BALL JUGGLER

The half time entertainment was your typical lower league offering of cheerleaders shaking their pom, poms and the team mascot walking round the perimeter of the pitch shaking hands with the youngsters in the crowd.Typical that is, until some young fella walked into the centre circle and started a 10 minute keepy upy, or ball juggling routine, using every part of his body apart from, obviously, his hands.He was unbelievably good, flicking the ball up in the air and catching it on his back, he had it balanced on his head, at one point he was sitting on the ground, legs outstretched still juggling, the ball just seemed to stick to his body like glue, you just couldn't take your eyes off him.Its hard to imagine the hours of practice and dedication that this young fella had invested in perfecting this skill, but obviously just by watching him you could see that all that time and effort had paid off. And after 10 minutes of juggling that was it, his routine over apart from the finale. Juggling the ball from the halfway line towards the goal,waving to the crowd and taking in the deserved applause as he went,it was obvious to everyone watching what he was going to do.So there he was 6 feet away from the goal, a final wave to the crowd, a final flick of the ball up in the air for a volley straight into the back of the net and .oh my God hes missed the goal,all 8 feet tall and 24 feet wide from 6 feet away, he was 6 feet away in the centre of the goal and he didn't just kick the ball over, he volleyed it wide of the post ! This young fella who could make the ball do whatever he wanted couldn't find the back of the net with the help of a sat nav, the line between success and failure is a thin one,and he well and truly crossed it,he would have probably fallen over it, if it was real, because whatever he had done in the previous 10 minutes was now well and truly forgotten. The crowd were briefly stunned and silent and then it started,he had the stuffing well and truly ripped out of him by all the fans in the stadium, this poor lad was now leaving the pitch, not to the applause and admiration that he rightly deserved and should have been receiving, but to laughter and taunts , as the bloke behind me at the time shouted out 'oi mate, you should have gone to specsavers' !