"A funny thing happened at the football last Saturday, and not in a good way. My team, West Brom, were outplaying Derby County but, importantly, without managing to score a goal. Ordinarily, as the second half went on, I would have given in to pessimism, assuming that for all our dominance we'd not score, though Derby somehow would, and I'd go home miserable. But on this occasion, I really thought the match would be ours. Until this thing happened."
"Gingerly, squeamishly, they edged closer to whatever it was. Bizarre. As opera glasses aren't available on the backs of seats at football grounds, we couldn't identify the object. Eventually a member of the ground staff appeared, wearing rubber gloves. He strode out to the middle of the pitch, picked the object up, and returned whence he came carrying half a pigeon dead, obviously."
"All I could think of was that the game was now lost. There's not a football team in the world able to survive such an obvious portent of doom. Half a dead animal falling from the heavens? Ye gods, I've seen some horrible things at West Brom, but nothing like this. I've not watched Game of Thrones, but I assume this is the kind of thing that goes on in it all the time."
West Brom dominated Derby County during a match but failed to score. Play stopped when players noticed something on the pitch. Ground staff wearing rubber gloves retrieved the object and carried off half a dead pigeon. The club maintains a peregrine falcon nesting high in the West Stand that often eats pigeons and drops leftovers onto the pitch. The pigeon falling on a match day was unprecedented. The incident prompted fears of a portent of doom and dark humor about using the falcon tactically. The narrator compared the scene to fantastical omens and invoked Game of Thrones imagery.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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