Читать книгу Jelleyman’s Thrown a Wobbly: Saturday Afternoons in Front of the Telly - Jeff Stelling - Страница 27

I'd noticed Mansfield's Gareth Jelleyman in a match report one week and thought, ‘What a name! Wouldn't it be great if he was sent off one week.’ I wouldn't wish misfortune on any player, but there was clearly a great gag to be made about him ‘throwing a wobbly’. Jelleyman was also a defender, so I figured he was likely to score a red card during the course of a season, but when I looked through his records, blow me if he hadn't been sent off once in six seasons. Worse, or better depending on your point of view, he'd only picked up nine yellow cards in his entire career. Regardless, I had him in my mind just in case.

Then, it happened. In 2005/06, Mansfield Town were winning at home against Cheltenham by a couple of goals. At the end of the afternoon, when the results were coming in, when there's a furious flurry of goals on-screen and when there isn't the time for joking around, up pops the glorious news in red letters at the bottom of the screen: ‘Off: Gareth Jelleyman’. I thought, ‘Yessss! You beauty!’ I dropped everything. ‘Bugger the scores,’ I thought. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Gareth Jelleyman's been sent off! It looks like he's thrown a wobbly!’

It was a cheap gag, but I'd waited a long time for that one to come up. Normally I won't plan the gags in advance, but this time it came to me and seemed to make perfect sense. In a strange twist, Gareth was sent off about three months later, so we had a reprise of the gag. I do hope I wasn't responsible for his bad behaviour.