Piss Poor Posh

A couple of weeks into the season, 5 games( including 2 in the League Cup) and we have only won 1 of them. Too soon to panic? No we should panic.

I had the misfortune to witness first hand one of the defeats on my first Tuesday night trip of the season to London Road  10 days ago.

We were playing Millwall who comprehensively thrashed us 3-1 last time they were at the ground back in March which I wrote about at the time.

For some reason and despite the defeat by Leicester on the preceding Saturday, I was confident we would win.  10 minutes into the game and my confidence seemed well founded as we were 1 nil up thanks to a very good goal by George Boyd. But, and there is always a but with Posh, after that we sat back let them into the game and by half time they were level.

The second half was up there with one of the most abject performances I have ever seen from Posh. And believe me I have seen some shite especially in our dark days in League Two. Millwall took control and frankly showed us mercy by only beating us 2-1, although it could have been a lot more. I said to my son who had come up from London for the game that we were in for another season  relegation battle like the 2009/10 season.

Since then a further defeat and we are out of the League Cup too. League 1 here we come again.

Up Above The Streets And Houses

I was walking the dog the other day after a torrential downpour. The sun was out and when I looked up I saw the most perfect rainbow I'd ever seen stretching out across the sky. 

Being me I didn't take a picture of it but instead I started to sing this song in my head

She's Like A Raimbow- World Of Twist

This is, in case you didn't know, a cover of a Rolling Stones song

I never really got into the Madchester, Baggy scene as
1. I wasn't 18
2. I was living in London with a wife and new baby.

Some of the music was good though. I got into World of Twist via St Etienne.(the band, not the football team)

Olympic Fever

The Olympics have been on the radio and TV channels for almost two weeks now. I have watched more than my fairshare of minority sports and spent nearly all last weekend sat glued to the track and field events. I do sort of feel the “buzz” and slightly regret not making more of an effort last year to get tickets to attend the games.

All this success, and humility and graciousness of our winners and losers has led me to the conclusion that the nation ‘s favourite spectator and participation sport – football- has reached a crossroads with this Olympics. Sturridges bad tempered exit after missing a penalty in thequarter finals simply highlighted it.

The country that gave the world football and has the most successful league in the world couldn’t even get a team together that could beat South Korea( even with its emerging football presence on the worlds stage and handful of Premiership players it is still a footballing minnow compared to us). This can’t be right. Why can't we perform on the big stage when it comes to football? Why do our players behave so badly compared to other sportsmen?

I can’t say that I love handball, synchronised swimming, archery, beach volleyball or  even track and field events anymore than I did before the Olympics. But I think I love football a bit less.

Having said that I have already booked my first Tuesday night trip to Peterborough so probably I will forgive football yet again. But the thought of another season of bad tempered matches with high levels of disrespect towards  the officials doesn’t give me a "buzz" .Especially after watching so little dissent and acceptance on the part of the athletes that sometimes other competitors are simply just better than you.

Running On Empty

I did the BUPA Gateshead 10k  run last weekend. I had a severe cold all the week leading up to it and if it wasn’t for the fact that I had missed the Sunderland 10k due to injury I wouldn’t have run. The lack of fitness and my cold told in my embarrassingly slow time of 62:54- over 4 minutes slower than last year.

Still I did it got my T shirt and medal. Felt a bit rough for the rest of the day and still don’t feel all too good now three days later.

The course is described as picturesque. Well if your definition of picturesque is running through an industrial estate  then it fits the bill. It is a bit like describing Kielder Marathon as an undulating course.

It was the usual very slick and professional performance from the Great Run team. Plenty of toilets and PowerAde available. A manic Scottish warm up woman ( Donna something or other) and the usual radio DJ banter.

Weirdly as I took up my position in the white wave of runners a sudden surge of south east Asian men in red t shirts and blue shorts appeared. Two hundred of them  in fact. Apparently they are Ghurkhas based at Catterick at the moment . They were pretty excitable and obviously thought that Donna was a bit mad as they joined in the warm up.

I look forward to this year’s GNR knowing I need to do a lot more training to get fit for the challenge. Especially as my sister in law is running it.

Billy Franks

I've just been listening to Billy's live album From The Court To The Empire. I've written about this album before here and I ve written about Mr Franks many times previously.

His book A Far Cry From Sunset should be out this year and I hope it will be as good as his early version on his website was.

Anyway here is a track from the live album to hopefully get you interested enough to shell out a fiver for a download

Just- Billy Franks