Carling Cup, Semi-final, second leg.

Actually I only watched the second half, but that was profligate enough. Aston Villa 4-2 Blackburn Rovers.

This game illustrates exactly why goals ought to be difficult to score. When a game is like this it’s almost as if every time a team goes up the park there will be a goal.

I’ve seen some dire 0-0 draws but some exciting ones. Yet the worst game I ever saw was a 5-5 draw. That’s one goal every nine minutes – like the Villa-Blackburn game. The fact that Blackburn had only ten men contributed to this. Had it been a league game it might have finished 2-2 or 3-2. Being the deciding leg of a Cup tie introduced a certain abandon, and in Blackburn’s case, necessity.

High scoring – and ease of scoring – is one reason why I can’t take basketball seriously. It’s also why Rugby Union should reduce the value of the penalty goal; tries are so much harder to score. Cricket is an unusual case: while runs are relatively easy to score this is balanced by the difficulty of taking wickets. To win you have to achieve both. I believe something similar applies to baseball.