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The
Lord Mayor's Show …….. and After!!
by Lawrie Harries
On
Monday night I dreamt I had been down at Earlsmead in the company
of dozens of Frenchmen, some bearing a very marked resemblance to
Emmanuel Petit, Frank Leboeuf, Marcel Desailly and Zinedine Zidane.
I
woke up on Tuesday and found it was true! Desailly was first to
arrive and he immediately got to the point "Is this the ground where
the famous Otis Roberts plays?" he asked. "Oui, messieur" responded
Boro's acting linguist Keith Loddy who had spent all day learning
the phrase "and" he added, although this time in English "where
the famous Pat Gavin plays".
Marcel
was suitably impressed. After light training on the pitch - they
did not want to do heavy stuff and disturb the surface for Otis
and Pat apparently - the World Champions (it's true, it's true -
as once more I pinch myself) retired to give informal interviews
to anyone interested in a chat in the main hall.
Cameras
whirred and bulbs flashed as film after film was shot. Hundreds
of photographs must have been taken, hundreds of pieces of paper
signed and one man featured in most of the photographs. Not Zidane,
nor Petit, not Desailly. No - the most photographed face that astonishing
Monday evening was none other than Boro's Gilbert Johns who somehow
had his photograph taken with everyone of note - and some notables
even Gilbert didn't know.
(Some
gentleman named Harrison wearing a mayoral chain was one of Gilbert's
victims. "Who was that then" asked Gilbert later). If Gilbert could
find the goal with the alacrity he found the cameras what a player
he would be! But all good things come to an end.
And
after the Lord Mayor's Show came …. Wealdstone. What can one say?
Difficult as it sometimes might appear, we are trying to build bridges
but there must be an interesting case study for any student of sociology
there.
Getting
serious for a moment, it seems that there is a small minority of
Stones supporters who hold their own Club officials in the same
contempt as they do supporters and officials of opposition clubs.
Anyone with access to a website can confirm this is true. Millions
of individuals around the country enjoy football, some with greater
passion than others but it is a sad and worrying day when it becomes
an obsession which borders on hate.
But
enough of this Frasier stuff!! Hooksie's sending off must be close
to a world record for an early bath - and before we go any further,
if it is a record we don't want to break it! Another entry in the
Guinness Book of Records perhaps? Pity the ref didn't apply the
same standards for the rest of the 119 minutes and 45 seconds that
remained.
Why
is it that County Cup games regularly provide examples of poor and
inconsistent officiating? Mind, once we were down to nine men it
became more of a game. If we had started with nine we would probably
have lost in normal time - still next time. Now back to that dream
……. Desailly to Petit, to Bates, to Zidane who finds Roberts on
the right and a long cross to Gavin ……..G …. O ….. A ……. L . Dream
on!!!!
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