THE VIC MORGAN COLUMN: The only way is Essex - even when I'm in Devon (From Swindon Advertiser)

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THE VIC MORGAN COLUMN: The only way is Essex - even when I'm in Devon

6:00am Saturday 4th February 2012 in Local

PICTURE the scene - a 56-year-old man sitting on his own in a room in Exeter, Devon.

His sole aim is to keep up to date with what’s happening in Southend, Essex.

It’s a Tuesday evening and a cold one at that. This man is supposed to be concentrating on his job…he presents a late night radio show in the south west.

Instead he paces the room, continually checking his computer. The news is good, it’s very good, then it gets better and better and better.

Picture that same 56-year-old man running around and shouting to four walls. Rather strange isn’t it?

I think you know who that 56-year-old man is.Yes, it’s me.

The Town’s game at Southend turned out to be a fantastic result, and for those who were there, it must have been an amazing experience.

Now I’ve seen 30 games this season from my base near Exeter, I don’t think that’s bad. However, when you miss a game like that, it seems like you’ve let the team down for not being there, and yourself down for missing out.

It’s a sickness this football.

You get it at a very young age, and are unable to find a cure. If you live and work 120 miles away from YOUR team, the sickness feels worse.

These days it’s relatively easy to keep in touch.

Twitter, text, newswires, all help the supporter who lives away, and can’t get to the game.

Then there’s the feeling of not being able to talk to anyone about the game after it’s finished.

The joy of travelling with fellow fans is chatting through what’s happened…good or bad.

Sometimes a good moan is part of being a supporter, but so is the thrill of a victory like the one at Roots Hall.

I know I wasn’t the only one who didn’t go on Tuesday, but it felt that way.

Even celebrating on Twitter after, can’t take away that feeling of, ‘b***er I missed it!’.

The one consolation I have is that I’ll be there on Saturday and next Tuesday, and the Saturday and Tuesday after that, taking part in the collective experience of being a football fan.

There is no rhyme nor reason for what we feel.

Swindon academic Desmond Morris once wrote a book called “The Soccer Tribe”.

In it he tried to explain why we feel the way we do about the game.

Is it a pride in where we come from, or something a little less rational that that?

All I can say is that if you’d seen me last Tuesday, you would have found it very difficult to explain.

As I said, picture the scene… Follow Vic on Twitter (@swindonred) or read his weekly blog at thewashbag.com.

Comments(15)

Red-in-exile says...
7:31am Sat 4 Feb 12

Understand this so badly! I don't *have* to stay up til 1am to listen to a 3pm match, nor do I *have* to get up at 3.45am to listen to an evening match, but to not do so would be wrong. Especially as we are doing so well now, it's not often us Town fans get this good run of form, of anything really so we'd best enjoy it by any means possible!
When it comes to football teams, I think irrational behaviour is the order of the day but we wouldn't have it any other way! COYR!