Here’s to hoping that this will be the last word on this subject, but obviously the Leeds United hate mob on BBC Look North have yet to summarise on the Monday evening football round up, so we will just have to wait and see 6.30pm tomorrow night.

After this morning’s rather refreshing snippet on SkyTVisf**kings**t’s Sunday Supplement, I live in hope that the hysteria on Friday and Saturday will have finally died down. When the dust settles and SkyTVisf**kings**t’s carefully orchestrated pre-match build up is finally revealed as the cheap attempt to get viewing figures up, that it was, the truth will out.

It is a sad state of affairs when something like this is used as a soundbyte and manipulated so badly that even the washed up hasbeens that they dragged out to tow the party line are sweating so much, it looked like they’d had twelve rounds with Josh. No amount of make up is ever going to get that shine off your forehead, Keith.

Apparently even the Rozzers had put out a tweet that showed someone sat in the back of a police van. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? What happened to right to privacy? What happened to confidentiality? On an even more serious note, what crimes were not being dealt with, whilst the Derby constabulary were sent to the training ground on an errand of “something really important?”

The sad fact is that as soon as the news broke, SkyTVisf**kings**t and the (tax payer funded) BBC just could not help themselves. There was no way they would not jump on this opportunity to bump up the ratings. You can see the “kerching” dollar signs and Pulitzer prize eye balls flicking furiously along with the slobbering jowls of sports editors. Not until the hysteria had dampened, after they had speed-dialled every single old player/manager at whistle stop speed to get their “reactions”, did someone realise that they should really have checked their information.

By then it was too late, the damage had been done and all they could do was hope that no one would bring up Fergie sending drones to the Blue side of the city in 2009 and that they was no evidence of what Mourinho got Villa Boas to do (whilst Lampard was at Chelski). The beauty of social media though is that nothing ever gets deleted for good and sure enough, the pictures of articles and tweets etc. were swiftly put up on Facebook, twitter etc. to remind folk that the truth is out there.

To save face, none of this was mentioned in dispatches, as of course, no one likes to be told that they are wrong. So the perpetuation continued until Charlie Nicholas, on the programme which was directly after the Leeds v Derby game, unbelievably (Jeff), said it was going on in his day. Ouch!

As I see it, the only good thing to come out of this will be that in the run up to the January transfer window, SkyTVisf**kings**t will have to choose their words very wisely. The norm is that they have reporters, standing outside training grounds, trying to look into cars and over walls etc in the last week of January, waiting for “the sensational latest news”. All you hear is the phrase “reports from Sky Sports sources is…” or “we have inside information from sources at the Clubs…” . It is on 24 hours a day, 7 days a weeks if you have the Sky Sports 409 news channel on in the background through January. You also get it on Sky news on their sports updates.

Who are these “sources”? Is this not just the same as some bloke looking over a wall at Derby?

credits to John Takai at Dreamstime.com for the photo via googleimages

Those of you who know me well, know of my admiration of the great Brian De Palma. One of my favourite films is the epic, The Untouchables. Not just for the cinematography of the sweeping Chicago skyline. Nor for the attention to detail of the costumery by Giorgio Armani. Not even for that fantastic Oscar winning performance by Sean Connery and his perfect delivery of that tremendous Irish accent. No, it has to be for the classic one liners. One of my favourite ones (see the picture below) is – “never stop fighting til the fight is over”  Eliot Ness to Capone in the final courtroom scene. Never stop until it is done.

And that is what happened today, and at Villa on Sunday. Never stop until it is over.

I have just been watching the Red Button version of our game on SkyTVis f**kings**t. When Roofe makes it 2-2 he runs straight back to the centre circle, shouting for everyone else to restart the game. When Roofe scores the winner, Bielsa can be seen on the touchline screaming for everyone to get back to the centre circle, for ANOTHER goal. None of this sitting back on your laurels business. None of the wild celebrating thinking you have won the game (like Blackburn – ha ha ha ha ha). No.  Back to business. Back to scoring another goal.

If Blackburn hadn’t spent so long wasting time in vain doing their inglorious celebrations, who knows? There may not have been so much injury time, and we may not have been able to score the winner.

