To those of you reading this who aren't really interested in football, I'll give you 100 points if you stay with me until the end, yes? It shouldn't be too hard - there's videos and everything......
A few Saturdays back I was in the enviable position of being able to catch some of Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday programme, where Jeff Stelling and his ex-footballing foursome enthusiastically provide an afternoon of vidiprinter based banter.
Laughs on the show are many and close together, as opposed to few and far between. Most of them involve Paul Merson's mispronunciations or Charlie Nicholas's invented phrases, but every now and again someone more unexpected gets centre stage.
The show is liberally sprinkled with visits to pitchside reporters at stadiums up and down the country. Naturally, these reporters are often at the mercy of fans standing behind them. Many of these 'loose cannons' fail to do enough to register a laugh with me back in the comfort of my lounge, but here's one who did.....
The scene is Fratton Park. Portsmouth are playing Nottingham Forest. One fan, behind reporter Paul Walsh, does a sterling job of giving us a laugh at his own expense for a few seconds; deliberately over exaggerating the nerve-jangling experience of a football match.....
.....and here he is again a little while later, falling victim to the infamous 'Fratton Park Strangler'....
Good effort sir.
Oh and I'm a man of my word, so if you stuck with me to the end, have 100 points on me.
