Thoughts of a lifelong fan: I am ever the optimist

I went to Salford yesterday, saw us lose by the odd goal in three to what was a very good side, and yes, we are now five points adrift at the bottom of the league, but until we can't do anything about our being at the bottom of the "92” we must keep on fighting. Salford are top of the table whilst we are not, but for me yesterday there was hardly any difference between the two sides and once again it was two goals that could have been prevented that cost us, Our goal, scored by Dylan Morgan in the 59th minute kept the team in the game but the comeback wasn’t to be, and coupled with other teams near us winning, last night’s game against Shrewsbury took on even more importance than it would have done if the results had been reversed. The Shrews jumped to 14th place with a one nil win and are now nine points ahead of us having played two games more. IF, in capitals because I realise it is a big if, we won last night (Tuesday 20th October 2026) that would mean we had cut their lead over us to six points and we would still have two games in hand over them. I am ever the optimist and will be there next season watching the Red Devils whatever League we are in. 

Saturday sees us take on Tranmere in our second home game in a row, and oh how I wish it gives us our second league home win of the season, which hopefully will put smiles back on the faces of our players, coaches and most importantly, our fans. I will not be drawn about whether we should change our manager as I support whoever is in charge at the time because I can’t change things. The owners can however, and whether they choose to stick or twist it’s up to them and they, along with us the fans, will either glory in our survival or perhaps pay the consequences of getting it wrong. 

Changing the subject, only slightly, I'm going to now write about someone who is very special to me, my granddaughter Bethany Charlotte Humphrey, but please bear with me because it is also about football and having and living your dreams. 

Beth came into this world on the 27th April 2005 14 weeks early, weighing the same as a bag of sugar, seventeen months after Alex, who would have been her older brother but for the fact he arrived 15 weeks early and that week made all the difference. Fifteen months after Beth was born, her younger brother arrived on the scene, the same amount premature as she was and weighing almost the same. Both Beth and Oliver have grown into healthy specimens after a tortuous first six months of life and are now healthy individuals aged 21 and 19 respectively. 

Both enjoyed playing and watching football, but it’s fair to say that they didn’t really have much of a choice. You may or may not know that I have a slight interest in the game myself, which I have passed onto my three children and my two grandchildren aided and abetted by my son-in-law Nick, who supports both the real Red Devils and Spurs, which happily coincides with my daughter's allegiances, whilst both my sons have chosen to support both the Real Red Devils and those other ones from Old Trafford. To be fair to them both though, back in February 2011 there was only one team we were all cheering for. Oliver, however, after supporting Spurs because his mum and dad do, has let his head be turned by his school friends and now “supports” Chelsea. 

Beth got her first taste of playing for a team whilst at Hilltop school on the big 3G pitch by the stadium and from that moment on she was well and truly hooked. She has gone on to play for Furngate mixed boys and girls, Crawley United Girls, Crawley Wasps, AFC Crawley and is now at Sutton United. She also played for her school team, Holy Trinity, and won herself a shortcut in the lunch queue from Mr. Mullineux, for scoring the winner in a cup match from the edge of the box. 

Going back a couple of years from starting with Sutton to when Beth started University at Guildford, she has also played for, and indeed still does for Surrey University and earlier this year Beth applied for trials for the England Six-a-side team and after a series of trials managed to get selected for the England squad for the WMF World Cup in Croatia. WMF stands for World Mini Football.  

England’s first game, during which Beth came on as a substitute a couple of times, was against Serbia and unfortunately ended in a three-nil defeat. No complaints with the result, although it did flatter the Serbs just a little. My abiding memory of this game though, has to be seeing Beth, with her arms around her teammate's shoulders, singing “God save the King” with gusto and a great big smile on her face. 

The next game was against the Lebanon and should have provided the win to get England going in this competition. Unfortunately, it didn’t and, despite the girls taking the lead, England succumbed to two late goals and with that defeat faced the threat of elimination. Beth didn’t feature in the game at all, which had me thinking she must be injured, but she WhatsApped me soon after to assure me she was ok and reminded me that she is a defender and that wasn’t what was required in the game. 

Two games lost and two games to play against Slovakia and their other halves Czechia. Could they still qualify for the semifinals? This is where I must explain the set-up for this World Cup. There are only seven countries participating, and the first phase is almost a round robin with each team playing four games against teams drawn out of a hat. England drew Serbia, Lebanon, Slovakia and Czechia.  Before England played their last two games Slovakia had beaten Costa Rica and Czechia whilst the Czechs had beaten Lebanon but lost to their neighbours and USA.  

England needed to win both their remaining games to stand a chance of qualifying for the semifinals and it seemed that if they did, they would face the defending two-time champions USA. It was a tough ask but one that England answered with two one nil victories which put them in the box seat with only Lebanon being able to stop them from progressing.  

Lebanon’s opponents, Costa Rica, had lost all their matches up to their game and out of the 36 goals scored by all the teams in the group stage, 30 had ended up in their net. No contest, I hear you say, Costa Rica however, thought otherwise and beat the Lebanese by two goals to one thus pitting England against the US in the first of the semis. The scenes at the end of the game between Costa Rica and Lebanon were fantastic with both the men and women's England teams celebrating with their newfound Costa Rican friends. 

The first semifinal was much more tense for the USA than I think they expected, and England rattled their cage considerably. An England team that had only scored three goals and conceded five proved to be almost a match against a team that had scored twenty-five times and let in only one in qualifying. Almost   a match but not quite as the USA progressed to the final by a score of one nil. 

In the other semifinal Serbia beat Slovakia to set up a USA final which the Americans won by two goals to nil winning the title for the third time in a row. Two and a half hours before that, the third-place match took place between England and Slovakia, with the Leake and Humphrey clans wishing they could have been there to cheer Beth on. She started the game and in my unbiased opinion didn’t put a foot wrong before she was substituted before Slovakia took the lead on the stroke of half time through a powerful shot from Tamara Kramlikova. 

The second half saw England equalise as soon after the kickoff as they had conceded before it, when Savanah Fearon turned on the proverbial sixpence (2 1/2p in today's money) to put them back in the game. The game ebbed and flowed with both teams coming close to scoring, but it was England who looked to have won it when Kendra Brown scored with just two minutes left, but Tamara Kramlikova scored in injury time to take it to penalties. Penalties which resemble those used in Olympic Hockey at the end of a drawn game, which involves the attacker dribbling from the halfway line and attempting to get it past the keeper. Best of three decides and it was all over after just two penalties as both Fearon and Brown scored for England and Anna Draper in the England goal saved both of Slovakia's attempts.  

A bronze medal won by a Crawley girl at a World Cup, and did I tell you? She’s my granddaughter. If you see her at the Tranmere please say well done!!!!