When I worked in The FA’s International Department in the early ‘70s, we ran the Great Britain Olympic football team and I was virtually "team secretary". There was a series of practice matches against Football League teams – I remember we played Southampton, Watford and Preston North End amongst others – before an Olympic qualifying tie against mighty Bulgaria at Wembley in March 1971.

I say "mighty" because Eastern bloc countries didn’t officially have professional players in those days, so they were able to field their strongest sides – i.e. their World Cup sides – in Olympic matches. I went out to Heathrow with a coach to meet the Bulgarian party and, chatting to them via an interpreter on the journey back to Central London, it was clear they expected to be playing against Charlton, Moore and Banks in front of a capacity crowd.

Well, our lads were actually from clubs like Hendon, Slough Town and Skelmersdale United and 2,200 spectators looked lost in the vast expanse of Wembley Stadium. The amazing thing was that we beat them, 1-0, in surely one of the greatest giantkilling feats ever. Unfortunately, we lost the second leg 5-0 in Sofia and didn’t make it through to the finals in West Germany.

But "The Barber" took a week off work to attend six matches in those 1972 finals: Iran v Hungary, Mexico v Sudan, Mexico v Burma, Malaysia v USA, Malaysia v Morocco and Poland v East Germany. It was hot in Nuremberg, where I stayed, and Sir Alf gave me some energising drinks to take over there that his squad used at that time.

After the best news, of course, came the worst news of last week. We watched it all unfold on the TV screens at Soho Square and I was glad I always walk the three miles to the office in the morning. I saw no reason to change my plans to see three games at the weekend and the first tube journey was from Paddington to Waterloo.

At midday on a Saturday you would expect to see trains packed with tourists but there was only one other person in my carriage – and he was a policeman wearing what looked like a bullet-proof vest and various other bits of padding. Waterloo Station seemed as busy as usual and the 12.20 to Staines was busy too. Staines v Brentford in a pre-season friendly turned out to be goalless but quite watchable. Needless to say a 1,000-plus crowd at Wheatsheaf Park observed a minute’s silence "impeccably".

Sunday’s double bill at Whitefield School was FC Unknown v FC Vendredi Soir in the Capital Sunday League and The Comets v KPMG in the Women’s Sunday Summer League. It was a burning hot day and, after sweltering through the first game (6-0 to that "Unknown quantity"), I watched the second one (3-0 to KPMG) standing next to a car wash in the far corner of Tesco’s car park. I was still within ten feet of the touchline and the occasional cold spray was very welcome.

The referee for the women’s match wore sunglasses. I’m not sure I’ve seen that before.

Last night’s London League Summer Cup Group A fixture at the Rec between Alba and IDS (1-4) was my 13th of the current season and 4,905th all told. I hope to reach 5,000 by the end of November.