Four other games last week, including another one on Merseyside on Sunday morning, took him up to 175 for the season and 5,067 all told.
The results were: Accenture 2 Visa 1, Old Street Tuesday 4 Clocktower 3, Crystal Palace 0 Southampton 4 (Youth), Cammell Laird 1 VCD Athletic 0 and Woodlane Legion 8 Bohemians 0 (Youth).
The attendances, respectively, were 1, 3, 487, 283 and 22.
I’m convinced I saw my fastest ever goal a week ago today in a London League fixture at Paddington Rec. Red-shirted Visa kicked off, playing right to left from my perspective in the "grandstand", and a couple of quick passes took the ball to a point just inside the Accenture box. Visa’s No.10, in plenty of space, swivelled to hit a low right-footer past the astonished ‘keeper’s left hand.
I would say the goal was scored within ten seconds of the start. I won’t say the crowd went wild because, er, I was the only person watching.
If it’s Tuesday, it must be Wednesday, and last Wednesday I saw Old Street Tuesday edge a seven-goal thriller in an Islington Midweek League Division Two match at Market Road. Then, with the temperature seeming to drop further each evening, I shivered through an FA Youth Cup tie at Selhurst Park on Thursday.
The Palace youngsters experienced a traumatic first five minutes against their Southampton counterparts. One player went down after an innocuous challenge and, unable to put any weight on his left leg, had to be helped off. He emerged from the dressing room on crutches at the start of the second half. Then a team-mate was red-carded after an off-the-ball incident that had left a Southampton midfielder clutching his face.
The prospects hardly looked good for the Eagles at that point but they battled to hold Saints to 0-0 at half-time. Then the visitors’ No.9 clicked into gear, scoring one goal and laying on two others, and by the time the overlapping left-back had cracked in a fourth near the end, Palace’s wheels had well and truly come off.
So it was up to Liverpool on Saturday, leaving my hotel in Paddington at the crack of dawn. The journey on a packed train from Euston took nearly three and a half hours but I had the manuscript of a very interesting football encyclopaedia to read and that made it bearable. After a couple of bowls of soup at "The Cedars", my friend John from university and I set off in the car in the sunshine for some Vase action at Cammell Laird.
I’d never been there before. The ground was in Rock Ferry, close to Tranmere Rovers. We stood behind the goal being defended by the Kent League visitors in the first half and saw Laird come close on several occasions. It turned out to be quite a one-sided contest, although the goal that took the Battleships through didn’t arrive until the 84th minute.
I went out on Sunday morning to see if there were any games being played at a local park in Hunt’s Cross. After hours of heavy rain the pitches resembled Cambodian ricefields but three games were about to start as I splashed through the entrance in my best shoes.
The one I chose finished 8-0 but I’d had to ask several people before ascertaining which teams were playing.
After a salmon and white wine lunch I lost 10-7 in a table football contest with Katy, aged six. It was probably my best result in 30 years of playing the game. I was that close to glory.