Ghost of the goalie

Lots of talk aboit ghosts at this time of the year. When I was a kid you soetimes ended up in a situation where for a kick about you would have a few kids passing and shooting at the goal with one kid as goalkeeper. If there were enough of you, one could go behind the goalie (rarely a net up in those days) and try to save any shots he coudn't save. We'd call that boy the ghost of the goalie. There was no spooky element there, just a way of referring to the second character.

Dry day supporter

A dry day supporter is one who, going back to the days when football was watched standing up and without cover, is one who is quite happy to support the team a long as it is not raining. A dry day supporter then is someone who says he is a supporter of a club or team but whose loyalty is open to question. I cannot see any references to this on the Internet for some reason.

Rush goalie

I was thinking recently for some reason of kick abouts as a kid. We used to play three-and-in usually. We would each be "teams". I was usually Chelsea (Peter Bonetti and Peter Osgood). If both Paul Meredith and Cameron McCormack were there (two more different boys it is hard to imagine) they'd both want to be Manchester United. If Cameron got in first (Alec Stepney and George Best) Paul Meredith would insist on being Man United Seconds (Jimmy Rimmer and Bobby Charlton) which really used to annoy me for some reason.

If not three-and-in it would be knock out or, rarely, sides. We were never very many for sides so rush goalie was de rigueur. I also heard it referred to as back 'n' and. I think the two terms betray quite a different idea with regard to tactics. Back 'n' 'and is conservative - you're playing as a back but have the handling option when necessary. Rush goalie on the other hand suggests all out attack and a mad rush back if something goes wrong! Rush was my approach.