Season Diary 55

Entry #55: Saturday 31st January 2009

Ta da! i took this picture off the BBC website but there was something similar in the record and the sun which i read yesterday. Happy days. I have also found out he will have number 16 on his back, taking over from Rhian Dodds. Incidentally both papers i read had interviews with Kyle and in shocking news he has a positive outlook! He has come up here and wants to do well for Killie and put himslef about, no one will get an easy time of it agaisnt him. All this positivity i hope will be infectious and we will start afresh this afternoon and scud St Mirren at their house warming party!

Last night i watched a bit of the SPL magazine show on Setanta, Booth and Lovell reading autocue is quite hard to take but some of the pieces are good. Christopher Brookmyre (good author) the St Mirren fan went to look at Love St one last time and also the new St Mirren stadium and the presenters took Killie players Gary Locke and David Fernandez clay pigeon shooting. Turns out Ferdy isnt his nickname, its Dav. Every days a school day.

Got a text last night also from my brother telling me Mark Roberts has signed for Ayr United. Good luck to him i suppose, At times in this past month i have thought we could resign him, for someone to hang about the box instead of dropping deep to pick up balls he could have fitted, but maybe that was just the sheer frustration of watching Killie recently which made me think such despewrate toughts. Anyway back to Kyle, i was looking for a picture to put in this post and actually found a video courtesy of the Standards excellent online content, have a look for yourself here!

Right i better go get my lucky pants and that on because the train to Paisley is in an hour and i have to get fed and stick a few quid on a Kevin Kyle opener! Pretty excited about todays game, oh you know whats jsut struck me, what if they bring back the Paisley Panda for this game and this game only, that would be cracking. Fingers crossed.

Season Diary 54

Entry #54: Thursday 29th January 2009

The Sun is carrying news today on Kyle saying that the lure of a Scotland recall brought him back to Scotland. That positive if you ask me, i like those quotes, seems like we have signed a hungry player. it also says he scored 14 goals in a season about 4 or 5 years ago for Sunderland in the Championship. Dont remember that i have to say. Wonder what number he’ll wear, i am a geek for all that stuff. Alas no posed picture in todays paper so fingers crossed for tomorrow.
God now i am thinking though, is he fit? Will we have to wait a few weeks to see him so he can get up to the fictional state that is match fitness? And while he ascertains this match fitness will he be struck by the curse f the new Kilie signing? a broken nose caused by Mark Reilly (ala pat nevin and Christophe Cocard) or something? all stuff to worry about i should think. Also, where will he fit into our line up who are churning out one of the most inconsistent runs in memory? Drop Russell? Ferdy? God i know we have been crap but if we start taking out one player we could easily rejig the whole team.
actually, there's a idea worth investigating....

Season Diary 53

Entry #53: Wednesday 28th January 2009

flicked through yesterdays paper this morning eating my breakfast and noticed that Jim Jeffries might be missing from the dugout for Saturdays game at the new St Mirren stadium. He will under go a routine operation today (which i suppose was now yesterday) and its up to the doctors whether he will be even at the game. Get well soon Jim i say, actually, given my thoughts on having an eye in the stands at games this could be a blessing, JJ can see what a pigs ear we make of many things during each and every game froma more elevated position.

Anyway this news i have which is now a day old seems weird considering i was told at tea time that Kevin Kyle was in talks to sign with us. How if JJ is ill and in hospital can this be happening when he has been fit and on the go for the first 27days and we signed no one? I’m not complaining however, were crying out for a striker. Watching the League Cup semi final between Celtic and Dundee Utd (it could have been us! well if we werent so crap in our earlier round game that is) i decided to get my phone out and spread this news text style and score some opinion to pass the time.

