Why Me?!

• 10am: That Saturday feeling! Throughout Scotland and all over Britain Football fans are waking from the safety of their slumber to the nervous excitement of match day. At this time in the morning, as with every Saturday, I am in little doubt that Clyde will sweep past today’s opposition with relative ease. Despite a slow start to the season, with goals harder to come by than a sane minded poster on Pie & Bovril and a defence that has been missing Craig McKeown, today we will win… we HAVE to win, it would be to much to bare after the summer we’ve suffered to endure a season on the brink with crowds even smaller and supporters turning on the player, manager and anybody else we can blame…no, today we will win…maybe.
  
• Noon: Okay, so having managed to get to Mum and Dads house from Edinburgh City Centre my confidence is starting to suffer. So many unanswered questions start to run through my mind: Where will the goals come from? Alex Williams is back, he was a smashing player, he’s bound to score! What if the defence is still shaky? Who will be in goal? When will Joe Miller start to get vocal support from the stands? It’s almost to much to stand, Football on a Saturday is the best thing in the world, but why cant we just thump these teams lucky enough to grace fortress Broadwood? Anyway, have to get my mind of these questions so have a look through the papers&.begin to wonder if we are actually playing today, nothing in The Sun or the Daily Mail. Look closer, it seems The Sun has chosen to feature Ross County and the fact they have to drive quite far to play against us! They do mention we have a ‘full squad’ to choose from, I’m sure they use this line every week…
  
• 1:30pm: The Edinburgh Clyde supporters bus (well Car with 3 people in it) is on the road to famous Broadwood. Nerves are hidden with attempted enthusiasm. We all do a great job of convincing ourselves that we care about Chick Young’s exclusive that Rangers are serving some of the best pies he has ever tasted, it seems, according to ‘Chick’ that Paul Le Guens talents as a coach are responsible he would like to remind us though that he would rather be covering the Buddies of Paisley. Sure Chick, we believe you.
  
• 2:30pm: Into the Clyde suite for a drink, by this point it’s comforting to hear other people trying to distract themselves from the thought of the 90 minutes ahead. Conversations range from the mundane to the mad but it’s nice to know that I’m not the only one absolutely scared stiff that Alex Williams is going to single-handedly destroy my week until the next game.
  
• 3:45pm: Not so bad so far, 0-0 but County don’t look like scoring. Unfortunately we have the chances but don’t really look like scoring either. For some reason this year, we have the knack of hitting the woodwork: Why do the gods always conspire against us? Only 45 minutes to go. A win would really kick-start the season.
  
• 4:45pm: 3-0!! For the 1^st time this season we really came out of our shell. McHale slots away a penalty, Ferguson, yet to completely convince, just about rips the net out and Dougie Imrie, probably the most hard working player in the world scores from 1 inch. It doesn’t get better than this! Goals bring confidence, which we definitely needed. Even better it gives Joe Miller some breathing space, if we had lost this one then you had the feeling it would be a season to forget.
  
• 5:30pm: It’s incredible how much quicker the journey back to Edinburgh goes after a win. The Edinburgh Supporters Bus (Car!) flys down the motorway with 3 contented fans. For me, one of the best things about a victory is that you don’t get salt rubbed into the wounds by the classified results! I cant stand that voice mocking me..yes, we lost, you don’t need to tell me again!!
  
• 7pm: I can do anything I want now, it doesn’t matter what it is, because, at the end of the day, Clyde won 3 nil and I don’t have anything to worry about until next Saturday when we are away to Queen of the South.
  
• 7:15pm: Starting to get a bit worried about the QoS game. Defeat would put us in trouble……….

Mark Nimmo