Liverpool Wins League, A United Fan’s Nightmare – Literally!

Last night, I was woken up with the noise of something metallic falling on the wooden floorboards. I sat bolt upright on the bed and looked at the watch – 2:58AM! The noise had clearly come from the other side of the house. I am a heavy sleeper and I don’t wake up that easily, even if the ceiling is coming down. But last night, something was different.

Just 5 hours earlier…

….I had witnessed something extraordinary. 1151 matches and 30 years later, a “small” 🥴😒😏 footballing club from Merseyside had won the biggest sporting trophy in the UK. Liverpool Football Club became champions of England for the season 2019 – 20.

While the club supporters felt a sense of redemption, fans of other clubs and people in the footballing fraternity in general felt appreciative, maybe even a bit “moved”, by this accomplishment. Here’s how a fan of their arch-rival reacted:

So, I sat there on the bed…

….my heart pounding in my chest, as I was trying to determine whether I had heard the noise in my dream, or I had heard it for real. I would have sat there in the dark for 30 odd seconds, trying to develop some perspective. Did the noise come from the back garden, or did it come from the kitchen? Was it a “bang”, or more like a “thud”? Did I hear all of it, or did I just wake up towards the later part of it? It was 26 degrees last night and being in a ground floor house, I had kept the bedroom window open – so should I expect someone to come in through that window on my right side any time now, or should I expect the intruder to simply walk in through the open bedroom door on my left? My head started to hurt as I felt thirsty and a chill at the back of my neck – it certainly wasn’t 26 degrees anymore!

“Oh! come on now, you don’t scare this easily” – I muttered as I forced myself out of the bed. As I switched on the lights, I tried to keep the noise of the floorboards to a minimum. But they still creaked under my bare feet. “Jeez! Keep it together, will you!”.

I looked out of the bedroom door and moved swiftly into the living room. “Damn you! those adjustable lights that takes time to brighten up“. Peeking around every corner, I did not notice anything out of place. As I ruled one part of the house ‘clear of anything suspicious’, I announced “Clear!” – much like the way the armed police officers say to their colleagues in television crime dramas. Time to check the other side now.

But first, the bathroom. The windows are usually left open in summers. Maybe, just maybe, the neighbour’s cat, Spencer, had slid through and dropped the bottle of shampoo. With one quick movement, I opened the bathroom door, expecting something (or someone!) on the other side. “Cat! Really! At 3 in the night!? What was I even thinking!?” 🤦‍♂️

Alright then, kitchen, second bedroom & garden left for inspection. By now, I was feeling much more confident. Maybe this was real, maybe it was from the floor above us, or maybe it came from the garden of our next-door neighbours. While thinking all this, I went through the long corridor and into the kitchen. Nothing here, and nothing out-of-place even in our garden as I looked outside of the double-glazed glass door that open into it.

Last place now…

….the second bedroom – also serving as my home office during these covid-stricken-work-from-home days. This is also the smallest room in the house and took all of seven seconds to examine. Satisfied, that it was only my imagination, I started walking back towards the bedroom. But as I almost reached there, I had a nippy feeling. I had overlooked one place. I stopped short, sheepishly turned back, and reached the second bedroom, again, in a matter of moments. The place I had overlooked was the gap behind the door, there’s definitely a lot of space there!

I held my breath, and in one speedy motion pulled the door first towards me, and then pushed it back again – “now that’s gotta hurt whoever is hiding behind it”! And that’s when I heard it again – a metallic rubbing noise. I peeped behind the door, and on the floor was indeed a shining metallic object.

I picked it up and turned it around…

…it was one of my Manchester United memorabilia – an Old Trafford street signage

People who have known me for long know how much I have supported Manchester United Football Club (the Red Devils), since I was a kid. For people who I video-conference with when I am working from home, they know I have this metallic Man United Old Trafford street-sign behind me, stuck to the back of my home-office/second bedroom door.

And then it started to dawn on me.

Last night after Liverpool won the league, I posted many congratulatory notes on social media including:

But in doing so, I had probably offended the “Red Devil”, which is why it chose the Devil’s Hour to assert itself on me. And what better way to show the wrath to one of her biggest fans than scaring the living daylights off him by “throwing” a sign from hell, or in this case should I say, from behind closed doors!

As I went back to bed, a fact presented itself to me – by winning the league a record 19^th time, Liverpool are getting awfully close to knocking United off their perch – and it’s time we United fans woke up to that reality!

Meet you again soon, until then