Bet on Premiership

I’ve recently been accused of being a member of the prawn sandwich brigade.

Their members achieved instant notoriety when Roy Keane criticised them for their lack of knowledge about the game and for driving up the price of seats with their flash hospitality. Given my job, I have indeed indulged in some fine food and wine at the odd sporting event.

But in my defence I’d always rather watch my team standing behind the goal in the pouring rain. Honestly. There’s nothing like being amongst your own kinfolk, cheering on the boys after spending hours getting there in the car or on a woefully expensive train. Once in a blue moon they score a late equaliser or grab the winner and you all go crazy whilst three sides of the ground sit on their hands. I think it’s being one of a number rather than an individual. The anonymity perhaps.

There’s no anonymity in corporate hospitality when you’ve written the most popular England song in recent decades and your names are Skinner and Baddiel, let me tell you. I sat opposite the likely lads at yesterday’s England v Trinidad and Tobago game and watched as their dinner was constantly interrupted by well-wishers and autograph hunters. They showed remarkable patience posing for photos and even on several occasions being asked to say hello to someone’s friend back home in England after having a mobile phone thrust in their face. All credit to them, they didn’t complain once.

Nor did Danny Baker and Chelsea supremo Peter Kenyon, who were also present and asked to sign various match programmes and shirts. So I took to my seat cheered by the spirit of human kindness and with a little more respect for celebrities.

And who should I be sitting next to but former Rangers manager Alex McLeish. Now I’ve got a soft spot for the Gers as my old man’s a Bluenose and he assures me Big Eck is ‘one of us.’ Steeped in the traditions of the Old Firm, I was interested to see if he’d sing the English/British national anthem God Save The Queen, what with him having been a Scotland international too. Sure enough he sang his little heart out and when I tapped him on the shoulder to say “Old habits die hard eh? he replied “Too bloody right they do!”

Prawn sandwiches indeed…