Friday, January 11, 2008

Us 0 Weymouth 1

I hate games like Tuesday’s – and not just because of the defeat. Whilst pretty much the rest of football took the night off, we had to plod our way through another fixture. Seeing what’s happening around the country, and how it’s affecting you, is all part of match day experience. Playing in isolation places into stark relief what we are witnessing - two poor teams sleepwalking their way through a poor game in poor conditions.

There was a muted response at the end of the game; most seemed happy that it was out of the way and we could go home. Some still displayed the eyeballs out, pulsating vein, purple faced anger, but precious few.

Characteristically this group of angry-fans is younger than average. Perhaps their response is just the naivety of youth, maybe it’s a Sky sponsored learnt behaviour where passion should be displayed as hysterical aggression. This is the sort of thing that looks great when showing a quick edit promotional montage for the Super Sunday game between Middlesborough and Wigan. Maybe it’s because few of these people will have actually seen a successful Oxford United team and cannot square-off why they waste so much time, expense and energy on something so awful.

Those of us who have been around a little longer, have seen success, and, to a point, can justify all this – we drank in the good times, it is our responsibility to be there during the sour times as well. We can, at least, take some comfort in our memories.

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