In a dire first half punctuated by mistakes from both sides, with Victory particularly unable to keep possession of the ball, neither team could score.

Most of Victory’s forward moves were high lobs pumped towards Socceroo defender Craig Moore, probably the best header of a ball in the League, so he and fellow defender Josh McCloughlan strolled through the game.

Queensland had more possession and threatened from free kicks by Matt McKay and Brazilian Marchinho, yet the Victory came closest to scoring.

It was half an hour before the Victory mounted a serious attack when a diagonal ball was hammered back across goal by Brazilian Leandro Love and Daniel Allsopp drove narrowly past the post.

Just before the interval Archie Thompson got away from the chasing defenders and set up Love whose shot flew across the face of goal.

Meanwhile former Socceroo Danny Tiatto had brought down Thompson and was very lucky to escape with only a yellow card.

The second half improved marginally but gradually the home team began to see more of the ball.

Archie Thompson hit the bar with a fierce drive and Leandro Love was tripped by Sasa Ognenovski as he prepared to drive home the rebound.

Skipper Kevin Muscat did his usual immaculate job with the penalty kick in the 68th minute.

At the other end in a similar situation substitute Michael Zullo hit the foot of Michael Theoklitos’s post but put the rebound wide.

In 86 minutes Thompson made the win secure when Love lifted the ball over Craig Moore and the Socceroo striker beat Liam Reddy at his near post.

Queensland had chances to win the game, notably when Craig Moore headed past the keeper but Rodrigo Vargas cleared from right under the cross-bar and in a couple of late scrambles, Victory just managed to prevent the visitor from getting some reward for its efforts.

At the press conference afterwards I asked about the plethora of long high balls to the Queensland defence, but coach Ernie Merrick said I must have been watching a different game.

Craig Moore raised the issue of players thinking quicker about what they intended to do with the ball, as the area in which Australians must improve in international comparison.

I argued that the fast one-touch game favoured by British teams required this, but that there was a lack of players who could put their foot on the ball and/or take men on, but he said good players like Kevin Muscat always had time to do what they planned.

Danny Tiatto was not seen as malicious by either team-mates or by opponents, but he still was a lucky boy on the day.

Michael Theoklitos, played and did very well, though his mother died the day before the game.

Like Allsopp, Muscat and Piorkowski, whose shoulder was dislocated during the game and had to be put back in by the physio, he showed a particular brand of courage in this game.

Down two-nil to goals by Socceroo Paul Agostino with 70 minutes played, Victory won a penalty kick converted by skipper, Kevin Muscat and then Adelaide’s Richie Alagich headed a Carlos Hernandez free-kick into his own goal to hand the home team one point.

Once again Victory had to reshuffle its line-up thanks to injury and suspension. Striker Danny Allsopp was unable to take his place and Grant Brebner was on the bench. But skipper Kevin Muscat returned as sweeper behind Rodrigo Vargas with young Socceroo Sebastian Ryall and former Adelaide United defender Matthew Kemp at full back.

Daniel Vasilevski, Leigh Broxham, Adrian Caceres and exciting youngster Kaz Patafta were in midfield.

Costa Rican Carlos Hernandez partnered Thompson up front.

Victory almost scored in its first attack as Thompson set up Caceres whose shot was deflected for a corner kick, which came back to Thompson and his effort on the turn just missed the post.

Adelaide had several sharp attacking moves and took the lead with a strange and controversial goal in the 17th minute.

Lucas Pantelis found Dez Giraldi who looped a shot towards the top corner with keeper Theoklitos stranded.

When the ball came back off the woodwork, skipper and former Socceroo Paul Agostino, who was in an offside position, tapped it into the empty net.

But the goal stood because Agostino had been level with the last defender Kevin Muscat when the Giraldi shot looped up off Matt Kemp.

From then till half-time Victory took the game to Adelaide.

A series of sweeping attacks resulted a number of near things but no goal, the closest being Thompson’s shot which former Victory keeper Eugene Galekovic just managed to parry in the 40th minute.

Vasilevski and Caceres also had shots saved or blocked.

Adelaide went further ahead only four minutes after half-time when Nathan Burns headed the ball against the bar and Agostino buried the rebound.

Coach Ernie Merrick withdrew Patafta after an hour because the youngster was tiring, but the fans were not impressed chanting ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’.

Leandro took his place.

In 70 minutes, Tom Milardovic and Robert Cornthwaite combined to bring Archie Thompson down on the edge of the box resulting in a penalty.

Kevin Muscat thumped it into the roof of the net.

