Following Blues From Afar – A Very Different Christmas, Blues Vs Chelsea – By Aff
Sometimes, being an exiled Bluenose makes you feel exactly that – exiled. You tend to miss things that people at home take for granted. Banter in the street, the feeling of superiority after a derby day win, the idiotic ramblings of the TalkSPORT pundits, the genius of Jeff Stelling’s over dramatising Liverpool’s demise. Sure, it’s easy to follow things like this these days with the wonders of modern technology but most people aren’t at their best at 3 AM in the morning and Jeff Stelling – as good as he is – just doesn’t cut the homesick blues when you’re pining to be at St Andrews, and in Birmingham itself.
With that being said, there’s also a sadistic satisfaction to following Blues from Australia. I proudly announce to people that I haven’t missed a Blues game since I arrived in October 2008 and from a sports-mad country like Australia, I still get raised eyebrows and a look that says “We really can’t compete with you ’soccer’ fans.” People here, no matter what they may tell you, do not love sport as much as English football fans love their clubs. Part of this satisfaction came over the Christmas period for me. I felt as though I’d done my duty as a Blues fan and could justifiably claim to be as involved in the club as anyone who had been sitting in the Tilton against Chelsea on Boxing Day.
My story starts many weeks before Christmas when it was decided that for a week after Christmas, I would be visiting Melbourne with Mrs Aff and Mr & Mrs In-Law Aff. We’ve regularly been on roadtrips together over the years and Melbourne is a city that I don’t know much about and yet every Pom I’d ever come across in Aus says that it’s the most English of all the Australian cities. I was itching to visit. The problem was that during my time away (Boxing Day to 3rd January) Blues would be playing twice. Naturally both games would be live on Fox Sports but on the night of the Chelsea game, I would be staying in a motel in Bairnsdale. Wireless internet was not on the menu according to the website and so I’d have to scout around trying to find a pub or club showing the game or manage to scam some internet from someone, somewhere. The second game was versus Stoke and I was pretty sure I’d be okay for that since I’d be staying with family in Melbourne – no issue.
Boxing Day came and I had scouted around on the internet for WiFi hotspots in and around Bairnsdale (pop. 11,282.) McDonalds have 24 hour free WiFi in this country and I considered going to park the car in the car park and just leech coverage – at least radio coverage if not streaming video. However, my laptop is quite old and the battery lasts half an hour tops so unless I could find an in car charger, I was stuffed on that score. I’d scout round local shops once I got there. On Boxing Day morning, I glumly set about making sure I had everything I needed – camera, check, laptop, check, books to read, check, wallet, check, keys, check, phone, check. Everything else, Mrs Aff is responsible for because I’m the type of guy that would make sure I had 14 t-shirts but would forget to pack socks.
As I set about my extensive list of essentials, Mrs Aff had an idea. A rather ingenius lightbulb idea too, so it was.
“Why don’t you take a dial up cable with you? Our internet account has a back up dial account and you can dial out from the motel at a local rate and just stream the commentary of the game?” I gave her one of those looks that said “If you were a puppy, I’d give you a chew stick. You’re very pretty,” and the trip was suddenly looking much more favourable. I had a sneaking suspicion that we’d ‘do’ Chelsea and I’d kick myself forever if we won but I hadn’t heard or seen it happen.
I was envisaging one of those ‘moments’ as a football fan. You know one of those moments that you think about in 5, 10, 15 years and describe in detail to your best mate – and people who have zero interest in football – over and over again. And because your friends and family love you and realise how important it is, they react accordingly and pretend like they’ve never heard it before. I don’t know how many times Mrs Aff has relived the Stern John in the last minute at VP story. Each time, being attentive and pretending like she doesn’t know what’s coming. She’s a really good sort, in case you hadn’t noticed already. I was fearing another Stern John moment and I couldn’t stand the idea that in five years, people would talk about that game against Chelsea where Chucho skinned seven players and then curled one in from 4 million yards. I couldn’t miss that. I couldn’t say that “Ah yes, I was asleep in the middle of nowhere in Victora (I think.)” I had to be connected to it.
