High and very lows

After arriving back home, I'd hoped for a weekend of rest. Yet by Saturday morning I was on my way round the M25 . The Dons having lost in my absense needed to return to winning ways against Altringham. The day was made more special by my friend's daughter being mascot for the game. Naturally I remembered back to when our children were mascots at Plough Lane many years ago. A wonderful birthday treat for a seven year old. She obviously brought the team good luck and especially captain Danny Kedwell who scored a hat trick in a 4-1 victory.

Sunday saw England take on India in the cricket world cup, once again cricket showed how games can ebb and flow. I've never been a great fan of Andrew Strauss, but he deserves real credit for one of the finest one day innings played by an English batsman. Nevertheless once he was out wickets started to tumble and it seemed that the victory that was likely at one stage would be denied. However sixes change games and England found themselves needing two runs from the final delivery. Not surprisingly the Indian captain played safe and put all fielders back on the fence to ensure the tie, and that was the outcome. The game a credit to both sides.

Now to the low points Wigan performed well but fell at the last to St George in the World Club Challenge, no disgrace and a keenly fought contest, where Wigan in thesecond half found the St George defence impossible to pentrate. The points difference perhaps reflects that the NRL remains the premier competition in the sport of Rugby League.

Finally the pits. The Carling Cup Final, after years of treating the competition as an after thought and a tournament to blood young players regardless of the result, Arsenal this season have "taken it serious". As a result the place in the final was delivery. With all the other leading clubs eliminated along the way, they faced Birmingham City.

Did it mean more to Birmingham's players ? I doubt it. To their fans ? Possibly. Birmingham have won nothing of consequence since 1963, of course it means a great deal. Arsenal's defeat 2-1 was the result of dreadful defending and the inability to deal with a tall striker who had a clear height advantage in the penalty area. Did I expect Arsenal to lose? It was always in the back of my mind, from the moment I knew that Fabregas and Walcott were unavailable through injury.
Nevertheless they should have had enough talent on the park to counter any threat that Birmingham could muster.

What hurts is that Arsenal's critics appear vindicated. The idea that you can't win trophies by playing "the beautiful game". That Wenger's weakness is his inability to buy quality defenders and/or a top class keeper. Even worse that overseas players don't want it as much as the type of journeyman playing for teams such as Birmingham.

Yet in spite of the hurt, the key point is that Arsenal are still involved in three competitions, and it's the job of the manager and players to put Sunday's defeat behind them, and refocus. On the plus side my attempt to obtain tickets for the game, which would have cost more than I can afford, failed. At least I didn't suffer the "losing at Wembley" experience.