You may be wondering what on earth the title has to do with Hibs or this week's derby - but bear with me. It very much has everything to do with the big game and yet nothing...
Football people are generally superstitious beasts...fans and players alike. Who hasn't had a "lucky scarf" or pre-match ritual that absolutely HAD to be followed forever, ad infinitum, as soon as it proved "lucky" in the first place. Go on, admit it. You went for a pint in a certain bar before the 6-2 game and since then you haven't been able to resist its lure in the pre-match build up. Or you bought a steak pie, instead of a scotch pie, at the Millenium Derby and you somehow feel forever linked with those little mid-match lumps of gristle in a special way - and are too scared to switch back.
Just in case...
Or it's a cup final routine. A cup run routine. Whatever, you'll all have been there. Even if you might be too embarrassed to admit it, or laugh at it outwardly. But we all know...it matters. Doesn't it?
So where does Deeks come into all of this? What the heck has The Invisible Man got to do with us playing THEM this weekend? It shall all become perfectly clear. You see, we are not alone in our irrational behaviour patterns. Players have theirs too. Possibly even more so. Oh, yes, they look to fate, fortune and omens to help them along the way. They take comfort in talismanic team mates, teams or grounds to see them through the toughest times - just as they also suffer at the hands of sporting bogeymen, hoodoos and curses.
You can bet your last Lithuanian Lita (and no I dont mean the felly that plays for Reading!) that both teams this Saturday will be looking for
signs that fortune will favour them. We don't necessarily need to take these little superstitions to Glenn Hoddle proportions but they WILL be there in the ether, in the mix, in their minds...
And you can bet your last Lithuanian Lita that it will be in ours. And theirs.
What are the odds that the 106 years in a row hoodoo will surface in original fashion? Guaranteed. Or even there painful attempt to cling onto turgid days of old with their 22 games rhetoric?
We've been "guilty" in the past of hanging onto the delightful fact that "they never beat Sauzee!" I recall, deep into injury time, with Dieu as boss, at Tynie during his 7 week reign...1-0 down and uttering the mantra under breaths. They've never beaten Sauzee. They've never beaten Sauzee.
And up pops John O'Neil, clearly thinking the very same thing, to snatch a 1-1 draw from underneath their gloating snouts. They never did beat Sauzee.
In the recent past, for a long period of time, whenever a certain Hibs captain scored, we did not lose. He scored, we were fine. The players had that comfort blanket too. It even worked in a cup final. As soon as he scored, the thought went through heads. He's scored, we can't lose. And so it came to pass...but it was never outwardly uttered during the course of the game because...well because that
would be tempting fate. Of course.
And the previous cup win very much had the hand of fate or superstition written all over it. Keef scores, we win. We march on. Even past the inhabitants of Mordor. All the way to the final where...Keef scores and we can all relax. It wasn't big Tam scoring that sealed our fate that October Sunday. Oh, no. It was most certainly Keith.
And so it goes on.
I wouldn't want to guess what some of you will get up to as your own personal pre-match ritual. It is probably best we don't know! However, many of us WILL indulge in some little nod to the heavens or fate in the hope it will bring Mixu (6-2) - its an omen - his first derby win as a manager. And no doubt, many of our players will too.
Maka will "bless" his goalmouth. Rob will go off on his 18 yard box wander, trance like as he goes. Benji will pray to the East. We all know the routine...
If we are being superstitious we ought to hope that Deano plays - he has scored a winning goal there in the past. As has Brian Kerr. How many of you will admit to wondering whether he might just get his second goal of the season this weekend...?
Let's hope so.
Which brings us back to the beginning again. And Deeks. And the fact he cant score for us this weekend. Thank Sauzee. You see, in all the years Deeks played in Edinburgh derbies, whenever HE scored we more often than not did not win. Just once. Unlike Garry or Deano, Deeks scoring almost meant certain defeat. Which started to make him scoring seem a double edged sword...aw shecht Deeks has scored, we're stuffed!
So have faith. He will be nowhere near Tynie on Saturday but Mixu (6-2) will. And get yer pennies on Deano or Brian.
History and superstition says you might be shrewd to do so.
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