The crying game

By Paul Flower on Aug 20, 10 05:00 PM

It didn't take the football season long to remind me that I lack a sense of humour with regard to my choice of football team; that my tribal partisanship is easily inflamed by a particularly severe defeat and the accompanying ridicule.

A good sense of humour is probably a pre-requisite for following a bad team, and I've had years in which to develop one as we bounced up and down the divisions. Indeed I have that 'gallows-humour' that seems common to all my Black Country compatriots, but being able to see the funny side of a 6-0 defeat? That isn't happening.

I guess it's the case that humour is one thing and humiliation, though it would be of the same genetic-origin in language, is completely another. No-one wants humiliation and when they've experienced it I'd imagine the last thing they want is to be reminded of it.

I hear constantly that 'banter' is all part of the football fan's life, I'd even agree with that to a degree. When your first match back in the top flight turns into a disaster though it's hard to listen to any banter from opposing supporters, it just feels like spite.

To be fair I suspect most people know that 'I can't take it', and as a consequence I don't generally dish it out either. Do unto others, you might say.

So, don't bother texting me when we lose our next three away matches by heavy margins and I won't bother to moan about the vagaries of the fixture scheduling that gives a newly promoted club a complete set of the top four teams in England as their first away fixtures - or fixed-tures as I've become accustomed to calling them.

Frankly it hurts to lose football matches; it has always cut me deep. I wish that it did not. I wish that I could be blasÃÂ© about whether they win or lose as it invariably causes me more pain than pleasure. It is part of the disease, it's in the make-up of every football fan and right now I suspect I wish that I could go back in time and have less of an allegiance.

As for the team themselves they currently have the benefit of the doubt, although some of them are wearing it very thin. The chairman will also be escaping most of the blame - but only for now. The real test will come when we have to play local rivals, and should we lose to Wolves then I'd advise Mr Peace not to open too many letters and to avoid all fan-forums for fear of finding himself justifiably eviscerated.

There's always an argument about staying financially stable, but that one won't wash when we come up against sides that we've bettered in very recent years. For me it's not so much about bragging rights but the ability to get through a week without ridicule, disparagement and mockery. That'll do me for now.