Whitey Grandad

Worry is not the right word but I am considerate of the lives of other people and their jobs, not that they all have jobs. Yes, I am nearly 72 but high risk group doesn’t include me. I know people who are in it. Over the last year I have lost several friends and colleagues, none of them to Covid. One in New Zealand (72) to a heart attack, one in his fifties to an aortic aneurysm, one at 55 to an aggressive brain tumour, several before then at 54, 61, 64 to various cancers. I know of no one in my small circle who has had Covid. Life is a risky business. None of us is going to come out of it alive. It is very unlikely to kill me but I know the risks and how to minimise them. Beer queues are indeed trivial and easily avoided. This lockdown has been a lot stricter than just that. My lifestyle doesn’t involve closed contact with people and physical contact is extremely unlikely to give you the disease. This has been the mistake from the beginning. It’s an airborne infective agent. You won’t catch it outside and you won’t catch it by touching gate posts. Did I mention large groups? Did I mention foreign countries?

But many people can’t work! And many more will not have a job to return to.

They train at it. My father used to go and watch the Spurs training at Cheshunt back in the 1960s. One of their trainers used to sit on a stool at the edge of the ‘D’ and shout at the forwards “Make him foul you!”

Control Freaks don’t do it for material rewards. They do it for the sense of power that it gives them. In six weeks I still won’t be able to travel widely and freely. I shall have to make difficult decisions about making staff redundant. I shall have to try to work out how to repay debt that will take a decade or two to clear. And I shall have to do it without being paid myself for over a year. You don’t prevent people dying by stopping them from living. These measures have made no difference to whether or not my wife or I would have died so don’t expect any thanks from me. Wait until you get old and then see how you feel about how much time you have left.

I’ve just had a good look at that incident again but this time with the view from the south east Chapel corner. From the other view that Sky showed last night it looked as though Vestergaard had gone into Vardy’s ankle with his studs but from the other angle you can see that Vestergaard plays the ball and then Vardy arrives and deliberately plants his feet down where Vestergaard’s boots are in the intention of winning a foul. He trips over Vestergaard’s ankles and then makes two complete rolls whilst screaming his head off. He really is a nasty little squirt.

His goal for England was from open play. Not that it helps Saints, of course.

“and always keep a-hold of nurse for fear of finding something worse”

I’ve explained it before, I don’t give a toss about pubs or being able to get a drink at half time or any other time. I can have fun without booze. I am not a slave to alcohol. These control freaks have got their claws into us and they won’t let go. They’ve already taken away over a year of my and my wife’s lives which we won’t get back and we have very little time left. Time to get on with living.

How Dare you insult me! I rarely touch alcohol and I don't care if I never go into a pub again. But I'm old enough to know that life has to go on somehow. This situation is nothing to what my parents and grandparents had to endure. Even in London during the Blitz whilst bombs were dropping all around people were allowed to laugh and have fun. What are you, some kind of modern Puritan? Whatever happens in India is not my fault and not my responsibility.

No fun allowed. Not ever. Never.

The game didn’t have to stop. It was by agreement with the referee and the two clubs.

I don’t think it was even a foul. Clearly ball before man and it was only the contact with Vardy’s ankle that could make anybody consider it to be a foul. I wasn’t reckless, it wasn’t two-footed, it wasn’t with excessive force. It took the officials some time to come up with the DOGSO interpretation but that doesn’t hold water. Any possible foul happens after Vestergaard has played the ball and Vardy wouldn’t have got to the ball even if he hadn’t got his foot caught under the challenge. Vardy simply got there too late. In his interview just after the game McCarthy said that he thought he was going to get the ball. All very strange. The referee could have bought himself some time by asking for a replay or by consulting his assistant but had clear made up his mind and wasn’t going to change it. None of this is good for the game.

There’s no way that it could be described as ‘reckless with excessive force’. Vestergaard was at full stretch and got a good contact on the ball, enough to pass it back to McCarthy. Vardy got there late and planted his foot under Vestergaard’s outstretched leg. Nothing vicious or deliberate about it. McCarthy would have comfortably gathered the ball. Vardy got caught. It could so easily have been Vestergaard that got caught.

He makes an important point. When told that it was a red card for a DOGSO he says that he would have got the ball. Once Vestergaard has played the ball, and played it fairly too, McCarthy would have gathered the ball.

Three times, according to the linesman.

Yes, he played well. His heading ability was useful but there were a few stray short passes.

Not what we tuned in for but ver pleasing nonetheless.

That’s annoying.

Nah. This team is settled and in the groove.

Different referees. The Cash one didn’t give it, this one did. VAR didn’t overrule either.

Good penalty.

Now someone has a difficult decision to make.

“Got a Nick on the ball” He played the ball solidly back to his goalkeeper. These women know nothing about the game.

Vardy makes two complete rolls after being touched. He really should be more careful, he might have done some serious damage to his ankle.