Club v Country....

I’m not even going to mention the England game much here but the dismal Euro 2008 qualifying campaign has brought up, once again, the club v country row that always pops up whenever England play huge games.

The most high-profile figures involved as the subject of the latest debates are Frank Lampard and Michael Owen, for different reasons. Owen, for his miraculous recovery from injury and whether he was fit enough to play for his country and Lampard for apparently not giving as much effort for England as he does for Chelsea.

Both situations are quite ridiculous. Owen, if fit, should play for Newcastle and England equally and not sit out of one game to benefit the other. I can totally understand his point of view of wanting to play in every football game he plays and I wonder if Sam Allardyce would have the same feelings if he were the England boss and McClaren in charge of Newcastle? Lampard’s situation is that he’s getting the brunt of the latest “boo boy” campaign and England “fans” are saying that he’s not producing the goods for his country as he does for Chelsea. Lamps is a world class player whoever he plays for and it’s not fair that he gets the brunt of the stick with every misplaced pass whereas Steven Gerrard’s glorious miss may well go more unnoticed than if it was Lampard’s error.

In the players’ case, they should be able to play equally as much and as well for their country and club but sometimes one bad game for England will be a lot more noticeable. Example, if Lampard has a bad game for Chelsea but they win, it’s taken as an off day and Chelsea move on the following week. But a bad game for England and suddenly with the nation watching it gets more exposure and he has to wait months sometimes to put it right. In which time he’s played outstanding football for Chelsea and rebuilt his reputation enough for us to expect a dominating performance from him for England.

It’s becoming more and more difficult for these players to play for England and the media hype may have been one of the reasons why we lost one of our best internationals of recent years, Paul Scholes, way before his time was due.

Journalists are trained to be impartial so probably don’t have a club to follow, hence the enormous outrage they feel when England don’t perform and the hype they build around the group in major competitions. This brings me on to another argument completely and the one of the England fan.

I totally agree that the PLAYERS should give 100% for both club and country but in the space of three days I have once again had it confirmed to me where the FAN’s loyalty should lie in the club v country debate.

The debate was brought up again on the way to football last night and I was again left to defend my opinion that club should come before country in any situation.

Going back to Monday night and our game with Luton Town, live on Sky Sports. We lost the game 4-1 yet I was left with an immense feeling of pride that my club were in the spotlight, my club were battling hard and my club gave it everything to try and get a result.

Two penalties went against us. I felt angry and deflated that a couple of decisions that went against us were costing us a good result.

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. I made it to the pub in time for the second half. A penalty decision went against England. It was never a penalty. It changed the game and set up the Russian revival. All I felt was disappointment and even thought we deservedly had the group out of our hands again. The campaign has been dismal and drawing at home to Macedonia and away at Israel is not good enough.

If I should have felt deflated and annoyed at the result, I appologise. It’s a shame but when you don’t deserve something, you don’t deserve something. Simple. But however good or bad England are, it will never, ever compare to the hurt I feel if Northampton Town let me down. Of course it’s happened in the past and it sticks with me for a hell of a lot longer than if England do it.

Last season The Cobblers were absolutely taken apart by Barnet, 4-1, in the FA Cup Second Round. On that day a lot of professional footballers let a lot of Cobblers fans down and were dumped out of the cup in disastrous fashion. I hardly spoke all the way home. Just a couple of months earlier, England lost 2-0 in Croatia in a vital qualifier. Again, fans were let down but I felt nowhere near the levels of hurt I felt by the Barnet defeat.

In comparison I must turn from disappointments to times when both teams came close to glory, and my best example that I always use when arguing the case for club over country.

It all went on in the summer of 2004 as within a matter of months there was double heartache in penalty shoot outs.

First, the playoffs. The Cobblers were 2-0 from the home leg of the playoff semi-final to Mansfield Town and no-one gave us a chance in the second leg at Field Mill. The Cobblers stormed into an incredible 3-0 lead to completely change the tie but in the most emotional game of football I’ve ever witnessed, Mansfield pulled a vital goal back to level the aggregate score at 3-3. Extra time was played with no break through and penalties loomed. I’d never been more nervous in all my life as we stepped up to the plate. Eric Sabin missed the vital kick. We were out of the promotion hunt and denied a place at The Millenium Stadium for the final. The pain I felt that night has never been matched at a football game since but it was to be tested just a couple of months later.

England came up against Portugal in the Euro 2004 Quarter Finals and after Wayne Rooney’s injury we clamoured through extra time to penalties. The nerves were back but I realised that this was nowhere near as important to me as the Mansfield shoot out. England, of course, were beaten and the pub I was in descended into a crowd of saddened faces and angry drunk people.

I think that was when I realised where my loyalties lied. The England game was forgotten within a week when the competition was over. Field Mill took a couple of years and a promotion to fully sink. The outpour of emotion when we beat Chester to win automatic promotion following another playoff defeat (this time to Southend the year following Mansfield) was two years in the making.

Maybe it’s because England games only come along once in a while. Maybe it’s because I spend thousands of pounds a year travelling to places like Stockport, Rochdale, Carlisle and Doncaster (via Worksop) to watch the Cobblers. But in any case, I would every time say that a season in the Premiership would mean more to me than an England World Cup win.

Of course I get caught up in the hype of it all when a major competition comes up. The World Cup was amazing in terms of following England in the packed out Walkabout in Southampton. And I’m in no way saying that I don’t care about England because I really do and will support them with a passion every time they play.

But Northampton Town come first for me and that’s the way it will always be. If a Cobblers game clashed with an England game I wouldn’t care one bit and get to the Town game if it were possible to be there.

Call me selfish if you like but I would rather have my club be successful than my country but after 15 years of all the emotions possible in following Northampton Town I don’t think I’m being too harsh on my country.

Bring on Cheltenham!