Saturday 27th January 2024

A slightly different Saturday to usual, when we would have gone to Tesco, and maybe then some churchcrawling or go to Stodmarsh.

As readers of my words will know, that on Friday I knacked my knee, and what with my gammy shoulder, sleep was pretty hard to come by, and then actual movement was painful too.

Jools was going to go shopping, while I stayed home and did what I could to prepare breakfast and out the bird seed out.

The five steps down to the lawnmeadow were something like The Stairs of Cirith Ungol, steep and with each step the pain jarring.

I did it though, made it back inside and after a breather, finished breakfast so when Jools came back, we could eat.

Later, she went out and going via Boots in Deal to pick my up a knee brace.

So, once she returned, we put the brace on and then i just lolled around the house waiting for things to improve.

Just as well it was FA Cup 4th round weekend, and for the afternoon there was Ipswich v Maidstone, two teams some 98 places apart in the pyramid of football.

Couldn't happen, could it?

In the first ten minutes, Town hit the post twice and forced at least two good saves from the Stone's keeper.

And then it was all pretty one way traffic, until ten minutes before halftime, a ball over the top meant Maidstone's forward ran on and chipped the Ipswich keeper with his weaker left foot into the back of the net.

Well.

Second half, Town levelled, and that was that. We thought.

But, Maidstone had other thoughts and created a second counter-attack scored their second goal with only their second shot.

Could they hang on for 20 minutes?

Yes. Yes they could, though it was tense, but they held on, as Town brought more of their first choice players on, to no effect, other than to give the Maidstone keeper endless chances to show how great he was.

Well.

Being a Norwich fan, you'd expect me to make fun of this, but as we go to Liverpool on Sunday for our own televised hell, at a club whose beloved manager has just announced he's going to step down at the end of the season.

Its not going to be pretty.

That over, I sat with Scully again to follow the other games from three, just about staying awake for the afternoon.

Pizza for supper, which was to make it easy for me, and then the evening game.

In the meantime, my knee had eased and the pain reduced. A lot better than I dared dream, but long way to go before we fly north on Wednesday.