Killing Hope?

After Saturdays debacle, most people seem to have given up and are resigned to life in the fizzy pops. Street maps of Scunthorpe are all the rage, we're speculating on who'll be off-loaded first and it wouldn't be long before we start to apportion the blame for our downfall.

And we already have our excuses lined up. As little Sam takes over from Big Sam at Bolton what chance a determined Bolton performance come the weekend at Upton Park where the Hamsters are already enjoying the fruits of lying to the Premier League and having what amounts to a couple of points awarded though "no-goals" at Ewood Park. We on the other hand are already pointing to a lineman's flag denying us a win over Fulham and at the same time gifting Fulham a valuable point.

Oh, it was all so different when we went down after our last decent spell in the "top-flight". May 5th 1990 it was, Old Trafford and after 4 turbulent years we had a party at the final game of the season and a good old sing-song. It didn't seem to hurt so much then and we knew we wouldn't be coming back in a hurry with no ground of our own and with our best players bound to leave as soon as the bus got home. We even continued the mood with a Relegation Party up there in Muswell Hill, to celebrate our 4 years with the Big Boys and to show we didn't care.

We all knew that Lennie had done miracles and even though we finished 13 points from safety we couldn't have asked for more from the players, Bob Bolder, John Humphrey, Mark Reid, Tommy Caton, Joe McLaughlin, Andy Peake, Scott Minto, Steve MacKenzie, Robert Lee, Colin Walsh, Paul Mortimer, Paul Williams. In fact only Humphrey, McLaughlin and Williams left during the summer but the anti-climate of life down there was a downer for everyone and we only managed a mid-table position at the end of the season.

And come to think about it, I felt much better in 1999 as well, even though we only lasted one season. We kept fighting till the end with a remarkable 4-3 win at Villa Park in our last away game. For some reason then we all knew we were on the up and were destined to be a Premiership club and that we'd be back before you could say whatever it is that you say on those occasions. And we were after only 1 season as Curbs took us up as Champions in 2000.

But right now, despite us all having got our new season ticket just in case a quick return is on the cards, and our renewed hope in Pards' abilities, the awful mess that has been this season does not full us with any sense of confidence in the future. Perhaps being so far behind the rest for most of the season has seeped into our mentality and made us think we're a fizzy pop club.

However, some of us are reals suckers for this "hope" thing and don't give up so easily and a scan through frankie's post always raises our belief. We'll kick the butts of them fat ladies and slam the door on 'em till our maths tells us that its curtains. So, despite the teams attempt to stifle our remaining hope with a 4-1 defeat in front of busloads of away fans, with only the indestructible Matty Holland seeming to care about the fans appearance, we do still have 2 games left for the players to achieve a miracle and as one of Frankies readers said "we don't expect the team to give up so neither should we."

And lastly, acknowledgements are due to William Blum for the title - "Killing Hope". And when the seasons over that's a book to read if you really want to feel angry about the world. But, hey, this isn't a political site is it?