What was I saying? If you lose a pre-season friendly, you just wait for the boss to say it doesn’t matter because these games are all about fitness, not the results.

Since I have not read a match report, that is the only positive thought I can muster on hearing of our 1-0 defeat at mighty Scunthorpe, and I don’t even know yet whether Roy Keane has said it, or something like it. Feel free to fill me in on the details.

But it has not stopped me making my arrangements to be in my seat in the East Stand for the opening game proper, home to Spurs on Aug 11. Thanks to Ryanair and an understanding wife, the trip is fixed.

Roll on the Premiership. I think.

The other day, I came across my old Len Shackleton t-shirt in a pile of worn-less-often SAFC related togs. It may have been sandwiched between my Lionel Perez t-shirt and a couple of old tops commemorating promotions that led to relegations.

Most people probably remember the Shack one from the excellent people at Philosophy Football: blank page from his book, Clown Prince of Football, on the front, Shackleton and No 10 on the back.

The slogan on the front, of course, loyally follows the title of the chapter which constituted that blank page: “The Average Director’s Knowledge of Football.”

But coming across it again reminded me of a story about the day he died that I never tire of telling other Sunderland fans – indeed fans of other clubs, too.

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