So you’d think everyone would be happy following the last two games. The last two games where EVERY man played til the end, fighting for that win. Two of the most exciting games of football this Christmas. Two games where we turned it around, clawing back to victory from certain defeat. Two games when we were foiled by the ref and the linesmen at every turn. Everything against us (including the post and the crossbar). Against all odds, we won. We are unbeaten in 7, 7 wins in a row since the minor blip at West Brom.

22 year old Bailey Peacock Farrell had kept 3 clean sheets against Reading (including THAT penalty save), T’Blades and Bolton. He is still learning his trade. Alioski is still only in his second season playing in this league, battling not only a different style of football, but also being played in different positions on the pitch, sometimes covering as a left back. Between them, they probably make the same number of mistakes as Hernandez and Jansson do.  Unlike Pablo and Pontus however, BPF and Alioski get mercilessly boo-ed when they do something wrong. Leeds fans just don’t ever learn. Look at what all the constant booing and aggro did to Roofe when he first came to the Club. It knocked his confidence to rock bottom. It’s only thanks to Bielsa and sheer persistence that Roofe is what he is today, our top goal scorer. 5 goals in 4 games. According to BBC website he has scored 13 goals this season. It’s not even 2019 yet and he spent a month out injured.

At 1-2 down today, people were leaving in their droves. The day trippers who haven’t been to a Leeds game in ages sloping off, muttering “same old sh*te again”, you just couldn’t hold out could you? And, in the words of the great Jim Bowen, let’s look at what you could have won.. 2 goals in injury time, yet another turnaround. So the question is.. why would you? If you have paid your money and saved up all those brownie points all year from your missus and the kids, so you can go watch Leeds for one game, why leave before the end? The mind boggles.

The criticism wasn’t just from them though. Even as we were walking away from the ground, all you could hear was, “we need a decent keeper and a proper forward”. Eh? What game were you watching? We are top of the league. We have a massive goal difference. 7 wins on the trot. Jeez, what would they be saying if we were midtable and only two goals to the good? They’d be wanting two goalies, two forwards and a whole midfield.  I shudder to think what people would be saying if we were bottom of the league, battling relegation. There would be some sort of apoplectic crisis going on every week, liken to some mushroom cloud nuclear explosion, wanting to clear out the whole team…

Hang about that was the end of last season wasn’t it? Good job we didn’t sell all our players in June then, eh??

Even if we bought Messi, I still wouldn’t play him in this team. We are a unit. Not just a team of 11. We are a squad of 18. A gang of 25+. A side of 50+ including the youth and academy. This is our future. If things aren’t going well on the pitch, Bielsa will change it. Or at least threaten to change it by making Lewis Baker stand on the touchline! We do not need mercenary journeymen like we did in the days of Colin. We need to invest in what we have got. We are already the envy of most of the league, and indeed the Premiership. Constant whingeing about needing to bring more in is beyond ridiculous.

No one else could have done what we did today in the last 10 minutes of that game. Even Norwich, the crown princes of the 95+ minutes goals, could not do what we did today AND against Villa on Sunday (with one day less recovery time thanks to SkyTVisf**kings**t). I wouldn’t drop any of them. You don’t fix what isn’t broken. Yes, Cooper is out, as is Beradi and Bamford, and Izzy Brown has yet to kick a ball in anger. But I wouldn’t sideline any of our team, not whilst they can fight back like they did these last two games. Bielsa knows that he can make each player compete for their spot. He is willing to change the team at the time if he thinks it is necessary. He subbed Kalvin a few times and look at the lad now. One of the best players we have on the pitch, and still playing out of position. Talk about a utility player. We have been beset with injuries all season long, but we are top of the league. In the face of adversity ( and time wasting cheating teams and ridiculous reffing decisions), we are prevailing.

Keep the faith. Never, never stop fighting til the fighting is done. We rest when the fight is over. On On On

Never Stop Fighting Til The Fight Is Over

It’s Christmas, let’s spread a bit of Christmas cheer.

We have loads of things to be happy about, which is a rarity when you are a Leeds United fan. There’s just so many positives right now, it’s hard to find where to start…let’s see (in no particular order)

WGUAFC

Calm down, if we win on Sunday, we are safe from relegation for another year. Let’s just put it into perspective. Last season under TC, we had a really good run, although you’d never have thought that given the comments on unsocial media. It was only really after Ayling got taken out by Bridcutt (remember him?) at Forest that day and our injury list took hold that we started having problems. Plus then there was that little matter of fielding a terrible side and yielding to a lower league team in the cup that ground us to a halt. Yes, no one likes to be reminded of their mistakes, but we need to look back at our mistakes to go forward into the future. Like I said earlier this season, I’ll be happy with going up in second but with a decent cup run.

