4 Goals For Nothing and 4 Points Down

Manchester City 3 Charlton 2
Real Madrid 4 Real Zaragoza 0
Old Farts 131; Table Five 127; Table Three 110

Somewhere out there on the Internet the other day, there was a picture of Manchester City manager Stuart Pearce, who seems to have been christened 'Psycho' somewhere along the line, for reasons which are not known to me, and Charlton's manager Alan Curbishley, apparently exchanging a joke. There was a funny tag underneath with Psycho telling Curbs that Charlton had put 4 goals past Man City this season, and had nothing to show for it.

Well true enough, 2-5 at The Valley, when Charlton hit their lowest point, in my view, of the season so far, and 2-3 at Eastlands (is this a new suburb of Manchester by the way? I can't recall it being there when I lived there in the 'sixties), which is being regarded as not a low point at all. The second half was good, exciting football, and Joey Barton's goal for Man City was a beauty, and so maybe the scoreline was fair.

And then, Tuesday night, there was the game everyone had been waiting for; the return leg (for this is the way these things are done in Spain) of the Spanish Cup semi final: Real Madrid (1) vs Real Zaragoza (6). The away goals rule works in this, and Madrid thus knew they had to win 5-0, which they set out to do with a will. By the time Hamish, our Madrid supporter, and Dave, our other one, and the rest of us, reached the bar shortly before 2130, the score was 3-0, and had been since 14 minutes in. This was going to be a riot, and the whole thing might well be wrapped up before half time. But it wasn't, and although Madrid added one more, and came out with an impressive-looking 4-0 win, they had nothing to show for it.

So Zaragoza lost 4-0 yet rejoiced all the way back along the N2 to their home city (asssuming they didn't fly over, of course), and Charlton were not at all disconcerted by the 3-2 reverse, though of course a point would have been nice.

And while we are on the subject of defeat, I have to admit that as far as we can remember, our team hasn't yet won the quiz thus far into 2006; our old friends and rivals, the Old Farts, are carrying all before them, being assisted, it has to be said, by our habit of throwing away a respectable lead just before the final round; whether we are beginning to lose concentration or what, I don't know. It happened again last night when we turned a 7-point lead into a four-point deficit.

But, as with football, there's always next week.