Ducking of the wench Still at work, last work day of the month and all that but a little break in proceedings. I'm meeting my Mum & Dad later to take them to one of the big flouncy Happy Hours in the city at the Hamilton Princess Hotel. Drinks and canapes on the lawn overlooking the harbour, it is very nice.

My parents have done a fair bit since they arrived 9 days ago, although as most visitors realise getting around the island is not straightforward. There are no rental cars, only Bermudian driving licences are acceptable, the only vehicles that can be rented are scooters and the buses are limited but we have the benefit of living very close to the ferry and as they have found out riding the ferry up and down the island can be very pleasing.

Tomorrow morning I think we'll take a pass on the FA Cup Final, even though out of habit I usually watch it, and drive to St David's and St George's at the eastern point of Bermuda. Apparently at midday in St George's a wench get's routinely ducked for the heinous crime of nagging and gossiping. Only fair.

If my mother gets through that she will join my Dad and other half for dinner tomorrow night at one of my favourite beachside restuarants. Enjoy your weekends whatever you are doing.  ¶ 18:44 |

  21 days in jail or $210. How'd you plead? Yesterday was my court appearance for my speeding offence in March. Now whilst it is a complete waste of tax payers money that every traffic offence has to go to the Magistrates Court, I'd actually pay $210 every couple of weeks, if I could afford it, to go along and listen to some of the cases. It was flipping hilarious.

The Magistrates Court is a non-distinguishable building in Hamilton near the House of Parliament and Police HQ. In fact I met a bloke who used to work for our company beforehand. He got sacked from our place but is now a copper. I don't think he got sacked for nicking staplers or anything, so good luck to him and I hope it is him that stops me for speeding next time. For the record this time I was doing 57kph in a 35kph zone.

Anyway we were all shoved into a waiting room and the funniest thing was being joined by our HR Manager, who was done for no tax or insurance. Eventually people with surnames from A to M were told to go into the courtroom. Unfortunately neither C or A are my intials and I had to wait. Anyway my time came and I sat there and listened to the crimes and punishments. Most pleaded guilty and went off to pay the cashier handily placed outside Court No.3.

One woman meanwhile who was accused of giving false information to a member of the Bermuda Police Force said that she was only joking. "Do you often joke with members of the constabulary." asked the Judge. "Yes, when they are my brother's friends m'lud."

Another chap, dressed in motor oil and sweat told the Judge that he was unable to accept the 5 demerit points as he never had a driving licence. This didn't seem to faze the Judge, who after some consideration waived the points but insisted that the $300 fine be paid within 7 days. Quite peculiar.

I was flummoxed by the amount of kids in court (you can ride a moped at 16), one young lad stood in the dock in his uniform complete with a prefect's badge and told the Judge he was speeding because his Mama had rung him at school to tell him his Grandmother had died and was 'racing' to get home. The Judge looked up, "sorry about your Grandmother," he paused. "Guilty, $300 fine." I saw him outside smirking and got the impression Stephen Ireland may have been his brief!

Then my time came. I stood, acknowledged my guilt, abolished the idea of explaining my haste, and walked away with a $210 fine and 5 demerit points, a system that no one I talk to understands.

The scary bit is that the Judge gives you an option when he declares your punishment of either a fine or jail time. Chicago Addick he didn't say, 21 days in prison or $210 and 5 demerit points. I was out to that Cashier as quick as a flash.  ¶ 15:05 |

  Tony Kempster Tony Kempster's staggeringly illuminating website has been one of my favourite links since way before Chicago Addick began life. If you have never looked through it, then you have never lived. Every single fixture, result, attendance and table can be found all the way down through the English, Scottish and Welsh pyramids of association football including the Channel Islands. Maps and intricate details of promotion and relegations from every league allow me and other football anoraks the world over to wallow in trivia, intelligence and data, particularly on non-league football for absolute hours. The site is frankly genius.

Sadly I was wading through there the other day and only noticed for the first time the banner running across the top of the home page saying "Due to my deteriorating health, this site will be frozen at the end of the 08/09 season."