21.00 RK: word on the street is that Kevin Kyle is having a medical at Killie.
21.14 D: heard he’s on the verge of an 18 month deal with us coz he got released early from Coventry. He’s better than nothing.
21.15 RK: Thats not very positive.
21.18 D: After sunday i’ve lost a lot of positivity and faith in those at rugby park. By all means i hope this guys a roaring success, after Simmonds i’d take anyone
21.21 RK: You not think that him and Simmonds would make a good partnership? him playing off Kyles shoulder?
21.23 D: I dont think anything involving Simmonds would be good. I’ve personally sen nowt from that boy. He’s pish.
21.26 RK: Fair enough! At least we might see a bit of brawn in the shape of the big Stranraer baggage handler, cannae see him as a shitebag. Though from what i remember of his Scotland career, a goalscorer isnt exactly his job description.
21.31 D: Nah what we dont need is someone who creates goals, we need someone in the box. too many times Fernandez and Russell come deep and there’s noone in the box for them to aim for as thats where one of them should be. Hopefully Kyle will be an aggressive forward for us. Better than Burchill i will also add.
21.34 RK: Have to agree there, i do fear for him amongst the Killie faithful however. Kyle doesnt rhyme with pish like Nish did though. I’m sure there are haters already!
21.41 D: Everyone should have a clean slate, in a ideal world that is. too many will rmemember his Scotland career, which is a few levels above us anyway. he’s played the majority of his career in the top half of the championship for the bigger clubs. He’ll have plenty of haters i agree but thats the joys of football fans , sure willo flood will have th same problem
21.44 RK: you wonder what goes through these guys heads, not getting a game at man city, to not getting a game at cardiff to getting a game at DU to not getting a game at Celtic. Weird, thats the way it goes i suppose. You think if we get Kyle that’l be the close of business at ruggers?
21.46 D: Aye. I’m surprised we’ve signed anyone at all. BB basically said in his column in the record today we’d be signing no one.
21.49 RK: Were playing like fucking coo’s and we have freed about 6 or 7 players, we had to sign someone, surely we should be getting more. A full back, a centre half? Some loans?
21.52 D: It would be nice but i’m not holding my breath. Is that idiot Morgan still on the books we signed form ICT? what a pointless signing.
21.58 RK: Er, im not sure, if he hasnt been freed then he has been told he can leave. A panic buy of this time last year. Surely the whole point of these windows is that you pick the guys you want and go for them. Man Citys youth set up gets rave reviews on talksport, why doenst JJ contact ol Leslie Hughes and see who wants to come up for some fitba? Though he doesnt want to play our own yins so why play someone elses
22.03 D: Hes playing Coventry’s young wans’s. Dunno why we never went for the old firm pair that Hamilton got. How come falkirk get Arsenal youth players and we get Simmonds. I’m picking on him i know. I’m getting angry the more i think about it.
22.07 RK: Never thought about that. We have to remember that he is carrying an injury, dunno whether that makes it worse though. Hope if Kyle signs we get a picture in the paper of him wi the strip or something, love all that stuff, nae doubt we’l get a wee soccer shorts wi 4 lines though.

Celtic won the semi 11-10 in penalties, never seen anything like it. Everyone hit one and Willo Flood missed on his second time round. Hoped agaisnt hope that Boruc would be the sinner and his big coupon would have a haunted look on the back of the papers the next day, alas he hit the best penalty of the night. Checked our fixtures to see if the Old Firm final would affect us, were away at Inverness though so it wont.

Season Diary 47

Entry #47: Monday 18th January 2009

Today Kaka turned down a move to Manchester City and frankly thank god. Let me put this into some sort of perspective. The wages that were reported, regardless of whether they were correct or not, were in the region of five hundred thousand pounds a week. half a million pound every week in a wee brown pay poke. Forgive me if i miss out my customary exclamation marks (which i do covet) when discussing this because as much as it shocks me, it is more sheer revulsion than anything else. In this time of a recession the fact that this is actually accepted makes the mind boggle.

the perspective? Killie havent paid five hundred thousand pounds in transfer fees for any one player in their history. It is frankly scary that we are playing the same game under the same rules set down by the governing bodies like UEFA and FIFA, scary.

In fact a while ago, a few seasons maybe, i wrote a piece for the Killie Hippo fanzine highlighting the gulf in money and how that money is ruining football, when West Hams new Icelandic owners (oh the irony) were throwing about mega money about paying 5.5million fines like it was pocket change due to transfer discrepancies in their buying of Tevez and Mascherano (oh the irony again as the Hammers seem in the shite a wee bit as that transfer debacle still rumbles on) i attended a Sportsmans Dinner for the Killie Trust which was raising money to keep afloat the Kilmarnock Youth system, a youth system which will provide most of our players one would assume in these credit crunch days. That fundraiser raised something like six thousand pounds and i highlighted the major differences and how there is a seeming lack of justice in this football world.

Today just shows that, despite the signing not going through, the gulf which i spoke of merely a few years ago has been blown even wider. Its obscene.

See Think Tanks? They are pure and utter think tank!

