Some'll win, some will lose
Some are born to sing the blues
Whoa, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on
Don't stop believin' Hold on to that feelin'... ...Don't stop believin' Hold on Streetlights, people
Don't Stop Believin' - Journey
Well, well, well...
In what must be the biggest upset of the Championship season thus far, Ealing Trailfinders came unstuck this weekend as they lost away to Caldy. (I'm avoiding the usual Ealing slipping up on banana peelings this time around, I did them to death in the previous blog).
If ever the David v Goliath comparison was applicable to a game of rugby, then it was on Saturday afternoon at Paton Field. Caldy in their first year in the Championship with a shoe string budget and more reliant than most on bringing players through their own junior ranks, overcame the might of Ealing, a team brought (or should that be bought?) together at great expense and seemingly destined for the Premiership.
A juggernaut of a club in Championship terms.
On the same weekend as football's FA Cup 3rd Round, where the underdogs are always cheered on, the League needed that result.
Caldy's stunning 26-24 victory over Ealing (and fully deserved it was too by the sound of it) has thrown the league wide open, with Jersey Reds just two points behind the leaders and the mouth-watering prospect of a home game against everyone's pre-season favourites for promotion yet to come.
With Ealing not traveling to Jersey until the penultimate weekend of the season, it keeps the Championship honest for far longer than many expected.
Add to the mix another way game in the final round of fixtures, against Doncaster Knights, and the run in for Ealing is by no means a straight forward on. If Ealing begin to doubt themselves in any way, the door really does open for Jersey.
11 games left - there's many a slip between Cup and second place.
Although Ealing will surely remain favourites for promotion (presuming the goalposts aren't moved yet again in the meantime), Jersey's own aspirations of joining the top tier of English rugby lie very much in their own hands.
And next up for them is...
...Coventry.
And here's the thing; Cov isn't yet out of contention either, ridiculous as that might seem.
A win against Jersey with a bonus point to boot, not beyond the realms of possibility, and suddenly it's seats of your pants time if you're a Cov supporter. We know it's improbable, less likely than that even, especially as we were expecting nothing more from Cov than a respectable mid-table finish in September.
But it is possible. And that's enough. The reality of the situation goes out of the window. It's Coventry. It's the dream and until it's mathematically impossible the dream lives on.
And then it begins all over again in September.
We've already excelled ourselves, for which everyone involved in the club deserves huge respect, and stranger things have happened - imagine being a Leicester City supporter in August 2015? 500-1 as I recall.
There can't have been many supporters amongst any of the Championship clubs who foresaw Ealing's defeat yesterday, certainly no one predicted it on the Championship forum, which kind of makes the point really - the unlikely does sometimes happen. It just needs to happen with unaccustomed regularly over the remainder of the season in this instance if you're a Cov supporter.
It's what makes being a supporter so additive, whatever the sport. It's like gambling, I guess. The next big win is always just around the corner. And it's not even a blind corner at that for us.
We can all see what's coming down the road in our direction and we know exactly what we have to do. Inevitably, something will happen to stymie our hopes and dreams as it always does but the impossible isn't always what it seems...
Ealing lose a couple of key players, their discipline starts to fail them (a red and two yellows against Caldy), a couple of game changing decision go against them.
Jersey's Airport and Harbour staff ballot for a 3 month strike and the Reds can no longer fulfil its fixtures.
Cov go on a 12 game unbeaten run, including a first away win at TFSG, Vallis Way.
Easy.
Don't stop believin'.
Not wanting to be sizeist or anything, but it's not over until...well, you know....
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