Curse of the Ring Woman

My poor brother flew 10,273 miles from Brisbane to London, drove 305 miles up to the Lakes.
He put in a round trip of 311 miles to see Albion lose at Barnsley and then a round trip of 375 miles to see then play out a dull goalless draw with Sheffield United.
The free-scoring kings of the English game have netted just once in 180 minutes.
After 38 minutes we left our seats to get a beer and watched the remainder of the half on the screens. "You've come all this way to watch it on TV", I say.
On the way to this latest match a burly, cold-faced and very scary looking Eastern European woman had tried to sell him a gold ring at a petrol station forecourt 90 miles north of Brum on the M6.
He refuses and is cursed.
We wonder, having watched Kevin Phillips miss a couple of sitters, if he had been to the same services earlier that day and been similarly scalded?