Roller-Coasters
Well, what do you know? A team totally out of form, from a town famous for burn-outs and Mastercard, lower on confidence than an England middle-order batsman, and with as much chance of survival as the Hyacinth Macaw has gone and done us.
Who would have credited it - but it's not uncommon, is it? One week, beating the league leaders in a seven-goal thriller, ten days later succumbing meekly to the league's whipping boys, oh the joys of following the Saints!
A few weeks ago I speculated on whether any team could be so adept at raising and lowering their game as ours, and was reminded that (apparently) ten years ago, the week after we beat Champions Manchester United 6-3, we were humiliated by Everton.
I won't remind you of the Goodison score-line, suffice to say that a toffee-supporting acquaintance thought we were flattered to have only conceded seven…
Merry-go-Rounds
But actually, are we any worse than any other club outside of the ‘big four'? Well, in our final Premiership season you might remember Manchester City inflicting a rare 1-0 defeat on Chelsea, yet they managed to lose at home to both Everton and Bolton.
The season before they beat their Manchester rivals 4-1, but also lost 3-0 at home to Leicester. You see a pattern emerging? So do I, and it's all too familiar.
And I'll wager it's the same at Ipswich, Leeds, Coventry, Spurs, Charlton, Bolton, Aston Villa, Fulham and the other 30 or so clubs you can class, like us, as ‘middle-of-the-road' – not so bad as to get beaten by everyone, but not so good as to be considered ‘challangers', despite the occasional run of success.
The kind of clubs you might consider as having ‘potential' – usually it has to be said, unrealised! It must have something to do with belief and application. The understanding is there that to compete with the best you have to deliver over and above your normal capability – the mythical 110% so many of us talk about.
Amusements
So why can we give 110% when it really matters, against the best, and squeeze out the odd shock result, but somehow fail to breeze through against the likes of Southend? Well, the answer of course is the reason why we are 6th in the Championship and Roger Federer is the world's best tennis player, ever.
As a former rugby coach would undoubtedly tell you, the most important pitch in any sport is a six inch strip between the ears, because it's here where so many victories or defeats are actually forged.
The first-class, world-beating sportsman does what he preaches – he focuses on his own game and the opposition ceases to be relevant. He, or indeed she, excludes all thinking other than that singular thought – I'm better than the next guy. And so it's possible to enter the infamous ‘zone' regardless of opposition.
This ability to enter the zone is a foundation of successful sportsmen. It demands total mental strength for 100% of every second of every minute of every match – without fail.
It's the reason why footballers are worth more than one another – their mental dexterity, an ability to ‘see' a pass, to ‘read' the game. That's what they mean – the ability to think in, around and outside the box. That elusive skill which a management guru once told me was the difference between genius and mortal men – concentration.
All the fun of the Fair
Think about it. How exactly did England lose a Test Match after scoring 600 runs? How did we concede two goals in 90 seconds at Hull? How can Andrew Murray beat Roger Federer one-day and lose to some unknown Greek the next?
The answer my friends is lapses – lapses in concentration. How often have you heard it said ‘he switched off' and that's exactly what they mean, he switched his brain off, failed to focus, stopped concentrating.
We all do it, or rather, all of us mortals do it. And actually, without boring you with the detailed comparisons, the team you follow is no worse than any other of those mentioned above (or a myriad beside). But, and here's a thing, it's no better either. We do raise our game against better opposition and it proves we can. What we need to do, as the actress said, is keep it up.
So, to paraphrase the late, great Roy Castle: “If you want to be the best, if you want to beat the rest, concentration, that's what you need!”