The beautiful sadness.

So, we're all feeling like shit? Yes?

I don't know about you but all I can think about is flashpoints from last night: Sol's goal; me turning to mate at around the 75 minute and saying only 15 minutes to go; Eto'o looking up to the linesmen after he'd scored to see if he'd flagged; Tel's misses; Freddie forcing a great save from Valdes; the Barca bench running onto the pitch as our boys slumped to the ground.

And so, the melancholy begins by thinking constantly about what might have been and what did happen. It's hard to know which is the more upsetting.

So, I thought I'd just say a few things on this subject to try and raise spirits.

Firstly, the defeat was no where near as bad as the CWC final in '95. That was horrendous, losing to a freak goal, by an ex-spud in the last minute of extra time. And then having to go to school to get ribbed about it all the next day. At least we can all take some slender morsel of comfort from knowing that not only were we not humiliated, but we more than held our own. I really think our boys played like heroes yesterday, and we have nothing to be ashamed about. I hope we draw barca next year, and show them what we can do with 11 men.

Secondly, a brief quotation, from, perhaps, a rather unlikely source of inspiration. In the South Park episode 'Raisins' - on youtube I think - Butters [another one of my heroes] breaks up with his 'girlfriend'. Stan has concurrently broken up with Wendy, and joined a Goth clique to express his new found depression. To Stan and his Goth mates, life is merely endless depression.

Walking home they encounter Butters, who is crying over his loss, and the following exchange occurs:

Goth kid: I guess you can join up with us if you want. We're gonna go down to the graveyard and write poems about death and how pointless life is.

Butters: Well, no thanks. I love life.

Stan: Huh...? But... you just got dumped...?

Butters: yeah... and I'm sad! but at the same time I'm really happy that something can make me feel that sad... it's like... it makes me feel alive, y'know? I makes me feel human. The only way I could feel this sad now, is if I felt somethin' really good before, so I have to take the bad with the good. So I guess what I'm feelin' is, like a beautiful sadness... I guess that sounds stupid...

Goth kid: Yeah...

Stan: No. No, Butters that doesn't sound stupid at all.

Butters: Well, thanks for offering to let me in your clique guys, but to be honest, I'd rather be a crying pu**y than some ***** goth kid.

And that's what supporting a football club is all about. You have to take the highs with the lows. Otherwise it doesn't mean anything, and you're just a fairweather supporter. The lowest of the low.

Remember that the sadness we all feel is a reflection of the joy that moments such as Tel's goal in the Bernabeu, Fab's goal against Juve, and Jens save against Villa brought to us. These moments are not now meaningless because we lost yesterday. They are great moments in the history of our club which should never be forgotten.

It's been a great campaign. And one day, I hope we finally get the trophy that this club so richly deserves.

Although having said all this, me giving lessons on how to avoid footballing depression is one of the most monumentally hypocritical acts of my life.

Still, I always try and remember Butters whenever I'm sad.

A hopeful Gb.