Haydon Spenceley

ONE LAST, LAST P USH

I T H I N K I T I T L E D M Y C O LU M N F O R T H E E X E T E R GAM E ‘ O N E L A ST P U S H ’ A N D Y E T, H E R E W E A R E TON I G H T, STI L L P U S H I N G. F U N N Y H OW L I F E G O E S .

What’s taken place over the last couple of weeks for the club is a combination of probably never to be repeated circumstances and yet, as I write this, we’re a one goal swing away from Wembley. I have every confidence that the boys will give absolutely everything tonight to try and turn the deficit around and, having been roared on both at the ground and from home by so many on Saturday night, I’m certain that our support can help them each step of what will be another tough game tonight.

Feeling like I’m turning into Jon Brady, I’ll use one of his favourite phrases and say let’s get it right, this season has been tough, On the one hand, it’s easy to say football is only a game and there are certainly many worse or harder things taking place close to home or far away for many of us, many people we love and many we’ll never know. At the same time, the number of things faced by the team and individuals within our club in the period since Christmas has been huge and to have reached the point we’re at now is a real achievement. It’s been done on the back of being together, working hard and showing immense character. What I’ve learned in my time as Chaplain is that winning football matches doesn’t just happen because someone shows skill, or another player makes a mistake, on a pitch. So much goes into every detail of a game and what I’ll say here is that everything within the control of Jon and the staff has been done to give us a great chance of promotion. Here’s hoping we take another step towards it tonight.

Character. It’s one of those things we all have in common. We all have character. Some of us play characters, choosing to mask who we really are or how we really feel, whilst at the same time demanding from others that they don’t do that. Odd isn’t it. What is true without doubt is that we all experience times of joy when the hard work we put in pays off, and we also all experience disappointment and loss, times when even though we feel like we did everything right and ‘deserve’ success, it still doesn’t come. What do we do then? We keep on pressing on, and on and on. tonight we as fans have the opportunity to support and uphold the player, to get behind them in moments of joy (of which we hope there will be many), but also in moments of suffering too. ‘…we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. ’ (Romans 5:3-5). We can choose what kind of character we have, show and play. Let’s be people of good character, and let’s join with the players in the effort of supporting them tonight.

Whatever happens tonight have a great summer. I’ll be back writing these columns and supporting the whole club as Chaplain when pre season starts. What a privilege it is. Thank you for it. Until then… Up the Cobblers!