TSBW blog

I’ll open with a question for you. Why do we bother? County are a division five team, albeit, with high ambitions, we’ve been in the Championship, but that was nearly 20 years ago, we’re never really going to challenge for the Premier League title, nor will we likely see a County captain lifting the FA Cup. The best we can hope for is challenging for promotion and a good cup run. So what keeps us going back for more when the reality is we’re likely to be disappointed more often than not? The answer is simple, we’re addicted to County. Sure, none of us would admit we have a problem, we could stop going to games and support from a distance, but we can never absolutely leave County forever and like any addiction, the denial of our drug causes withdrawal symptoms (why do you think I’m sat here typing this?!).  It’s more than that though, we’re addicted to the possibility that absolutely anything can happen at a game; we could win 7-0, lose 7-0, we could see the greatest goal ever score...

So, COVID-19 has pressed the pause button on many aspects of our lives, with other parts being changed and completely turned upside down. From the highest to the lowest, young and old, we have all had to make some kind of change and sacrifice. I sincerely hope everyone reading this is safe, healthy and adjusting well to this deviation from normal life.  At times like this, in a state of emergency, football is reduced to its most basic form, a hobby, a job, 22 people chasing a ball around a field. To some it’s so much more, to some it’s literally their life, their one constant. Without trying to sound overly hyperbolic, football can mean life for some, and it has been taken away from us. Personally, I genuinely miss everything about County and football in general. Some people may say that I’m being a little blinkered or that there are far more important things in life than football, my reply would be that I care dearly about my club and County are meant to be a pleasant distraction ...

Who had ‘the season to finish with seven games left and County, unbeaten in six, in 7th place’ in the sweepstake? Well done, you’ve won a night out on Castle Street with Vernon Bear and the shirtless guy who was in the Cheadle End against Bromley.  While we wait to find out how the clubs and ultimately, the League, resolve this season, we as fans are left kicking our heels and sighing wistfully over match footage of the good old days of last month, when being furloughed, fighting over bog roll, grassing on your neighbours for leaving the house twice a day and social distancing were unheard of.  Of course, last August, the events of the last month were still the pipe dream of dystopian novel writers, tin foil hat wearers and those oddball ‘doomsday preppers’ you see on American TV documentaries, complete with a basement full of tinned sardines and a urine recycling machine to provide enough drinking water to outlast the ‘fallout’.  Oh no, back in August, County were stridi...