Oh when the Saints go marching in, oh when the Saints go marching in

It's August! And the football season has started. Well for those of us who support the best team in the world anyway. Long gone are the carefree Saturdays when you can while away the hours, thinking happy thoughts and not worrying a bean about anything. Nope, when the football season starts, say hello to gut-wrenching Saturdays*, where everything centres of what happens come 4.45. This is doubly true if you are a Saints fan (witness the trauma of the last game of the season before last where we were quite literally 60 seconds away from promotion and it all went horribly wrong), and we always have a slowish start to the season.

So, just imagine my surprise when, come 5.00, we are Top of the League. If only the season could end now.



*although increasingly this becomes Sunday afternoons, Monday/Tuesday evening

We're on the ball

I went to my first live football game in quite some time at the weekend. A pre-season friendly, Oxford Utd playing a Manchester United XI. There's nothing quite like watching football live. You don't get a replay or commentary (well apart from that of the surrounding fans) and depending on where you are sitting, it's pretty hard to judge distances and which direction the ball is going sometimes.

We were sat behind one of the goals, which is a bit of a novelty for me as when I normally go to the football, it is to see my beloved St Johnstone play and we're about level with the halfway line. It's a totally different atmosphere - lots more singing and banter. The Man Utd goalie, who really only could have been about 11 (perhaps that was what the XI in their team name referred to. The ages of the players), was a redhead. You can imagine the chants...

Anyway, it was good being at a live game again. We got goals (4 of them, although shame that 2 of them were scored by the opposition), and when Oxford scored their second, my feet did actually leave the ground as I jumped up in the air. They may not be my beloved Saintees, but it is good to get behind a team and care about them winning.

I miss live football.