Fairley used his sense of humor to financial advantage by selling T-shirts pronouncing that England's 1994 USA Tour has been canceled.
But for Moogan, Fairley and other pub owners comes an encouraging word from Hornby, who believes that British fans, even the English, will give in to the allure of the World Cup once it begins.
"The football culture is so big among us that the idea of live games on television is irresistible," he said.
And he believes that they will even have a team to call their own.
"The Irish coach, who is an Englishman, is a genius at finding unlikely Irishmen, players from England or Scotland who are eligible to play for Ireland because they have Irish grandmothers," Hornby said of Jack Charlton. "So we're all doing what the Irish football coach does, trying to find some traces of Irish blood."
As for those whose family tree branches do not extend into Eire, enthusiasm already is building for the 1996 European Championships, which will be played in England.
The English, in particular, are optimistic because they have identified the source of their malady, Coach Graham Taylor, and sacked him.
"He was an inept manager who picked the wrong players and played them in dim-witted formations," Davies said.
Davies is convinced that the new coach, Terry Venables, is the right man, a belief that was reinforced by a recent 5-0 thrashing of World Cup qualifier Greece.
This theme of the Englishman as bloodied but unbowed, of course, is nothing new. Perhaps it is apocryphal, but the story is often told of the German who, after a post-World War II soccer victory by Germany over England, boasted to an English acquaintance, "Well, I see that we beat you at your national game."
"Yes," the Englishman replied, "and twice we have beaten you at yours."
