Superstitious fans

On the shrimper group on Yahoo, Martin writes:

It’s well documented that many players have superstitions that they follow before a game and it’s just the same for supporters. However this season has presented quite a problem in that, until recently, our results have not reflected the care with which I’ve been making my offerings to the Goddess of Luck and her fickle brother the God of Chance.

The order in which I did things last season has been followed to the letter. Get in the car, switch on the radio, tune into Radio Essex (Even though its still some gardening program) , head for Roots Hall taking the shortcut down the side of the park and getting stuck at the lights for ages. A foreseeable problem that totally negates the shortcut but hey it’s a ritual, what choice do I have ?

And that’s the nub of the matter. You really do not have any choice, once hooked into a routine you’re in the keep net for the duration mate ! It matters not how the superstition began, the mere fact that it is there is enough to make grown men do daft and stupid things over and over again. What is even dafter is that the rituals have no proven track record and hold no promise of holding true for ever.

Last year I and Uncle Albert took to standing up until after each kick off had been taken. Not for each goal you must understand, just at the start of each half. And it regularly produced results … well if you count the colourful abuse that we were subjected to by people in the seats behind ! How our decision to do such a thing arose neither of us have a clue (No change there then ! … thought I’d say it before anyone else jumps in) but we were picking up results, steadily holding onto our position at the head of the table and eventually getting our due reward in the form of a Championship and promotion.

The pundits in their ignorance gave the credit to Eastwood and his chums. But we knew who had really gone that extra mile. Ears ringing from our fellow supporter’s advice to ‘Sit Down’ we’d played our game as well as any of those wearing the boots on the pitch. And, as sure as eggs are eggs, if we did the same thing this season then the fruits of our bravery would be a nice position around mid table somewhere.

Sure there was the odd result, most notably our thrashing of Man Utd 1-0, but the expected fine run of results never occurred. Again a strange thing, because instead of changing your ritual, you actually start adding bits onto it !. I found myself buying the obligatory cheeseburger from inside rather than outside the culinary oasis at the back of the West stand. I also had to make my way to my seat following a specific route. And it was only when I found myself deliberating over which shoelace to tie up first that I realised that things had gone too far. It wasn’t my rituals that were at fault at all … it was Uncle Albert’s!!

Old age perhaps, too many visits to the bar. Whatever, time was taking a toll on the poor fellow and he was tending to hover over his seat rather than stand up straight before kick off. And such sloppy habits were having a bad effect upon our results. Something had to be done…

Read the rest of the message on Yahoo groups.