Providence takes the evening off

Well, Burnley got well and truly thumped, as we used to say up there, Providence having clearly taken the view that for Burnley to knock Tottenham out twice in three years was asking too much, and thus the Spurs team's performance was much more remniscent of the second-half against Charlton last Saturday, rather than the first.

I know this because Sky TV opted to show this match rather than the more obvious choice of Arsenal v Everton, and of course we were having a deferred Quiz Night, so I was at the pub and saw a lot of the first half and some of the second, the quiz starting up in the basement when the score was 0-2 and Burnley were clearly not going to get back into the game.

Our team’s performance did not parallel that of Burnley, exactly, nor yet that of Charlton last Saturday, as on a somewhat reduced turnout – just four teams, we managed a not uncomfortable third. The one slight parallel with Burnley was the absence of regular first-team players, though. Results-wise, the trend is slightly worrying, as we have, in the past three weeks, finished first, then second and now, as I say, third. There have been some fluctuations in team members, though, and I still think that when we are at full strength we are a match for most. I might be setting extra Geography homework, though. There were questions about capitals of African states which none of us had even heard of (the capitals, that is, not the states, though come to think of it...).

Returning to the Carling Cup, as I find the League Cup is called (I thought Coca Cola were involved somewhere along the line) no doubt the mainstream football journalists will be rejoicing, for at the quarter final stages, all their favourite teams: Chelsea; Arsenal; Manchester United; Tottenham and Liverpool, are still there. Pity about Portsmouth, Fulham and Watford though, spoiling the look of the thing, and you would have thought that the organisers could have managed to get Newcastle in there, too, but at least no Charlton, Birmingham or Bolton, making it ‘boring’.

Oddly enough, looking at the quarter-final draw, boredom is exactly what I experienced, though maybe as both my teams are no longer involved, that is understandable.