The match got under way and started well

Above: over ten years since I last attended a local match, and as I went through the (ultra-stiff) turnstyle and up onto the stand I was touched to see my old seat, unoccupied, as if waiting for me. Not that attendances had improved at all. This was still a club bumping around the lower reaches of a minor league.



Above: at nearly three o'clock the air was still freezing, although bright sun was shining from a clear sky. I watched the warm-ups and thought about getting a cup of coffee before things started (although the "crowd" was so sparse there would be no problem slipping out and back again at any time during the game). The greasy smell of chips made me feel hungry.



Above: the teams came on promptly at three. Amber home team and red enemy. Raucus cheering from a small section of the crowd far away to my right.



Above: the match got under way and started well for the amber players. No 2 arched his back as he walked in reverse, No 5 spat vigorously, No 8 kept rubbing his right shin. After about half an hour everything seemed to slow down, and rude comments were shouted onto the pitch by a big-mouthed spectator to my left.



Above: a goal by the home team transformed the mood (briefly). The amber players walked around for a few minutes as if not knowing what to do next (unused as they were to success at any level). The shadows grew longer as the sun sank down.



Above: the last rays of the sun, just before the lights came on, created a golden nimbus around the amber players. It seemed to emphasise the romantic nature of their hopeless position (the red team had equalised and were taking command). This sense of doomed failure is why I like dead-end low-skill no-hope football - always expecting defeat and never being disappointed.



Above: Fever Pitch has been recommended to me so many times that eventually I bought a copy, although I still havn't got round to reading it. I suspect the irony is going to be a bit too heavy. The Wayne biography was retailed at £9.99, then discounted to £5, then discounted again to £1 (at which point I thought it was a fairly low-risk purchase).