The Team for Me by Mike Smith

Author:Mike Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2018-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

26.

Flirting With Another Team

NICK Hornby’s brilliant book, Fever Pitch, tells the story of the author’s obsession with Arsenal. Hornby makes the astute assertion that the relationship one has with their football team can be stronger than the one with their wife, husband or partner. His reasoning is that while you fall in love and even get married to someone who you adore, you can’t predict the future. Life has a horrible way of going pear-shaped and you may fall out of love and the relationship end, leaving you heartbroken. However, the one thing you can guarantee is you will always remain steadfastly loyal to your football team (I shall pause at this point as the present Mrs Smith’s solicitor is on the phone).

My first marriage ended after 30 years. I re-married in 2015. The one constant since I first tied the knot in 1982 has been my love for Heart of Midlothian, even though this has been severely tested on more than once occasion.

There have been those, for whom football is just a game, who have suggested during times of angst that I should change my football allegiance in the same way one might change their car or move to a new house. Such ignorance is stunning in its simplicity. For many, following their team is a family thing, passed down from generation to generation. For me it was fate. When my father took me to Brockville Park, Falkirk in October 1968 the Bairns could have been playing anyone. Even Hibs. The fact it was Hearts shaped the rest of my life.

I have often stormed out of a Hearts game vowing never to go back. Hampden, April 1987 (a Scottish Cup semi-final loss to St Mirren) and ironically Brockville, May 1993 (a 6-0 humping from Falkirk) took that threat close to North Korean nuclear missile testing proportions. But as Jimmy Nail sang in his song ‘Ain’t No Doubt’, ‘You know I’ll always come back.’

More recently, though, I must confess that I have been seeing someone else. I had a minor fling with East Stirlingshire a few years ago, at a time when they were vying for promotion from League Two. When Hearts were playing away, I was metaphorically doing the same by heading to Stenhousemuir where the Shire played their home games. I still have a soft spot for the Shire but in the last four years I have been seeing not one but two other teams – Edinburgh City and The Spartans.

This flirtatious period has coincided with a) me moving from Dalkeith to Leith following my divorce and b) Hearts almost going out of existence with the club sliding into administration in 2013. At the end of the 2013/14 season Hearts – having started the league campaign with a 15-point deduction as a punishment for going into administration – were inevitably relegated from the Premiership into the Championship.

Like the majority of Hearts supporters, I wasn’t sure if my club would survive in the summer of 2013. I still maintained

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.