They included ties in The FA Vase, The FA Youth Cup and The FA Women’s Cup and have taken him up to 164 matches in the current season.

Those nine were: Invisible 2 Abbey 1, Hillingdon 2 Brook House 0, Brazen Head 4 Allsop Arms 0, QPR 1 Luton 3 (Girls), QPR 8 Harpenden 0 (Older Girls), Sporting Bengal 2 Hythe 6, Bexhill 0 Steyning 2, Barnet 2 Liverpool 3 (Women) and Crystal Palace 3 Watford 2 (Youth).

I’m quite happy with the tally of 41 goals. A Brazen Head striker called "Youssef" scored all four of his side’s goals but the pick of the last couple of weeks was the Luton Girls player who chipped the ‘keeper from 25 yards. Her excitable coach ran the whole length of the pitch, jumping up and down and punching the air.

I thought the Vase tie at Hillingdon was excellent, worth more than the two entertainment stars allotted by one newspaper. I would’ve said a solid three and a half. The home side won the Middlesex "derby" with two late goals, the first poked into the net by a player lying on the ground. There were two FA colleagues in the crowd. Small world, eh?

Where do London League "Invisible FC" play? I don’t know, no one’s ever seen them.

Last Wednesday evening was bitterly cold. I read somewhere that the temperature went down to -35C but that may have been in Poland. I was accompanied to a particularly bleak Mile End Stadium in East London by one of the above colleagues from Soho Square and we saw Sporting Bengal comprehensively beaten by Hythe Town.

The match was in the Kent League Cup, which at this stage is played in a league format. Neither side was actually able to progress in the competition, if I understood the programme notes correctly, but this "meaningless" fixture was very watchable and produced eight goals. The highlight of the evening, though, was a hot chocolate drink at half-time.

On Saturday I paid my first visit to Bexhill for 18 months or so and saw their Sussex County League Division Two fixture with Steyning Town. I was delighted to meet up again with Sam Hammond, the former Bexhill chairman who was so kind to me and Dad when we used to watch the team regularly.

I noticed a "Sam Hammond" down on the teams’ notice board as a Bexhill substitute. "Are you playing today then, Sam?" Well, no, it was his 17-year-old grandson and he came on for the last ten minutes or so. He had bags of energy, rushing around in midfield, and I hope he gets other opportunities with the first team.

Two hard-fought cup ties in the last two days have brought me up to 5,056 matches all told. I’ll be going up to Liverpool in a couple of weekends’ time to stay with my friend John from university and his family – and I have my sights on Cammell Laird v VCD Athletic in The FA Vase for the Saturday afternoon.