We are tip top, tippety top, top of the league

There is no need to put any stats up about how many times the team at the top of the league at Christmas is promoted, I’ll leave that to other sites. It is interesting though that the Scousers are currently sitting top of Division 1, and as usual Jamie Carragher is needing a nine pack of Andrex bog rolls, in an effort to curtail his excitement. There is something similar for that league in the last decade, in that the teams at the top at Christmas, have inevitably been champions, apart from Arsenal in 2007/08 (injury curse again)… and yes, you’ve guessed it, Liverpool in both 08/09 and 13/14. Could it be 3rd time lucky for the Bin Dippers? Better not be, seeing as my fantasy league team is basically built round Manchester City.

Burton are in the Semi finals of the League Cup

In the words of the great Jim Bowen, “let’s take a look at what you could have won”. I can’t stand Burton. I was ecstatic that they got relegated because having to fight to the death to get tickets for  that sh****y little excuse for a ground again would have seen me off. The only good thing about it was the fact that they served red wine in the stands, which kept me nice and warm. Dirty team of thugs who played us off the park. Grudges aside for a moment (you don’t hear me saying that very often), they did what any lower league club aspires to do every year, they scored the “Glamour Tie”, Manchester City. They’ll be rolling in the moolah after that. Enough to keep the vultures away for another season at least. I bet the Ipswiches and Boltons of this world are looking back in anger, and I reckon the Wendies will be diving down the back of the settee looking for pennies soon. The fact that Burton saw off Boro in the process makes it even funnier, and if Boro end up failing to get promoted again (hopefully), I will laugh at Pulis and Ayala. The antithesis of proper football – antifootball

SkyTVisf**kings**t is gaining momentum

Let’s all take a moment to laugh. Hahahahahaha. I watched the Forest v Derby game, and even they were singing it. In fact, not only was the “turning down the volume” tactic used, but it also sounded like they played some extra crowd noise over it. Like they used to put canned laughter on the TV shows in the 70s if they weren’t very funny. How very marvellous! Up to and including Villa, Leeds United have been on the telly 15 times this season (I think). That’s more than any other club in the EFL 72 and Division 1. Probably more than Cardiff and Huddersfield have been on, added together and multiplied by 5 – only joking – but you get the gist of it. Bonus for anyone in Oz, USA and the Far East, not so good for anyone who had planned out their holidays when the fixture list came out in June.

Patrick Bamford has got his scoring boots back

Now that he is fit (finally), within five minutes of coming on, he scored against Bolton. It was a scrappy affair, but a win is a win. 3 points is 3 points, no matter how you get them.

Leeds United were awarded a penalty!!

Our last penalty had been October 14th 2017, when Pablo ( in one of his worse runs of form) toe poked the ball straight to the keeper. But when Kemar Roofe wrestled the ball from Pablo’s clutches at home against QPR on 8th December, I knew we had turned the corner. Actually I didn’t, but I was so relieved Roofe was taking it, it was almost like we had scored anyway. I haven’t heard if the referee that day, Peter Banks, is still alive and kicking, but one of the QPR fan websites was calling him Mr Guessit, so they clearly aren’t happy with him. It doesn’t matter anyway, we scored, McLaren moaned (nothing new there then) and we won. If we have to wait that long again for another one, so be it.

They’ve given up with the yellow cards and penalties for fouls in the box when taking corners and free kicks

We were never going to get a penalty from these situations anyway, this is just for Beradi’s sake when he gets back in the team

Bielsa

Enough said. The End

Santa and some fat bloke in a red suit

Skytvisf**kings**t turns out is actually a great combination of characters for a password. It is probably the only good thing about it. I tell a lie, when it is sung, it forces them to turn the volume down and apologise for any bad language that anyone may have been offended over. Anything that forces them into making an apology is something to be applauded, so long live Skytvisf**kings**t!

I just need to acknowledge, I am well aware that there are many Leeds fans who are ecstatic that Leeds United are on telly, because otherwise they would never get to see them. I know that there are fans who live in Oz, the USA and the Far East etc. who without a doubt would trade in their nearest and dearest to be at a live game, but geographically find it impossible to do so. I know that there is an army of Leeds United season ticket holders (some of them first time season ticket holders at that) and platinum/gold/silver members who don’t stick a chance of ever getting to an away game who benefit from it. When we get promoted and the away allocation is EVEN less, there will be a lot more people who won’t get to see us play away.