The trip up to Bairnsdale was lengthy. We stopped and ate, we had a look around pretty seaside towns, we went and saw Buchan Caves. All very jolly for a family roadtrip. My in-laws asked about the Chelsea game. They often ask me about Blues and keep an eye on how we’re doing. They even ring me up to tell me when Blues games are replayed on Fox Sports to make sure I haven’t missed anything. When in England, Mother-In-Law Aff used to send me Premier League previews from the local papers to give me the Aussie slant on how Blues might do. They were always much more favourable when we had Stan Lazaridis…
We arrived in Bairnsdale and after checking in, I immediately asked the receptionist about the possibility of internet usage. She stated that they had dial up but that the motel could only use one line at a time. I reassured her that at midnight-2 AM, I’m pretty sure I’d be the only one interested in using it! She agreed and stated that she wasn’t sure what the charge for the internet would be. She wasn’t sure whether it would charge me a standard local call (probably around 50 cents – 25 of your English pence) or the much more expensive local motel call rate of 60c per thirty seconds ($108 for 90 minutes!) She said that I’d find out when I got the bill the next day. I gave her a “Are you serious? You’re serious? Do more, find out,” look. She explained that she wasn’t the owner and that the owner was away on holiday at the moment. She agreed to ring and find out for me. She rang. The owner didn’t know either. I didn’t want to risk spending over £50 to listen to a dodgy internet commentary in a game that conceivably we could get tonked in. I was… how shall we put it? Pissed off, that’s it.
So onto the next option.
“Do you know of any clubs in the area that might be showing it?”
“What time does it start?”
“11:45 PM.”
“Well, the RSL closes at midnight.”
“…”
Clearly, they didn’t own it and probably weren’t from around there. Or if they were, it’s put me right off moving there, that’s for sure. Onto option 3, in-car charger to listen to Wi-Fi at McDonalds. Time was getting on at this point. It must’ve been about 4:30 PM. We raced around town looking for electronic shops. Some were already closed (welcome to country Australia, folks!) but we found an independant place that was still open. We popped in and asked a very friendly local if she had in-car chargers for laptops. She stated that she did and showed us a selection. I spied one for $20 but wasn’t sure that it would fit my connection. I needed to check. The lady asked where we were staying. I explained that we were in a motel just around the corner. She stated that if we popped back to check, she would stay open enough time for us to return to make a decision. What a friendly, helpful person… she should really run a motel.
I raced back to the motel. I picked up my laptop. I checked. I raced back (‘raced’ being a term to indicate the gravity of the situation, at no point did I break any local traffic laws and go quicker than signs stated that I am allowed to go. Besides, I wasn’t driving,) to the shop. The $20 did not fit – but there was another one that did. It was in the $70-$100 price range. I baulked. I wasn’t going to shell out £35-40 with no guarantee that McDonalds did not switch internet off when they closed and went to drive-through only and without making sure that it would work at a speed decent enough to stream the game.
Sunk.
I went back to my motel room and sat on the edge of my bed. Thinking, thinking, thinking. I fired up my laptop and did a search for local wireless internet. Depending on where I stood / sat in the room, there was lots of networks around. Only one was unsecured. It belonged to a motel across the street. I double-clicked it to see if I could use it. I couldn’t. I needed a login and password. The wireless range was good enough – again depending on where I stood – but could I use it if I wasn’t staying there? One way to find out.
Off I trudged to Kansas City Motel across the road from where I was staying. I walked in and addressed the lady behind the counter recalling the entire story from start to finish and explained how important this game is. “And so, would I be able to purchase some internet from you even though I’m not staying here?”
The woman looked slightly confused and ever so slightly proud at the same time. She looked at me:
“Well, no-one has ever asked before. But I don’t see why not. We’re fully booked anyway so it’s not like you could stay here even if you wanted to.” And I handed her seven Australian dollars and she handed me, what I can only describe as Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket. I clutched it tightly in my paw and – I’m not proud of this – moonwalked across the street back to my own motel. My mother-in-law saw me and there’s a photo in existence of me looking more excited than any man has a right to over a piece of paper of that size.
I booted up my laptop to make sure that I could connect. I did so. It was odd because it would only connect to certain sites. I couldn’t check the BBC but I could check bcfc.com and Joys & Sorrows. I hoped against hope that I could stream the game through a football subscription site that I am a member of. Time would tell – but for now, I had to get some shut-eye. I needed a couple of hours worth of sleep before the game kicked off in order to be able to function the next day – day 2 of the road trip, Bairnsdale to Melbourne including a three hour coastal walk along the cliffs at Kilcunda.
