It's fun to lose and to pretend

Watford v Everton

Saturday 24th February

I cycled to Euston, locked my bike there and tubed to Speakers Corner to give out CAAT London leaflets about our March 19^th protests at the No Trident/Troops Out/Don’t Attack Iran march from there to Trafalgar Square. Jun and her friend K came down and we walked together asking if people were interested. We probably gave out two hundred and fifty and I met a few activists I knew and some I’d seen emails from.

I do not support an immediate withdrawal from Iraq but felt happy to offer my support to those calling for a diplomatic solution to the stand-off with Iran. As for replacing Trident with Trident Two, much was made of the number of schools or hospitals we could build with the money we’ll waste on replacing our nuclear weapons before such a decision needs to be made. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which the UK is a signatory to, calls for eventual disarmament and we are planning our nuclear weapons for the next generation. From Trafalgar Square and condemnations of UK foreign and domestic policy (the best was when a speaker suggested that British soldiers not be allowed to work anywhere they don’t speak the language, in an echo of government comments on “citizenship” in the UK), I got back to Euston and took my bike onto a new Silverlink train.

Kerry was in bed when I pulled up at four, and Joss didn’t come back until about twenty to five but it was the fact that I waited for the full-time results before we left that made us late for the game. The programme sellers were gone and we had to wait for half-time before we could buy them, by which time we were two goals down. In the twenty third minute, Richard Lee blocked a shot into the feet of two Everton strikers following up and Manuel Fernandez got there first. Within two minutes Andrew Johnson had sped through and been brought down for a penalty he converted. It was over and the Rookery was still warming up.

Most of the noise was reserved for Johnson, who may already have dived before we got there, calling him a cheat and lots of other names. Joss relished it and now faces back into the stand during the newly-adopted “We’re the front row,” geeing up the crowd but I stuck to facing forward and the Watford songs today. Tamas Priskin, brought on for Darius Henderson, made a lot of good opportunities for himself in the second half but none hit the target. Still, it was something to cheer.

We left early and were already cycling in the darkness of Cardiff Road when we heard a cheer that I took, correctly, it turned out, to be a third Everton goal in stoppage time. Charlton had thumped West Ham 4-0 earlier, so we know two of the three going down. Charlton must be feeling confident ahead of their visit to the Vic next Saturday. With one point out of our two home games this week, I am not.

Joss and I practised Spanish a bit before I headed back for Jun’s pasta and we went on to meet Julie and others in the Fullers pub on Tottenham Court Road near where we used to work. A pint there and we paid a fiver to get into the studenty Mean Fiddler for a bop on an empty dance floor before the band came on. Bussed it home for three and bought an early edition of the Observer that didn’t have our match report. I can just deny it.