It’s Over…!

By: MoonPig | March 31st, 2008

Derby 2 - 2 Fulham

Click here for a dose of Paul Jewell post-match realism.

A draw snatched from the jaws of victory… relegation and humiliation snatched from the jaws of, um… survival, oh… and pride. We’re relegated. Finally…. and as some might say “put out of our misery” - but that will only be true if we can scrape 4 more points from games against Everton, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Blackburn, West Ham and Reading. Doable but hardly easy.

Sometimes it’s just soul destroying supporting a football team, isn’t it? I had to listen to a friend of mine complain bitterly about how his team, Chelsea never have any luck. I cried in my beer. I know a few people who don’t support football teams and although I don’t understand that “crazy mentality” of not having a team - it probably does save a lot of pain and suffering in the long run… But we know the deal, we swap all these weeks of pain and suffering for the good times (aka “the few”).

It was Birmingham’s surprise 3-1 win at Manchester City which officially meant our 2-2 draw with Fulham wasn’t sufficient enough to postpone the inevitable and I got the confirmation that our fate was sealed from a friend whilst leaving the hotel I was staying in (heading for the nearest bar, I might add) and as luck would have it that was at the same time this taxi (see below) rolled up. …And I swear to god - it took the piss without even opening it’s doors… I took a photo of it to mark the occasion… much to my girlfriends confusion.

It could only have been more ironic if Billy Davies had stepped out of that taxi. I might not have been able to restrain myself.

Rather than tell you that it’s a season of “nearlys and maybe’s” or how it could almost have been so much different, so easily… I just wanted to write and say that we’ll be back - and this time we’ll be prepared because (our manager won’t be spending the summer getting a better contract) we’ve had bloody long enough to prepare!

Tito

It’s not easy to talk about positives when you’ve had the season we’ve had, nor is it easy to talk about any of the games (like I think I’m supposed to be doing here) but any clichés rolled out by managers and players tend to wear thin but I will say that some of Jewell’s signings are starting to look the business and are probably pieces of the puzzle for next season.

Tito Villa (pictured above) did really well… Mile Sterjovski on the wing showed some good skill - particularly in the 2nd half and Roy Carroll looked sharp too, and let’s be honest, the Championship aint a great division - and although I used to think getting out of that division was hard, getting promoted with the ability to be able to compete with the other teams is the real trick… and no disrespect to Stoke City or Hull City but I cant see them doing any better than us - especially as we’re a bigger club with a better reputation.

As for question of “the worst team ever”… I still maintain the Swindon’s and Barnsley’s were worse, just that the gap between Worse, Average and Excellent has got bigger…. Roll on August. The quicker the better… please…!