11 PM came and I wasn’t asleep. After a big family dispute about the longest river in Australia and where it starts, we ended up doing the Melbourne Herald Sun’s quiz. We didn’t do very well and eventually, I decided that 45 minutes sleep wasn’t going to make much difference so I did what I always do when I’m waiting for Blues to kick off – I walked up and down the room stressing. The accommodation was pretty basic with one bedroom locked away from an open-plan kitchen, living room, second bedroom kinda deal. Mrs Aff and I took the open plan since I’d be watching Blues in the ‘kitchen’ whilst the in-laws took the private bedroom – mainly because I couldn’t get wireless connectivity in there!
15 minutes before kick off and I booted up the laptop. I connected. It fluctuated between 0-60% connectivity. I held the laptop up. I placed it on the floor. I sat with it on my lap. I put it on the table. I opened the door. I opened a window. I opened the curtains. I moved furniture. Still, it wouldn’t connect to the stream. Several under-breath profanities later, it connected briefly. 10 minutes had already gone and I feared I’d missed the Chucho wonder-goal where he beat 19 players and curled it in from 9 million yards. Not so.
I worked out that balancing the laptop on top of the TV in front of the window gave me 60% connectivity and the speed tended to vault up and down between 1.5mb and 6mb. This was good enough and I settled (stood) up to watch the game. I stood a few inches in front of my laptop with one paw holding it at all times to make sure that it didn’t fall (although mainly because I didn’t want to risk losing connectivity and somehow, my hand on it meant that my body was some sort of wireless receiver, I didn’t want to stop that… y’know, just in case.) I stood like this for nearly two hours, watching as we took on the very best – and didn’t come off second best.
Chucho’s ‘goal’ (from 3 yards, not nine million) sort of caught me unawares and there may have been celebrating, whooping (whisper-whoop as I’d now like to Christen it,) pumping of fist and running round in mini-circles before I realised that it had been disallowed. Thankfully, the laptop stayed fairly steady on top of the TV and the wireless receiver running around in circles like a child at a birthday party did not break a really good quality stream.
At the end of the game, I was exhausted. Slightly disappointed too since Chucho’s goal really should’ve stood and we could and should have been 1 up. Maybe that would’ve spurred Chelsea on but in the circumstances, a point was a good point and it kept the unbeaten run going. I didn’t miss any of those moments that you talk about in 10, 15 years although I daresay that I’ll be recounting this story many times. People have already asked about it and again, more shakes of the head and raising of eyebrows as I recount various aspects of it.
When you go through stuff like this, it makes you realise that whether you’ve forked out £400 for a season ticket, go when you can afford to, let Blues ruin or make your weekend or whether you just get up at 3 AM in the morning to watch a pixelated internet stream, we’re all part of one club and you do what you can when you can to prove this. During this trip, I really felt like I did my part and at the end of the game, I stood and applauded the blue pixels off the screen like I was there. I felt like Roger Johnson was applauding me back at full time and in that moment, I realised that being exiled doesn’t mean being excluded, it just means that I get to show my commitment in a whole other sort of way.
Part two coming soon, Blues away at Stoke…
You can follow me on twitter – http://twitter.com/affbcfc
World Cup 2010, Easy, Easy, Easy!
England have been drawn to face the United States, Algeria and Slovenia in the group stage, (group C), of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
What an easy draw, we can be concentrating on who we will get after qualifying with 9 points. It could well be Germany, as they are in a difficult group with Australia, Serbia and Ghana and they could well finish 2nd, as they aren’t as strong as previous years – so we are in the semi finals – easy, easy, easy!
Spin forward 6 months to Saturday 12th June and the score comes in…
England 0 – 3 USA.
Well it is England after all!
(More on the World Cup to come!)
Blues Down Under – The New Board
Hello London, this is Sydney(ish) calling.
I’ve been in Australia for about a year now. I’m happy to report that things are going well. To quote a balding sixty-something year old New York song writer “Things are okay with me these days, I got a good job, I got a good office, I got a new wife, got a new life and the family is fine.” We’re just coming into summer and daylight savings means that I get up every morning to live football on the telly and 20-25 degrees outside. Life is sweet although watching ‘Super Sunday’ games is a bit of a hassle if it’s a good un such as Chelsea Vs Manchester United since they kick off at around 3 AM on Monday AEST. Not ideal when one is due at work at 8:30 AM. That said, Blues kicked off as that time last Sunday so I booked the day off. It would’ve been worth it had we won although missing any day off work is never necessarily bad.
