… US Granville play some rubbish in my time, but nothing quite like they played in the last 30 minutes or so of this evening’s match against Vannes Olympique Club.

And it all started so well too.

In fact it was looking like it was going to be a good match today. Both sides playing possession football and trying to open the other one up. And while it is true to say that Granville had the better of it, they were playing some kind of aimless football.

At least, Vannes OC had some kind of plan or tactic.

The second half was a different story. I don’t know what the trainer of Vannes OC had put in his team’s half-time cuppa but I could do with a mug of that myself.

They came out of the dressing room at a blistering pace and quickly had the Granville team pegged back in their own half. Granville were absorbing the pressure quite well and just as it looked as if the danger might have passed, Vannes OC got the ball into Granville’s net. And I do have to say that it had been coming for quite some time.

Strangely enough, the goal seemed to inspire Granville more and they started to play a lot better after that – but then 5 or so minutes later the wheels really did come off.

Whether the tackle that a Granville midfielder put in on a Vannes player merited a yellow card or not is a matter for debate, but what the midfielder said to the referee about the decision certainly merited the red card that came out of the referee’s pocket.

It’s stupid. Pathetic. Childish. Indisciplined. It cost Granville the game and it’s not the first time either, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall. The Granville trainer needs to do something about the lack of discipline in his team and kick a few of the worst offenders down the road, or else get down the road himself.

We had a couple of weird substitutions too this evening. he took off both of his front two and put on two others. It’s quite true that they hadn’t done a great deal and didn’t look much like doing it either, but everyone in the ground except the trainer apparently could see that the reason why this was the case was that the midfield weren’t getting the ball forward quickly enough or often enough.

Changing the forwards isn’t going to solve that particular problem.

Granville went a second goal down near the end and then we had four minutes of injury time. By now the players had lost all interest in the game and it was a dreadful sight to watch as the fans streamed out of the ground in dismay.

With about 30 seconds left and 2-0 down, they had a goal kick. “get the ball upfield quick with a long ball and put the defence under pressure” – but no – a short kick out to a defender and they try to play the ball upfield with just seconds left. What a dreadful decision that was at that particular time.

So what happens is that the defender loses possession. With most of the team upfield waiting for the long ball that never came, there’s no-one back to defend and Vannes score an easy third goal.

I came home in disgust.

Last night was a bad night for me. Gone 02:30 when I finally went to bed last night and although I mdidn’t take too much notice of the alarms I was up by 06:35 which was good going.

After the medication I checked the dictaphone. A group of us had been out for the night celebrating the New Year and we were walking home. My German friend was there and he had banged his leg and they had had to stop and look at his leg all that kind of thing. Some people kept on walking on – I was one of those people who kept walking on. Then someone caught up with me and we asked about him. “Yes, that’s fine, they’ll be catching us up in a minute” so I asked what they were doing – had they stopped for chips or something like that and they got some money for you because one of the guys has given you a reduction. I couldn’t work out why I would get a reduction. I thought that it was because I’d brought all these people in or it might be something else that I’d bought before midnight or whatever. But it turned out that it was a fancy dress night and I was in fancy dress. I said to a former friend of mine who had miraculously appeared in my voyage (they are good like that) “find out if this guy meant to give me a reduction and if he did then give him the money for the deduction. I’m not quite like that”

After breakfast I cut up another digital track or two and then went for a shower. And then off into town.

Noz was first and I bought a few things there – but nothing of any significance. Next stop was Centrakor where I wanted some small pyrex bowls, some pastry cutters and a new small baking tray. But nothing whatever of any good to me which was a shame.

LeClerc didn’t have anything either, but I knew that anyway.

But here’s a thing! It looks as if at long last LeClerc is about to enter the 21st Century, a good 10 years behind the Auchan and a few years behind Carrefour.

LeClerc did have a small self-weigh section but it had about 10 products from which to choose. But here they are on a Saturday morning, and a busy Saturday morning at that, setting it up.

Why the couldn’t have done it on Friday night so that it would be ready for today’s customers I really don’t know. You can’t sell the stuff if you can’t get it into the shop.

It was like NOZ this morning. You couldn’t get round half of the shop due to the piles of unopened boxes just dumped in the aisles waiting for the staff to fill the shelves.

Totally disorganised, totally poorly managed, totally crazy.

But the vegan bread is back on the shelves again, and about time too.

Not that I buy stuff like this these days but it deserves to be encouraged so that they might expand their selection og Vegan products.

Things were such that I didn’t buy a lot today. I’m pretty well stocked right now and that’s good news. There’s enough food to eat for the week anyway.

On the way back I had the extreme misfortune to be stuck behind a parcels delivery van of which the driver would much rather park in the middle of the street than advance 20 yards into an empty parking space.

Lunch was the rest of the mushroom soup with bread, and then I made a start on editing the dictation for the radio programme. That’s done and I’ve started to assemble the soundtrack, and I could have done much more had the bad night not caught up with me at a certain point.

Tea after the football was out of a tin and now I’ve had a slow desultory evening.

NO alarm, no early awakening so I’m hoping for a decent lie-in. And then I need to crack on and get these things done.