The life of a sports fan is difficult indeed. Not only do you have you’re everyday life to deal with, you have this weird alternate life that pulls at you every waking moment. It’s hard to explain it to anyone other than a fellow fan of your particular team, it’s a life-long bond that cannot be broken, no matter how many times you threaten to walk away, rip up a season ticket or, indeed, burn a jersey. You’re stuck there, life without parole.

Boston Red Sox fans knew about this curse all too well, no matter how good things were going, how positive the team was playing, how many games they had won in a row, the spectre of failure always loomed on the horizon. So now I’m in my own particular Sawks-like slump, as last night my beloved Rangers choked like dogs in the biggest game the team has had since the 92/93 Champions League run and as a result everything threatens to unravel in true Greek tragedy style.

For the last 10 months (seriously, the season has been 10 months long as it begun on the 31st of July with a Champions League qualifier against FK Zeta of Montenegro) they have been riding their luck, not playing the most attractive football but they “got the job done™” for the last 68 games. But last night their luck finally ran out.

They were second best against FC Zenit Saint Petersburg in he UEFA Cup final, just like they were second best against Sporting Lisbon and Fiorentina, they played very well defensively but going forward they had nothing, absolutely nothing and in reality the 2-0 scoreline flattered to deceive the true story of the game.

But I digress, I was psyched for the game, this was the moment of glory I had been waiting for for so long. It’s been an unbelievable turn around in the last 18 months when the team was in utter disarray and Paul Le Guen was unceremoniously sacked, the return of Walter Smith has been noting short of messiah like. But the taste of defeat is bitter. As Grant said to me.

It’s like those few minutes you sit there after a loss in the arena and just can’t muster the energy to move.

That right there is the curse of the sports fan. Sure you get some dizzying highs, but the lows are the worst, the lows will leave you speechless, motionless, depressed, dejected and most of all disappointed.