Super Sunday here in Aus consists of watching North Queensland Fury against Wellington Phoenix. It doesn’t really cut the mustard, really. Still, bless ‘em, they try. And Fox Sports certainly have their own Jamie Redknapp – winner of the ‘Pundit I’d most like to hit in the face with a frying pan because he never says anything remotely interesting nor controversial but does occasionally say something really stupid’ award in the shape of Robbie Slater. And there’s Mark Bosnich, who annoys me because despite the fact that, at a relatively young age, I was taught to dislike him, actually says some mildly interesting and amusing things. And he puts Slater in his place. Which makes me happy which makes me forgive Bosnich for all of his past demeanours a little bit.
Still, it’s not really the standard of local football that I’m here to blog about. I’m finally settled in Australia now and in some sort of rhythm as far as life goes. So I decided that, with Kev’s permission, I’d start to blog about what it’s like following Blues from the other side of the planet. So from this point on, I’ll blog weekly(ish) about the goings on at St Andrew’s from an ex-pats point of view as well as sharing tidbits of what it’s like to live in Australia.
The backend of last season was a bit of a nightmare here. Blues were on TV occasionally (when they were on back home) but coverage was irregular and a half hour round up of all action from the Championship and Leagues 1 and 2 every Tuesday night did not suffice. Online coverage was sketchy too. As quickly as footage was uploaded to places like YouTube, it was erased due to copyright issues. Which I suppose is fair enough but when you’re a homesick Pom, it’s a bit of a pain. Still, promotion was achieved via a dodgy online footy stream that decided it needed to buffer every 2 minutes or so. I’m sure that those at Reading saw it in a bit more High Def than us here in Aus. Still, the result is all that matters and promotion to the Premier League meant red button access. Fox Sports show five Saturday 3 PM kick offs concurrently at 2 AM (midnight when it’s not daylight savings) so there’s a good chance that Blues will be on live here every week. Which means I’ll see more of Blues here in Australia that I could afford to in England! So far, I’ve missed just one game – Blues at home to Bolton, which was not shown here.
Oh, and Arsenal. But that wasn’t down to the selection decisions of the Fox Sport directors. That was down to my cable box blowing up literally just as the game kicked off. By the time I had tuned into the service that is Blues World, we were already 2-0 down. My other half was not amused since she’s the TV guru in our household and naturally, at 2 AM, when the cable and TV weren’t working, it was her job to fix it. She failed and eventually went back to bed in a huff. When I flipped the PC on and found us 2-0 down, she thought that I should’ve been too busy being appreciate for her efforts to fix the TV rather than focussed on how Blues were getting on. Women, eh?
And speaking of Blues World (or whatever it’s called these days) I hope one of the upgrades to the club as a result of the takeover is to ditch the jokers that run it and try and find a better way to connect with exiled fans. The service is a joke and in my experience, rarely does what it claims to do – Ie. Give exiled fans commentary. I won’t bore you with the list of mess ups throughout the years, suffice to say, it’s left me very bitter at the fact that I have no other choice but to subscribe if I want to hear Blues live when we’re not on TV. I hope that Blues World isn’t the way that Yeung, Hui, Yu, Pannu, Dunford and co are hoping to win over the 5 gazillion Chinese fans that we now have.
So as far as coverage goes, I was really looking forward to this season. And then we made the signings that we did and everyone was optimistic. We didn’t start quite as well as we’d hoped and optimism quickly turned into despair. Meanwhile, Yeung had turned up again and decided that this time, he had the funds and Sullivan and Gold were ready to play ball. Things happened very quickly and at the back end of last season, who would’ve guessed that in January, we’d have a different board with different ambitions?
What I like about the new board is that they seem to realise that football is fun. The last board – and a lot of fans across the footballing spectrum – became obssessed with winning, with success, with moving the football club on, with not getting left behind, with buying a better player, making more money. It’s a depressing thought since football has always been and should always be about having a laugh, a bit of fun, destressing from the week. It’s a little bit of a worry when the stress of football is taking over from the stress of a working week! Maybe fun isn’t the right word and perhaps I’m not painting it in the light that I wish to paint it in, like Blues are just a bit of light-hearted fun to me. That’s not true and I can’t really seem to find the correct words. Still, on we plough…
One word that is not correct is entertainment. I hate the idea that football is ‘entertainment’. WWE Wrestling is ‘entertainment’. A Keanu Reeves film is ‘entertainment’ (comedy really, but still.) A choreographed TV programme is ‘entertainment’. Football should never be choreographed or predictable or entertainment. Entertaining, sure… but somehow, that’s different. Entertainment to me is something that is designed to amuse or engage using a certain angle or coming from a certain direction. Football should be unpredictable and you should get that feeling that anything could happen when you walk through a turnstyle or sit down in front of your TV (in my case.) I still get that but it’s becoming harder to find.
