Pucker up, it’s the time of year when everyone gets lost in wild romance.
Valentine’s Day, lorded by the coupled and ridiculed by the lonely, what better excuse to propose to a loved one, ask a girl to the picture-house or cry furiously listening to Eva Cassidy. Two of which, I have done.
Except in the football world, this V-Day was synonymous with England’s oldest love, the ever romantic FA Cup. Minnows beating the big boys, strugglers putting their woes behind them with a juicy home tie against a local rival, who doesn’t get lost in the romance of the cup?
FMD is no different, as mentioned last week, my Ipswich side went into Valentine’s Day all loved up by the thought of taking on Premier League West Ham. If there is someone who has stolen my heart since I walked in the virtual door at Portman Road, it’s Dave McGoldrick. So it was no surprise Dave delivered the perfect gift with a shot as deadly as Cupid’s arrow to fire us 2-0 up against our top-flight opponents.
With Jack Grealish putting us ahead early on, not even a late Andy Carroll consolation could stop the Ipswich love-train grooving on into the quarter-finals.
Feeling as wide-eyed as a young man smitten for the very first time, a trip to top-of-the-table Fulham couldn’t dampen my spirits, as we returned to Championship duties. Trailing 1-0, Tommy Smith bagged an equaliser to steal a well-earned point.
Can you feel the love? Reading weren’t j’adoring it in our next fixture as they popped along to P-Road and left heartbroken. Tokelo Rantie and McGoldrick were continuing to blossom as a couple, with both, and Smith, on the scoresheet again before our old friend Conor Sammon stepped off the bench to score in an emphatic 4-1 success.
Another home game followed, another 4-1 triumph. Lowly Birmingham dispatched by Dave, a double from Rantie and a late strike from Grealish.
With 3-5-2 still proving a match made in heaven, we were beginning to nail down a place in the top-six. But suddenly, automatic promotion was only four points away. Surely not?
Bitter rivals Norwich were next, looking to end our unbeaten run like they had done so ruthlessly earlier in the season. Not this time though, a solid away performance resulting in a satisfying 0-0 draw.
The true test was to follow, a trip to fourth-placed Leeds. Like a single woman without a Valentine’s card from the guy she was sure kept checking her out at work, this could all end in tears.
Instead it’s nothing but chocolates and cuddly toys down in Suffolk this weekend as another massive victory took us into fourth place. Grealish fired the opener until a Jack Collison own-goal levelled for the hosts. Step up leading man McGoldrick to smash a winner and provide a feeling almost as good as the one when Rachel turns up at the door and shows Ross that she didn’t go to Paris.
Forget those two though, if there’s a love-affair better than the one shared between a man and his virtual top-goalscorer, I haven’t found it…
Picture provided by Friends TV Show via Flickr
Pingback: The Football Manager Diaries: Edition Ten – And the winner is… | TIBS Sports News