THERE are moments when you question your life choices. My epiphany, or eureka moment, came when I was halfway up the A46 just outside Snitterfield late on Tuesday afternoon. For those without a basic grasp of Warwickshire geography, Snitterfield is just south of the M40, and the A46 seems to run most of the way from the car park at Cheltenham Racecourse, diagonally towards Mansfield. It’s not a road I ever intend to travel again.
The planning was questionable. Do the race commentary of the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham at 4pm, then make sure I’m the first of the 60,000 racegoers out the car park, so that I could get to Field Mill, home of Mansfield, in time for the 7.45pm kick-off. It was always going to be a bit tight, but an M5 closure really put me on the back foot. Hence the scenic route, Snitterfield and the epiphany. Sometimes it’s best to say “no”, and less is more.
The A46 past Snitterfield was the last thing I saw that could be described as “scenic” that day. The football on offer at the UK’s oldest league ground certainly could not be classified as such. I’ve seen 1,500 Reading games over the years. I think this was the scrappiest, lowest-quality, most error-strewn stinker I’ve ever witnessed. The ball bounced and bobbled, the players bumped and blundered, the wind blustered and blew and I reflected on a wasted journey.
The beautiful game had turned very ugly. Yes, it was a tough test in challenging conditions, but despite that it was a disgusting version of professional football. Pity those who had spent money to watch that rubbish. All the players on both teams looked completely devoid of any level of skill or creativity. A scrappy second-half goal, taking a huge deflection to wrong-foot Reading keeper Joel Pereira following a comical air kick from a Mansfield striker in the build-up, was an entirely appropriate winner. Scrappy isn’t a strong enough word to describe the game or the goal.
Yet everyone there knew, this is part and parcel of being a football fan. During a season of 46 games you will get a couple of duds, albeit perhaps not to this level. Not every game is going to be El Classico between August and the following May. A windy Tuesday evening in March at Mansfield on a bobbly pitch is exactly the sort of night you will need to endure, rather than enjoy.
The Reading players will know it was a missed opportunity. Had they won, they would have gone into Saturday’s game at the SCL against Plymouth in fifth place. As it is they remain a point and a place outside the play-off zone with 10 games remaining. Providing there are not too many more duds, and providing they win as many points in the last 10 games of the season as they have in their most recent 10 games, they should be okay. And I’ll be okay, providing I don’t have to rush up the A46 again this season.