And that’s why the new board seem to be such a breath of fresh air. Without jumping on the bandwagon of absolutely slating the old board – a viewpoint I generally find to be a little bit disrespectful and unappreciative on the whole – the new board seem to have realised that you need to give the fans something to be happy about. And not necessarily a 40m budget for a transfer window. And speaking of that, that worries me somewhat… what if we spend 40m and get relegated? What happens? Assume we can sell players but will they go for as much as we paid? Probably not. The old board always budgeted for relegation very well, despite what some might say.
But back to the point about the new board understanding what is required. A sense of fun and occasion, a sense of everyone working together, a sense of respect for the fans, a sense of general oveall enjoyment. I have no doubts that behind the fun-loving, getting pissed at Chinese restaurants with the fans antics lie some serious and impressive people. But coming in and immediately banging on about progress, about success, about achievements, about what the fans need to do to make it happen is not what we want. It’s not what football wants – or needs. The fun needs to be put back into the game and dare I say the word that tends to, most of the time, make me cringe when I hear it… no sod it, I’ll say it – CHARACTERS. That’s what the new board seem to be.
No-one’s saying that you can afford to run a Premier League team whilst half pissed and not focussing on what needs to be done. But there has to be scope for a bit of lively fun and clowning around. Something to brings the smiles back to the faces when the roll of the ball may not be doing so. A director grabbing a microphone (a director, I hasten to add who is not Delia Smith) and yells “I love you all!” to an astonished St Andrew’s and then goes head-to-head in a drinking competition with a local Viler and then sings KRO with the fans is exactly what we need!
Anyone remember the Barry Fry days? Compared to the days of say, Trevor Francis, they weren’t terribly successful. Yes, we won two trophies but unfortunately, we had to be relegated in the first place to do so! Bazza got rid of the youth set up and bought so many bad players and caused so many arguments that often, we found ourselves – as a third tier club – unable to get OUT of the newspapers. They were great days and people loved them because there was that sense of amusement surrounding it all. A cloud of disbelief and astonishment hung over the club because literally, you never knew what was coming next.
Then Trev took over and took us tantalisingly close to silverware and the Premier League. Some of those games under TF – the atmosphere especially – will live with some ‘noses forever. But overall, was it more fun that it was under Bazza? I’d argue that it wasn’t. Trev sort of dragged the club up towards a more professional footing and layed a lot of the groundwork for when W’or Brucey took over. But they never quite matched up to the days of Bazza being in charge, did they?
This is how I sort of feel about the new board, I think. Whilst the old board may (and it has yet to be proven) have been more professional and responsible in the way they made sure that the future of the club was never in doubt, there’s a sense of curiousness, anxiety and excitement about the new board. They could literally do anything and I always have the feeling that when I get up in the morning, I could read anything on my PC screen regarding Blues. I mean, we literally could’ve signed Ronaldo to play on the wing… but backed this up by signing the Honey Monster as cover for left back. It’s that sort of silly scenario that makes me glad that the takeover has gone ahead.
I mean, I’m sure that none of the above will happen and I’m sure that in time, we’ll see a thoroughly slick and professional outfit emerge who ARE capable of running the club to the same standard – and more – than the last board. I sincerely hope so. But I always hope that there’s this rogue element to their ownership. The type of thing that could see literally anything come from the left field and blind sight us all. The old board lost that ability and it was always middle of the road stuff with David Sullivan’s broadsides at the fans the only really thing out of the ordinary – and even after a while, they became second nature.
The now have the keys to the kingdom, let’s see what they can do with them… this expat is excited about the future. Even if the future spells financial oblivion and relegation to the third tier to play against little teams like Leeds, Charlton and Southampton!
Yours in Down-Underness…
Aff
Ps. If you do not remember me or you’d like to read some of my stuff from the olders days of J&S, you can do so here.
