FINE MARGINS...

Maybe I`m getting old. Well, as I`m now in my 80s I guess there might be some truth in that. Now there was a time when the events at St. Mary`s last night would have left me incandescent by VAR refereeing decisions going against Southampton in a 1-0 defeat against visiting Aston Villa.  One was a penalty claim for handball which went against the Saints, when in the days of proper football it would have been given as `nailed on.`   The second was a farcical offside decision when the sleeve of  Danny Ings` shirt was adjudged to have been a few millimetres ahead of Matty Cash`s backside when the ball was kicked.  In the days of proper football the advantage (if one could have been discerned in instances like that) would have gone to the attacking team.  But the decisions were made, the game was lost and we move on to Old Trafford away on Tuesday evening for another difficult game against the resurgent ManUre.  

Maybe it`s the fact that the Saints are sitting comfortably in mid table at the mid point of the season that has dampened the anxieties of my younger days and that there are 18 games to go to secure the three wins and a draw we need to maintain Premier League status.  Surely, perhaps after Old Trafford, the crest of the current slump will be overturned.  Well it will, won`t it?  Really?  Honestly?  Please tell me it will.

Fine margins too at the Stadium of Light yesterday where Gillingham secured a 2-2 draw against Sunderland and fine margins as well at the New Lawn in Nailsworth where Forest Green Rovers held out for a 0-0 draw against Cheltenham in the Gloucestershire Classico.  Nothing happened elsewhere, where football in the `lower leagues` has been put on hold, but I do miss following the arguably more interesting exploits of Truro City, Brechin City, Fort William and Stoke Gabriel.  To name but a few.

But I suspect that the relative sanguinity I might be feeling right now enables me to put football in its wider context given all the other more pressing issues that confront our world these days.  Mr. Covid of course and the effect he has had in demonstrating the reality of `civilised` life in today`s world with the absurdity of countries in Europe seemingly behaving like children squabbling over a bag of goodies.  

Now football fans are not typically associated with critical thinking but we do love to quote the French-Algerian philosopher Albert Camus when he said: “All that I know most surely about morality and obligations I owe to football.”  Mind you, that was before the advent of VAR and the corona virus pandemic.

Thank goodness January is over.