The 1st Xi’s match at St Priest was one that Pionsat needed to win today to keep their survival hopes alive, but they went down 2=0. They are now sucked deep into a relegation battle and have lost their advantage.

But to be fair, it’s not entirely their fault. It’s true that they’ve conceded silly goals at times, but their attack has usually made up for that. But the big issue is that in Division 1, there have been 6 regional pools, giving a total of 60 teams. A mid-table performance is what Pionsat usually manage to do.

However, the Football Association here decided that Division 4 needed bolstering, and so instead of relegating 2 teams at the nd of last season, relegated three from each pool in Division 3. That was what caused Pionsat’s 2nd XI to be demoted when we all thought that they were safe.

This cascaded down through the pyramid and at the top level, Division 1, they simply reduced the level to 4 pools, or 40 clubs. Now, what was a mid-table performance last year is a relegation struggle.

Add to that the fact that with Matthieu injured and Francois retired, there’s no goalkeeper. Michael Bucaud has performed better than anyone could have hoped and has certainly done the team proud, but it isn’t the same.

I was also told that the trainer walked out on the club just before the start of the season and took three players with him to his new club. How true this is, I really don’t know and it’s not my place to pass comment, but all of this sums up Pionsat’s struggle.

Michael, who was injured in goal last week, was unable to play and so young Frederic took over again for today.

He certainly didn’t let the side down either – in fact he looked pretty useful and made a couple of really good stops, including a brave save with his feet, going the wrong way, in a one-on-one with a St Priest attacker.

It was the first goal that was a killer and we hadn’t had even 2 minutes of play. They surged forward from the kickoff and hit the bar with a blistering shot from about 15 yards out.

That ballooned up into the air and the follow-up shot – St Priest being the quicker to react – likewise smacked against the bar and bounced down and away. However the linesman (the home linesman, it has to be said) signalled that the ball had crossed the line.

The second goal was also something of a sucker punch too. Pionsat were too busy disputing a decision to respond to a quickly-taken free kick, and that let in a St Priest attacker.

Not much that Frederic could do about that, but then as we know, the Pionsat defence does have a habit of switching off at vital moments. It’s not the first time.

Strangely enough, this was one of Pionsat’s better defensive displays. St Priest had a player, the n°10, who was streets ahead of everyone else on the field, and it showed when he managed to wriggle free and find some space. However, for most of the match Vianney and Alex were clinging to him like a limpet.

And Alex’s performance in the centre of the defence was the best I’ve seen for quite a while from anyone. He’s played like this a few times and he’s be my first name on the team sheet every week if he could keep going like this. Apart from the two efforts that led to goals, St Priest didn’t have much of a look-in and it was a dour struggle in midfield for much of the game.

Pionsat’s attack looked tired, though, and it seems as if the fire has gone out in a couple of the players. They need to find some way of kindling some enthusiasm because they play so much better when they are enjoying themselves.

And so what else?

Well, shock, horrow, there I was, lying in bed this morning for quite a while, thinking to myself that it must be late and I ought to get up, only to find when I finally did leave my pit that it was all of 08:35. I don’t think that I’ve ever been awake that early on a Sunday morning.

I’d had a busy night too. I’d been to a street concert given by Mark Knopfler, featuring songs off his Golden Heart album. We were having to stand round the side of the stage and the camera was filming around the corner, almost as if it were a bootleg recording and we weren’t supposed to be there.

As the xoncert continued, I found myself in a bed, right in front of tha stage. A girl who had slept in it earlier expressed surprise that I could sleep there like that, to which I replied that I had a lot to do when the concert was over and so I needed to be fresh.

She wondered how on earth I could sleep through all of the noise, to which my answer was that it comes with necessity and practice.

After breakfast I tidied up a little, and I can now see the floor in places up here. That is progress. But when I became fed up with doing that, I carried on with the web pages.

After returning from the footy, I completely jigged them around to make a proper circular tour (in fact, it’s a figure-of-8 tour of Quebec now) and they are all on line. This link is for the Chemin du Roy and this link is for the walking tour of Quebec.

Have a good read, and I hope that you enjoy that as much as I enjoyed writing it all.

Let me know if any of the links are bad.