Players face biggest battle of their lives

I DON’T know what to say really. Bray Wanderers are in the biggest battle of their professional lives.

Either they heal as a team or they are going to crumble. They’re in hell right now, gentlemen, believe me and they can stay there and get the s**t kicked out of them or they fight their way back into the light. They can climb out of hell. One inch, at a time.

You know when you get old in life things get taken from you. That’s part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losing stuff. You find out that life is just a game of inches. So is football.

Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small. I mean one half step too late or to early you don’t quite make it. One half second too slow or too fast and you don’t quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us.

They are in every break of the game; every minute, every second.

I’ll tell you this, in any fight it is the guy who is willing to die who is going to win that inch. And I know if I am going to have any life anymore it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch. Because that’s what living is! The six inches in front of your face!

That’s a team, gentlemen, and either they heal now, as a team, or they will die as individuals. That’s football guys. That’s all it is. Now, whattaya gonna do?

My thanks to Al Pacino for those words. His speech from Any Given Sunday is one of the most iconic motivational videos in existence but Bray Wanderers do not need Al Pacino right now.

They could do with his wealth - an estimated $145,000,000 if the internet is to be believed. But the players of Bray Wanderers don’t lack motivation. They don’t lack passion. They don’t lack fight. All they lack is money. Five players have already decided that enough is enough but the rest remain.

The rest want to stay and fight for those inches but they will not, and should not, without wages. A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay has never been truer. As much as a car crash as these last few weeks have been, the club are still just six points behind ninth placed Limerick who have had struggles of their own.

I hope that the crisis ends soon. I hope that players can once again concentrate on playing. I hope that they pull off the greatest of escapes under the circumstances but above all, I hope that the town of Bray does not lose Bray Wanderers.