Though Victory kept pressing it seemed to have run out of time when Hernandez’s free kick was headed past Galekovic by the unfortunate Richie Alagich.

After the match Ernie Merrick said that the performance was good ‘but the result wasn’t what we were after’. ‘We have to get all three points from the Newcastle game.’

Aurelio Vidmar, the Adelaide coach, was inevitably disappointed. ‘We got into a great position, 2-0. We were really cruising in that second half. It only takes a couple of seconds for the game to change. Both goals came from silly mistakes’, he said.

The Iraqi victory was no fluke. It went through the tournament without losing a game. Back in Iraq the celebrations after the teams series of victories against the odds were bloody affairs. Car bombs killed 50 revellers in two separate incidents in Baghdad following the semi-final win over Korea. Four more died from celebratory gunfire after the final defeat of neighbour Saudi Arabia.

Almost equally romantic was the notion that Australia would carry its world cup euphoria into Asia and come home with the trophy. We joined the Asian Confederation to get tougher competition and so it proved. Iraq, not Australia, was the seeded team in its qualifying group and Iraq deservedly came out on top. In truth there was very little between the top eight teams in the competition. Half of the knock-out matches in the Asian Cup were decided on penalties. Australia, Korea and Japan all were losers on penalties at some stage.

Korea did not score in normal time in the knock-out matches, and it did not concede a goal. It won two penalty shoot-outs and lost one. In all, Korea played six matches and scored three goals and lost three goals. This was with a team lacking most of its European stars. The same was true of Japan.

Perhaps one of the lessons for Australia is to be found at home in future. If Mark Milligan and David Carney of Sydney FC can play at this level, why not an A-League based team for the next Asian challenge? Whatever happens Australia has to raise its level of skill and composure on the ball if it is to succeed in Asian conditions. Far too much can be made of heat and humidity. Knowing that you face such conditions means that players have to be comfortable on the ball and able to use it to control the pace, tempo and structure of the game. Too often in this competition the Socceroos handed the ball over to their opponents and then had to expend huge amounts of energy in winning it back. Australia looked most dangerous when it went forward, but in most games it seemed to spend much of the time, pinned back on the edge of its own penalty area.

Then there is the coaching issue. Graham Arnold is a fine man and a dedicated Australian with a strong playing career behind him and the respect of the players. Whether he was hard enough or distanced enough from his charges to exert the kind of control of a Guus Hiddink or had the experience to cope with some wily antagonists remain question marks against him. It was always expected that he would be in harness until a new, experienced overseas coach was appointed in the lead up to the next World Cup. The Football Federation Australia needs to hold its nerve and keep Arnold in the system through another campaign, by which time he should have the experience to take and keep the top job.

The game was like all the ones I have seen since coming back to Scotland, played at high speed with tackles flying in and one-touch football the order of the day. It was into the last minute of the first half before a player on either side took one more than one direct opponent with the ball at his feet.

Neither side was able to hold the ball for any length of time or change the pace of the game.

Airdrie had the more measured build-up while County relied on a number of long balls over the defence for Barrowman and Sean Higgins to chase.

Both the goals scored in normal time came from defensive errors.

The visitor broke through in the 31st minute when County lost the ball in midfield and Kevin McDonald fed a pass through to Stuart Noble who kept his composure and beat young keeper Joe Mallon easily.

County got back on terms nine minutes later, after Stephen McEown brought down Martin Scott and Iain Anderson’s free kick rebounded off a couple of defenders before Barrowman poked it over the line from close range.

The first half ended with a two players involved in a slanging match under the nose of the referee but there was no further score.

Airdrie had the better of the second half until County manager Dick Campbell made a triple substitution bringing on Darren Brady, Daniel Moore and Dene Shields.

Airdire also introduced tricky winger Stephen McDougall who added some flair to its attack.

But despite a number of near things it looked like the game would peter out into a draw until Darren Smith was adjudged to have brought down Brady on the edge of the penalty area. It seemed a soft penalty, but this observer was a long way from the action.

Barrowman could not take advantage and so both teams had to be content with the point.

Stuart Petrie, who played with Central Coast Mariners last season in the Australian A-League has joined Ross County as player-coach, and though he was listed among the substitutes he did not get a run in this game.

Petrie scored both goals the following week in Ross County’s win over the league leader Raith Rovers.

A sell-out crowd of 52,000 was there to cheer on the Scots ahead of another tough match against World Cup finalists France on Wednesday.

Since the World Champion, Italy, is also in Scotland’s group the magnitude of the task of the Scots is easily seen.