I had read elsewhere that Tony was diagnosed with cancer last year but was responding well to treatment, but it now appears sadly that this football website luminary is rapidly succumbing to this awful disease. His latest post on his blog says simply "as I expected, the tumour on my liver has shown significant growth. It is now deteriorating quite quickly and the consultant told me that it is very unlikely that I will survive into 2010. In fact, it will probably be sooner than that."

Shocking news for a man not yet 60-years old. I hope he is surrounded by people that he loves and is living his life to the full. And I hope he is very, very proud of what he has achieved and the pleasure he has given football lovers everywhere. My thoughts go out to him and his family.  ¶ 21:28 |

  Bermuda Day The rain continued to stay away from the island today as it celebrated the countries heritage, now 400 years old with the Bermuda Day Holiday. We haven't had any rain of any significance for about a month. Bermudians depend on the weather for their water, collected on roofs and stored in underground tanks and at the moment supplies are very low. Tank Rain as the locals call it is due later this week.

Today's heat meant for a tough 13.1 miles for the Bermuda Derby runners competing in the 100th half marathon event run from Somerset to Hamilton, the leaders passing our house at around 10.15am this morning. The cyclists and rollerbladers had already gone through. A few dressed up, namely Batman and Robin, two blokes I know from work. Both crossed the line hand in hand with a time of 2hrs 7mins. American Christopher Estwanik won the race for the 2nd year running in 1hr 9mins. Victoria Fiddick from Sweden won the womens race.

Later was the annual Bermuda Day Parade in Hamilton. Families stake their places along Front Street often from the night before and we were down there to witness floats come slowly by accompanied by loud music. It was colourful and fun for an hour or so, with the traditional Gombeys stealing the show although the majorette's only served to highlight Bermuda's obesity problem. Bloody 'ell
  ¶ 20:11 |

  Auf wiedersehen pets You saw (hopefully) my Millwall vacillation below. I don't know, I'm very torn. I'm already dreading the two fixtures against them, but I have to say when my brother text me on the golf course earlier to tell me of Scunthorpe's late goal, I punched the air in delight, see.... you know what I mean don't you, we can't have those neanderthals in a higher division than us. Come on, where are those poxy fixtures :-)

Most of my negative energy was focused on Newcastle United today. Football's ugliest dysfunctional family. Alan Shearer, who I have nothing against, frankly ballsed it up didn't he? How rubbish were Newcastle today? Yes it had been coming for 5-6 years and they deserve to be relegated, but blimey how much did those players not give a toss? Flipping disgraceful and I'm not going down the Dowie route because I don't think I ever saw a Charlton team so unprepared under him.

Anyway Phil Brown and his permatan got lucky and those teary-eyed Toon fans need to smell the brown ale because I reckon there is a lot more pain ahead with a £70m annual wage bill, including some players on contracts that will not be automatically reduced upon relegation because it was never considered a realistic possibility. Mike Ashley must be proud.

Gillingham added to the southern flavour of Div 3 yesterday by beating Shrewsbury convincingly with captain Barry Fuller giving heart to all of those young Addicks released by the club recently, when he lifted the trophy. Burnley play Sheffield United tomorrow. I want the Clarets to win but I think the stars are aligned with the Blades.  ¶ 21:40 |

  Twitter I've been playing around with Twitter these last couple of weeks. Yes, I know behind the times as always. It's an interesting little place however where people of all denominations contemplate their intentions, thoughts and deliberations for all the world to see of course. Regular brain dumpers are Jonathan Ross, Stephen Fry, Richard Madeley, Barack Obama and Katie Price. "I'm still keeping a dignified silence I have made no comments," she says before going onto make some comments.

I have dabbled and still occasionally dabble with Facebook, but have found that anyone I know over the age of 30 can hardly be arsed with it, except those people that keep finding you and you wish they hadn't. It can be handy to find old mates or to look at obscure friends of friends sat on the beach on their summer holidays, but you won't be finding any photos of me or anyone else on my page as I find the whole thing slightly intrusive and gawky.

