I’ve changed jobs, partners, and invariably my mind. I have flip-flopped on politics, places to live, and even giving parental advice to my kids. But change my football club? Never!
According to the National Human Genome Research Institute, “DNA sequencing refers to the general laboratory technique for determining the exact sequence of nucleotides, or bases, in a DNA molecule,” often referred to by the first letters of the key chemical components: A (adenine), T (thymine), C (cytosine), and G (guanine). My DNA coding contains an additional strand: N (Notts), C (County), F (Football), C (Club).
After a blistering shootout with Ryan Reynolds’ FC Hollywood (aka Wrexham AFC), Notts finished runners up in the Vanarama National league with a tally of 107 points, four shy of the “A listers.” In any other season we would have been crowned champions, but fate decreed the playoffs beckoned with a semi-final tie against Boreham Wood.
These sudden death battles are great if your team has already secured promotion and you can watch from the comfort of your armchair, but when you are in them form often means nothing and its all down to passion, pride, fate, and fortune.
2-0 down at halftime, I simply posted on social media, “Fair play Boreham Wood. You have done your homework and you have what’s needed to get out of this league. Grit and determination. Prove me wrong Notts and play like your lives depend on it. COYP!”
Like the greatest of Shakespearean plays, they did just that! An Aden Baldwin piledriver from distance on 47 minutes made us dream, and his last-minute equaliser made over fifteen thousand hearts beat that much faster. In the last minute of extra time the final line of this poetic pleasure simply read: Jodi Jones, we love you ─ as his screamer of a shot sent the magpies to Wembley for the playoff final.
Is Football just a game?
I think not and support the late great Bill Shankly’s view on this very British of passions:
“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.”
Come on you Pies!
© Ian Kirke 2023 and all photographs.
@ianjkirke