Countdown to the new season

Giddy about the new season already - only a month away. The fixtures are out and Sky and Setanta have started to wave their magic scheduling wand. Not so happy about Portsmouth away on a Bank Holiday Monday night. Also what's that pre-season match in Nigeria about? Also against Portsmouth. Possibly it's the million quid pay-out and not for getting ill on a lot of yellow fever vaccine. Just so we all get familiar with Portsmouth there is the Community Shield match at Wembley - the one you don't mind not winning as it's a good omen.

Hope you like the picture of the tunnel at Old Trafford with the background boards for the Tv interviews. Did the tourist bit last Friday by taking the Old Trafford tour. Must praise the staff at Old Trafford - friendly, very helpful and customer focused. They could see our disappointment when the trophy was away being polished or wherever it goes to. So they went and got it for our photo opportunity even though they were closing in a few minutes. You can see our snaps here on Flickr - includes a couple of biffas with the trophy. Had to keep our fingers off it - I'll take rubber gloves next time....

Lots more stories to tell. So back to blogging, and make smart the layout of this page. First game to go and see is next Tuesday - Altrincham v. FC United in a friendly. Altrincham must be one the luckiest teams of recent years. Should have been relegated from the Conference North for the last three seasons but escaped everytime because another team went into financial troubles.