Heartwarming sporting defeats are rare these days.
If his first, Original Pirate Material, cast this "45th generation Roman" as a bit of a geezer – while also being hailed as the best album of the 00s in a poll in this newspaper – its successor, A Grand Don't Come for Free, turned him into public property, with a No 1 single in "Dry Your Eyes" that was quickly used to soundtrack serial English sporting defeats.
According to Aristotle, tragedy should lead to catharsis – and perhaps there is some great catharsis in these pictures, as people contemplate every sorrow, loss and despair they can remember or imagine in the bitter 90 minutes of a savagely hopeless sporting defeat.
Previous studies have linked sports defeats to spikes in alcohol-related crimes, domestic violence and heart attacks, but this was the first to analyze the effects on fatty food consumption.
There's no science attached to it: this is sport, defeat happens and Saracens deserved their win on the day.
Perhaps, in the context of a sports defeat, the more appropriate word might be morale, because performing well or nobly in defeat can boost the spirits of participants and their fans.
Alex Edmans, of London Business School, says the emotion around a nation's sports defeat can hit its stock market.
In other matches, the New England Revolution downed the San Jose Earthquakes 2-1, Sporting Kansas City defeated the Colorado Rapids 3-2, the Chicago Fire drew 2-2 with DC United and the Montreal Impact and Philadelphia Union played out a 1-1 draw.
Ironically for Sporting, this defeat came at a time when the early season personnel strain of suspensions, injuries and international duty had largely lifted from their defence, so there were few excuses for how they fell apart.
Fife-born Thomson, sporting in defeat, said: "Alex was the better player on the day, without a doubt.
Hull manager Steve Bruce was sporting in defeat: "Southampton were going to be everybody's whipping boys this season apparently, but they've bought well and the manager needs a pat on the back.