Article Appeared in Killie Hippo Issue 85 (available from 17th January 2009)

Every so often the same crap appears, summits come up, think tanks or whatever they may be are arranged, and the great minds of our game discuss (obviously no actual end product occurs) what should happen to football in Scotland. It usually happens around the time of a SPL championship petering out too early or in this seasons case our two biggest (and seemingly the only ones who are actually important) exit from Europe before Christmas so in early December it happened. Its well documented that our own JJ was omitted from this meeting of the minds, unacceptable in my mind that any SPL boss was left out never mind someone of his experience, not to mention the fact he has been in a job the longest. But I wont dwell on that, we all know it was wrong, rather I will dwell on some of the things that came up and were reported in the papers.

first the not so stupid, merging the SPL, SFA and the SFL, that has to be done, they are all just names, they mean nothing, at the end of the day everything comes back to the SFA so why not just revert to it, put everything back together and lets do it quickly.

League reconstruction into a pyramid system also has to be embraced, our present system is squeezing the life out everything, there is no peril for the bottom league, finish bottom? Who cares. Everything is so stagnant, there are clearly clubs who want in, the Gretna debacle last year showed this so why not give the chance, if as was mentioned above, the governing bodies amalgamated this could be done with ease, get the juniors and highland leaguers involved too, in fact get the amateur game into it too, the pyramid should stretch all that way so that anyone who starts a club in the bottom league potentially can make it to the top, surely that would be good for the game. For me that wouldn’t be where it stopped, the Spl needs to be bigger, 16 teams maybe, making a thirty game season, every fan is sick of playing the same teams more than once a season, even the new teams coming up are sick of it. Give the league cup a champions league makeover to increase the games quota for fans if needed maybe. Also why not add some teams to kick it all off? Three leagues of 16 maybe. I don’t know.

Ken whit? If they just get rid of the ridiculous split then that would be a start.

Right, now for what to my mind is the ridiculous. Summer football. What a load of crap, what would it solve? It rains all year for a start, football should start at the end of summer and finish as it begins. It works. Why risk changing it, for my money aligning ourselves with Ireland for example tells its own story, cos regardless of what Conor Sammon says, irish fitba is pish. I like going to the football in the winter, I like putting on my big jacket and scarf and plodding over to rugby park. I like to see long sleeved strips, I wait eagerly to see my next orange ball getting used, basically its good. I also like it when we get a busy festive period of football, its part of Christmas. What I don’t want to happen is to miss part of the season because I have a fortnights holiday in july. And I cant see how it will help international football in any way. God they all clamour for a winter shutdown now but what god forbid we had summer football and we made a championship finals? Do we have a summer shutdown in the heat of our season? I think its all preposterous and would mean our stock in football which currently is worth as much as a pound note down to something more like some high street shopping vouchers. The only way to keep any standing in football to me is to keep our season in the same time frame as the rest of the main football world, kinda like how it is actually. Plus would we ever get a break, it would be wall to wall football, our season would be ending as the English one starts, no in between, personally I think our league would suffer as a consequence, all those who already have English allegiances (a reall irritation of mine actually) would see those allegiances solidify and possibly at the detriment of our game, in fact I could honestly see those who want summer football making a pilgrimage to a premiership match during their Christmas holidays thus making a mockery of the situation. Plus why would you want to waste a good summers day going to the football? True story here, I had a teacher at the school (Mr Thomson) who only went to Rugby Park on crappy days, he had better things to do when it was nice, you know, I can sort of see his logic now.

If anything, youth football should take place in the summer, kids should train and play with the sun on their backs and on dry solid surfaces, they will learn so much more this way rather than snotering and slevering and their mums not letting them go to training because they might get the cold or they already have the cold, but then hay fever is a problem in the summer, god I have backed myself into an argumetal corner here somehow, need to find a away out because I have made an arse of my pint, think, think, think, wait, I have it. Andy Murray. This is a man who is no longer Scottish, how can he be, he is successful, how can any Scotsman think to identify with Murray what with him being they way he is. How did it happen? Well the talent was there but also he wasn’t doing it in the Dunblane equivalent of the back of the Henderson Church tennis courts, no he was doing his thing is Spain working with good coaches in the high heat and good conditions. We have good football coaches in this country, so lets just improve the conditions. Lets see to it that the next batch of Scottish stars transcend being Scottish in the best Andy Murray tradition.

