Lincoln City 1Cheltenham Town 1
League 2
Sat. 14th Nov. 2009
I listened to the last 15 minutes of the game in the car. My wife was in the passenger seat looking into the far distance. She was miles away. I was preoccupied with the game but she became still and almost vacant. I wondered if she needed to be taken to casualty. Later she told me about her near death experience. She's now a changed person.
In the November gloom, with the rhythmical swish of windscreen wipers and live commentary of a dull match she was lulled into a stupor. She felt herself leaving her body. In a state of utter serenity she floated towards a bright light. At the end were her loved ones calmly telling her all was well. The pain would soon pass. Her family lived in north London; Arsenal supporters. They had experienced far better things. What had I done to her - I, who once regularly stood on the North Bank at Highbury.
Luckily the final whistle blew and she came back to me. I thought I’d lost her. In fact I thought that was possibly the worst 15 minutes we have ever spent together – not counting the worst 90 minutes when she came to Whaddon Road.
It had come to this; a useless football team was coming between us. Russell Milton is a good match reader and summed it up - to paraphrase - "two poor sides grinding out a draw in the wind and rain".
There had obviously been some entertainment; 7 minutes extra time for a brawl involving the two benches in which handbags had been brandished and Lincoln were by then down to ten men. But those were the best bits. I missed them.
What men put their wives through………
In the November gloom, with the rhythmical swish of windscreen wipers and live commentary of a dull match she was lulled into a stupor. She felt herself leaving her body. In a state of utter serenity she floated towards a bright light. At the end were her loved ones calmly telling her all was well. The pain would soon pass. Her family lived in north London; Arsenal supporters. They had experienced far better things. What had I done to her - I, who once regularly stood on the North Bank at Highbury.
Luckily the final whistle blew and she came back to me. I thought I’d lost her. In fact I thought that was possibly the worst 15 minutes we have ever spent together – not counting the worst 90 minutes when she came to Whaddon Road.
It had come to this; a useless football team was coming between us. Russell Milton is a good match reader and summed it up - to paraphrase - "two poor sides grinding out a draw in the wind and rain".
There had obviously been some entertainment; 7 minutes extra time for a brawl involving the two benches in which handbags had been brandished and Lincoln were by then down to ten men. But those were the best bits. I missed them.
What men put their wives through………
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