The nonsense you hear

I know that I rarely venture into the world of football, be it association, american or whatever they call that game where they can't even get the ball the right shape, but I was struck by the inanity of one journalist's comment on Radio Five Live this morning.

"Well, West Ham are the team under pressure, while Preston will be thinking that they have nothing to lose".

Er, what? The theory here is that, because most people expect West Ham to win, they will feel the "pressure" more than the team expected to lose. It's a cliche oft repeated, but no less bollox for the sake of this.

Let's look at this in terms of the World Series of Poker "Big One" Championship (because, in terms of revenue, it's worth much more than that).

Now, it's head-to-head, You are facing Daniel Negreanu. Not only has he refused a deal, but this is winner takes $35m, and second takes, er, nothing.

Now, if you are Negreanu, you know that you got where you got through quality play and that, quite possibly, you will be here again, even if you lose.

But you aren't Negreanu. You are you. And you know darned well that you've got lucky, very lucky, to get where you have got. So lucky, in fact, that you know that this is probably your one shot at the big one.

Now, everyone expects Negreanu to wipe the floor with you. So, obviously, he's the one who will be feeling the pressure, isn't he?

I don't think so, m'lud. He will be sitting there, chatting quite happily to his friends, while you will be a wet rag of perspiration realizing that , if you blow this one, well, that will be it.

Just because you didn't expect to get as far as you got does not reduce the pressure; it increases it.