Sort of went off on a tangent with that one, oh well back to business, they also discussed referee performance, sorry think tank lads, are you all not a bit late for all that, should you not maybe have looked at the men in black (or more usually luminous yellow or blue, or red, or….) and their on field doings before giving them a wage hike earlier this year? Surely that would make sense. For me what doesn’t make sense is them asking for more money to do the same crap (or possibly now worse) job as they did last year and the year before for more money, was that not the opportune moment to say, yes we will increase your already pretty good second income wages but to earn it why not put it on a sliding scale of performance or something? You know? Make them perform to a high standard to get the bucks. But they didn’t and we are suffering the consequences. Killie sit top of the bad boy league in the news of the world and I cant see how, do we have a dirty player? I don’t think we do. We have plenty of petulant players certainly but its not all down to them, surely not. The referees are crap pure and simple.

Actually I don’t really believe that, I actually think that our games needs a good look at itself and when it does include the players, I think referees actually have it made harder for them by cheating players, take the penalty v Falkirk at rugby park earlier this season (I have wrung that particular incident for all its worth I feel, I use it as an example all the time when talking about players cheating, but I feel its justified, so there) the way he went down for the penalty didn’t make it easy for the referee, if the player had some morals and did the right thing then the ref would merely have to concentrate on refereeing the game rather than first having to decided if some player is trying to con him first. So players of Scottish, English, European and world football, stop bloody cheating because its making it hard for the refs and so affecting us as fans, it’s a vicious circle. (of sorts)

Or is it just me that thinks all that?

Sorry if that was all a bit general this issue but its pertinent to the here and now. Worry not readers, I will be back to writing of Killie issues such as strips and ways of improving attendances and other Ruud staples soon, just thought I would get some stuff off ma chest.

Cheers for reading.

Ruud Kerouac
Killie Beat Writer

Season Diary 42

Entry #42: Saturday 10th January 2009

Wasnt plannign on posting this morning but when i got up and stepped out into the back garden i noticed a strange purple hue to the morning. Dont know what it was but it definitely felt like i was watching Steven Soderburgh's Traffic only this must be some sort of follow up sequel set in Ayrshire and my colour of gel on the lens is purple. That might not make sense, no matter today is the day and the reason i felt a need to log on and update this with the purple hue information regards my feelings about our strip choice today. Is it an omen?

Probably not, i am more likely reading something into nothing. Best log off as got to get myself ready.

Season Diary 40

Entry #40: Thursday 8th January 2009

weather has sorted itself out, that horrible freezing monday has been put behind us and lookig at different weather sites a mild weekend will mean the game should be on. Should.

Season Diary 39

Entry #39: Wednesday 7th January 2009

I hate Wednesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays really. I like Mondays though. I am weird that way. The reason I don’t like Wednesdays (and Thursdays) is that it feels like the week is almost over and generally I haven’t done anything, another one wasted so to speak, Mondays seem fresh to me and it feels like anything is possible, this wee is different as the week cant pass quick enough, Wednesday is the turning point where we turn the corner and now were in the final straight headed for Saturday.

Right today I will look at my personal record at the fiery (but sludge filled) pit of hell that is Somerset. I have been there six times in all, my Dad never took us when we were playing in the same divisions during the 80s and early 90s, I always felt that this was because it would be dangerous for young kids as me and my brother were at the time, but it may have been so he could go and enjoy himself, I have never asked him for the actual reason but if what I think is close to being right I can see his point either way.

Anyway, all those wins that others saw and reminisce fondly about (Tommy Burns’ goal being a prime example) I never seen. My first Killie game down in South Ayrshire was the forth round of the Scottish Cup the season after we won the cup (a wee reminder of our glorious cup win of 97) and in the teeming rain we got beat. In fact it was the shitiest day I can remember and we were stuck in the open at the side of the ground you enter at, horrible day. Two nil we were beaten and our cup was surrendered in the worst of places. My programme was ruined that day as well.

Next was a season later and a round earlier, and Andy Walker broke my heart. Suppose the less said about it the better, except that it was teeming, AGAIN, and after Walker scored that f-ing chipped penalty I left. Now my Dad wasn’t too pleased that I was leaving saying I should wait till the end, but I left anyway. So me Charlie and David Hill left and started walking to our friends house in Alloway. This shouldn’t have been that difficult but along the way we got lost and really we weren’t sure where we were going, if the truth be told our way of getting there was probably flawed. All in all, another shit day.

