Sweet FA

Until the 18th of March, there were two people on Earth who were fans of Samuel Beckett, Gabriel Josipovici and Portsmouth Football Club. Once Anthony Minghella died, I was left alone. His first production was a musical version of Josipovici's story Mobius the Stripper and he contributed Play to the Beckett on Film series. One consolation is to know that, ten days before he died, he would have seen Pompey play Manchester Utd in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. The club hadn't won at Old Trafford since 1957 and had only recently lost 2-0 there in the league (I listened to it while in hospital). It was 0-0 when, with a few minutes left, we got a penalty. As 70,000 ManU fans looked on booing and whistling, Sulley Muntari had a chance to redeem 50 years of hurt. A Pompey fan happened to be recording the event from the stands.