Whitey Grandad

Thanks for that. I knew that it had to be but I couldn't hear a word of the announcement. The only outstanding question then is why we were wearing black armbands and BR weren't. When I used to ref on Sunday mornings we used to have 2 minutes at half-time as it was closest to 11:00. Every player was keen that we observed it.

There was also the minute's silence. Did anybody hear what the stadium announcer was saying about it?

Is that the award for the flyweight division?

It was a well-executed routine. The only thing that matters is that BR were caught flat-footed and it gave us the breakthrough that we needed. How could anybody see anything negative in that???

I hope you're meeting him for personal and not professional reasons?

I agree totally. The only stupid question is one that isn't asked.

Were they the couple that left a few minutes before the end? They looked like they were going off early for something more important.

The other nominations must have been bad.

I was dry side centre, but far enough forward to be getting slightly wet. Worst view of any seat I've ever had, including Highbury. Quality chant though.

If you watch the match again you see that the ManU players had it in for Davies. He was raked on the back of his ankle and it could have finished his career (and cost us 7 million)

Bearing in mind that I was sitting in the next to bottom row behind their goal and with a scaffold pole, drainpipe and goalkeeper blocking my view, I couldn't believe that he missed it either. There was a shot from their right across goal that Kelvin palmed out to the left-hand side on the penalty area. It fell straight to one of their players on the edge of the box and the goal was unguarded. He hit it first time, high, wide and handsome a few yards to the right of the goal. If they had scored it then the last 10 minutes would have been interesting.

It was poignant that during the minute's silence there was the sound of fireworks and whizzbangs going off. My grandad's brother was killed in 1917 and for me it was a small reminder of what it must have been like in the trenches. Good to see that the silence was impeccably observed on all sides.

I'll be wearing a thick waterproof overcoat, sort of dark grey colour.

So when was the 1-0 when Kevin Davies scored?

Oh what a joy to be singing 'you're sh1t ... in a different kit'

I enjoyed the game next season with the crowd chanting 'have you got another kit?'. How long before we get back to those sort of games?

Shall I spoil it for you and tell you the final score?

Ivan Golac?

Were you in goal when he scored?

I've still got my boots. Every man has his price, and they don't come much cheaper than me!

Are we sending him back then? Oh, I forgot we had signed him up for years and years.

I'm old enough not to have a first mortgage any more . Plus I have an Old Gits' railcard, however we shall be driving up in the afternoon and joining the crawl on the M4. There were still 'quite a few' tickets left this morning for those who are thinking of going.

Bah Humbug. I hate Christmas. Anybody else?

Interestingly enough my pocket diary (as supplied by the IET) is a week per page format and that starts on a Monday! Not only that, so do the week numbers! (you can tell that there's not much football news).

There were still 'quite a few' tickets left when I called at the ticket office this morning at 11:30.