60 games in 2008 plus the best & worse

Bit of end of year round-up. Everyone does it in the media to fill the newspapers and Tv schedule. Managed to go to 60 live games from January to December - there has been some memorable ones, a couple of stinkers and too many very cold ones.
Stats: Teams seen 59; grounds visited 8 (so not up to groundhopping standard), goals 197 - but that's not including an 8-9 penalty shoot by Manchester United Reserves (game 49). Total cost £1370. Really it's a bit higher with some petrol money but when you add in Sky, Setanta and an allowance for broadband and mobile phones then football overall isn't a cheap option. But it's still worth it - hours of planning, pleasure and talking...all the details on this spreadsheet...

Best Match
(Game 23) United v. Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final - excitement, tension and only one goal scored, a Paul Scholes rocket. One that will stay in the memory. They played Russian music at the end as we headed for the exit and the Fergie planned the trip to Moscow.

Worst match
(Game 37) Altrincham v. Salisbury City a goalless game of hoofing the ball up field by both sides. Lost the will to go to another Blue Square Conference game.

Coldest match
(Game 48) Trafford v. Manchester United Reserves. It was actually the Academy side turning out in a minus 3 degrees night match. I picked up a chilblain.

Best scoring match
(Game 52) FC United 5-5 Cammel Laird - coming back from 1-3 down.

Best TV coverage
Setanta Sports - watch their FA Cup and non-league for during the match interviews and cameras in the dressing room. Best game was Champions League Final on ITV1 - the penalty shoot out was over 10 minutes of nervous tension after 120 minutes of drama.

Worst TV coverage
ITV have pulled their socks up this year so nobody. But the worst Tv moment was the loss of transmission from the Germany v. Turkey Euro 2008 semi-final. We watched it on RAI Uno in Italy but it was the same the world over with no pictures and spliced in radio and mobile phone commentary as five pundit blokes in a studio looked blank faced.

Best radio coverage
FCUM-TV streaming radio on the web - hilarious, impromptu and interactive. Best moment was FC United v. Skelmersdale in the Unibond Division1 playoff final and the coverage of celebrations on winning. What radio should be. Unscripted anarchy mixed with awareness of the audience.

Worst radio coverage
Key 103FM Manchester - everything that makes commercial radio un-listenable - formula and adverts. Plus not covering the Club World Cup in Japan despite claiming to commentate on every United match - home, away and abroad.

Best internet Tv
The justin.tv site - now you can find games in your browser direct from somewhere in the world without any additional software.

Worst internet Tv
It's all pretty shoddy but it's free. Worse moment was trying to watch Nederlands v. South Korea in the Olympics semi-final women's hockey. I'm a fan of the Dames after seeing them in Manchester in 2007. Eventually got a small screen buffering stream from a Korean Tv channel.

Best player
Tough one but settle on Carlos Tevez for sheer work rate often battling alone with no support, sometimes winning a match with the only goal.

Best cup of tea / coffee
(Game 46) at Whalley Range AFC - freshly made cuppa in a snug club house.

Worst cup of tea / coffee
Anything at Gigg Lane, Bury FC watching FC United.

Best blogs
The Groundhopper, Gavin Strachen, Manchester United Youth

Worst blog
It's a disappointment when they give up but then someone else comes along. No bad blogs just unread ones. Now if only I had a few more readers....