Going Down in Lithuania

At five o'clock Lithuanian time I was in the beer garden of the Uzpio Kavine with only text messages to tell me what was happening in Newcastle. "Owen not in final 16," "Hull losing, Boro winning," "One-nil down. We've had better of first half but defensive fuck up," "Hull drawing. Shite," "Goal disallowed for nothing. We're down."

Walking back to the hostel, the Old Town was as empty as my hopes of staying up. I remembered a quote from a Russian politician as their economy went down to the tubes in the mid-1990s, "We hoped for something different but things turned out like they always do." Nothing is certain, Hull might lose to Fergie's reserves, we might yet scrape a point at Villa, but overall we deserve to be relegated: too many mistakes made at the top, too much money wasted, too many people just going through the motions. Whatever the pain, tear it up and start again.