OK there's a football match on today. I have taken a step back in the last couple of years from the global / the narional sport. But I live in Newcastle. Have done for years . Have supported the club since I was six. How best to deal with the butterflies of unease beginning to knot in my stomach.
In a good way. By listening to Supergrass - In It For The Money on my television. Everybody seems drunk in Toon already. I've had my swim.There was a very annoying man there who chatters endlessly. Where is it being played he asks. Ridiculous. He's a chatterbox. Non stop. 'When I have nothing to say my lips are sealed. Say something once . Why say it again. ' I've done my circuit. I walk home. I can't face the bars today.
The Three Degrees Greatest Hits has done its best on my turntable which is very, very good indeed .'I guess this is the year to make your big decision.' Isn't that always the case. I've been to church and chatted about whether the Russians are going to invade the Baltic Republics. David thinks maybe..Not David Byrne this time. David, the nice bloke I chat to after the service over tea and biscuits. I'm not so sure. Now I need to plan my lessons for tomorrow.
The Three Degrees have moved onto their Love Train. People all over the world. Start a Love Train, Love Train. They're full of good ideas those Three Degrees and the record moves into its run off groove. A very sad sound.
I go down to the Sainsburys at the station and invest in notepads. Back to my flat, pop a couple of jacket potatoes in the oven. . There are 32,000 Geordies in London. Several of them from my local Rosie's. I imagine they're tanked up already. Liverpool fans will be confident. Newcastle haven't won this fixture since 2015. I put In It For The Money on my TV screen and listen to the album.
It's a great diverse, speeding and reflective record but I can't really appreciate it.My mind is racing forward and backwards to imagined scenarios. I've supported ths team since I was a six year old tot who knew nothing about football. Or indeed life. But I chose Newcastle, because of Malcolm McDonald. More fool me. If I'd opted for Liverpool. Toshack and Keegan, I'd have been alright. .
I've been in a kind of purgatory ever since. Fifty three years of hurt and hope .Waiting for them to win a domestic trophy. Win anything. Apart from the Anglo Italian or Texaco Cup. They haven't won one since 1955. Ten years before I was born. I've been living in this great city snce 2008.
I think of my dear parents in Canterbury. Clearing away the plates. Popping them in the dishwasher. My mother wheeling the little trolley my sister has bought for them into the kitchen. She turned 90 last year. My father got there six months before her. Setting off the dishwasher and sitting down for the match. My dear father thinking of me. .
Meanhwile The Sun Hits the Sky on In It For The Money. Supergrass are scoring for fun but I doubt if Newcastle will show the same poise. They are preparing themselves in a changing room in the depths of Wembley Stadium. Modern gladiators. Eddie Howe. Isak. Bruno Guimaires. Dan Burn and the others. The weight of expectation on their shoulders. Mo Salah the Liverpool dynamo and Egyptian pharoah and still one of the best footballers in the world limbering up in the Lverpool dressing room just down the corridor. Prowling.
It's only a game I tell myself but that's not the whole story of course for those of us who invest so much pent up emotion in this game. Season after season. Right the way through life. This toxic global sport. 'A bit of fun'. You what. Supergrass motor on. A tight and frankly fantastic unit. They know their Who. Their Traffic. Their Withnail & I.. On In It For The Money they proved themselves more than BritPop also rans.They're in it for the fun as much as the money. But it's clear they're fairly serious too.
The crowds pour into the staduim. I look through the line ups. No Dubravka. Newcastle have a Pope in goal. Newcastle have a good team. Injuries and suspensions notwithstanding. I'm feeling slightly nauseous. I take off the album and put on the TV..
Newcastle win 2-1.Deservedly, The better team. Their first domestic trophy for seventy years, I set myself up for a quiet night in. The rest of the city prepare themselves for a night of celebration. Bank Holiday tomorrow . But make that weeks / months of celebration. There's been a long wait up here !
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