Football - A Disease of Sporting Cliches!

Having witnessed my own club surrender a two goal half-time lead on Saturday, the inevitable post-match media circus descended unsurprisingly into an old age disease best known to you and I as the football cliche.

In an abject media attempt to bamboozle us, the 'pitiful obtuse' supporter, on the failings of OUR team, we are sadly subjected to terminology that hardly requires one to understand the kinetic energy associated with the thumping of a leather ball inside an IKEA flat-pack designer stadium for the best part of 90 minutes.

Instead the explanation we are treated to is that well known ' Ye Olde English' turn of phrase -
"It was a game of two halves (and their goal immediately after half-time made it very difficult for us)."

Should I sound surprised? Certainly not, for sporting cliches and in particular those referring to 'our beautiful game' are as English as fish and chips!

At the end of the day every fan, commentator, player and manager alike has said at least one cliche in their lifetime!

I have therefore drawn up a list of my 'Top Twenty' classic football cliches, that everyone has probably heard said, read, or are perhaps guilty of saying themselves, even if your footballing prowess is somewhat limited, or your interests are by far and away as close to football as is scuba diving.

In no particular order:

1/ "A game of two halves"
2/ "End-to-end stuff"
3/ "It's a big ask"
4/ "We're not thinking too far ahead, we're just gonna take every game as it comes."
5/ "On paper........"
6/ "He gave 110%"
7/ "This game needs a goal"
8/ ".......and who said the magic has gone out of the FA Cup."
9/ "In this league anyone can beat anyone"
10/ "Setting out their stall"
11/ "He's got a good engine"
12/ "Great touch for a big man"
13/ "One-way traffic"
14/ "For a big lad, he’s good with his feet"
15/ "It was men against boys out there"
16/ "Those famous European cup nights at Anfield"
17/ "That's meat and drink for him"
18/ "If a Brazilian had done that, we'd all be raving about it"
19/ "A good time to score"
20/ "It was a typical forwards tackle"


Have you a favourite cliche that you simply can't stand, or cannot understand - then why not post me that cliche in the comment section at the bottom of this article.