Lost November?

My last post was 29 October. While in no way would I accept allegations of superstition, it's much harder to hold forth when things are going well.  Except, of course, to exult, gloat, celebrate, revel or rejoice with unseemly glee.  With the almost inevitable, karmic consequences of the laws of hubris.  So from the dull point at home to Bristol City, through the away victories at Hull and Coventry (oh, how those cities are redolent of the championship doldrums!), to the comfortable dispatch of Derby and the gritty away conquest of Middlesbrough, I was moored in silence.

But the (this season at least) atypical, careless loss at home to Burnley, has set my bile free.

I see that BFS has said it was 'one of those days'.  Well, I hope it was not one of those days, as I think we should have no more of them.  While BFS saw a team that dominated and was unlucky to lose, I saw a team complacent that it would win.  Of course, that was fuelled by a first half of easy superiority that did not translate into goals.  

And, by the way, why does a misplaced pass from Carlton Goal get greeted with groans, while missing an open goal by Kevin Nolan gets him applauded all around the ground for the way he lay prone in theatrical despair having missed said barn door?  Julien Faubert should take lessons from him - his sponsor's man of the match award for the last home game led to a catalogue of errors in this.

Of course, I tried to console myself with the thought that it was the third game in a week and tiredness was inevitable, and that we have a cushion on the third placed team, and that with Southampton losing we hadn't lost any ground.  But tiredness didn't seem to affect Burnley in the same way, the seat is more comfortable with a cushion that we now don't have, and although we didn't lose any ground, we lost the chance to give a full-throated rendition of 'We are top of the league (say, we are top of the league)', which, let's face it, we don't get very often.

So, reasons not to like Burnley bursting our bubble:

1.   Alastair Campbell.  Enough said.

2.   Connor was absent for his own birthday party.  Why? It's not his birthday until Wednesday and he could have had a party on Sunday.

3.   Jessica was absent for Connor's birthday party.  As well as the other whys above, why not leave the party duties to her Man U supporting partner?

4.   Uriel came on Jessica's ticket.  So Connor and Jessica cannot miss any more games (which will be difficult for almost-seven-years-old Connor for evening games) and Uriel can't come again because he puts the bock on it.

5.   There should be no doubt as to who is the premier claret and blue team.  Not Villa, not Scunthorpe and definitely not Burnley.
 So now on to Reading and Barnsley.  The pulse races. So let's hope there's a bit more determination next time.