Twitter is said to have about 5 million users and is perfect for those with an attention span of a goldfish, like myself.... Oh, sorry micro-blogging is what the techies call it. Anyway if you want to you can follow me, as they say, here if you wish.  ¶ 14:58 |

  No one likes you An interesting topic this. We haven't played The Lions for 14 seasons, yet when I was a boy we appeared to play them every chuffing season. We didn't of course, it just seemed like it.

My brother and I grew up with a Millwall supporting family living next door. The two sons and us were very close well into our early 30's, my brother is still in regular contact in fact. At school in Catford there were many Millwall fans, no one supported Palace, because they were, well nothing. I had a load of mates that were Millwall, still have a couple. I grew up with the blokes who have been behind The Lion Roars for over 20 years. And yes, I used to occasionally go and watch them midweek in the 80's when Charlton weren't playing. But whatever division they were in, whoever they played I have always, always wanted them to lose.

Charlton fans of a certain generation each have their Millwall stories, the Old Den stories, of Paul Mortimer's magic, of Kim Grant in the snow, being 2-0 up with minutes left, being 3-0 down in 20 minutes at Sellout and a little known hero called John Hendry.

Rarely has a football club been so despised as they. And they of course would sneer at us for being little soft Charlton from down the road. 14 years should have seen a lot water flow under the bridge. I'm not sure it has.

My first ever experience of Millwall was when my Dad got kicked by a Millwall, we'll call him supporter, coming out of The Den in 1976, two days after Christmas. You don't forget those things as a 10-year old. My Dad would have been quite a bit younger than me now, and my son a year younger. My Dad never went back to The Den.

In 14 years Charlton and Millwall marched in completely different directions and moved in very different circles. Our fecklessness over three seasons has relived the possibility of once again being on a par, at least until Sunday. And that is the thing. Incredibly Millwall by the end of this weekend could be higher positioned than us in the football pyramid for the first time since the 1973/74 season, 36 years ago.

Scunthorpe United stand in their way and of course if the dreams I have had for 14 years of us playing them and stuffing them out of sight were ever likely to become reality then I'll be cheering The Iron on like crazy but supporting Charlton has never been that simple.

Memories of all sorts of good and bad fade over time but I think I am willing to forego those dreams and let that lot and their 40-odd thousand loony tune woodwork creepers have their day in the sun. Or can I?  ¶ 00:58 |

  6mins and 40 secs Five times I've watched this today, five times! And I'm going to watch the 6 minutes and 40 seconds again when I've finished this. Whatever kind of state your feelings towards the Addicks are in at the moment, in seven minutes time every pain will be anesthesised by this wonderful video clip of the 1998 Play Off Final.

The Guardian remembers that Wembley game today to celebrate the weekend of Play Off Finals describing it, simply as "the greatest play-off final of all time."

Go on, make yourselves comfy and click here.  ¶ 18:11 |

  Limbo and silence I was having my habitual morning flick through the BBC website checking the football pages, you know so and so has been let go, managers leaving, transfer rumours, offers of new contracts, boardroom reshuffles but the Charlton page is stuck in a time warp. 16 days since the last piece of worthwhile news, any news.

cafc.co.uk has taken to offering us stories on ex-players, which by the way I actually love. Did you know that Mickey Bennett is now a sports counsellor? Otherwise bloody nothing. 10 players out of contract and not a dickie bird. Peter Varney and some Irishmen or strangers from the Middle East, depending on which dreamy rumour you want to believe, are nowhere to be found.

Oh there is an enticing home friendly against crack Championship side Ipswich Town but otherwise just silence leaving us all in limbo. I used to be so good at putting football to one side after the season ended, watch some cricket, go on holiday, anything. Having the Premier League season rattle on isn't helping and I suppose writing this blog hardly assists but the way we are going it will be well into the summer before the manager, whoever that maybe can start planning for life in Division 3.

