21st November 2005
Hi all,
You remember last week when I said I hated sports? Well that lasted about a week. Of course a week is about so much than sports, so let's take it a step at a time.
The beginning of my week was submarined by the end of last week. Due to my Miami Dolphins-induced insomnia of last Sunday night I got a whopping two hours of sleep prior to my working week beginning. A Friday is bad enough when you've not had enough sleep, let alone a Monday. On Monday night I was in bed at 10.45pm, unheard of for me.
I was well behaved for the rest of the week too, not even staying up to watch "Major League" being shown in the late hours of Friday night. In bed just after midnight (that's early for me on a Friday) I fell asleep pretty quickly and ended up having a ridiculously long lie-in. I didn't get up until lunchtime. 12.50pm to be exact. Might as well enjoy the long lies while I can get them, don't you think?
Spending a week winding down probably isn't the worst way to approach your team's local derby, especially when revenge is on your mind. I honestly thought that Palace would be really up for the game, given what happened just a month before. With that in mind it was somewhat of a surprise that Brighton started off as the better team. When Leon Knight's flick gave them the lead I picked up my phone and started what was to become an afternoon's worth of text messages back and forward between myself and Neil. The tone of mine didn't start well, especially as in addition to scoring Brighton had also hit the Palace crossbar.
It was looking like a typical Palace performance, right down to a comedy free-kick involving Ben Watson and Michael Hughes (I would have been laughing if I hadn't predicted what was about to happen). Things weren't really looking much better until Clinton Morrison crossed for Dougie Freedman to head home. His hundredth goal for Palace was the prompt for an unexpected celebration. I really hadn't seen us getting back into the game.
So surely Palace should have pressed on and increased their lead? Remember what I said last week about keeping a lesser opponent hanging around? Well that's exactly what Palace did, coming out after half-time as if they'd left their boots in the dressing room. Given the opportunity from the penalty spot Leon Knight restored Brighton's lead. In addition to this Brighton's best player during this period of play was probably Ben Watson, which wouldn't be such a problem if he wasn't wearing a Palace shirt.
Brighton were well in control at this stage, until once again Dougie Freedman stepped to the fore. In an instant he controlled the ball, got away from the lumbering Guy Butters (nice shorts by the way Mr Butters - clearly the double the size of any of your colleagues) and lashed the ball inside the post. 2-2, and time for another celebration. Incidentally by this point Cookie was well out of the living room, he knows what I'm like during Palace games.
Moving onto the dying minutes and finally Palace were starting to get on top. Brighton's Gary Hart went steaming into the back of Jobi McAnuff to get a booking, and then followed it minutes later with a deliberate handball. As the handball coincided with a collison with Palace's Wayne Andrews it looked as if the referee was going to be kind and avoid sending the Brighton player off. Needless to say I wasn't feeling quite so kind, and after a considerable wait I was pleased to see Hart given his marching orders (although I don't think even the most well disciplined army would make someone get off a stretcher to do some marching, but that's not the point).
The ninety minute mark passed. Four minutes of added time for Palace to get a winner. Three minutes passed without major incidents. Into the final minute, and at least Palace were at the right end of the pitch. From the edge of the area Clinton Morrison laid the ball back to Jobi McAnuff, who hit a first-time shot towards the Brighton goal. It caught a small deflection, beat the Brighton goalkeeper and hit the back of the net. Bedlam, among the Palace players, the Palace end and one living room in a small Scottish village!
"The neighbours will wonder what's happened," said Lorraine, as if I actually cared. I was lying on the floor in happy disbelief with Cookie standing beside me wagging his tail like mad. He might be coming round to watching football games with me. Needless to say he was rewarded with a long walk later in the afternoon. (Incidentally I'm thirty and about to become a father. Nothing at all to worry about there.)
One other note on the game - well done to Sky Sports commentator Bill Leslie, who actually researched the Palace-Brighton rivalry and passed the history onto the viewers without being dismissive of it the way most of the media are.
Of course a sporting day like that can't end perfectly. The Dolphins decided to try and bring me back down to earth by putting in a pitiful performance in Cleveland. However I'm becoming hardened to their performances now.
Random tangents: One night last week Lorraine and I watched a documentary about Girls Aloud (I know, really intellectual choice of television). Having seen that along with a few Girls Aloud videos can I take back what I said two weeks ago about Kimberley Walsh's career?
Sad news about what Gary Glitter has supposedly been up to with young girls in Vietnam. Makes you wonder if the old song about "Do you want to be in my gang?" had a far more sinister undertone. And what of his "apology" after his release from prison just a handful of years ago. That was obviously sincere. I'm ashamed I ever liked him. I'm sure some of my friends will be changing the lyrics to his songs all over again (sorry, that will be for my own private viewing).
Have a good week!
Tony
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