Wednesday 9 May 2012

The Football Season Draws to a close - Part 1

My Saturday team, Mayfield Athletic 3rd XI, had their final match on Saturday 5th May. We needed to win to clinch promotion. I've been involved a little this season but it has mainly been my brother Beaky and Gavin running it. Saturday was also Beaky's last game for the club. At 50 he has decided to concentrate on his veterans' football career.

I took the tube to get to the game which was on the other side of London in Fairlop. On the way we stopped at numerous stations, about 40 in all, but it was at Mile End that my jaw hit the floor. The doors opened and on stepped the oldest living woman I have ever seen, her skin was dark brown although she would be classed as Caucasian. I was just lifting my jaw back into place when her mum followed her on. A teenage boy next to me spat out his Red Bull. They both sat down and began to discuss last night's Eastenders.

The teenager's eyes were on stalks, as if he was seeing creatures from another planet. In a way he was, they were from the last century, if not the one before. He could not drag his eyes away and eventually they noticed.

"Fancy my mum do you sonny?" He couldn't speak, she continued. "He fancies you mum."

"Wouldn't be the first."

"Nor the last. Go on mum, make his day, give 'im a kiss." The mother dragged herself up from her seat and moved towards the kid just as the train stopped again. He got up and flew out of the exit. The ladies cackled all the way to Leytonstone.

They train took ages. As I it approached Fairlop I was thinking about the Road to Recovery. Going to see this game made think of the the reason I was working so hard to get back and it is a goal I need to reach but it is frustrating because I am doing all this just to get back to normal. It is not as though I will have actually achieved anything. Thoughts turned to death but brightened as I walked into the changing room and saw the lads putting on their bright orange shirts. My cockles were warmed and I remembered again that joyous feeling you get when you are about to play game of football.

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