The Drop

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It finally happened?

Yes after three seasons in the top flight of English football my beloved team Norwich City F.C couldn't avoid the drop, and got relegated to the Championship.

I remembered the first time it happened when I was just a child. At the time there wasn't a Premier League it was just called Division One and they dropped into Division Two. I remember it being such a shock it left me in a daze that lasted for days. It felt personal then. As a child I looked up to my heroes and they had let me down. I walked along the seafront in Lowestoft trying to clear my head from the disaster, and ended up in the amusement arcade. I spent the next two hours pumping my ten pence coins from my stash of pocket money into the Space Invaders machine, while trying to take my anger out of the never ending line of space ships that kept floating down the screen.

I didn't know it then, but it wouldn't be the first or last time I would have to go through such punishment. The difference now is that there isn't the pain anymore when it happens; because you learn that there is always the hope of promotion and making it once again into the top flight.

It's a good learning ground for the ups and downs that we all face in our daily struggle that is called life. Moments come when you feel dazed because of failure and you think it's the end of the road. The other difference is that now I don't end up down the arcade on the Space Invaders machine, but down my local the Fat Cat and Canary with a pint of ale in my hand, and a group of fellow distressed supporters. We will moan, and groan and pick over the bones of every bad decision made. We will pass judgement and blame, and then head home to family life.

On this occasion it isn't me who has to pick themselves up, but the football club. From the Directors at the top, through to the management and players, they will all have to take some of the blame, learn from it and get ready not to make the same mistakes next season.

Every cloud has a silver lining and to me this could be a positive event for the family. Both my children like football, but its hard to get tickets together to watch a game at Carrow Road when there is always a sell out crowd. We are already making plans for next season and are hoping they will be able to go and see some live action in the Championship. The other positive is that they may actually get to see a few winning games. My youngest has now seen six live games either at the ground, or on television, and he has never seen them win a game.

It's hard to convince a five year old, just turned six, to stick with the Canaries when all they do is loose. Children like to be winners, and are easily drawn to the big teams like Man United/City, Chelsea, Liverpool, or Arsenal because of this. You as a parent want your children to be winners in life too, it's only natural and hopefully next season we will all be winners!

Then again the last time Norwich got relegated they kept on loosing and ended up in the third tear of English Football!

What do I do if that happens?

I will have to see if they have Space Invaders on the Nintendo Wii.

Regards

Mark