It’s a bit naughty to take up your Monday morning with a memory of a Sunday afternoon watching football but I will, I am neither a Tottenham or a Manchester city fan but the turn around of those around me at the end of the first and second halves was something to witness. Here is the reason, a match where in the first half Man City carved through a makeshift Tottenham defence scoring two goals and it could have been four.

At half time I’d been discussing with fans the planned walking out of the ground in protest at around 75 minutes, the walk out never came, instead the crowd stayed to the last of 10 minutes injury time. I have to say for injury read VAR and injury time.

The inquest is on Manchester City’s diminution in the second half, just as Chelsea fans ask why they were so poor in the first half of the match against West Ham the day before. But for Man City the result was two points lost, which is serious – even with 14 matches to go. The thought of Arsenal winning something is beyond the north west’s comprehension, so this aticle.

And for me , what a treat, for a neutral to watch the game from a posh bit of the ground by the penalty area where all four goals were scored and to travel to and from Eton by public transport that worked to the minute so I could talk with my travellers (on both sides).

I was the youngest of our party, one was many years my elder and talked of 1961 (the year I was born and Tottenham won the double ).

The trains were special . the kids with their Mum,  young men with their mates, a retired man from my North Dorset who’d retired to Windsor to travel to see the club his father told him his inheritance was paid so long as he kept the faith with the Spurs. How odd that I met this man on the platform of Windsor going up and on the train from Slough coming back.

I asked him if he felt better, he just gave me a look of relief. We parted as we left the Windsor station and a friendship had been made. He used to work at my opticians in Shaftesbury when  I was a school boy.

I am sorry to bother you with this trivia on the first working day of February. You must think that I am thinking of retirement. I am not, though I was asked why not by my elderly friends. Of course the answer is that I want to set things right before I go!

But boy what fun it is to be old , if you live it with the vigour we lived life the 90 minutes of a 2-2 draw between Tottenham and Manchester City!

Addendum; Scoring “goals” not “girls”.

Apologies for subscribers and early readers on the web, I meant goals not girls and I hope you can laugh at my Epstein moment!