Match

On Saturdays, when Hull City are at home, we jump in the car around 11.15 and zoom over towards Hull: M1 to M18 and then on to the M62. Five miles west of Hull we divert to the lovely wold top village of Swanland where our friends Tony and Fiona dwell. We have known them for years - I was best man at their wedding twenty one years ago. They are equally fanatical about our beloved Tigers. We have shared the gloom and the brightness together.

We have lunch at Tony and Fiona's house. Today it was sausage sandwiches and a slice of the prize-winning Victoria sponge that Fiona had prepared specially. It's easy to talk to them. It's so nice to have people in your life that you don't have to prove anything to, people with whom you can really relax and of course it helps that we have history together that goes back over thirty years - to the time when Tony was a long-haired student nurse in Sheffield.

Around two o'clock we're back in the car, down to North Ferriby and on to the "Park and Ride" facility at Hessle. We park up and make for the first bus we can get on. It's £2 return for each of us but it avoids parking near the ground and you enjoy a quick getaway if you can get in the queue soon after the final whistle. The bus drops us at the gates of West Park through which we wander along the path of enlightenment to our temple - The Kingston Communications Stadium. Other followers dressed in the black and amber shozoku walk alongside us as reverentially we approach our turnstiles, stopping only to purchase programmes and halftime draw tickets.

Up the concrete steps - flight after flight until we are on the concourse at the top of the West Stand. Worshippers huddle and share matchday observations before we emerge into the light, making our way to Row R ready to see the drama unfold before us.... "We are Ull! We are Ull! We are Ull!....Silverware? We don't care! We follow The City everywhere!...Geo! Geo! Geo!" And oh the joy when we score...twenty thousand people feel it at exactly the same time. For a brief but wonderful moment the troubles of everyday life are completely forgotten.

Today we beat Wigan 2-1 thanks to Geovanni (Geo) and the striker with the longest name in the Premier League - Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink. The Lord hath spoken and this evening I am at peace once again but it is going to be a long hard season and we will do well to survive another year in the top flight of English football. It's time to pray.

Vennegoor of Hesselink is mobbed after scoring against Wigan this afternoon.