Before the match

On a whim I decided to go up to Upton Park and watch West Ham's last pre-season match against Deportivo la Corunna. The match was not great (that's an understatement by the way); all I can hope for is that they didn't want to risk injurying themselves before the first match of the season against Aston Villa in a weeks time.

The trip from Cardiff is a long one, but not impossible - I was away from home for almost exactly 12 hours and that with the Hammersmith Line being out-of-service and with a diversion through Bath on the way back. If I thought that a long day, I bumped into a pair getting off the train in Cardiff who still had to get back to Ebbw Vale - that's commitment.