Fear of failure

Well, I was as good as my word and went to Orient's final home game of a frankly wretched 2014-15 campaign on Saturday.  We were a shambles.  It's just as well they slashed the ticket prices because I'd have been spitting blood had I shelled out twenty quid to watch that sheight.  We were actually worse than at the first game of the season, and I thought that an all-time low at the time.

I suppose one should take succour from the fact that we were playing high-flying Sheffield United and still manged to bag a point, but they were having an off-day so had we been any use, we'd have turned them over.  The game (if I might dignify the players' efforts by employing this word) was an absolute howler.  Route-one football, poorly executed.  At least it was a nice day.

Come the end, it was clear we were doomed.  Every other team around us won, against the odds, and our fate is now out of our hands.  The mood among the fans is one of resignation.  We don't deserve to stay up; it would be daylight robbery on one of the other blameless clubs if we did.  No, we made our bed, shat on the pillow, and now we must lie in it.  The best we can hope for it a steamroller season next year.  Come up as champions with 100 points.  I'll be there for some of it....again.  The trouble is I've been doing this for 30 years and I'm less emotionally and mentally robust than I used to be.  It takes its toll.

Up The Os, as we say in my neck of the woods.

He's got football pie all down his shirt

My local team, Leyton Orient, are on the cusp of relegation to League Two.  Despite the high falutin' name, League Two is the lowest professional division available to English football teams.  It's the Poundland of the beautiful game.  And it's traditionally a notch below even Orient's modest abilities.

We've been in League Two before of course, but our natural habitat is League One, the middle of League One to be precise.  We tend to get a nosebleed when we stray too close to the promotion places.  We led the division for nearly the entire season last year, and we're still reeling from the trip, which in some way explains our shocking descent to Aunt Sally status this time around.

Relegation this year will, as it always does, cause a schism among the faithful - between those who want heads on platters and the Pollyanna set, who would turn up and cheer even if the team decided to play inside a nuclear reactor.

I have some sympathy for the moaners on this one.  The club has been laughably mismanaged this year, and this has led to lacklustre performances on the pitch.  Also, dropping into League Two means there's no scope for a repeat performance next year.  There's no safety net down there.  If you slip up, you're out of the professional game, and that is unacceptable.

It's true that some Orient supporters thrive on complaining.  You can hear them screaming for the Government to step in and compulsiry purchase the club after back-to-back goalless draws.  But everyone will be in a foul mood next season, myself included.