Kye, my nine year-old grandson, and I love football. When Torquay United play at home (and I am not overseas), we watch the match. We join the 3000 (yes, 3000 not 30,000) standing on the terraces in the relentless duality of being for one team and against the other. Football functions as the religion of emotional life with mostly men, but not all, going through various waves of manic/depression in the space of 90 minutes.
Teams win more matches at home than away. That principle applies to every team. Why? Psychologists have researched this phenomenon since it disproves the myth that it is a team of 11 players with equal opportunity. Playing at home with home support becomes the 12th man. The emotional intensity of home support, as well as home soil , seems to inspire the players. Life is truly enviro-mental.
Torquay have lingered around the bottom of the fourth division for much of the season with a team that wrestled with itself to find a winning form. Kye and I have shared together the high and lows on the stand. Finally, in the last few games of the season, the team gelled together to escape the horror of expulsion into a minor league. Torquay United went on a late winning run keeping a clean sheet for 691 minutes (seven match es) – a club record.
On the last game of the season, the club played Notts County who won the league and scored a hefty 96 goals. Torquay’s defence held strong and Kye and I walked home discussing the nuances of the match.
Kye plays football under the guidance of a former Torquay player with around 40 or 50 other boys aged eight to 12 on Tuesday evening and Saturday morning. With no football at Torquay last Saturday, we cycled to the local park in Totnes to practise together. There were some fathers with their sons there so we formed two teams of fathers and sons, a girl aged about 10, and one grandfather. Ages ranged from around seven years to 66 years. We played for 90 minutes.
The last time I played in a proper game of football was more than 50 years ago at school. I can tell you this. The ground is hard when you get shouldered off the ball or slip trying to master the ball. Kye is developing some skills with the ball. Our team lost 5-3. Mind you, their team had an extra adult and our team had moi, a pensioner. An inquest always takes place after a match. That’s part of the game, too.