I had another bad night's sleep last night.

But I was still up and about at 08:30 in time to go to Montlucon. The trouble is though that after only about 3 hours sleep I'm never in a good mood, I can't concentrate and I can't think straight. I couldn't remember what it was that I needed and when I did find some things I wasn't able to summon up the energy to load them up onto Caliburn's roof rack. In fact, for several reasons I wasted my time in going.

It didn't help in that the Auchan only had early seed potatoes. No onions, no garlic, no shallots, no maincrop seed potatoes and so that was a washout. In the end, I went to Mr Bricolage to see if they had anything exciting. Nothing at all, as it happened but firstly I bumped into Rob and Nicolette from down the road and we had a good chat, and then who else should turn up but Liz and Terry. We all had a good chat and then Liz Terry and I went down the road to Jardiland. They had everything that I needed in the vegetable line, but at quite a price. Never mind though, Liz and I went halves on most things and so it wasn't too bad.

After a coffee together my early start ended up being one of the latest returns from Montlucon that I had ever had and I almost missed the start of the footy matches. There were two tonight - the 3rd XI against Biollet-St Maurice and the Ist XI against Malauzat. In the away match at St Maurice the 3rd XI had led for much of the game but faded away at the end to lose. But today, with a full team out (but no goalkeeper) they looked the business. At one stage they were 3-0 up but faded away at the end and hung on grimly for a 4-3 win. And if St Maurice hadn't have missed a penalty earlier in the game it would have been a different story again. But a win is a win, and it's rare enough for the 3rd XI so they are quite right to celebrate it. The big difference was that Simon, who used to play for the 1st XI, was out there at centre-forward. He now lives in Switzerland but the club retains his French football registration. He was back visiting his family had someone talked him into playing. First match for over a year, he told me, and it looked it too, but there was no denying his skill and ball control, and he and Stéphane Gomet, playing on the left wing, tore the St Maurice defence to shreds. It's a shame that they can't find a decent goalkeeper because that really is the difference.

The 1st XI also won their match, 2-0, and never ever at any moment looked under any pressure. I don't recall Matthieu having much to do in the Pionsat goal but Malauzat's keeper was working overtime and if it wasn't for him we would have had a cricket score this evening.

The weather broke too at about 10:00 and now it's pouring down. And I'm off to bed because I'm really whacked.