Touching Down & Blues Vs Sheffield Wednesday
To be authentic in the new approach to the blog, I had wanted to start blogging about Blues and life as an exiled Bluenose from the moment I touched down in Australia. This hasn’t strictly been possible although that said, Blues didn’t play until today – my second morning in the country. From memory, I think we played Sheffield Wednesday but I’m not entirely convinced my memory isn’t playing tricks on me. Jet lag can be a funny thing – apparently – and whilst I’m not entirely sure I have it (yes, it is a contagious disease, did you not know?) I’m off my food, things taste weird and my head is messed up trying to work out what time it is in various parts of the world. I’m convinced that Blues kicked off at 3 separate times last night.
As I sit here in my Sydney hotel room – a Sydney hotel room with a spectacular view that I’m not allowed to look at because I can’t open the curtains because Mrs Aff is still in bed – I don’t know much of what is going on in the football world back home. I have zero credit on my UK mobile phone and haven’t picked up an Aussie sim card yet and the internet price in the hotel is astronomical so I’m blogging this in notepad. Which is frustrating. But not as frustrating as having to blog quickly because I can’t find a plug converter in any of the suitcases despite knowing that some were packed in our 65kg’s of luggage in the UK on Wednesday.
I wonder who scored for Blues… I know we won 3-1. I used my last pennies on my international roaming allowance to text someone to find out the score about an hour ago. I should’ve text a bloke, really. I made a fatal mistake. I text a woman. I text my mum. I wish my dad wasn’t such a technophobe and actually had a mobile phone. Mum let me know that we won 3-1 but failed to mention the scorers, attendance or how we played. She took up the rest of the message with soppiness about how I she already misses me. Yeah, yeah. I think us retaining our position as league leaders is more important.
I hopped out of bed after finding out the score and after a quick dance and celebratory “We are top o’ the league!” around the hotel room in my underpants, I jump in the shower. I spent my bathing time thinking about 15 men and how their performance would be measured back home. In fact, I’ve done a lot of thinking about Blues since I arrived, really. I’ve sought out a bit of a ‘Blues patch’ (they don’t sell them in Chemists from what I can tell so I think I’m on my own) and ended up catching a tiny bit of Melbourne Versus Sydney on free-to-air TV. Well, I tried but we were out to dinner with relatives-in-law and they don’t have the same laws that we do in the UK – it’s not acceptable to ignore someone you haven’t seen in four years if there’s a decent game on the telly, even moreso if it’s a decent sized telly.
I had planned to at least get a hit of English football with Manchester United travelling to Everton set to be screened on Fox Sports at 10 PM – Live. I had been looking forward to it but I ended up doing a favour for a relative and ended up getting back to the hotel to catch the last 3 minutes. I have no clue who scored and when and having just recently taken the lead in my Fantasy Football League at fantasy.premierleague.com with a storming run of good form thanks to key changes (Rooney for Torres, practically the whole of the Arsenal midfield for Bentley and one or two others) at clever times, I’m a bit apprehensive that it may come to a shuddering halt and that I may be overtaken by someone gobby from Yorkshire (hello, sis.)
Still, I did manage to see most of the second half of Sunderland-Newcastle – what a goal from Richardson to seal the win – and the first half of the Baggies versus Hull before falling into a much needed coma-like sleep. How typical that the Tigers banged in three second half goals to seal a convincing win (saw it on Sky News Aus this morning although typically, they didn’t do a round up of matches nor did they talk about The Championship) and that I simply couldn’t stay awake to witness it. Still, it was nice to see a little piece of home on the old idiot box. I didn’t live too far from The Hawthorns in Brum and it made me feel a little bit closer anyway. I’m already a touch homesick. Or I’m just weepy that Blues might’ve played well and I missed it. Or more to the point, missed the potential positive reaction to it.
And that leads me nicely onto what I did in the shower. I thought about blokes. More specifically, the ones that play in blue and white at St Andrew’s. There’s been a lot of negativity at Blues this year and I dislike that. I dislike that immensely. At the beginning of the season, I decided that I would start to enjoy football again. A hobby should be something to be enjoyed rather than whinged about and over the last few years, I can’t remember too many times when I’ve thought “You know what? I’m really enjoying this. Being a Blues fan is FUN, following Blues is something I’m glad I do.” And so I made a decision to enjoy this season, to realise and appreciate the positives and generally try and look at life as a Blues fan in a more positive way.
