meant to be the top flight of English football, but Goodison Park is not Sunderland's favourite hunting ground either. Every time I heard the words Goodison Park my backside clenches at the thought of a 7-1 defeat, it's a similar feeling to how I now feel when I hear the words Stamford Bridge. Despite all the above, the current run of bad form, the woeful performances generally witnessed at Everton, our inability to defend to an acceptable level, everything, all of it. Do you want to know what? I'd give everything to be at Goodison Park tonight. In the cold. Watching the team I support and cheering them on. Unfortunately I don't have a season ticket to allow me to get to away matches, nor do I have someone to go to them with – which is my main issue, but despite all this I can guarantee I'd give it all up if it meant I could go to every match; and this is coming amidst a run of no win in eight matches in the league. There's nothing I'd love more than to be one of those fans who goes to every match, week in, week out, up and down the country. If you're one of those fans reading this, regardless of team, then congratulations to you – you're a credit to your football team. The best part, I'd have took up this wish on the back of our 19 point season, and out 15 point season two years later. Maybe I've become numb to the pain suffered as a Sunderland fan. I don't have the “sky is falling” attitude that some Liverpool fans, for example, are currently going through. I know that losing is part of the game and yet, despite our aforementioned run of form – or lack of it, I still can't wait for us to get in there and stuck into Everton tonight. While everyone has written us off, expecting a loss, I still approach every match with optimism. In fact I'm probably suffering from optimism more now than I was when we were riding high at the start of the season. Perhaps the drink is all accumulating and leaving me in a permanently drunk state at all times now, hence my unwarranted optimism. So I can't understand the current view amongst football fans all over the country. Falling out of love with football, not wanting to go to home matches any more having given up the away-day trips sometime ago. Here I am, unable to do it but wanting to so much. Portsmouth away twice within seventeen days? Bring it on. Even the Tuesday night match, I'd love to be there and stand up and be counted as more of a credit to my club than I already am. Bring on Everton. Bring on an improved performance and if not, then we have till Monday to regroup and try again, right? Keep the faith.
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