The sequence of games without a home success, then standing at 13, surprisingly came to an end at "The Orchard" near Heathrow Airport last Thursday. Bedfont, bottom of the Combined Counties League’s Premier Division last season, were at home to Southern League Burnham in a friendly and it looked like a banker away win.

I heard a Burnham fan say that their manager was playing "the old men" in the first half and "the kids" in the second. Well, they certainly had completely different teams in each half – and in different colours too. The veterans, some of whom could’ve been as old as 25(!), conceded three goals in their last eight minutes to leave the youngsters with a mountain to climb.

It finished Bedfont 5 Burnham 2, with the crowd about 20.

On Friday evening "The Barber" saw another home win as QPR edged Fulham 2-1 in a feisty west London derby friendly at Loftus Road. It was worth the 15 quid to see Rangers loanee Ben Sahar (only 17) hit home a couple of crisp shots after Fulham’s early opener.

The first few minutes were bad all round for the home side. Midfielder Simon Walton stretched to push a pass between two Fulham defenders and clearly hurt himself. People around me were muttering "broken leg" and there wasn’t really any doubt. But R’s fans were in good voice towards the end, keeping up a chant of "We are the Rangers boys…Stand up and make some noise" for 15 minutes non-stop.

The weekend was seriously warm, with the temperature touching 30. On Saturday I saw Redhill play Merstham in the 2006-07 East Surrey Charities Cup Final at the former’s Kiln Brow ground. The Reds, a team I followed home and away in the early ‘70s, were 2-0 up fairly swiftly but succumbed to their local rivals 3-2. It was tough in that heat.

An even bigger game on Sunday, as Chelsea took on Manchester United in The FA Community Shield at Wembley. I don’t usually watch football at that high level as you know, so had to ask my guest if it was Chelsea playing in blue. Mark, being a Newcastle fan from Bristol, was ideally placed to help.

The attendance, a colossal 80,731, was the best for a Shield fixture for 20 years. I felt sorry for the Man U fans sitting on the other side in the blazing sun – it must have been quite uncomfortable.

There was a slightly smaller crowd, by about 80,700, to see Hanwell Town’s 5-0 friendly win against Walton Casuals at Reynolds Field last night. That was my 24th game of the season and 5,356th all told. Now it all starts in earnest on Saturday.