Sunderland, 20 September, 2008

Ah yes, the lunchtime kick off. and not just any lunchtime kick-off; a lunchtime kick off in Sunderland. Of curse, it hurt when the alarm went (a robust 5.45 since you ask), but I don't mind, I really don't. It feels right to walk the dog in the woods across the road, the light lifting with every passing second, my (and his) face covered in cobwebs when we get home to tip-toe around the house (me, not him: the dog with the delicate touch of Neil Ruddock doesn't seem to care about waking anyone so long as I leave a bowl of food).
And then, it seems right to drive 250 miles listening to Jake Thackray ("I'll be nice to your mother,/I'll come all over lah-di-dah/Although she always gets up me nose/And so I'll smile and I'll acquiesce when she invites me to caress her scabby cat/I'll sit still while she knits and witters, cross my heart/And I shan't lay a finger on the crabby old batface" etc etc).
When I get there, circa 11 am, they're serving lasagne and baked potatoes in the press room. And people - presumably starving Wearside hacks - are eating plates of the stuff. I'm not ready for solids beyond a bacon sandwich, which they don't have. I don't know this crowd at all - they're very, shall we say, self-contained - apart from the splendid Spencer from The Observer and Louise from The Guardian, who I don't even manage to say hello to.
Anyway, the match is absorbing, but Roy Keane is strangely subdued afterwards, as if he knows he's got to toss the tabloids a bone or two over Michael Chopra's return but isn't sure what the right approach is with them. No matter, he got the big call exactly right: in this instance with this player at least. That Chopra wedding day still seems like a rum, rumour-laden do though.
Gareth Southgate turns up in reasonable time - it's an away game, which makes all the difference, but he's still post-Keane - and says all the right stuff about his team playing well and getting nothing again. I ask him about mental strength, but he doesn't really bite and talks about young kids learning, which isn't quite the point. There will, I suspect be other times.
Out of Wearside at 4.30, home for a reasonable 9.00. The dog's waiting. He wants another walk. A good day, all things considered.