And, we're out

England 1 v Iceland 2

Monday 27 June 2016

UEFA European Championship Round of 16

Played at Nice

Twitter @ball_sup

So that's it. Media & Pundits going crazy. Check the Blogs. I'm not one of these Divine Right England supporters. Realistic me. But, I didn't expect that. What went wrong?

Walker & Rose didn't bomb forward. (Like for eg v Wales). Rooney didn't hide. But, he had a shocker. Getting robbed. Losing possession. Passing to the Icelanders. It's OK Dier & Rooney, “at the back of the diamond”. Taking it off Cahill. But. Relentless. Predictable. Easy to counter. Easy to defend.

When you're struggling. Don't do stupid things. Which get the fans on your back. You know. Like having Kane take corners & wide free kicks. Corners ffs. They either don't beat the first man. Or they're far too heavy & sail for a goal kick/throw in. The odd one bounces on the penalty spot. With no fucker on the end of it.

At two one, I just never felt England could nick it three two in ninety. When Iceland sat back a bit. You needed waves of full backs & diamonders flooding forward. Ball at feet. At pace. Never happened.

We were shit. But, let's have it right. Iceland were superb. Could have had five. Deserved to win.

Where to? I'm an Identity fan. Not an Ambition fan. Sven. Fabio. No. “Best” Englishman please.

And, to cap it all. My beer was off. Can't complain too much. I did a bit of Hunting. Trying to track some Colgan’s down. (As per rest of trip) somewhat unsuccessfully. One lovely guy in a very upmarket wine merchant gave me a lone bottle free gratis. Basically, I think it was maybe an old sample he had lying around. Kind of him. But, too old. It'd gone to vinegar & froth.

Must. Remain. Upbeat. As we set the SatNav for Calais. I can award a Standout Beer Of The Trip. The lovely Orange, Citrus, Bitter, Colgan’s Hopbuckler IPA on keg at a just right 6.2%. I doubled up last night & had my second pint of it.

The Beer Hunting was like the football. Hard Work. Getting to the grounds hours early for a decent parking space. Starting hours early for the felt tip pen ticket check. The surly pat down. The ticket scan. In the seat two hours before kick off. To avoid the huffing pushing & shoving.

The game stealing sponsors. The jibber from the in ground announcers. Make some noise. I can't hear you. The England team bus has arrived. It's not an enjoyable experience. But, I was just about able to switch it all off until the whistle.

329/706