Over the years Scotland has had a good series of results against Lithuania, with the exception of the dire period when Berti Vogts was coach of the Scottish team.

As expected Scotland lined up in 4-4-2 with Kris Boyd and Gary O’Connor leading the attack.

The early signs were good for the home team as Gary Teale of Derby County teased the Lithuanian defenders down the left wing but nothing came of a series of attacks and the visitors led by skipper Tomas Danilevicius who plays with Bologna in Italy began to threaten.

On the half-hour Scotland made the breakthrough when Darren Fletcher, standing in as captain for the suspended Barry Ferguson, took a very quick free kick across the edge of the goal area and quicksilver Kris Boyd headed past the stranded keeper Zydrunas Karcemarskas.

The crowd raised the decibel level at that and Hampden was  set to party, but the Scots could not add to their lead in the first half.

The Lithuanian keeper was booked for a foul outside his area, and Teale’s subsequent shot rebounded off him but no attacker could take advantage.

The first 15 minutes of the second half saw Lithuania come more into the game, but their equalising goal came as a surprise.

Scots skipper Fletcher was judged to have fouled Saulius Mikoliunas who plays with Hearts in the Scottish Premier League and Slovenian referee Damir Skomina awarded a penalty kick.

Danilevicius ignored the cacophony from the Scots fans and buried the spot-kick.

For a while the Scots looked rocky and might have conceded another goal after the first Scottish change when James McFadden replaced Gary Teale.

Spaces opened up on the left invaded by Lithuania, while Fletcher and McEveley could not do any damage from a series of free-kicks in good positions.

Then in 76 minutes, Scots coach Alex Mcleish made an inspired double substitution, taking off O’Connor and midfielder Lee McCulloch and sending on Craig Beattie and Shaun Maloney.

Maloney cut across to the left and put in a teasing ball which defender Stephen McManus netted from two metres out.

In the next Scottish attack there were three forwards facing two defenders but offside prevented an addition to the score.

Then McFadden, a great favourite with the fans, came in from the right, took on and beat two defenders and lobbed the ball over the keeper in the 82nd minute.

So Scotland could coast home to an excellent victory which set up a vital clash with France in midweek.

In that game a moment of sheer genius by McFadden resulted in a one-nil away win for the Scots.

Melbourne Victory’s poor pre-season run continued when it lost by a goal to nil to Sydney FC at Olympic Park on Saturday night.

Last year’s A-League champion thus finished last in the pre-season cup.

Victory was without defender Ljubo Milicevic who was suspended, Matt Kemp with a leg injury, though he came on for the last few minutes as substitute and, of course, Adrian Leijer who has joined Fulham in the English Premier League.

So it was a makeshift home backline with utility Steve Pantelidis filling in as stopper alongside Daniel Piorkowski with Rodrigo Vargas sweeping, but the three gelled very well together.

Sydney coach Branko Culina decided not to risk marquee signing Brazilian World Cup winner Juninho in the rain-soaked conditions, but former Socceroo Tony Popovic took his place in the centre of the defence and Mark Milligan was back in his midfield spot after trailing in Europe earlier this month.

The only goal came in 34 minutes and it was a comedy of errors as Victory’s Grant Brebner tried to clear a cross from Ruben Zadkovich only to set up Alex Brosque who had time to beat Victory keeper Michael Theoklitos.

In the second half Victory raised its game and went chasing an equaliser.

Skipper Kevin Muscat found Socceroo Archie Thompson with a quick free kick, but the normally reliable striker could not trouble Sydney keeper Clint Bolton with his shot.

Young Socceroo Kaz Patafta, on loan from Benfica for the season, came on as substitute and helped set up Daniel Allsopp but the big striker’s header went wide.

Then in a hectic last few minutes Patafta hit the woodwork, the rebound fell to another substitute Adrian Caceres who forced keeper Bolton to fumble, but Allsopp’s attempt to equalise just cleared the crossbar.

So the match ended in victory for the visitor and though Branko Culina said that Melbourne was the best team it had encountered in the pre-season matches, the fact is that Victory has a lot to get right before the first league match in Wellington in a fortnight.

Ernie Merrick remained positive knowing that there is a lot more to come from his players, who have been undergoing very heavy physical training in the lead up to the A-League. “That was the most cohesive 90 minutes we have played in the pre-season. The standard of the football we played was consistent over the whole game,” he said.

Only 3,400 fans braved the appalling conditions, but they cheered the team off at the final whistle.

For many years the first evidence I could find of a soccer match being played in Geelong was in 1920, a reference I owed to a former colleague, GaryCotton.

