The point of life is to keep changing.
(OK no one else has to follow my dictum of course, but that’s what has kept me going all these years, and it seems to serve me well).
So today I am venturing (in an hour or so) to do something very different. Instead of sitting watching the CSKA game on TV (I choose not to go to that match since getting done over some years back), I am going to watch Bristol Academy vs Arsenal Ladies.
That is, I will watch it if I find the right ground. I found the Academy’s web site, and there were details of a couple of locations there, so I thought I would phone them up. After 3 fruitless calls I got hold of someone and said, “can you tell me which ground the game against Arsenal is being played at?” and the person at the other end said, “Is this football you’re talking about?”
I don’t say this because I am having a go at Bristol Academy – far from it. As far as I can see, they were Bristol Rovers’ club, got disenfranchised, changed their name, and have managed to keep going without sponsor, and without a league club’s support, largely through the devotion of a local college. Now that’s what I call grass roots.
Anyway, with our team still with their 100% record in the league, we’re hoping for a jolly afternoon out. After which it will be a drive to a pub to watch the second half of the gentleman’s team on Sky.
Like I say, time for something different.
Enjoy the game. Sometimes it’s nice to just watch football for fun without all the stomach churning butterflies!
I echo the above, non league football can be really enjoyable as its honest and some of it is played with a fair amount of skill. It also reminds you that football is at the end of the day a sport and a leisure activity and not about who’s got the most money or about being on top by pulling the others down (as Ferguson has spent an entire career doing – latest pop being at Pires to account for his own players shortcomings).