Whitey Grandad

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.

It varies from country to country, which is why the week numbers are not universal throughout the world. I once had to write a computer algorithm for displaying the week number and found out that there are two definitions.

You've started something now... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day Apparently the usage varies from country to country and if Christmas Day is a Saturday, the officla Christmas Day holiday can be the following Tuesday, which is actually after the Boxing Day holiday, or Boxing Day itself, depending on your point of view. Fascinating isn't it? (is there a smiley for 'yawn'?). Whatever, I know where I'll be on 26th December.

And this is a Friday evning so all of London will be going west on the M4. You have been warned!

Please don't forget that there are no trains on Boxing Day (i.e. Saturday 26th December). It looks like I shall be coming back from Bristol that morning, so let's hope there's no bad weather. Did anybody here go to Newcastle on January 1st for that game that was called off because the roads outside were a bit icy?

A Quantity Surveyor. I often had the chance to chat to him after matches at the Dell whilst my daughter was collecting autographs and I remember once discussing what the Dell was worth and how it would be demolished. He's a true gentleman and he's one of our lads so let's do everything we can to support him and his family.

Interesting comment on there about Papa... '...was troubled by the pace of their number 9, but thankfully said player was beyond dreadful - a contender for the worst footballer I've seen play in League One.' Does anybody who went to the game share that view?

I've just watched it carefully on the recording and it looks like it may well have hit his left knee with his arm just behind it. There were certainly a lot of protests from the Grimsby lads. Poor defending though, there were 3 or 4 Grimsbys on the goal line and nobody marking the player who shot.

Handling on the line is instinctive and there's no time to weigh up the odds, especially for footballers who tend to think slower that the rest of us. I can't honestly see him ever reaching the standard that we would need, unfortunately, but that's why these sorts of players are loaned out. Learn and make your mistakes in someone else's team, not ours.

He's a quality player who's a class above this League. It's just a shame that circumstances dictated that we never saw the best from him last season. Good luck to him, but he's gone now so let's deal with it and move on. We have a team that's starting to work well together and with a few more matches and a few reinforcements we can start looking at the top of the League instead of the bottom.

I read a couple of days ago that Tony Adams was lined up for Aldershot. http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Tony-Adams-wants-to-return-to-management-at-Aldershot-article202839.html (No, I don't buy the Mirror to read, I only look at the pictures)

Is your mate called Alan Pardew by any chance? (Yes, I know, Alan probably has his FA coaching badge)