It doesn’t make up for the fact that we, the paying fans, are basically slaves to the television gods though.

Having said that, the rescheduling of the game at Wendies on Friday night did have some perks. It spared us the ridiculous RVP (rendezvous point for those of you who don’t travel to games by coach) along that stretch of hard shoulder as you come off the motorway. It spared the annual blushes of people who are forced to use the outdoor facilities because the coaches aren’t allowed to move on until the man from Del Monte says yes.  It spared us the delaying tactics of  South Yorkshires’ finest to escort us to Hillsborough in the snails pace crawl that we normally endure. Thankfully, if there is anything that the rozzers are afraid of, it is the thought that Friday night rush hour on the M1 becomes more of a nightmare than it normally is. Because you certainly don’t want to be late home for your tea, do you?

After trying my hardest to stay awake for the Premiership clash of the titans that was Cardiff v Burnley on Sunday (failed by the way), I know why Skytvisf**kings**t show us all the time. The game was as dull as ditchwater. Hardly the cauldron of excitement that you get at our games, more like a pot of gruel slowly, stodgily plip plopping away, matched by their midfield actually.  It obviously didn’t warrant most of the Burnley and Cardiff fans to turn up either, as there were massive gaps in the ground. Skytvisf**kings**t must have realised that most people would have been watching the golf, so chose to show the dullest game that they could, in order to fulfil their Premiership obligations, so they could justify the poor viewing figures. Luckily, I recorded the Wendies game, seeing as I was stood right behind a huge pillar (for a paltry £39 plus £1 bates tax) and struggled to see most of the game anyway. Yes, I had to put up with the prematch build up with Jimmy Floyd Piggybank, but that’s what the fast forward button is for. And, I only did it to see Marcelo’s legendary pre match interviews, but Skytvisf**kings**t have now cottoned onto the fact that Bielsa is basically taking the p*ss, and the spoilsports won’t show any more than a sentence now. It took them long enough. Although the post match interview was much , much better. I vote for more Marcelo, please, come on change.org!

I am not keen to give up my satellite subscription even though it is the source of my continued frustration. If I keep the sports package, I get a cheap movie deal for a start. I am not yet SkyQ ing as I’m not bothered with that. 401HD undoubtedly gives you a brilliant view of the game (especially if you are stood behind a pillar for £39 plus £1 bates tax) and it enables you to see shots from several different angles. It is MUCH better than that Irish guy on the EFL show. The fact that I now find Ian Holloway endearing, is testament to how annoying Murray is. Even Liam Rosenior is better than Colin. He is much better than Jimmy Fled for the Money in my Bank though.

As Leeds United will be on Skytvisf**kins**t for another 6 games, before they release what they are going to schedule in December (I wonder who???), it will be interesting to see who else they can scrape from the bottom of the barrel to feature as the guests on our live games. Who will be the next washed up, publicity seeking hasbeen guest to jealously tow the “Leeds will never keep up this tempo” party line? Who will be the next victim of fast forwarding at x30 just so I can see the Bielsa interviews?

The phrase if you can’t beat them, join them, simply cannot apply here. We are stuck with Skytvisf**kings**t for the duration. At least when we get promoted, we will get more of the share of the TV money for our appearances than Shaun Harvey could muster from his mumblings – sorry –  “heavyweight punch for punch calculated brow beating bargaining” to get the best deal possible for the EFL TV package. We should get a decent reflection of what we should be earning given the number of people that watch us on the telly. The advertising revenue and visual worth of our team and our fans is probably more than the lower half of the premier league added together.

What we can do is continue to make our disdain heard on the telly as much as possible. What we can do is turn down any advances by Skytvisf**kings**t to give any interviews or photo opportunities to them which may promote their gospel. What we can do is complain as much as possible at any given opportunity about what we, and I don’t just mean the away travellers who have to rearrange flights, coaches, hotels etc. at such short notice, I mean ALL of us who are short changed by the rescheduling of games by the television gods. They treat us like a bunch of performing monkeys, just to be used to promote their brand.

We are not, We Are Leeds and We Are Proud. They are the fools.

