But four games in the last three days have taken me up to 182 for the current season and got me well on course to beat my record of 204. In fact, I should set a new mark near the end of March.
The four were: Woking 1 Stafford Rangers 1, Chiswick Albion 2 Draytonians 1, QPR 0 Enfield Town 7 (Girls) and Warner Bros 4 Warrington 4.
The official attendances were respectively 2,020; 4; 32 and 2.
It’s not a big deal. I spoke to a chap at the Rec recently who expects to reach 300 this season. There are actually people even barmier than I am. Sorry, I mean "more committed".
A Siberia-like weekend began with an FA Trophy quarter-final at Woking. The Cards won it three times in the ‘90s and Geoff Chapple, their manager with the "Midas touch", was in the crowd on Saturday. The swirling wind made control difficult, with a draw probably a fair result. Neil Grayson, Stafford’s scorer with a penalty, is the only player to have featured in Trophy ties in three different centuries. (Only kidding.)
I turned up at Perivale on Sunday morning to find that Ealing Council had cancelled all the games. I’ve no idea why. But one stop westwards on the Central line took me to Greenford for Chiswick Albion v Draytonians at the Birkbeck College ground, kicking-off at 10.50.
I was one of four spectators treated to a classic, certainly one of my best games of the season. It was "like a Cup Final" (perhaps it was) and Albion won it in the 90th minute. The ref, who issued several yellow cards, had warned one of the visitors’ players early on that he would see red if he "used that word again".
The Draytonians’ Director of Football, always animated at the touchline, shouted to his player: "If you ain’t got nothing good to say, then don’t say nothing". I don’t think any of us could have put it more eloquently.
The most surprising feature of this five-star thriller was the throw-ins by the Draytonians’ No.4, known as "Johnny Boy". His first couple of attempts actually went beyond the far post – I’m sure I haven’t seen that before. One of the game’s many bookings, by the way, was to their No.12 who was given "two seconds" to retreat ten yards for an Albion free-kick.
He failed to comply, the ball thudding into his back, and he could hardly have complained at the yellow card being waved in his direction. But his skipper felt the need to intervene, saying: "You should’ve stepped out the ten yards, ref. He can only count up to five".
After a visit to the boudoir and the purchase of a life-enhancing chocolate bar from a local newsagent I was ready for the next game at 1.10. By the time QPR Girls had kicked-off in their blue and white hoops against Enfield Town, watched by a sizeable group of mums and dads, the temperature had soared to about minus six.
Last Thursday evening was spent in the warm at The Sports Café near Piccadilly Circus, with "The Barber" one of six members of The FA team in the annual FourFourTwo "Mega Quiz". About 40 companies took part and we surprised everyone – including ourselves – by winning the competition by one point. Most of the questions weren’t even sport-related but we came into our own in the last category on football and scored the maximum.