I’m sure you realise it’s hard not to get nostalgic at this point in your life and a quote from my Dad got me thinking. “it’s a very important week for football” was Dad’s quote this week with Mum replying “is football ever important”as Brighton urged closer to promotion, three teams were on joint points (87)* at the top of the championship and on the verge of the premier league. Actually the most important promotion in football. Dad had just collected Mum and I from the station and we wanted to sit down and chat. The game was over and Dad knew the score however he wanted to see the punditry and the highlights of the second half he’d missed. Middlesbrough had slipped up and drew 2-2 leaving with Brighton with a game in hand. Along with that Bristol Rovers (who Paul, Dave, and I support, Dad supports them too but that word in his case doesn’t compare to what it means for him and Brighton) are close to promotion too. Lastly of course Leicester City have taken over the country’s imagination. So yes I think it is a pretty unique week in football with the Sims Family football teams all eyeing for promotion. If all goes well with each team fortunes I’ll be very glad I’ve been able to live to see it. Dad will be acting like he’s had 16mg of Dexamethasone and that is something not to be missed.

 
Because I’d love to see it happen I’m very sympathetic to Dad’s overwhelming addiction to the beautiful game, despite being only about as 10% a football fan as my Brighton Season ticket holder father (who lives in Bristol), I just about understand his madness. It’s actually a passion that’s hard to explain to those who don’t get it. I’m a score checker and very occasionally go to games. Georgie was completely unaware of the Leicester City mind blowing story until I tried, unsuccessfully I might add, to get some auction prizes from them, Georgie was like “who would want prizes from them” only for me to point out they were top of the most popular league in the world. She didn’t believe me and after answering yes to “what better than man u? Chelsea? Arsenal?” And any other big football team she could think of she was left a bit dismayed (especially as she lives next to the stadium). I like many have been following Leicester for the last part of the season, obviously accused of being a glory hunter only for me to point out that I went to uni there, the response “did you ever go to any games?…” my response ‘yes to sit in the away end’.

 
But I used to go to more games as a child, we’d go to perhaps ten games a season a mixture of Brighton away games when they were playing near Bristol or Rovers games. The epitome to Dad’s unwavering dedication was an away game against Kettering, we were standing next to the pitch barrier in the terraces, the view was awful, the weather grey, the football woeful and Brighton were losing. At half time the consequences of an overused shack of a toilet became very apparent and the toilet burst, you’ve guessed it, flooding our way, the crowd made a Moses impression and parted. We were left with nowhere to go but we were raised just enough not to get wet. We stayed for the whole next half. You may think we should have left or there’s a degree of neglect being surrounded for that long by human waste matter but we didn’t. This is what we did, and to this day I still think it was funny and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

*tables correct as of first draft