Victor anxioticus, Vanquo potheticum (Win nervously, lose tragically)
Winning. Losing. Don't you love it? The possibilities are endless. The Reds, in one form or another, have been doing both - sometimes seemingly in the one game - for twenty years now. And as the contributors to this booklet show, we've been working our way through as many permutations of both sides of the coin/psyche/yin-yang/dark-lightside conceptualisation will allow in twelve rounds per season (excluding washout and walkovers - but they're another story altogether).
Conceived in a fit of class righteousness, consolidated in a tantrum of bourgeois individualism, and now perpetuated through that peculiar eclecticism that is the '90s (fellowship, fun, habit, beer, testosterone), twenty years is a pretty good effort for a club that has had no religious-footballing-banking-insurance stockbroking company support (Central Party funding was being allocated to international revolution the year we applied), a near-aspossible democratic electoral system, no club house that we could call our own, and practice facilities that are prone to lock-outs.
Within these pages are some recollections and reflections that bear the mark of reality. A few losses are recounted, a few embarrassing moments sketched, a few oddities included. Some statistics are provided too: these probably should precede all other text, as it is where we will all go to first ('Hmm, just one more not-out and I'll average almost 10...'). Best, though, to think of it all as a pre-season aide-memoir, or, for some, a kind of cricketing Viagra.
Welcome and enjoy your statistics.