Next up was another cup game but this one was the league cup in 2001, myself and friends Ozzie and Grant plus Grants dad went down, in our lunacy we tried to get in a few pubs down in the Newton on Ayr area, we were duly turned around and ended up in what was then called Dantes and had some prematch beers. Surely this would be the one, the one where I broke my hoodoo, alas no, nil nil meant penalties and we made a major arse of it, big Johnny Bravo otherwise known as Chris Innes humped it right over their home enclosure if memory serves, and I mean humped it. Three defeats on the bounce.

Then in 2004 we played the second of the newly created West Sound Trophy games which replaced (sort of but not actually) the Ayrshire Cup, the first was played the November before on the same day as a Scotland game, the playoff versus Holland actually when McFadden scored in a one nil win, I was at that rather than the inaugural West Sound game at Rugby Park, which we won incidentally. No this was the second and the venue was Somerset in a kind of year about type thing and it was held in preseason so it was a July visit and so the chances of pissing rain were pretty slim (the last game in the league cup I should maybe mention was in early October and as I recall it was a mild night) so we headed out minus our jackets on the general service bus to Ayr. Getting off at the station we went to a place called Drouthy Neebors which myself and my brother ahd been to a party at before and remembered was alright, sadly it had changed hands and was pretty upmarket in comparison. I think we had one pint and went round to Dantes again, more like it. The game was a two each draw and so I saw my first Killie goals on enemy soil! David Lilley scored it. In fact we were up two nil and crusing then they scored two in the last quarter of an hour and pulled level and beat us on pens (again)! There was some bother outside the ground afterwards, really the first time I have any real memories of anything like that happening, suppose it was probably because I actually knew some people who were involved, I wasn’t though (not my thing) and I headed back into town. Myself, Blackie and a few others who exactly I cant recall, headed back to Killie after a few pints in a taxi and pulled up at the Howard as the Killie team were leaving, they were there post game for some sort of player of the year presentation, and we made out we were less than pleased to see them, scowling and telling each other that we were glad they were away and they should fuck off and think about the mess they made that day but secretly wishing we had been back in time to see them. anyway, when we went in the pub all those who were involved ins scuffles of varying degrees were in and had spoken to some of the players, they had jumped on some supporters buses going home the jammy gits, Gary Locke was the one that sticks in my mind because I up to that point was the lone voice in my love of Lockey but after that a fair few of the boys came round to him and his no nonsense style, every cloud as they say.

I said I was there six times and I wasn’t lying, that’s the four times I went to see Killie but I also went to a Ayr Dundee Utd pre season game years and years ago, in the away end I must add and finally I went to a Ayrshire Amateur Cup final to see my mate Mushy turn out for his team Newmilns Vesuvius. This was my happiest time in Somerset and I will tell you why. Free programmes were given out as you went through the turnstyles with a lucky number printed on the front, the winning number was read out over the tannoy and low and behold my programme was the lucky one! I was led through the main stand (“somerset is falling down” isn’t just a clever song its right on the money) to an office and handed a fifty pound note as my prize! Result! I went spent it in Parkers Niteclub in Kilmarnock that night.

Season Diary 38

Entry #38: Tuesday 6th January 2009

Tonight my mind turns to which strip we will turn out in on Saturday.

Will it be blue and white stripes, blue shorts and blue sock, i.e. our home kit or will it be head to toe in purple? what it wont be, I wouldn’t imagine, is our new white kit!

What with the rules and all that other stuff I would maybe imagine it will be the purple effort, the white on our home kit, in particular our patch on the back for the number, will probably mean the beaks will think it is a clash with Ayrs white home kit. All that sort of thing is ridiculous however, if people cant distinguish between our home kit and Ayrs home kit then they are probably blind. And if referees cant tell the difference between those two kits then god help us for when the have to make decisions! I always remember justifying kit clashes in years past by using black and white TV’s as the touchstone, for that I mean that if fans at home are watching on there old b&w telly the gradients of grey should be such that teams can be distinguishable. But that was years ago, surely this cant still be true (if it ever actually was!) actually, do they still do TV Licences for black and white telly’s?

I'm rambling.

So, to sum up, I am thinking that due to the madness of the rules these days, predominantly blue and white stripes clashes with white all over with black shorts and Killie will run out on Saturday giving it the whole Harchester Utd gig in purple from head to toe.

