AS WE all know 1992 was football's Year Zero. Nothing before Sky Sport's cash-rich "whole new ball game" swallowed soccer now exists. A long and colourful history has been deleted.
That is why younger, newer Boro fans persist in saying that last season's seventh place finish is "our best ever". It isn't. Check your Boro Bible.
The national media are complicit in the Orwellian rewriting of history too. Supposedly well informed journalists have pronounced that Reading's promotion to the top flight is the earliest ever. It isn't... check your Boro Bible again.
First it must be said that plucky Reading's achievement is an admirable one. With a new ground and a new team bankrolled by a local millionaire - and we all know how that feels - Steve Coppell's side have cruised into the top flight on the back of an impressive 33 game unbeaten run. Brilliant. Well done.
But, as reader Craig Close has commented, the media are reporting as FACT! that their promotion is the earliest ever to the top flight.
That will be a major surprise to Boro fans reared on the legacy of Charlton's Champions. Let's face it, for a generation that was our one sniff of glory and we cherished it and guarded it jealously.
Reading were promoted with last week's gritty 1-1 draw at Leicester. That was on March 25th. Charlton's Boro were promoted with a 1-0 home win over Oxford... on March 23rd.
Reading were promoted with seven games to go. Boro with six.
Boro finished 15 points clear which in the old money - just two points for a win - was not a bad victory margin.
Translated into the new currency Boro won 27 and drew 11 games which would be a hefty 92 points. Reading are on 95 now having played 41 games, one less than Big Jack's side did and with five games left - they will play 46 - if they crack on now they can beat Sunderland's 105 points record. Which would be nice.
It deserves praise, but it also demands that it is set in context and is judged against the fullness of history and not just against a Sky Sport clip library that goes back just 14 years.
It is great achievement but it is not the best "ever". Unless "ever" is used as shorthand for "since the formation of the Premier League."
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »