The thing I like about football is winning. The thing I hate, loathe, detest, get sickened by, and become maddened by, in football, is not winning. Particularly against teams we ‘should beat’. Ok, there’s no guarantees in life or football. Anyone doubting the wisdom of that truism just think back to March, April, May…

So if wins were guaranteed, there’d be no point playing the matches. You could just award the points in absentia, crown the winners, avoid all that goal celbratory, Covid-risking touchy-feeliness and reduce injuries by 90%. The 10% because they’d still have to train. And then only play the ‘close’ matches. Like Liverpool vs Man United on Sunday. Like the Chelsea Man City type matches. Too close to call. So therefore, Spurs vs anyone.

We trounced Man City then drew with Newcastle. We thrashed Southampton then lost to Everton. We mullered Leeds and then… and then… and then FUCKING DIDN’T BEAT FULHAM. On Wednesday night. It was a horror show. We played well, scored a totally brilliant goal, simply taking of breath type goal, 3 players, 65 yards, 3 touches, about 5 seconds. So good a goal that we immediately ‘put the brakes on’. Ok, that’ll do. Shut up shop. We’ve done enough. It’s only Fulham. They won’t score.

The Morinho method. Which is so great that we’ve drawn or lost half a dozen matches because we don’t keep on pressing to close the game up. Or we do, but only half the matches. Alas its the other half that kill.

The second half of the game brought on a different Fulham. Who were fantastic. Attacking brilliantly. To which our inevitable reply was: bring it on. Wave after wave until the equaliser became inevitable. And by the time they scored it we’d forgotten how to mount an attack, it had been so long. So can consider ourselves lucky not to lose the game altogether as Fulham pressed on after scoring knowing that there was only going to be one winner, and it weren’t us. The draw was a kind of victory. For both teams.

I’d like to think lessons have been learned. But I fear not.

If there’s one team even more a ‘sure thing’ than Fulham, it is poor, one-win, hapless, Sheffield United. Who we play on Sunday.

God help us.

A xxxx