Rooney/Reading/God

[El Gordo]

What a terrible end to the football season, eh?

With Rooney and possibly Owen out of the World Cup, we've had it. Chelsea purchase the Premiership again.

QPR have just put 14 players on the transfer list, amid rumours of administration. And I'm just a couple of hours away from Reading - QPR, where no doubt I'll watch my team fail to win for the 12th successive game, leaving us 4th bottom, all to the squeaky soundtrack of the jubilation of 23,000 fairweather Reading fans.

There must be a better life than this. I'm a nailed-on atheist, as I must have mentioned. Come on god, I dare you. Prove to me that you exist. Let QPR win today, and save a miserable sinner from the arms of the devil. You know it's worth it. And if we lose, I can at least give away my ticket for the afterlife without fear.

OK, it's a deal.

[Nigel]

That sounds very much like the sort of desperate bargain I was making at just this time last Sunday.

But as a Hammers fan, for once I just can't share your sense of disillusionment about this season. It's been vintage claret-and-blue.

The kind of year when even the 2-1 defeat against Liverpool last week is seen as the kind of ritual sacrifice which you have to make (West Ham lost 4-1 against Bolton and then 2-1 against Middlesboro just the week before knocking each of those teams out of the Cup, so if that's what it takes, I'm happy).

I knew it was going to be a good season on Monday 12th September. My colleague and I stopped off after a victorious golf game at Sandwich to stay near Ashford International.

The first pint after a game over such a might course is always cause for celebration, so imagine my joy when it was drawn to the breathless news that West Ham were already 2-0 up against Villa after just 20 minutes. A shame to miss the goals, I thought, but at least they'll win.

And stone me if they didn't go on to score two more to match the orders from the bar. The next morning we were travelling on to business in Paris, so it was hard to imagine that life could get more miraculous than this.

Just two more thoughts remain. How can I get my running form to go in step with football glory, rather than out of phase ? My two best marathon times both lie within a single relegation season, with my PW in this year of unfamiliar FA Cup success.

And how can I arrange that one final miracle of the season ? Not an unlikely victory against LFC, which is perhaps still as remote a possibility as Scooby Doo running the London Marathon - well, err...). No, it's the matter of a simple ticket for Cardiff on 13 May which will really need a desperate bargain to achieve.

And believe me, I'm working on it, desperately.

[Seafront Plodder]

Just reporting in to say that it´s 28 degrees here and I´ve got to endure a week of golf!

Ok so Brighton went down as well, but hey, I´m dealing with it in the best way possible.

Portugal have some cracking courses. :p

[Blackcat5573]

My first message to the forum and it's depressing!

I'd like to nominate myself for the having the worst football season. I'm a Sunderland season ticket holder!

Please don't laugh!

[El Gordo]

Bad luck. Yes, yours was probably even worse than mine. See you next season.