This weekend was a cracker wasn’t it, from a sports persuasion anyway, I am tempted to write a piece about the Greek tragedy the happened to this glorious country over the weekend, hopefully the use of the word glorious when used to describe the country will keep the flag shaggers happy.
But I digress! Friday included the second round of the Masters from Augusta, its the best tournament in the golfing calendar and the only one i reckon the vast majority of sports fans in general watch I imagine, even if Justin Rose failed at the last hurdle to win the green jacket, again, maybe I’m bitter because I backed Rose like I always do, and he fucked me yet again, I’m also sure he will be just fine crying himself to sleep looking at his bank balance in his mansion, I do wonder if there is another sport that rewards mediocrity in the same way that golf does, football would run it close but fuck me the amount of money golfers make is incredible.
But once again I digress, and the Masters didn’t actually finish until Sunday night, its actually going on as I write this. lets go back to Friday, Adama Traore realised that he is not a body builder and in fact a Premier League footballer, who is tasked to run really fucking fast and score and set up goals, after he realised this he scored the injury time winner against Fulham causing Scott Parker to take his frustration out on a tin of red Dax wax.
So on we march together to Saturday (like what I did there?) and massive, huge enormous, gigantic, definitely bigger than the club you support, and their fans aren’t slow to tell you that either, Leeds United. They went to the Etihad and in the process of winning stuffed anybody whose anybody’s bets for Saturday so were left chasing their money, so cheers Leeds, although I will say they played fantastically well, being down to ten men and limiting Manchester City to one goal is some effort, and they fully deserved the three points.
Liverpool beat Villa in the battle for maybe a Europa League place, Villa really are dross without their one man, but as I’ve said previously, don’t tell Dean Smith that, he will defiantly tell you they are not a one man team, despite the fact they are indeed a one man, with a shit haircut (please for the love of god let the Peaky Blinder look die) bourbon biscuits for shin pads, one man team. Liverpool were on the verge of another poor result at home, one they could barely afford until Trent, who when he reads this will boil my old mans blood by calling him Trent, so… Trent stepped up and hammered home a late winner, after his disastrously bad performance against Real Madrid midweek. Trent.
Chelsea beat Crystal Palace in a televised practice game, that was all but over in 10 minutes, fortunately at the same time Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to win the Grand National, fair fucking play to her too, after her dominance of the Cheltenham Festival, I was also chuffed with her win because I’d backed her to win the race, as a father of two daughters, neither of which are particularly into sport, anything that paints woman’s sport in a positive light is alright by me, I’d love my girls to share the same passion I have for sport, so anything that can help to shine a light on can surely only be a good thing.
After the heroics in the Grand National I had to wait about 2 hours before there was more sport on which is obviously an absolute shambles, Saturday night fight night started, with Conor Benn and Samuel Vargas topping the bill, after two women’s World title bouts, Savannah Marshall outclassing her opponent and showing her world class ability, all week I was pessimistic about the Shannon Courtney and Ebonie Bridges fight, thinking it was little more than a circus act put on purely because they are two attractive females, and a world title only being on the line due to that attractiveness, but happily I was proven wrong, it was the fight of the night, both showing immense heart and bravery to make it through the full 10 rounds, both showing some really good boxing skills, and real guts and determination, I rarely make an apology for anything I say, but I feel this time I ought to, I was wrong about both fighters.
Conor Benn really came of age in his first round stoppage of Vargas, who has been in with a whose who of welterweight contenders over his career, and has only been beaten by the best of the best, a calculated finish from Benn, who saw Vargas briefly lift his chin, then pounced, Vargas afterwards protesting the fight was called too early, I’m glad it was, it was only going one way, Vargas would have gone out on his back if the referee had let it go on, I do like a sympathetic stoppage, in his post fight interview, Benn who has made his statement and put the entire division on notice said he wanted Amir Kahn next, I was slightly confused by that, Kahn is on his way out and I think even I could land my right hand on his chin and send his legs to jelly!
Sunday started at lunchtime with Newcastle winning for the first time in 50 odd games after having conceded the first goal against Burnley, Newcastle were shite in the first half, but should have had a penalty but for VAR deciding if you get kicked in the face that’s ok, until Steve Bruce brought on the two best players in the squad by a country mile, eight minutes after Wilson and Alan Saint-Maximin were introduced they we’re 2-1 up and got 3 massive points in the race to be better than Fulham.
The next game on the slate was West Ham and Leicester, had all the makings of being the best game of the day, that was before young and upcoming 28 year old Jesse Lingard scored twice to all but end the contest, what a future this bloke has if he carries on his current trajectory, hopefully the press don’t over hype him and pile the pressure on him, and ruin another career in its infancy.
The Spurs and Manchester United game was marred by VAR, the softest of soft free kicks given against Scott McTominay on Son Hueng-min, meaning Edinson Cavani’s goal was ruled out, VAR is killing football, make no mistake, its absolutely killing it, for one, it takes the fun out of the game, you cant just celebrate a goal, you don’t get the talking points about referees getting it wrong, I mean they still do, but this time they have got it wrong by one line being in front of another, football is a game played by humans, not robots, and that’s what makes it great, there has to be some kind of grey area where a players left bollock being ahead of a defender doesn’t mean that he is offside, unfortunately this wasn’t the only time this weekend VAR got it wrong, the Longstaff one for Newcastle, the Liverpool goal that was chalked off and the Son incident, its all utter shite, not to mention the fact that if a referee is asked to check his pitch side monitor the decision is absolutely going to be overturned, the sooner VAR is done away with the better, anyway Tottenham 1 Manchester United 3.
Oh and before I forget Sheffield United lost to Arsenal, I genuinely forgot that game was even on, as I’m sure most did who don’t support either club.
Finally on Sunday, The Masters petered out really, a big lead going into the final round for Hideki Matsuyama was never really troubled, becoming the first Asian player to win the Green Jacket, I felt slightly cheated, no real drama to speak of on the final round, no mishaps at Amen Corner and no lead changes or last few holes drama, but it was nice to see the fans in and four days of Azaleas, made things feel normal for a few days, whatever the fuck normal is these days.
Cheers, The Fat Man
Fat Lad Sports 