Limbo and silence is not going to sell many season tickets. Did the club make redundant the PR officer? Or am I being inpatient?  ¶ 08:34 |

  Birdies, Bluebirds and Groupies Happy Monday. It's a bit quiet at work this morning, it'll be nice if that lasted. The weekend was rather wholesome, I played plenty of sport but still had to breathe in when I put on my fetching Bermuda shorts this morning.

I played golf on Saturday with my competitive-other half and despite almost running out of balls (we managed to 'borrow' some others) we really enjoyed it. Three and a half hours on the beautiful Southampton 18-hole par 3 course, with it's dazzling panorama's and undulating hills. Broods of Bluebirds flew around us, forcing us to stop at the garden centre yesterday and buy a cedar Bluebird box for our garden. They are beautiful things.

A half-hour golf lesson yesterday hopefully corrected my swing in readiness for when my Dad arrives this week as we both hope to get out a couple of times to play. My parents arrive on Wednesday in fact for their first visit to Bermuda. And from my point of view it will be interesting to see the island through a tourist's eyes and be great to spend a couple of weeks with them as we did in Chicago two summers ago.

Yesterday was tennis and my shoulders were suffering last night, not aided by my Thai masseuse with fingers that could crack walnuts (another story, another time). Not forgetting that I played indoor footie Friday, god I am so damn sporty!

Friday night we had a very nice meal at some friends, sat outside until 2am talking bollocks, and watching one of the guests chew through about 5 packets of Nicorette. I'm glad no one ever convinced me smoking was big and clever. I did find out on Friday though that the wife of the hosts shagged Ian Astbury from The Cult, during her groupie days. Fantastic post-dinner conversation I can tell you. And then Saturday was a bit less foolhardy as we had a civilised dinner with another couple without Liar Dice and copious amounts of Merlot.  ¶ 09:08 |

  Bournemouth friendly I for one was very chuffed to see the Bournemouth friendly announced (although yet confirmed!). I will be back in the UK that weekend with my son and I was hoping for a friendly somewhere er what's the word? Convivial.

Last year my brother and mates took him to Brighton and this time I can join in the summer fun. The three-sided ground was completely rebuilt in 2001 and I think they actually turned the pitch around in the process. Dean Court or the Fitness First Stadium as it is now called has plenty of room and I'm already thinking of an overnight stay.  ¶ 09:02 |

  14 made redundant Charlton today announced on the Official Site that 14 members of non-playing staff have been made redundant. Some restructuring and a reduction in hours saved 9 jobs previously anticipated to go.

The club have named all the people leaving which I find peculiar (although one has since been removed). In my experience from someone who has been involved in this depressing side of business, I don't believe people who lose their jobs necessarily want to see their name up in lights. Most struggle with the insecurities of it all, although sadly redundancy these days is rarely about performance, but more about numbers. Ironically in this case it was about the performance of others!

Whether someone at the club felt that naming the individuals was some kind of tribute I don't know but it does appear rather ill-judged. I would hope that those individuals at least gave their consent and were allowed to tell family and friends before it was announced in public.

The names include both personal assistant's to Steve Waggott and the first team management. Charlton Atheltic will not be the first company to blame someone lower down the rung for others more senior ineptitude, but seeing Suzanne and Connie on the list leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.

Steve Sutherland announced his own intentions recently on Charlton Life and Steve like so many others behind the scenes have given more love and sweat in their jobs than the majority of those who earn more in a couple of weeks than they earn in a year. It is another despicable chapter in a season of doom.

I wish all of those 14 the very best of luck in the future.  ¶ 15:55 |

  Jonjo "If I want advice, I ask Matty Holland. He's scored in the World Cup finals and he's a perfect role model. I can't drive yet and when we go to away games at night, he'll take me home after. He's quality. I've got my test in June."

Click here for a great natural fly on the wall conversation between potentially four of the games best prospects: Jonjo Shelvey, Jack Wilshere, John Bostock and Gary Gardner. It's makes you proud, it makes you realise that Charlton won't have Jonjo's talent and ability for long.  ¶ 08:29 |

  Royal disaster? Unsuprisingly Steve Coppell has packed up his office and walked away again, this time on Reading. Mind you he almost did it after last season's relegation and obviously he had made his mind up as he faced the press last night. It is fair to say I don't particularly like much of anything about Crystal Palarse, but I do like Steve Coppell.

