Tag: perspective

Not the greatest day for this Newcastle United supporter.

Before the big match at St James’ Park, I played a first-round game in the handicap singles tournament at Worthing Pavilion Bowling Club.

My handicap is being not very good at bowls, especially indoors, where luck is less of a factor than on outdoor lawns.

Predictably enough, I fell to a 21-16 defeat despite being given a two-shot start and building a decent advantage. After more than two hours of tense play, the game turned on the 22nd end, which started 16-16 and finished with Tony Beale, the worthy winner, going 20-16 up by scoring the only maximum by either player.

In effect, one rubbish end cost me the chance of a notable win against a better player. C’est la vie.

We had a pint afterwards while watching the Spurs v West Ham game on TV. Tony supports Leeds United, who not so long ago were “living the dream” in reaching the semi-final of the Champions League. When I say “not so long ago”, a quick check tells me 24 seasons have started since that remarkable achievement, with good old “Dirty Leeds” spending most of them outside the Premier League. How time flies when you’re having fun, especially at another team’s expense.

On Friday night Leeds had ended Sheffield United’s unbeaten record in the second tier, winning 2-0 with a couple of late goals. They are chasing promotion again. Two matches a season against West Yorkshire’s finest would be welcomed by a lot of Newcastle United fans.

NUFC v LUFC might not be a local derby but it is a big game in almost anybody’s language.

I can still recall details of the Christmas encounter at St James’ in the 1973-74 season, when Don Revie’s team were on a mission to avenge a humiliating defeat by a small club from Co Durham in the FA Cup final seven months earlier. The visitors did not lose a league game that season until February 23 and cruised to the title by five points in the days when a win earned only two.

They were a good team with some great players, as they proved by going all the way to the final of the European Cup in 1975. They also excelled at what we now call the dark arts aka professionalism, with a win-at-all-costs mentality.

So what’s the point of this trip down memory lane?

First, it tells us football is cyclical. Leeds have feasted at the top table far more recently than most English clubs. They have also sunk to the third domestic tier. Their fans would, I imagine, have a sense of perspective.

They certainly needed it earlier this month when, leading 2-1 deep into stoppage time against a small club from Co Durham (yes, that lot again) they conceded an own goal so unimaginably bizarre it warranted a visit to SpecSavers for all those who witnessed it. Daniel Farke, their German manager, would have been forgiven for repeating his surname loudly and often after that calamity.

My feast of TV football continued last night with the Bournemouth v Arsenal game. Arteta’s mob made the relatively short trip to Dorset boasting an unbeaten start to the Premier League season. Five wins and two draws, both of which ended with them a man short because of those self-same dark arts their Spanish manager was all to willing to accuse United of employing quite recently. This from a hypocritical manager whose team have been shown at least five more red cards than any other top-flight team since he was appointed in December 2019.

He who lives by the sword dies by the sword, as somebody once said. Bournemouth were the better team even before Saliba was rightly sent off for a professional foul. The referee initially booked him for pulling back Evanilson about 50 yards from Arsenal’s goal-line. Thankfully, the VAR intervened and Saliba had to go, guilty of denying Bournemouth a clear scoring opportunity.

Little old Bournemouth, a team many of our supporters seem to think we should beat at a canter, were quicker, slicker and more dangerous than their moneybags opponents when the game was 11 v 11. Raya in goal and White in defence, among others, were taking an age over restarts, trying to halt the Cherries’ momentum. Once Saliba went for an early bath in the 30th minute, the die was cast.

Arteta saw things slightly differently, of course. His self-serving quotes afterwards were as predictable as night following day: “It’s very difficult to win in the Premier League with 10 men for 60-70 minutes, it’s just an accident waiting to happen. We have had to go through it in three games and that cost us the game.”

An accident waiting to happen? That’s an interesting description of his players (Rice and Trossard against Brighton and Man City respectively) deliberately kicking the ball away to prevent their opponents taking free kicks quickly.

Is a blatant foul by Saliba to prevent Bournemouth’s centre-forward breaking clear an accident or a cynical ploy, presumably encouraged by Arteta? Arsenal have not “had to go through it in three games.” They chose to cheat and were duly punished.

When the score was still 0-0 in the second half, they should have taken the lead and would have done so if Martinelli had converted a great chance. A few seconds later, Christie struck from a superbly worked corner, the sort of routine at which Arteta’s ugly team excel. The biter bit.

But imagine if Martinelli’s telegraphed shot had not been saved. Arsenal would have gone one-up and spent the rest of the game wasting even more time. Small margins, just as they were at St James’ Park, where we squandered several gilt-edged chances before and after Brighton caught us dozing at a free kick.

And that’s where perspective comes in again. United outplayed the Seagulls in every facet of the game except the most important one, sticking the pig’s bladder into the onion bag.

Because we didn’t score, we didn’t deserve to win. But neither did we deserve to lose. The team are starting to show the pace, power and creativity that have been typical of the best performances under the current management, despite being deprived of some key players. Keep the faith.