I knew this was far too late, but finding earlier games on trawls through the sources, particularly the Geelong Advertiser, had proved fruitless.

Then the historian of the World Game, Dr Bill Murray of La Trobe University drew my attention to a brief note in the Australasian which announced that the game would be demonstrated to the students of Scotch College in Melbourne, and the Geelong Grammar School in June and July 1884, thanks to the headmasters of both schools.

I asked my friend Steve Radojevic, Bursar of the Grammar School, if he or the school archivist could check their files, but no record of the game could be found.

So it was back to the Advertiser to see if the game in Geelong took place.

There was an advertisement for the Grammar School on the front page on 1 July 1884 but only about its scholastic performances and a note, which obviously had not been proofread, saying the school would reopen after the holidays in February 1884.

But then on page three there was a notice about a game under Anglo-Australian rules to be played on Corio Oval between the Richmond and Carlton clubs from Melbourne—not the footy clubs, the soccer clubs of the same name.

The soccer clubs had been founded at least a year earlier and were playing regular matches in Melbourne and the first interstate matches between Victoria and New South Wales were played in 1883.

Next day, Wednesday 2 July 1884, the Advertiser carried a lengthy match report, detailing the teams, aspects of the rules which would be puzzling to observers, an estimate of crowd numbers and some critical comment on the code in comparison with the domestic game.

‘Some of the players exhibited much dexterity, but no excitement was created, and nearly all present voted the pastime decidedly slow, after the purely Australian method of playing football’.

Spence for the red and whites scored the first goal early in the second half, and Ware equalised for the blues late in the game, so it ended one-all.

The anonymous correspondent noted that there were around 300 people present at the start but not more than 100 remained at the end.

The writer noted that only the goalkeeper could handle the ball to prevent a goal and he could not carry it forward.

A crossbar or tape was in use to mark the height of the goal, a referee and two umpires who patrolled the wings and indicated when the ball was out of play by blowing a whistle.

The referee was a Mr. Gibbs, A. E. Gibbs, one of the pioneers of the game in New Zealand and Australia, who was later to be the representative of Australian soccer on the Football Association council in England.

Though the correspondent was cutting about the quality of the entertainment, this was quite common among domestic writers on Association Football in the period.

It did not prevent the game becoming established as a participatory sport in other parts of Australia in the 1880s, though the depression of the 1890s and the consequent fall in immigration resulted in a hiatus in Victoria.

Thereafter the code was reinvigorated in 1909 by Harry Dockerty and others when inward migration picked up again.

Subsequently the Dockerty Cup became the state-wide knock-out Cup which was played for until the 1990s.

The link between migration and the growth of soccer was re-established in the 1920s and again after the Second World War, and while migration is high at the moment, this is the first period when the expansion of soccer has been driven by the domestic population of Australia.

They say that defending a premiership is harder than winning it and Melbourne Victory may find the truth of that old saw this season.

Having lost its three Brazilians, particularly the charismatic Fred, young star midfielder Kristian Sarkies and no-nonsense defender Simon Storey, coach Ernie Merrick has replaced them with some quality players.

Ljubo Milicevic has returned to Victoria after a significant career in the Swiss League with FC Thun.

Joseph Keenan, a former Chelsea player, Costa Rican internationalist Carlos Hernandez and Adelaide United full back Matthew Kemp have been joined the Victory.

Young Socceroo Kaz Patafta who has been starring with the Benfica youth team in Portugal has been obtained on a one-year loan.

 “We’ve recruited two very good attacking full-backs, Joseph on the left and Matt Kemp on the right,” Merrick said.

“Defensively in midfield, at centre-back Ljubo’s a great addition, it will allow Grant Brebner and Kevin Muscat to get forward more.”

Skipper Kevin Muscat said despite having won the premiership and championship double last season, the hunger to improve remained strong.

“The facts are if you don’t want to go out and improve you probably shouldn’t be here,” Muscat said. “Obviously the players that have come in want to equal, if not better, what we achieved last season.”

Young defender Daniel Piorkowski has recovered from a leg injury which kept him out for more than half of last season and will challenge Geelong’s Adrian Leijer and Rodrigo Vargas for a place in the backline.

Others to look out for include tiny midfielder Leigh Broxham and the unsung midfield utility Steve Pantelidis, who does everything a coach could ask for no matter where he is played.

On Sunday in the 2007 Preseason Cup in a replay of last season’s Grand Final, Victory drew one-all with Adelaide United in Launceston, despite being without star striker Archie Thompson, who is on Socceroo duty in Malaysia.

