Let the world stand still!
Sometimes you just want the world to stand still, knowing that the moment will never get better. Think of the moment when you and your partner had just been pronounced as husband and wife, or the moment when your child had just been born, or the moment when you just got your ‘A’ Level results and had made it to your first-choice university.
It’s pretty rare to reach such a state of nirvana just from following football. And it’s virtually unheard-of to feel that way when you support Notts County.
At Notts, it’s normally the other way around: trying to find some crumb of comfort in amongst the debris, whether that’s hoping that relegation from the EFL would bring about a change of ownership (it did) or hoping that there was nothing about Sol Campbell’s sudden departure from Meadow Lane that should give cause for concern (hmm…!).
We’re not used to thinking that life couldn’t get any better for Notts supporters. We’re not used to thinking that the moment that has just passed couldn’t be surpassed. Yes, there is the short-term burst of relief (the Great Escape at Oldham in 2014, for example), but has there ever been anything to warm the cockles of the hearts of Notts supporters like the last two months?
Yes, the club looks to be in great and safe hands, with the mature and sensible Reedtz brothers at the helm, and with one of the most impressive managers that the club has ever had – and yes, if the tipsters are to be believed then we have a great chance of a second successive promotion. But we’ve been here before as Notts fans – and experience tells us that, no matter how overwhelming the evidence, things never turn out as well as people predict they will. After all, the last time that we began a season in the EFL it was off the back of a harsh exit from the play-offs the previous season and again we were predicted to be strong promotion contenders; a few painful months later, we suffered a pitiful (and, frankly, entirely deserved) relegation from the EFL.
The optimists will look forward to the new season, but the realists know that it won’t be that easy; it never is for Notts fans. For how long can we cling to the memory of Cedwyn Scott tearing off his shirt at Wembley to celebrate his redemption from ‘that’ penalty? When Jodi Jones next ‘disappears’ from a game, how much will his late goal against Borehamwood count for then? When Sam Slocombe next picks the ball out of the net after watching a penalty fly past him, how quickly will his magnanimity towards Archie Mair on a Wembley touchline in May be put forward in mitigation?
So savour the last few days of this feeling of elation. Enjoy the moment while it lasts. On Saturday the league season (yes, that’s the English Football League season) kicks off – and so, at Sutton United, will Notts. From 3pm on Saturday all that was achieved last season, and all the optimism that a good close season has brought, will be measured only against the reality of what actually happens this season. It won’t take much more than a couple of early surprise defeats (and perhaps the odd rumour of other clubs sniffing around Macca) for the current state of unbridled optimism to switch to one of pessimism and frustration. So enjoy these last few days. Let the world stand still for as long as possible. We may never come this way again.