.......of a weird kind of sporting festive period.  Woke up on Boxing Day morning, switched on the Teletext thingy to see that England had once again disappointed the nation by being outplayed by Australia in the Test Match at the MCG.  As the mere twelve hours of play needed to complete yet another comprehensive Australian victory and thus retain the Ashes, a hint of despair descended on me.   Clearly a case of ashes to dust.  I never mind losing, it`s losing without any fight that causes the despair.  Or maybe it`s just the hope that does it.

So, could things get any better?  Of course - Southampton going to West Ham`s taxpayer gifted London Stadium and coming away with a 3-2 victory thanks to Jan Bednarek`s winning goal (see my previous post.)  I`m surrounded here by West Ham fans, some of whom I have not heard from since Boxing Day but to be fair one of them kindly handed me a matchday programme (£3..50 from all good stockists) and took the result with good grace.

And then yesterday the Saints pulled off a well deserved point by holding Tottenham to a 1-1 draw at St. Mary`s, despite being down to 10 men for over an hour and showing the kind of resolute defending and collective spirit that of itself earned those little bits of good fortune that came their way.  21 points from 19 games at the half way stage of the season is an encouraging sign and another three points against struggling Newcastle on Sunday would be even more so.  That`s if Newcastle turn up as they apparently have issues with Covid and injuries to their two best players which has meant that their game tomorrow against Everton has been called off.  (Saints had four Covid casualties and several injured players for yesterday`s game but they just got on with it.)

Elsewhere a number of games were postponed either because of Covid, waterlogged pitches or bad weather in Scotland so there were no games for Gillingham, Fort William, Brechin City, Truro City or Stoke Gabriel and Torbay Police FC.  Vale of Leithen did play but recaptured their losing ways by going down at home 6-0 to Rangers B and Aldershot went down 1-0 away at Dagenham and Redbridge, a game enlivened by the return of Scott Wagstaff following his own recent bout with Covid.

A special word for Maidstone United this weekend.  They went to near neighbours Tonbridge on Boxing Day and won 1-0 and followed that up with a convincing 4-1 win yesterday against Welling - a result that sees them joint top of the National League South but second in the table only because Oxford City have scored more goals than the Stones.  Could promotion be on the cards?