The Damned United by David Peace

Author:David Peace [Peace, David]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780571246076
Publisher: Faber and Faber Ltd
Published: 2006-07-05T12:00:00+00:00

Day Twenty-two

Here is Europe again; your hopes and your dreams. The hopes and the dreams that keep you here, home to Benfica –

Derby County vs Benfica in the second round of the European Cup.

You can’t sleep. You can’t eat. You don’t believe in luck. You don’t believe in prayers, so you can only plot, only plot and scheme:

You had the groundsman pump half the river Derwent onto the pitch the night before, turning the Baseball Ground into a bog. You have Kevin Hector carried down the narrow corridor into the treatment room. You have the team doctor pump Kevin Hector full of cortisone an hour before kick-off; the hour before the Eagles of Lisbon are supposed to feast upon the Rams of Derby –

The press have given you no chance. The press have written you off:

Hard luck, Cloughie, they all write. This time you’re out of your class.

Pete pins up these cuttings in the dressing room; this is where you and Pete are at your best, in the dressing room, beneath these cuttings, with ten minutes to kick-off. You’ve asked Pete to run through their players, who to watch for and what to watch them for, something you never usually do, never usually give a fuck about. Tonight’s no different. Pete looks down at the piece of paper in his hand then he looks back up at your team, your boys, and he screws up that piece of paper –

‘No sweat,’ he says. ‘You’ve nothing to worry about with this lot.’

Pete’s right, you’re right; this is one of those nights you’ve dreamt of; one of those nights you were born and live for, and, despite your comments, despite your criticisms, over 38,000 people are here to share this night with you, this night when you sweep aside Benfica and Eusebio from the first minute to the last, from the minute McFarland climbs above their defence to head home Hinton’s cross, from the minute McFarland nods down another Hinton cross for Hector to score with a left-foot shot into the top corner, from the minute McGovern takes hold of a Daniel lob to score from the edge of the area, from the first minute to the last –

‘Unbelievable,’ Malcolm Allison tells you at half-time. ‘Fucking unbelievable.’

You put your head around that dressing-room door and you simply tell them, ‘You are brilliant, each and every one of you.’

Boulton. Robson. Daniel. Hennessey. McFarland. Todd. McGovern. Gemmill. O’Hare. Hector and Hinton –

Derby County; your team, your boys.

Tonight is everything you’ve ever dreamed of. Everything you’ve ever worked for. Everything you were born and live for. Plotted and schemed for –

Tonight is vindication. Tonight is justification –

Tonight is your revenge, revenge, revenge –

Tonight is Derby County 3, Benfica 0 –

25 October 1972 –

Tonight you have only one word for the press after this game, one word for your team, your boys, and tonight that word is ‘Magical’.

* * *

This is another of his traditions, another of his bloody routines, another of his fucking rituals. Tonight is my first home game at Elland Road; home to Queen’s Park Rangers.

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