Sunderland 3-2 Burnley
Twice in one week, Burnley are on telly!!! WOW!!!
Of course, you have to understand that this wasn't because it was Burnley. Oh no. It was because on Monday we were playing West Brom (who are in one of the play-off spots) and tonight we played Sunderland, who are aiming for automatic promotion. They won, which means that tonight they're top of the table...though it may last less than 24 hours, depending on what Birmingham do tomorrow afternoon. Then there's only one match left, the following Sunday, with it all to play for.
I missed the first 5 minutes because there was some rugby match on on one of the other Sky Sports channels, which fortunately finished at 7:50pm. Didn't miss much, thankfully. Sunderland scored first. Then they were awarded a dodgy penalty (the Sunderland player was basically pushing down Wayne Thomas's head; the key indicator that it wasn't a penalty was that none of the Sunderland players appealed for one). BUT The Beast (Brian Jensen) guessed the right way and pushed it to one side. Then BURNLEY WERE AWARDED A PENALTY!!!!!!!!!!
Why is this so significant? Because the last time Burnley were awarded a penalty was December 2005. 16 months without a penalty (and we've had several blatant penalties turned down). So it's about time we had one! Having seen the replays, it shouldn't actually have been awarded because it wasn't a penalty, but we've had to wait sooooooo long and we've had so many legitimate claims dismissed that I rather think we deserve this. Naturally Andy Gray scored it.
Then, after half-time, Wade Elliott put us AHEAD!!!! It was an incredible goal; absolutely beautiful - a 30-yarder into the top corner. You don't stop those!! Even the Sunderland website describes it as being "a wonder goal". Unfortunately The Beast then decided to bring down one of the Sunderland players in the penalty area. He was lucky to not be sent off, in all honesty. That was definitely a penalty - about the only one in the match that was! That penalty was scored. Then Sunderland won it with a really good strike that showed us why they're up at the top. OK, so we lost, but considering that prior to kickoff they were 2nd and we were (and still are) 16th, I was expecting that. The main positives we can get out of it are that we played really well and really did our image good. It was a dramatic match and it was real end-to-end stuff. As they say, the boys done good. They did us proud and I can with all sincerity state that tonight, I am proud to be a Burnley fan.
Shame about the Mardon public-school idiots. (For the benefit of non-British friends of mine, public schools are not the same as North American public schools - what NA calls "public" is what we call "state school"; public schools here are the really posh ones with really high fees, places like Eton and Harrow; they're generally boarding schools).
There are quite a few public-school people in Mardon. Some are pretty decent, like Fi and Dan Addey. Others, though, are, to be blunt (and I apologise for the following rant because there's some foul language in it and those of you that know me well know I rarely swear), w****rs. They're arrogant and selfish and think they're absolutely wonderful. I'm one of the "weird" ones. They don't like weird people. Generally it doesn't bother me; I have my friends and I see it as the idiots being the ones with the problem. I was identified pretty quickly as being somewhat odd and thus came in for some stick from them. Usually I can shrug it off, not really give it any thought or attention. It's just them being idiots.
But it's different when you're on your own in the common room trying to watch the match - your team, who hardly ever get on telly - and there's a whole pack of them. And they were making all these stupid, idiotic, snide comments about Burnley (place and team), the North, the Championship (the division below the top league in English football) and being general w****rs, with the sole intention of winding me up. There was no way I was leaving the common room - they have pretty much a complete monopoly of it as regards what's on the telly. This is the one time in the whole academic year I've wanted to watch something on the common room TV. I don't sit and watch it for several hours a day like they do. Then they were being complete tw*ts and saying would I still support my team if they merged with Blackburn. Like hell that would happen - neither Burnley nor Blackburn fans would ever allow it!!! The phrase "when hell freezes over" comes to mind! And Tom (who my friend Jamie used to share a room with, until he switched to share with Gareth) decided to be even more of a tw*t and commented about how he might take over Burnley and deliberately make them go into liquidation. Like hell you would, Tom.
Then they all buggered off to the gym. Max popped in for a while. Max is decent and he knows his football. He also knows what complete immature, pathetic, public-school tw*ts who think they're wonderful and are convinced the entire world is of the same opinion, they are and we chatted about that for a bit!! Then he went out and a bit later they came back and sat round making all these comments constantly. As I said above, normally I can ignore their comments and not pay them any attention - it's not worth it. But when there's a whole load of them who are clearly there just to wind you up, it's extremely hard to keep your temper and to not let the comments get to you. I ignored them for the rest of the match and then when it finished they intensified it. I told Tom that I wasn't going to answer his if-Burnley-merge-with-Blackburn question (however hypothetical it may be) because it wasn't worth it because it would never happen. Not that he would drop it. Posh Ben was being his usual w****ry self. When the channel was changed I walked very firmly out of the common room and made sure they could hear my boots very clearly. I very nearly slammed the common room door on them and would dearly have loved to have committed acts of assault on them. But I'm a good girl and decided against it (however satisfying it would have felt at the time); I don't want a police record for GBH, thank you very much!
It's different when there's a whole pack of them there and you're on your own, and you know that their sole aim is to wind you up. Fine, so I stamped off very loudly, but I think I was pretty restrained while I was in the same room as them, and they don't know that when I rang my mum (to discuss the match with her) I was in tears and referring to them with all sorts of foul language that I never use (not just around my mum but generally; I don't like it). You can't stop them getting to you in those situations. And if I'd left before the end of the match that would really have told them that they'd won. NO WAY was I giving up my one evening in the whole academic year when I could watch what I wanted to watch.