Does anyone else think that Reading will now find it doubly tough next season? A number of their players are out of contract in the summer including the backbone of this season's side Hahnemann, Duberry and Gunnarsson. Whilst others such as Kevin Doyle, Stephen Hunt, Shane Long and James Harper may all feel another season in the Championship is too much. The Reading board meanwhile will have to re-finance accordingly and will be looking to make savings wherever they can. I do however know of a cheap(ish) manager with excellent Reading credentials and a good mate of Graeme Murty's if they want to give me a ring!

Burnley meanwhile have had a fantastic season and will be hoping to emulate Hull City. The Clarets were just 2 minutes away from reaching Wembley in the League Cup final after defeating Arsenal and Chelsea on route. They then lost to Arsenal in the 5th Round of the FA Cup and played some excellent football to finish as the Championship's 2nd highest scorers. The play-off final will be the Clarets 61st game of the season. I hope they do it.  ¶ 08:10 |

  Young Hawks skate on I began to watch Chicago Blackhawks game 6 match with Vancouver Canucks last night but what with my shoulders and back killing me after a massage by a Thai lady with hands that could crack walnuts (another story, another time) and the two-hour time difference I retired after the 1st quarter. I wish I hadn't.

It sounded a magnificent night at the noisy and intimidating United Center as the Hawks knocked Vancouver out of sight 7-5 to progress to the Conference Finals for the first time in 14 years. They will play either old enemies Detroit Red Wings or outsiders Anaheim Ducks. The winners of that series will go onto play in the Stanley Cup, something the once famous Blackhawks have not won for 48 years.

Chicago's team is made up of youth and exuberance and the excitement the team is exuding in the windy city is incomparable to the one that was mostly ignored and at best pitied a season or two back. One such youngster, Patrick Kane at just 20-years old scored a hatrick last night, a feat traditionally met with a barrage of hats being thrown onto the ice (see photo).

Kane, Jonathan Toews, who is 21 and 22-year old Kris Versteeg scored 6 of Hawks' 7 goals. The youngest team in the NHL have the city of big shoulders fully behind them.  ¶ 08:43 |

  Too much Kate, too many dominos How was your weekend? Mine was nice thanks. Some busy days and some quiet evenings save watching The Reader on Saturday. I had no idea Kate Winslett showed us her bits as much, gave me trouble sleeping Saturday night that did.

I was out every night last week including Friday for dinner with some friends. Two nights last week I ended up in the only late night seedy club in Hamilton, full of drunken businessmen, spaced out locals and horny Portugese gardeners. Interesting place to say the least.

Work was horrid. Busy and stressful as opposed to unpleasant and nasty. The bulk of our business is done in the first six months, pre-hurricane season, and like an endless line of dominos falling, it is a fast and fastidious time with hopeful satisfaction at the end. The last domino falls on July 1st and we put our feet up.

I played tennis yesterday. Much better than last week where I think I suffered playing my son a couple of times the week before using low compression balls. It is true that you only improve in anything if you are competing against better people.

I know the season's ended but I couldn't tear myself away from the football. I watched Chelsea's win at The Emirates yesterday. Arsenal looked so fragile didn't they? And I followed all the play-off games via the internet. We now know that either the Gills or Shrewsbury will join us in Division 3. Poor old Rochdale will face their 36th consecutive season in the fourth tier. I have rapidly gone off Gillingham over the years, thanks mostly to their dipstick of a chairman, Paul Scally and even if they do further add to the southern flavour of the division I backed Shrewsbury last week.

I am in two minds about Millwall. I have mostly unpleasant memories of them and their rust bucket and the previous hell-hole but I find myself leaning to Dave's view that our world will be a nicer place if we didn't play them next season. Elland Road should be interesting on Thursday. Scunny and the unlikable MK Dons play on Friday.

