A couple of weeks ago I was in Atlanta.
While I was there, Forest played Leeds at Elland Road.
I’ve documented how much tragedy we’ve faced this season … from great managers leaving, bad managers coming [then leaving] then questionable managers joining … relegation form results … losing to Derby County TWICE and – worse of all – the death of our great benefactor, Nigel Doughty.
With all this mind, the prospect of playing Leeds – who beat us 4-0 at home this season – wasn’t very promising and what makes it even worse [yes, worse than the fact they kicked the genius Cloughy out after 30 odd days] is that a bunch of planners are massive Leeds fans and I know they wouldn’t let me hear the end of it if we lost.
Yes, that’s you Mr G, Mr J and Mr NP.
So I sat in my hotel, listening to the live commentary and as excepted, we were down 1-0 after just 6 minutes thanks to giving away a penalty.
DAMN!
But then in true Hollywood fashion, something happened.
Something unexpected, rare and quite frankly phenomenal.
We scored.
And then, 2 minutes into extra time of the first half, we scored again.
We were actually in the lead.
THE LEAD.
I then had to make a quick work phone call so I am sure you can imagine my surprise when I came back about 20 minutes later and saw the score was 3-4.
Fuck me, 4 goals had been scored in just 10 mins.
Double fuck me, Forest were still in the lead.
I quickly got on twitter to gauge the reaction and this is when I really felt the benefit of the oversharing network.
There was banter.
Real banter … even though it was all virtual.
There were Forest fans chatting about how great – and unbelievable – it all was.
There were Leeds fans chatting about how shit – and expected – it was.
There were Forest and Leeds fans teasing each other without it ever getting nasty.
It felt good.
I might have been in Atlanta listening to the match on my computer in a hotel room, thousands of miles away from everyone – but thanks to Twitter, I actually felt a camaraderie that not only felt good, but I realised was something I really miss, mainly because I live in bloody China.
Then we scored again and it all notched up a level.
Then we scored again and it all notched up another level.
The banter was flowing.
The Forest fans were in dreamland while the Leeds/Planner fans were in sort-of begrudging respect land.
THEN WE SCORED AGAIN.
Yes, we had scored 7 goals, SEVEN.
The last time Forest did that away from home was against Sheffield Wednesday back in 1994 and I was there.
I was in the crowd as we played some of the best football I’ve ever seen and scored 7 of the best goals you could ever want to see.
[I also remember that after that match, I had an excellent night with a very nice lady but it’s probably best if I don’t go there]
Anyway, while being on Twitter wasn’t the same, it was close … far closer than anything I’ve found in that gap of 18 years … which all goes to prove that as much as technology might ’empower’ people to do stuff they’ve never been able to do before, it’s still the people who make the difference between function and emotionally meaningful communication.
Media/Digital planners, take note.