The football season is thankfully nearly over but what concerns me most is that there will be another one along very soon. It is a time for reflection and for the first time I am starting to doubt my sanity by bothering to get enthused as I anxiously await the next game.
I gave up watching England ages ago ... although I did try to become enthused during the World Cup but now it looks like Arsenal are going to be devoid of my support because I simply find them too frustrating to watch. I have been an ardent supporter of the Gunners for as long as I can remember. I went to my first game in 1958 when they beat West Bromwich Albion at Highbury 4-3. That day, Jackie Henderson scored twice for Arsenal, David Herd once and WBA put the other through their own net. After that I didn't get to Highbury again until 1963-64 when my mate John Cochrane and I became old enough to go on our own. Previously my cousin Harry had taken me to Spurs but I was angry when, at the age of 11 my mother would not let me go to see them play Moscow Torpedo because it was a school night. Then, during the amazing 'double' season of 1960-61 I went with another cousin, Pete, and his mates during the days when we would need to queue at the schoolboys' entrance. However, my support for Arsenal never left me as I watched them suffer in the mid positions of the old First Division league table. On the night that Arsenal won the League Championship, ironically at Tottenham as the first stage of their 1970-71 'double' - I was unable to get in the ground and spent the evening with a girlfriend moping in a coffee bar in Tottenham High Road.