The two Championship games are nicely balanced. My bet Preston have to win at Bramall Lane tonight however and Reading go to Turf Moor tomorrow. Meanwhile in the unlikely event that I can sneak out of work early I'd love to see the Newcastle v Boro game tonight on the box and wouldn't it be nice to see West Brom stay up? Deano I saw played a blinder for the Baggies on Saturday.  ¶ 08:20 |

  Div 3 season ticket update Further to my previous post on the pricing of Division 3 season tickets, I have managed to eke out a bit more information as below.

You may have read this already, and in fact Deepest Darkest alerted me to the fact, that Norwich have widely declared that they've already sold 18,000 2009/10 season tickets. A bloody good effort no doubt but what the Canaries have not been proclaiming is that as part of the 'price promise' the club are obliged to return 20% of the cost of the new ticket if they got relegated.

In the flyer issued to fans at the start of the year, it stated that the club would write to fans if relegation occurred. I understand Norwich's chief executive is about to do this but asking the 18,000 fans to waive their rights to a rebate. Incredible behaviour if true. How would we feel if this was Charlton?

Norwich are rumoured to be near to administration and as we well know, early guaranteed ticket income is very important to the viability and planning of the club. In fact they are holding a board meeting today, where Bryan Gunn's future is on the agenda but so will the huge hole in the club's finances of what I estimate to be between £1m - £1.25m if the club fail in their bid to win supporters over on the rebate issue.

This BBC clip and the reaction of their supporters at The Valley on Saturday demonstrates Canary fans current attitude to Delia, her husband and the rest of the board.

Meanwhile troubled Southampton, who are said to have at least two interested parties in taking the club over, are yet to announce next year's season ticket prices. I'm not sure if this is due to the administrators or not, but in itself it appears irresponsible. Less suprisingly we are still waiting on play-off bound Scunthorpe United plus two clubs who escaped relegation Brighton and Hartlepool United have also yet to announce. Otherwise these are the outstanding club's cheapest and most expensive adult season ticket (not including any offers).

Charlton's Valley £290 / £425
Norwich's Carrow Road £479 / £617
Brentford's Griffin Park £300 / £395
Wycombe's Adams Park £280 / £375
Exeter's St James' £280 / £340
Oldham Athletic's Boundary Park £308 / £328
Bristol Rovers' Memorial Stadium £255 / £465
Leyton Orient's Matchroom £200 / £325
Millwall's New Den £270 / £370
MK Dons' MK Stadium £265 / £420
Leeds' Elland Road £431/ £636
Tranmere's Prenton Park £304 / £361
Southend's Roots Hall £420 / £420
Colchester's Community Stadium £342 / £546
Huddersfield Town's Galpharm Stadium £170 / £379
Stockport's Edgeley Road £287.50 / £322
Walsall Banks' Stadium £280 / £360
Yeovil's Huish Park £270 / £342
Swindon's wet County Ground £349 / £399
Carlisle's 'famous' Brunton Park £310 / £390  ¶ 15:23 |

  Charlton 4 Norwich 2 Ahhh. *Stretch* Yawn. *Rubs eyes*

Nope, it wasn't a bad dream. Oh well the season over then thank goodness, but at least we ended with a win to make the lap of honour slightly less embarrassing. Remember we won last season's final game of the season scoring four too, so no counting your Robins before they are hatched.

A time now for us to put the season to bed.... although it will be hard to ignore the summer goings on down at The Valley as much change is expected, whether they'll be managerial, ownership or playing staff. What is important is trying to keep long exasperated fans encouraged of better times ahead.

Sure recent performances have given encouragement but results speak for themselves and the club cuts a forlorn figure sat on the bottom rung of the final league table. There are many things to blame but they mostly relate to poor decisions, and the time has to come quick when fans can once again trust the decision making, whether it be at board level, player transfers, loans, picking the team or tactics.

