Water shame, another game off

If it ain't snowing then it's raining, either way we're not playing football. I was all set to do one of my famous (or more likely infamous) previews ahead of this Saturday's away game at Tranmere when the news came through on the green room - the Tranmere game is off, waterlogged pitch. If anyone has ever wondered what a midwinter break would be like, well, wonder no more. If it seems to have been a long time since our last game (that shocking 3-1 defeat at Swindon, lest we forget), that's because it has been a long time - 19 days today since the Glovers last kicked a ball in anger. If this coming Tuesday night's match at Leyton Orient goes ahead it will be just over 3 weeks between games, unheard of really these days, though of course we grew quite used to postponements for one reason or another a few years ago.

If Tranmere's pitch is anything like my back garden then it's no surprise that the game is off. The snow has now melted away leaving the ground completely saturated and at the moment usable by neither man nor beast. Every time the dogs go out they come back in filthy and leaving muddy pawprints on the carpet so they've now been banned from the back garden until it either dries out or freezes again, whichever comes sooner. My money's on the latter.

Apologies for the lack of updates on here lately anyway. There's a couple of reasons for that: Firstly the lack of on-field activity obviously. Secondly in the absence of any real-life footy I've got back into playing Football Manager again, and anyone who's familiar with that particular series of pc games will know exactly how much of a time-waster they can be. You will doubtless be fascinated to know that as manager of Yeovil I started the season in exemplary fashion, winning my first 5 games and not losing until November, when we crashed out of the FA Cup in the 1st round. Who said these games aren't realistic?! Since those heady days my season has taken a turn for the worse and the Glovers have gone from promotion favourites to relegation candidates in a mere 3 months. With approximately a dozen games left in the season we haven't won a game since Christmas, the fans are revolting and the squad's morale is 'very poor', to a man. I've tried different formations, different tactics, different personnel, even different training routines: Nothing works. If anyone has any tips for turning round a sinking ship I'd be grateful for any help. As things stand my Yeovil side is going down.

Apropos of nothing I've joined Twitter. I know, I'm a sad bastard. Haven't a clue how it works or what I'm supposed to do with it, I'll just be making it up as I go along. If you're interested you can find me here: http://www.twitter.com/taffglover, or click the button on the side of the blog.

Just re-read: Excession by Iain M Banks. Must be the 4th time I've re-read my favourite Culture novel now by my favourite science-fiction author and I'm still finding things in it I missed the first few times. Space opera on the grand scale, it really doesn't get better than this. Funny in parts, frightening in others and imbued with an immense sense of wonder and grandeur. Brilliant stuff.