That’s not to say that everything the club and the manager do is right and that players should be excused for not performing or acting inappropriately. It’s about looking at Blues and what goes on comparatively. Comparing us to other fans and what goes on with them and what goes on here and asking whether we’re expecting too much or whether other clubs would be happy being treated the same way that Blues fans are or examining whether other clubs would love to be just where Blues are. I happen to think that as I type this, twenty-three other Championship clubs would love to be where Blues currently are.
Thus far, I’ve stuck to this ‘Polyanna’ approach. I think that name will stick. It was coined on the forum section of Joys & Sorrows and whilst I’m not entirely sure what it means (over-the-top enthusiastic and positive to the point of annoyance?), I think I quite like the name. And not just because it gives me the opportunity to wear dresses and high heels whenever I fancy. But because I’d like to believe that somewhere buried in the bowels of the Birmingham City apathy are fellow souls who believe that “You know what, it’s not all as bad as we all think it is.”
And I hope those souls don’t embarrass our kind by saying things like “Yeah but at least the Kumars don’t own the club.” or “It could be worse, we could be Rochdale.” If you’re thinking that’s what I am, you’ve misunderstood or I haven’t explained it properly. You’ll have to forgive my lack of clarity. I’m jet lagged…
But onto this morning’s performance. It’s hard to write a report of any sort of opinion without knowing any details about the match other than the scoreline. However, hacks in national newspapers seem to do it all the time. My favourite was one that I read in the Daily Star on the way up to Sheffield on a National Express coach. I can’t remember which game it was but the reporter said that we’d played well thus far that season purely based on the fact that we were top of the division. I wish I could remember his name or which game it was. I would’ve packed it but space is at a premium when you travel internationally you know.
At this point, Mrs Aff rose from her pit so packing and checking out had to occur and thus this article was left untouched for over a week. I was going to go on and wonder about the reaction to the game, how a good win at home was received and how far it had gone to lift the doom and gloom that currently envelopes St Andrew’s. After all, as far as I’m concerned, we’ve played some decent football at times this season but because the goals tally hasn’t quite reflected that, a lot of fans still believe that we’re not an attractive side to watch. I disagree and although we’re not where I believe we could be – or when McLeish wants us to be – there’s definitely positive steps and the football is steadily improving.
As I lay in my hotel room, I wondered whether we’d a) Played exceptionally well b) Played no better than at other times this season but produced the goals to match what some of our play has merited. A week later and I’m still no closer to knowing the truth. I’ve read the odd report (none that I really trust) and opinions but it’s hard to know whether goals scored has influenced the general tone of the observer. After all, had we nicked another 1 or 2 against Barnsley earlier in the season – and we could’ve considering how we started the second half with Quincy in particularly looking dangerous.
And I suppose that’s the problem with forming opinions from anything but your own attendance at a game. Despite only being an occasional visitor to St Andrew’s at home, the problem with being an exile is already apparent. At least at home, occasional visits can act as a yardstick of where the side is an how it’s all progressing. Especially when matched up with opinions of those you respect and certain match reports, you just have to be selective about who to listen to. Plus, highlights were easy to come by back home – over here, not so much. Especially for a team plying its trade in the Championship. So far, I haven’t found a single highlights package from The Championship although I’m sure I’ve read on the Yahoo Aussie Bluenose Group that such a show exists.
And TV leads me nicely into the Coventry City game. I’m going to conveniently skip over Queens Park Rangers away because:
a) I was on dial up watching it on the text updates on the Blues site
b) It was 6 AM and I’m still not completely with this ‘times upside down’ thing
c) We lost and this goes against my new Polyanna approach
Hopefully you’ve got a taste of the direction that the blog is going to follow from this point on. Mainly me getting up at stupid hours, trying to follow a game via text updates or half a commentary via Blues World and then making excuses as to why I can’t commit to an opinion, especially when this opinion is negative.
Joys & Sorrows Is Back!
Hello.
Joys & Sorrows is back. It’ll be a bit different to what it formally was and I’ll be writing from a more personal point of view this time around. I now live in Australia and I’ll be blogging about what it’s like to follow my club from 12,000 miles away instead of four miles away like I did just two weeks ago.
Hopefully I’ll be able to cover all the latest Blues news as well as show that it’s possible to be passionate whilst being absent (copyright, the Absent Bluenose!) Hopefully you’ll enjoy the new format and experience a little of what it’s like to support the greatest club in the world from the other side of the globe.
You can view a brief history of Joys & Sorrows here and a more in-depth explanation of what you can find on the site here.
Keep Right On,
Aff
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