Season Diary 37

Entry #37: Monday 5th January 2009

Right, I am just in from playing five a side football out at the all weather pitches at Whitletts and it was absolutely baltic, freezing freezing cold. You would expect all weather pitches to be a bit Ronseal (I have been assured that this is now an official word in the dictionary and means “does exactly what it says on the tin” using it as an adjective however seems rather strange I have to say) but they weren't really, it was like a ice rink and the quicker the game was over the better.

It was so cold that the air felt thin and breathing was a real hassle. It was also my first outing in my new Wullie G style boots and I played like a donkey in them, you really do feel like so much more of a prize fanny when playing poorly in a pair of orange trainers than you do in traditional black, alas. Other new kit I had on was my Gigi Buffonalike neck scarf type thing. it went down a treat I must say and recommend it to anyone. Basically its the neck off a roll neck jumper with a extra bit down the front to keep your chest warm, its made from fleecy material, marvellous I must say. Was at the indoor skiing thing at Braehead on Friday there and say a snazzy cloth type neckerchief in camouflage and after tonight's outing in my own black one I may be interested in purchasing the camo type cloth one for when the temperatures pick up a little, they Italians have got it right, stylish but also with a point.

Whitletts to the uninitiated is a kick in the nuts away from Somerset so with me being there tonight I am think about whether or not the game will be on this coming Saturday, I know its only Monday but still. It is actually the first the thought of postponement has entered my mind, oh god I hope not.

Then again, if it is on and tonight's weather is the order of the day I worry about my extremities when they are standing for nearly two hours in the piggery, is there gloves warm enough to take it, and what about my feet, how many pairs of sock can I possibly get under my trainers. Actually if its this cold I can get my trainers on, if it thaws there is no chance I am risking ruining my good trainers standing in muck and pish in the railway end in deepest darkest Ayr.

I also worry, as I head for a shower, about the wee fella in that kind of cold.

Shrivelled walnut springs to mind.

Season Diary 36

Entry #36: Sunday 4th January 2009

Yesterday afternoon I was worked in the pub and Killie played our first game of the new year away at Falkirk. To be honest Football was the least of my worries yesterday, too much overindulgence (and work incidentally) during the festive period meant I slept in as long as possible and simply went to my work did a shift and came home, I had half an eye on the Killie score but I was simply too jaded, so jaded in fact that I never had a coupon on, which is some sort of miracle for me.

We drew one each and as far as I can gather from the people who were at it we played well in patches, and were unlucky but again, jaded as I am still, that is about all I was really interested enough to glean from it. I suppose a nice wee bit of info about yesterdays game was that we had ourselves a shiny new third kit on! This was effectively a negative view to our current purple away kit, where the white piping is on the away kit, purple is on this and its white. We wore it with the away shorts but as we wore white shorts with our purple top in Inverness earlier this season what we now have is a third kit! My feelings about this new strip is that it will never be sold, a typical Killie move, I will be making some sort of effort to maybe putting my hands on one of these white things however as they always turn up. If I remember rightly we wore an all red thing for one game only a few seasons ago against Dunfermline and it wasn’t sold in the shop as a kit, but as I sat eating a meal in a local family restaurant a few years later I a guy came in with his family with said red top on! somehow he put his hands on it and that’s my plan for one of these white fellas.

Oh, I have covered the afternoons entertainment yesterday but never mentioned the mornings, the Ayr tickets went on sale to season ticket holders at Rugby Park! I would like to regale you with a tale of standing in a massive queue to get my greasy mitts on the coveted briefs but the fact of the matter is that I gave my brother my stub from my season book needed to get a ticket last Sunday night so he went over and picked them up. He assures me that he simply walked in and purchased them with no real worries and I cant do anything but believe him but others that spoke to me today say that there was queues and they had to stand in them for an hour or more, most of these guys though went at opening time whereas my brother being the lazy arse he is wouldn’t have got out his bed to do that so sauntered over much later and was met with no queue shaped resistance.

So the tickets have been dealt with and anticipation to what should be the most anticipated game of the season (worst sentence ever!) begins, for the next week up to kick off I will report daily on the feelings and experiences as excitement reaches fever pitch. I might be hard to believe but this game is the equivalent to Barca Real, Rangers Celtic, the lot. It might not be high profile but its ours and basically you can stick your others up your arse as for the next week this is THE biggest game in football.