Anyway I don't particularly feel like getting into a season review, so concentrating on the game yesterday it was enjoyable listening to it on CAFC TV but I was left wondering why Norwich didn't turn up. Ok so their chances were slim but 0-3 in 30 minutes? That is poor, almost Charltonesque and the Canaries had a right to be pissed off. If I compare the relegated sides today, I would have to say that we look the least chaotic out of the three. It means nothing but should I take some heart from that?

Yesterday was just the 3rd time we have scored more than 3 goals in a game this season, winning each one. My Dad and people of his Addick generation used to say we needed to score 3 not to lose. There, we have done a full circle.

Credit to Deon Burton for a real strikers hatrick and doubling his tally for the season and by the end of another desperate season it was promising to have Elliot, Solly, Tuna, Shelvey, Wagstaff and Sam, who had a fine game by all accounts, all on the field. The beginnings of a team we can believe in? I hope so.

Match Report: Blackheath Addicted  ¶ 13:55 |

  Meanwhile back in Chicago I stayed up late last night and watched my old boys Chicago Bulls lose by 10 to Boston Celtics in the 7th and final game of 1st Round of the play-offs. It had been a superb series with all but two games being decided by less than 3 points. However to my disappointment the reigning champions Boston just had too much for the young Bulls missing my favourite player Luol Deng to a shin injury.

The Bulls seem to have the heart and players to push onto the next level, but then again I've been saying that for four years. Hopefully London born Ben Gordon can be re-signed after the expiry of his one-year $6.4m contract, and Deng can get fit. Talking to mates back in Chicago, the public have fallen back in love with Da Bulls all over again particularly rookie of the year Derrick Rose. Hopefully they can find that missing ingredient.

Meanwhile back in Chicago the cities ice hockey team, the Blackhawks have continued their end of last season promise and made the play-offs for the first time in 7 years. They came through the Conference quarter-finals against Calgary Flames and are tied at 1-1 with Vancouver Canucks in the semi's. The Blackhawks won last night in Vancouver 6-3 and they move to the Windy City on Tuesday for Game 3.  ¶ 09:58 |

  Heaton Norris Rovers and lower I don't know about you but all of my attention is now focused downwards. A bit like Parky it seems. 11am local time Sunday cannot come quickly enough. I then hope I awake from this bad, bad dream with at least my dignity intact and with something to rouse the spirits as we join the 3rd Division.

Phil Parkinson seems a reasonable man, a nice man even. Rightly if he is asked questions by dull local journos then he is going to give them a dignified and honest answer. He has to act like he is going to be at The Valley next season even if he is not, just like he will again continue with an unchanged side on Sunday - loans and all - because, well because they have done so bloody well recently haven't they? *rolls eyes*

I can't decide who I want to go down with us and Southampton. I have a mate who lives in Atlanta, previously of Californian descent who for reasons only known to him supports Barnsley. Then I have always liked Norwich, in a not hate kind of way. Many Canaries will no doubt find their way into home areas on Sunday. I'd be doing the same of course if the tables were turned and as long as they remember that unwritten rule of being a football supporter: Zip your jacket up, sit on your hands and shut the fuck up, then I am sure everything will be fine. Anything else and I think even the most docile Addick will get the hump after 24 home matches of general toilet.

I will also be hoping for a Brighton win although the old romantic in me would have preferred Carlise to stay up over Crewe, but that is nigh on impossible.

My reference to Heaton Norris Rovers for those not familiar with northern outpost sports quiz nights is Stockport County, the Manchester club's original name. I am a tad confused by the 10-point deduction they received for going into administration. I'm sorry but I thought it was supposed to be a fine and a deterent. How does dropping 5 places in the table with one game left do that?

It means that Stockport, who are owned by a Supporters Trust, will avoid having to start next season with a 10-point deficit. I wonder how many other clubs will struggle to avoid administration during the summer?

The sun is shining brightly here and I'm watching the clock on my desk slowly click around to 5pm when I will go to the pub. Later tonight I'm going to a retirement party for a man who almost single-handedly persuaded me to come to Bermuda. He has been a terrific mentor and friend and it will be a fun but sad (for me) occassion.  ¶ 16:07 |