I'm seeing James tomorrow. That will help. A lot.
Of course, you have to understand that this wasn't because it was Burnley. Oh no. It was because on Monday we were playing West Brom (who are in one of the play-off spots) and tonight we played Sunderland, who are aiming for automatic promotion. They won, which means that tonight they're top of the table...though it may last less than 24 hours, depending on what Birmingham do tomorrow afternoon. Then there's only one match left, the following Sunday, with it all to play for.
I missed the first 5 minutes because there was some rugby match on on one of the other Sky Sports channels, which fortunately finished at 7:50pm. Didn't miss much, thankfully. Sunderland scored first. Then they were awarded a dodgy penalty (the Sunderland player was basically pushing down Wayne Thomas's head; the key indicator that it wasn't a penalty was that none of the Sunderland players appealed for one). BUT The Beast (Brian Jensen) guessed the right way and pushed it to one side. Then BURNLEY WERE AWARDED A PENALTY!!!!!!!!!!
Why is this so significant? Because the last time Burnley were awarded a penalty was December 2005. 16 months without a penalty (and we've had several blatant penalties turned down). So it's about time we had one! Having seen the replays, it shouldn't actually have been awarded because it wasn't a penalty, but we've had to wait sooooooo long and we've had so many legitimate claims dismissed that I rather think we deserve this. Naturally Andy Gray scored it.
Then, after half-time, Wade Elliott put us AHEAD!!!! It was an incredible goal; absolutely beautiful - a 30-yarder into the top corner. You don't stop those!! Even the Sunderland website describes it as being "a wonder goal". Unfortunately The Beast then decided to bring down one of the Sunderland players in the penalty area. He was lucky to not be sent off, in all honesty. That was definitely a penalty - about the only one in the match that was! That penalty was scored. Then Sunderland won it with a really good strike that showed us why they're up at the top. OK, so we lost, but considering that prior to kickoff they were 2nd and we were (and still are) 16th, I was expecting that. The main positives we can get out of it are that we played really well and really did our image good. It was a dramatic match and it was real end-to-end stuff. As they say, the boys done good. They did us proud and I can with all sincerity state that tonight, I am proud to be a Burnley fan.
Shame about the Mardon public-school idiots. (For the benefit of non-British friends of mine, public schools are not the same as North American public schools - what NA calls "public" is what we call "state school"; public schools here are the really posh ones with really high fees, places like Eton and Harrow; they're generally boarding schools).
There are quite a few public-school people in Mardon. Some are pretty decent, like Fi and Dan Addey. Others, though, are, to be blunt (and I apologise for the following rant because there's some foul language in it and those of you that know me well know I rarely swear), w****rs. They're arrogant and selfish and think they're absolutely wonderful. I'm one of the "weird" ones. They don't like weird people. Generally it doesn't bother me; I have my friends and I see it as the idiots being the ones with the problem. I was identified pretty quickly as being somewhat odd and thus came in for some stick from them. Usually I can shrug it off, not really give it any thought or attention. It's just them being idiots.
But it's different when you're on your own in the common room trying to watch the match - your team, who hardly ever get on telly - and there's a whole pack of them. And they were making all these stupid, idiotic, snide comments about Burnley (place and team), the North, the Championship (the division below the top league in English football) and being general w****rs, with the sole intention of winding me up. There was no way I was leaving the common room - they have pretty much a complete monopoly of it as regards what's on the telly. This is the one time in the whole academic year I've wanted to watch something on the common room TV. I don't sit and watch it for several hours a day like they do. Then they were being complete tw*ts and saying would I still support my team if they merged with Blackburn. Like hell that would happen - neither Burnley nor Blackburn fans would ever allow it!!! The phrase "when hell freezes over" comes to mind! And Tom (who my friend Jamie used to share a room with, until he switched to share with Gareth) decided to be even more of a tw*t and commented about how he might take over Burnley and deliberately make them go into liquidation. Like hell you would, Tom.
Then they all buggered off to the gym. Max popped in for a while. Max is decent and he knows his football. He also knows what complete immature, pathetic, public-school tw*ts who think they're wonderful and are convinced the entire world is of the same opinion, they are and we chatted about that for a bit!! Then he went out and a bit later they came back and sat round making all these comments constantly. As I said above, normally I can ignore their comments and not pay them any attention - it's not worth it. But when there's a whole load of them who are clearly there just to wind you up, it's extremely hard to keep your temper and to not let the comments get to you. I ignored them for the rest of the match and then when it finished they intensified it. I told Tom that I wasn't going to answer his if-Burnley-merge-with-Blackburn question (however hypothetical it may be) because it wasn't worth it because it would never happen. Not that he would drop it. Posh Ben was being his usual w****ry self. When the channel was changed I walked very firmly out of the common room and made sure they could hear my boots very clearly. I very nearly slammed the common room door on them and would dearly have loved to have committed acts of assault on them. But I'm a good girl and decided against it (however satisfying it would have felt at the time); I don't want a police record for GBH, thank you very much!
It's different when there's a whole pack of them there and you're on your own, and you know that their sole aim is to wind you up. Fine, so I stamped off very loudly, but I think I was pretty restrained while I was in the same room as them, and they don't know that when I rang my mum (to discuss the match with her) I was in tears and referring to them with all sorts of foul language that I never use (not just around my mum but generally; I don't like it). You can't stop them getting to you in those situations. And if I'd left before the end of the match that would really have told them that they'd won. NO WAY was I giving up my one evening in the whole academic year when I could watch what I wanted to watch.
I'm seeing James tomorrow. That will help. A lot.