Poland features large in the life of the UK these days with workers and shops and signs that figure in our daily lives. The affinities with Poland run deeply into the history of the Second World War. The football history runs simply back to one memorable night, October 17 1973, the night that brought England's first failure to qualify for the Finals Tournament.
Having won the 1966 World Cup and played moderately successfully in the 1970 tournament nobody was ready for the possibility that England would not even reach the tournament in 1974. But in the decisive game against Poland at a full Wembley the inevitable victory would not come.
Poland's goalkeeper was Jan Tomaszewski (now a Polish politician). His heroics secured the draw Poland needed; his proneness to unorthodox goalkeeping with some errors had him labelled a clown by the then great Brian Clough. Years later Clough was man enough to apologise publicly for that slur which had proved so untrue.
Opponents are rarely clowns. That night something happened to England that blew an aura away, Sir Alf Ramsay, the heroic winning manager of 1066 fame, was sacked and having failed to qualify for that World Cup they also failed, four tears later, to qualify for the 1978 tournament too.
Opponents are rarely clowns. In the deeper issue of life the Scriptures encourage us to take the battle seriously. The whole of Ephesians 6, for example, is a call to spiritual arms. Jesus repeatedly advised his disciples to watch and pray. Those who think their opponent is a clown are likely to end up knocked out.
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