Norwich City 2
"One day you'll grow out of it." So spoke my landlady when I was at college.
She viewed by obsession with football and with Norwich City as a passing phase. But it hasn't passed. It has waned occasionally, but it has always been there.
Now with Norwich battling again to get into the Premiership, I'm back to hiding behind the sofa in a most irrational way. People who don't like football won't be able to understand. People who do like football will understand perfectly.
With about five minutes to go and your team just winning by one goal, you kick every ball with them and then go to the toilet/make a cup of tea or do any number of other things, just hoping for the time to evaporate and that final whistle to go. It's a completely irrational thought that as long as you aren't watching, the opposition can't score and the end of the game will come more quickly.
At times in the past I have shaken (or should that be shook) with nerves - and this just isn't good for the blood pressure.
Yesterday Norwich came from behind to beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 to record their eighth consecutive league win. Now it's a head and heart thing. With Norwich 10 points clear at the top of the league there is just no way that they can fail to get promoted by finishing in the top two. But there's that small voice in the back of your head that still makes you worry every time they take to the field.
But it's not just Norwich that have that effect on me. I have been involved with local football clubs and teams for more years than I can remember and every time I get that same feeling. It's like a nervous knot in the stomach, the need to wee a lot and the need to think that by shouting at a television screen you can have a positive effect on your team.
So it's going to be an anxious few weeks until Norwich are mathematically certain to get promotion and then the concern will start again - how will they cope with the top division? Worry, worry and more worry.
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I would like once again to mention my podcast. Yesterday's told the story of a Hethersett born female pioneer who was voted one of the greatest 10 pioneers in an American State.
Today you can read about a father and son who are buried together in Hethersett Churchyard. One left his mark on parks and open spaces in Norwich and the other died in a leading sporting event.