They Think It's All Over - well my playing days probably are now - #19 on my list
I spent years as a kid wondering what it would be like. Literally dreaming sometimes of pulling on the famous old gold and black of my home city and scoring the winning goal in a cup final. But, alas, my talent was never quite enough to take me to that level - but I did score a few in my time (as well missing an awful lot too!).
But today - that was all going to change.
Today - I was going to step out on the pitch, flanked by my two big brothers, Ian and Alex - to play on the pitch that I've admired for more than twenty years (apart from that one season with Glenn Hoddle when it had some sort of fungal infection).
It was nice to have Mom and Dad there too. I'm sure they were quite proud to see their boys run out on the field of play together. Dad gave up hours of his time when we growing up to coach us and our friends - and Mom, well, our washing machine took a bit of a hammering over the years - and she was rather good at selling raffle tickets at half time in the lashing rain against Oldswinford and Trysull Tigers. Although mom's still have a way of embarassing you. One memory leaps to mind. A Sunday afternoon match at Windsor playing fields and I've just launched one of my trademark hoof balls down the other end of the pitch when I hear my mom shout "Jamie, why did you do that - you're shooting the wrong way". I then had to explain that at half time you swap ends. Oh well.As for the match - I didn't feel I could pen an accurate reflection on my performance - so instead let me hand over to my first guest blogger - Adam Shakespeare:
"At 1pm on a fine Bank Holiday
Monday, twenty-two strangers (mostly) emerged from the tunnel onto the finest
pitch in League 1 football. Three of those men were the Angus brothers;
united to play the beautiful game as a momentous occasion and for the youngest
sibling, Jamie, to fulfil number 19 on his list of 30 things to do before he’s 30; score a
goal at Molineux. Just like his namesake on his
shirt, Maierhoffer, it seemed Jamie was unlikely to score at first, based on
the warm-up. But we shall put that down to nerves. He took his place as
left-back and it was fair to say, he was a very attacking player. He was this
team’s Glen Johnson. Unfortunately the opposition took an early lead, and you
got the impression this bunch of strangers were not as new to each other as
our home side. Once he got his momentum however, Angus Jr was making some
nice moves including a bone-crunching, efficient but fair tackle to close
down an attack from the away side. In fact, all Angus brothers were squaring
up to be pretty good defensive players.
Half time came and the afternoon
heat was already taking its toll (it was doing the same to the spectators
too!) When the players emerged, fresh on tactics and energy, Jamie took
position further up the field as “Wing Wizard”, as he liked to called
himself, and was producing some quality runs and crosses from the left wing.
As one spectator commented, “he takes a good corner”, and it was true. One of
which almost went into the goal, had the keeper not tipped it over the bar.
However, one of the many great corners led to the goal scored by the home
side. If the quality up-front had met that of the support from the team as a
whole, the home side’s striker would have scored at least 3 more goals and won
the match. However, there were a couple sitters that should have been buried
in the net, but fatigue had set in and alas, it was not meant to be.
The final whistle blew, our home
side were unlucky, and number 19 had not
been achieved. However, I did hear one person say, “it’s the best game here
all season”, which was actually pretty plausible. But there was one thing
left to do….
|
Angus is
running up the left wing, switches to the right, the goal is in sight….. They
think it’s all over, it is now."
*Irritatingly I can't embed the video - but here's proof that I did eventually achieve #19 on my list.
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