Not wanting to be carried away on the wave of optimism that is sweeping across the amassed Leeds fans in country (and the ones who don’t support us but want to see us back in the Premier League), I am dodging the addictive enthusiasm by briefly looking back at how far we have actually come since the demise of the miserable beardy bad loser.

Believe it or not, this months blog has been inspired by, of all things, ordering Hull tickets. Hull tickets are £24 plus £1 bates tax for the cheap seats and £27 plus £1 bates tax for the nice(r) seats down the side. They do not have any concession prices for senior citizens or juniors. The reason for this stems from their last few seasons of turmoil. If you remember, when they got bought out, their new owners decided that they wanted to change the name (in an all American franchise-type way) to Hull Tigers (as opposed to Tigers  Tigers Ra Ra Ra). This despite the fact that Hull City Association Football Club has been in existence since 1904 (technically older than us then) and completely against the wishes of the fans. On their return to the Premier League in 2016, the club badge had the “Hull City AFC” “The Tigers” (Ra Ra Ra) removed and instead just had a picture of a tiger on the front. Their crowds have dwindled since the heady days of Phil “Tango” Brown and sealing that brilliant promotion ( that technically we gave them by beating Watford) in 2013. Even with the falling ticket sales, the new owners are still embroiled in a dispute with the fans regarding ticket pricing and now, I believe the Football Supporters Federation are involved as well to help the Hull Supporters Trust to sort this out. The season has begun and ticketing has not been resolved. Interestingly enough, Hull FC (egg chasers) share the same ground/ ticket office/ facilities etc. and they DO have concessions. So much for fans being the heartbeat of the club, hey?

Meanwhile, across the border, in another one of Peter’s flawed attempts at Chairmanship, after hoisting up his white flag to the Malaysians, the Bluebirds were threatened with fire to re brand them into Red Dragons. (oh I am getting the puns in here). Across the proper Pennine border, Blackpool are still neck high in the mire with possibly the worst owners in football history, closely followed by Charlton, whose new owner practically declared that they were merely a feeder club to his European teams. Regular readers need not be reminded about the Blackburns of this world.

Leeds United have had their fair share of difficulties, and this piece is not the case of people in glass houses not chucking bricks. My point is that since Beardy finally got his marching orders from Sig. Cellino we have still had our ups and downs. And, unfortunately s**t sticks, so the phrase “doing a Leeds” is still evident in the ether. However, it seems that whilst we bore the brunt of the full force of the Football League and the hefty points deduction in 2007, like most things in 2018, carefully placed money can now resolve this issue (Villa, Bolton, Sunderland..woo hoo!). Thankfully,  despite all the showboating aerial stunts, projections, coffins and other (un)social media campaigns, Leeds fans have not yet had to resort to throwing tennis balls onto the pitch or boycotting en masse, since Bad Santa took his sack of toys out of Elland Road, without taking a penny in wages – remember. In real terms, we have not had it as bad as some. It is something we can count our blessings on.

Our club went through the lowest of the low in those 10 years. Those who thought that it was bad under Cellino either can’t remember how bad it was, or have chosen to block it all out of their memories. Even before Beardy, there were signs of trouble ahead. For example, the insistence that the majority of the fans voted to move to Swillington and the badly thought out titles of books and DVDs (Leeds United – A Season on Trial, United We Fall and my personal favourite – Peter Ridsdale -My Leeds United). Never has the phrase, you reap what you sow, has been so apt.

From the sublime to the ridiculous. We had Swillington Sewerage Works, the Fullerton Ice Rink and Beeston Super Casino, then the Bates Hotel / Motel , all which would help the Club??? We went from semi-finals in the Champions League to not owning the ground, the Academy, the  training ground and not even the matchday  catering made us any money.

So when Cellino came in and cleared out, he did what no one else had the balls to do. He took back charge, or at least he tried to. He tried to stick two fingers in the face of the Football League, Harvey and his not fit for purpose buddies, Skytvisf**kings**t and everyone else who realistically couldn’t run a Subbuteo football team, let alone a Division 2 outfit. Yes, he made managerial mistakes, but in doing so, he laid the foundations clear for Radrizzani. Yes, under his tutelage we made some random signings, but it was the basis for what we have now….Beradi for one, without Kyle Bartley there would have been no Ayling… But of course, Cellino will never be credited by some people for what he did.

