On the horizon is Davis Langdon v London Reaction at the Rec, probably followed by a couple of FA Cup ties at the weekend. But I don’t want to miss TV coverage of the England v Andorra match on Saturday. They are our 76th different opponent in senior internationals but, no, they aren’t the smallest country that we’ve played. That’s San Marino.

The August bank holiday weekend began football-wise with a Conference South fixture between Eastbourne Borough, whom I’m now starting to think of as "my team", and Weston Super Mare at a rain-lashed Priory Lane. Borough won 3-0, one of their Czech lads opening the scoring in the fifth minute, but I had to tell a couple of little girls off for kicking the seats in front of them. Why was no parent supervising them?

On the Monday morning I walked the three miles to The Oval for Eastbourne United’s Sussex County League Division One fixture with Rye United. The home team, once managed by Ron Greenwood, went into the match with no points and no goals but battled to a 2-0 win. I got a No.1 bus back to the town centre, jam-packed with old ladies going to the bingo.

The following evening I paid another visit to a balmy Paddington Rec to see a seven-goal cracker.

Viacom Outdoor edged Athletico Chips 4-3 in the London Football League’s Division One and there was drama in stoppage time as Chips bundled the ball in for looked like an equaliser. It was offside – just. It was certainly hearts in mouths time for the crowd (of four).

On Wednesday afternoon I was despatched to Yeading to do a little report on the opening tie of The FA International Under-17 Tournament between USA and Portugal. It takes years of journalistic experience to turn up at a match without a pen or a watch but at least I made it to the ground by kick-off – by about ten seconds.

I wasn’t sure if the lady at the gate was saying "It’s free" or "It’s three (pounds)" and that additional piece of incompetence on my part had delayed my entrance slightly.

Admission turned out to be free and I picked up the last available team-sheet in the bar. The American lads scored after about ten minutes and could have been five or six goals up at the break.

They continued to miss chances and, as so often happens in one-sided matches, the opposition, i.e. Portugal, threw caution to the wind in the last five minutes and grabbed an equaliser. For most of the afternoon a 1-1 scoreline would have seemed highly improbable.

This week at Soho Square we had a letter from Rudolf Kreitlein, the German who refereed the controversial England v Argentina World Cup quarter-final in 1966. He said he had never seen the match and I’m glad to report that we were able to send the old chap, now 86, a tape of the highlights. I saw that game with my dad – obviously I was very young then (cough).