Brown v Cameron; Redknapp v Mancini
Judgment day has arrived - for Labour, Conservatives and Lib Dems; as well as Premier League teams fighting for a Champions' League place. Was last night an omen?
"Arry & Gordon
Credit: life.com
Never write off the grizzled old warriors.
With a face lined from a thousand battles, the two punch-drunk fighters stagger into the ring. Harry Redknapp, manager of Tottenham, is one of the few veteran managers still in the game, and last night in the Champions League shoot-out with Manchester City, the great survivor of English football showed the young buck in the opposite dug-out the value of that experience.
Miles away from home, with a crowd baying for his team's blood, 'Arry pulled one last genie from the bottle. With minutes to go, and fortunes on a knife-edge, his team nicked it and booked their ticket to power.
Sleak, coiffeured and bankrolled by invisible, anonymous donors, David Cameron (sorry, Roberto Mancini) could only look on and wonder what might have been. All his last-minute displays of youthful vigour (all-nighters the length and breadth of Britain) had come to nought. Those best-laid plans of breaking the monopoly on power shattered by a battle-hardened greybeard who simply wouldn't lie down.
On general election days like this, we all get a bit superstitious. When the outcome is still utterly unknowable, we all look for clues in the stars. Was last night's Redknapp/Tottenham victory a hint at one last hurrah for Gordon Brown? Will Mancini/Cameron's riches and perky vigour break the mould? Or (sorry, one last painful analogy) will Nick Clegg/Martin O'Neill come bouncing, Tigger-like, into the frame?
Today's the day, cast your votes...