Success!
/Forgive me, but there’s only one thing I can write about today. On Sunday Crawley FC played against Leeds United in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. For those who are not aware, this match was a David v Goliath event. Leeds United are in the Premier League (that’s the best league in the country with all the best payers paid the highest wages) . Crawley Town are in League 2. Between them are two other leagues: The Championship and League 1.. There are 64 teams between them. That’s another way of saying that if all the professional teams were in one big league, Leeds would be 64 places above Crawley. 64! In other words, Leeds United are a much better team than Crawley. Ordinarily Crawley will never get to play against Leeds because they’re not good enough. But, in the Fa Cup, the lower league teams get a chance to play the better teams. I was hoping that Crawley would give a good account of themselves and not get beaten too easily. By half time it was still 0-0. And them in the second half the impossible happened. It really did. The first Crawley goal was a great piece of individual skill. Zac and I leapt off the couch, and cheered loudly knocking all our Crawley scarves onto the floor. Could it be our day? Could we go on and beat Leeds? We almost didn’t believe it when Crawley scored a second goal - partly because it wasn’t a great shot and partly because we couldn’t quite believe the goalkeeper let it in! But mostly because it meant Crawley were 2-0 up. The third goal simply made us laugh: Crawley 3-0 up against Leeds United? How can this be? We’ll take it though! What a game! What a game if you were a Crawley fan. What a win. What success against supposedly much better team. What a great afternoon. On Monday morning I went to East Surrey hospital to spend the day in my role as a Chaplain. My colleague for the day Phil, is a Leeds supporter! My first two words to Phil on Monday morning were: “Crawley Town!” It was a great result and I, like all Crawley Town fans, enjoyed the moment. And rightly so. We’ve drawn Bournemouth in the next round. They’re not quite as good as Leeds but they were in the Premier League last season. I used to go and watch Bournemouth when I was a teenager. Could we do it again? We could. Will we go on to win the FA Cup? That’s unlikely. Thing is, we had success on Sunday, but success in football doesn’t last.. “You’re only as good as your last game,” is what they say. Winston Churchill said this: “Success is not final; failure is not fatal; it’s the courage to keep going that counts.”. He has a point. Success is finite. A victory in the FA Cup is great, but soon gone. There is only one victory that affects eternity. Perhaps I would do well to get excited about that. And maybe you would too.