He saw action in the Football League Championship, the Conference South and – inevitably – the London League.

Crystal Palace was the first team I supported. I was taken to Selhurst Park for the first of my 5,070 games as a nine-year-old and followed them all over the country as a schoolboy, usually on a supporters’ coach, as the Glaziers (as they were known then) progressed in exciting fashion from the Fourth Division to the First during the ‘60s. There was never a dull moment.

In the next decade I saw the Eagles win at places like Leeds and Sunderland on their way to The FA Cup semi-finals in 1976, when we lost 2-0 to Southampton at Stamford Bridge. The Palace players just froze in the heat. (Work that one out.) A desperate season, 1980-81, in which we had four managers in a month and got relegated signalled the end of my allegiance.

You don’t mind losing games but you hope your team will at least try to win.

I’ve only been back to Selhurst a handful of times since then, with the stadium almost unrecognisable now, and last Tuesday was one of those occasions. I sat in the fourth row at the Holmesdale Road End, where I used to stand all those years ago, and the Eagles squeezed home 2-1 against QPR. They were really hanging on at the end. Typical Palace!

In tow I had my friend Carly from San Francisco, who was visiting for a week or so. She has a Masters Degree in Colonial Indian History from Oxford University but is a lot more interested in English football, following Arsenal’s fortunes in particular. On the following evening she doubled the crowd as we saw Invisible and Warrington feature in a seven-goal thriller (3-4) at Paddington Rec.

Yet again Eastbourne was virtually underwater at the weekend, with all the local football off. After several fruitless visits to The Saffrons, I still haven’t seen any Eastbourne Town action there since mid-November. With United’s fixture at The Oval also cancelled, the situation looked bleak at around 1.30 on Saturday. I jumped on a train to Lewes, having seen in a local paper at the station that they were scheduled to play Dorchester Town at The Dripping Pan, and hoped for the best.

Well, fortunately they did play, though it was slightly disconcerting to go through the turnstiles and see the match officials trying to pass the ball to each other near the centre circle. There was some surface water and you could hardly say it was moving smoothly along the ground. Then a couple of chaps came on with forks and that seemed to help. Lewes won 3-2 after being 2-1 down at the break and I was back with Mum in time to see Newcastle v Southampton on the box.

I haven’t decided about tonight. Might go to Hendon.