And, back to the now. This Saturday sees a meeting between the Supporters Group and The Club about our Centenary year celebrations. Badges aside, our Club is listening to it’s fans, and in the end, the board did listen to the fans anyway about the crest.  We have secured Bielsa who has transformed our team of end of season relegation dodgers, into tip, top, top of the leaguers, who are being raved about from all four corners.

Yes, it is early days still, but it is looking like the sun is shining….

Enduring image…isn’t it?

Not so much nowadays, Ron Manager. Plus, I don’t even know if, in this modern world of political correctness, you could even say, “small boys, in the park, jumpers for goalposts” anymore without someone showing you a yellow card for the lack of inclusivity. Should I say vertically challenged, self identifiers, in a green space, clothing dedicated as vertical structures? Oh and, by the way, this isn’t an excuse to pay homage to the Fast Show, it is merely to demonstrate how much football has changed.

For the better? Not so sure about that. On the flipside, can you imagine a 21st century version of The Fast Show? An hour of complete inoffensiveness, now that would be something. Oh hang on, it’s the BBC . Normal telly then!

After coming home from the hard fought 0-0 against the Smoggies last night and after much heated debate in the Golden Lion about a point gained over two points dropped, that phrase popped into my head. It suddenly occurred to me that Friday nights game was about as far away from “jumpers for goalposts” as it could be.

To me, the result wasn’t so much the issue, as the style of football that we had to endure. Well, it wasn’t football really was it? It was 90 minutes of the antithesis of football. There was no skill there. No perfect through passes, no floated crosses, no one-touch silkiness, no intricate cross field fluidity. NADA. It was typical Pulis, niggling, pushing and shoving and blocking. Anti football as my friend, Alan Barker put it. A team of 6 foot plus built-like- brick-shithouses giants, but with all the stability of the first of the three little pigs’ houses. You huff and you puff and you blow the house in.

That would have never happened in the park. If you fell over, everyone just ignored you and carried on playing. If you kept rolling about on the pitch as if a sniper had got you, you would suffer the indignity of being picked last next time, along with the fat kid. Or even worse, never being asked at all. In those days, it was all about getting the ball and legging it up half the pitch, to smack in that wonder goal. The goal which people would still be going on about next half term.

The worse thing was that we let THEM drag US down to their level. Gone was the one-touch finesse of Derby and Norwich away. Gone was the “We’re Leeds United, we’re taking the piss” swagger of the first few games. It was replaced by the same dross that we spewed out last season against the likes of Cardiff and Wolves. Where all we could do was try and hack people down. The same stupid tackles that saw off most of our team at some point in 2017-18 in a flurry of red cards and costs us our points so dearly. Until New Year we were on the up and then it all just fell away, the most sendings off for many a season.

I was never lucky enough to see John Charles play, and at the time, not old enough to fully understand what the great Don Revie did in the Golden Leeds United era. I am lucky enough to have seen the videos of them and the great skillful play of the likes of Pele, Cruyff and the latter years of our own Championship winning side, not to mention the craftiness of Roberto Carlos (look him up younger readers). We have seen what Bielsa can do to the team, he has improved it enormously already. Remember it is the same team as last season, bar Douglas and Klich. It is too soon to say what style of football he plays, as he is still essentially tinkering, until he finds it. God knows what happened at Preston! Must have been a blip. The positive is that the players are able to adapt, even though they are the same players, they are not limited to one role. The team are pushing forward at speed but still covering the defence.  Look at Douglas flying down the wing, like a young(er) Tony Dorigo, it’s not just Ayling that can put a cross in. I am hoping that Bielsa can bring out more of the potential out of the team the longer he works with them. I am also hoping that he can build a resilience in them, so they stick with the game plan and resist the “play ugly” timewasting, cheating crap that the rest of the league resorts to.

As I was walking away from the ground, I heard someone say ” well that’s it, everyone has worked Bielsa out, that’s our season gone”. I thought, Jeez, it’s only August and you’ve given up already. There’s another 7 months to go at. What sort of a football fan are you, if you call it quits before the season has even started going! In the days of jumpers for goalposts, you could have been playing football from dawn to dusk. Doing “next goal wins” for hours until the person who brought the ball actually scored a goal and won. You needed stamina in those days to play the beautiful game. We’ve still got plenty of time before February to go up as Champions.

Beans on toast for tea. Marvellous!