football stands together

 

 

Football stands together. We can scarcely imagine the horrors taking place daily in Ukraine but we can show our support, united in a minutes' applause before the game begins. A special mention for the fans of Southampton, a great club with a talented team and a super manager. They raise their scarves high, a fantastic salute in blue and yellow, the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

 

Football, true football, has always been about support. I speak to the lovely Irish couple who sit in the row behind. I haven't seen them for two months or more, their seats remaining empty since December. There is a reason.

 

Eyes brimming, they explain their daughter died totally unexpectedly two days after Christmas. She was aged just fifty seven. Today is a brave step for them towards something just a fraction more normal. They repeat their story time and again as fellow fans all around ask after them. Each time there is a touch, a hug. We support them too.

 

After all this it's difficult to say much about the football, other than to note Villa deliver an emphatic victory whilst Southampton have a 'bad day at the office'.

 

 

 

This post is dedicated to the people of Ukraine and in memory of Finola.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

in memoriam

 

 

we look out

on war

 

 in the blue sky

swirling fighters

reap death

 

us and them

 

children link

arms

force apart

hands

them and us

 

 

 

 

monks walk

 

  

monks walk

past 

this house

in silence

 

from the churchyard

grave boned

across the muddy field

cowled

in single file

 

monks walk past this house

a millennium  march

save no-one but me sees them

processing hooded

 

monks walk past this house

and I follow

in their wake

step by step

in time

 

 

 

aston villa 0 v 1 watford

 

  

The dregs of Storm Eunice provide the back-drop to Watford's Villa Park visit. It should presage a sound drubbing for the second-from-bottom Hornets but instead the plucky boys in claret and blue find themselves mired between the serried and resilient ranks of Watford defenders.

 

You have to hand it to Hodgson. Whilst Roy's team may not have star-studded, scintillating genius a-plenty he does at least get them well-organised.

 

An early penalty shout is denied by VAR. There's lots of possession but precious little end-product in the final third of the pitch. It therefore comes as no surprise when late in the game a well-taken header by Emmanuel Dennis consigns Villa to yet another home loss.

 

Rather like Storm Eunice, Villa's latest performance proves full of wind.