'Dad, why are the Scunthorpe fans singing about SpongeBob?'
I took my 5 year old son to the game today. I don't do this as a rule usually because I know that I will be subject to a thousand distractions, including the quote above which was clearly the best of the day. Today though I was delighted to have his little insights into the game and constant requests for food because they considerably livened up an extremely tedious affair.
Throw in the Wilmington Barack Obama Band (or something) and, despite the football, it was quite a good afternoon even though it was ridiculously cold. I ate more than I ever have done before at a football match and we tapped our feet to keep warm at half time. It was especially good when towards the end of the second half the band started adding their own accompaniment to the proceedings. Suddenly it felt more like we were at a US College Football Bowl game than a dull cup tie at Vicarage Road.
My son asked me a couple of times who I thought our best players of the afternoon were and I struggled to answer. Hoyte and Cork both looked quite good but I felt that they added to the boredom as they are experts at playing the passing possession game that made this afternoon so boring. I ended up saying Scott Loach as he looked solid all day. Jay DeMerit had his best game in a while. Jenkins and O'Toole both did well, the latter being an undeserved substitute. We booed this but can't complain in hindsight given that Raziak blasted the ball in, something Priskin never looked like doing today.
'The band and the goal, that was all that was worth seeing' I heard a bloke on the way out say and he was right. Still, its nice to be in the next round.
