I was a late-comer to football,
I could never get my head around
how you could watch your team,
the team you love,
get beat every week,
and still arrive at the ground the following Saturday afternoon,
wearing your team colours,
full of excitement for the game.
If your team is losing three-nil at half-time
with little chance of scoring,
why don’t people just leave,
do something fun with the rest
of the afternoon?
Sure enough, the loyal fans
flock to the ground,
all team colours, scarves and smiles.
When discussing their predictions
for the next match,
against tough opposition,
I hear the fans chatting excitedly,
I think we’ll win,
this is the week
we turn it around.
I have a feeling.
It was then I understood,
what kept the fans flocking
to the ground every week
was the never-ending optimism,
the hope that this next match,
would be the game
when their fortunes changed.
For some reason this got me
thinking about life in general,
how some weeks we win
and other weeks we lose
or manage to scape a draw,
but each week
we keep going.