Travis Dodd put Adelaide ahead after only 9 minutes, but Daniel Allsopp brought Victory level in 74 minutes.

This Sunday Victory will come to Geelong to take on Newcastle Jets at Skilled Stadium on a pitch which is only just being relaid.

Given the wet weather recently it is asking a lot of the ground staff to produce a quality surface for the match and the risk of injury must be higher if the turf has not stabilised by then.

The Jets lost narrowly in their opening match against Perth Glory, thanks to a Jamie Harnwell goal early in the second half.

The match next Sunday kicks-off at 2 pm and a big crowd is expected to attend.

Many Geelong fans are among the 10,000 Victory members already signed up for the new season and they can be expected to join the Blue and White Brigade in enthusiastic support for the defending champion.

Billed in some quarters as old soccer versus new football one of the powerhouses of the National Soccer League, South Melbourne, formerly Hellas, took on the A-League’s Melbourne Victory in a practice match at Bob Jane Stadium last night. Despite its non-competitive status the match attracted around 5000 fans. Free entry probably helped but since South Melbourne has been drawing around 500 to home games in the Victorian Premier League (Foxtel Cup), while the Victory had 55,000 at its grand final earlier this year, the message is clear. New football is what draws the fans. Even on a freezing cold night in the city. There were queues back across Albert Park at the advertised starting time and the match was delayed for ten minutes.

Both sets of supporters were in fine voice as the Clarendon Corner of South fans, though outnumbered, kept up a lively response to the Blue and White Brigade behind the St Kilda end goal for the Victory. Like the Victory players there was a little bit of rust in the early chants by the fans, but soon they got their co-ordination going. South is in the middle of its Victorian Premier League season while Victory is just three games into its pre-season.

It was an opportunity for both teams to give some younger and fringe players a run. South was without playmaker Fernando de Moraes and former Victory striker Ricky Diaco, but tricky midfielder Andrew Bourakis returned after a long spell out with injury.

Victory rested Adrian Leijer, while Grant Brebner started on the bench, but skipper Kevin Muscat was determined to have his run out against one of his old clubs. Up front Daniel Allsopp and Archie Thompson resumed their dynamic partnership which produced Victory’s second goal after Adrian Caceres had opened the scoring. South did hit back with a scrambled effort from Trent Waterston before half-time. Seven minutes after the break Socceroo Thompson mesmerised three South defenders and rounded the keeper for a stunning individual goal and Daniel Allsopp headed another after his initial shot had been parried. Two of the young Victory trialists combined for a goal by Tabor to round off a five-one win for the A-League team. The gulf in class was evident, though South fought hard to show that their ambitions for a spot in the top class have some basis.

Unfortunately just after Thompson scored his second goal a flare was thrown from the crowd striking young Bourakis and leading the referee to warn that the game would be terminated if there was a repeat.

Last night there were lots of Geelong faces in the crowd, some to barrack for local hero, Adrian Leijer, who unfortunately was rested by coach Ernie Merrick, but most just because they have always wanted a team not identified with a particular hyphenated-Australian community.

On the way into the ground I met Ted Smith, former Socceroo before the name was invented, who represented Australia at the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956. He was as enthusiastic as the five-year-old grandson he took to Mark Schwarzer’s book launch and football clinic the other day. ‘The World Cup has consolidated the support for the game.  For people who have not been involved before they now have a reason to come to games’, he said.

Some of the critics of the A-League object to its corporate excess, its commodification of the game, its attempts to manufacture atmosphere and its slick, and sometimes not so slick, commercialism. But the game is what the fans want to see. Attendances have exceeded the dreams of the promoters in Melbourne, though the club lost money in both of its first two seasons.

The lesson for Geelong is quite stark. Get your act together. Get one team to represent this city then you have a chance of getting somewhere. Otherwise it is cold paddocks and little support, and less future for our young players.

If evidence were needed of the sea change in Victorian football support then the attendance on Wednesday night for a practice match at Richmond when more than 2,000 fans turned up to watch Melbourne Victory is clear enough. According to the Victory website, spectators were ‘climbing trees and sitting on roofs to get a glimpse of the action’. Pictures show the fans crowded four deep around the perimeter of the ground. The figure of 2,000 is more than four times the claimed average attendance at recent games in the Victorian Premier League or Foxtel Cup and more than double that in the New South Wales Premier League this season.

It is true that no entry charge was made and the numbers are unofficial but the data is no more rubbery, and probably less so, than the figures estimated by the Football Federation Victoria and Australian and British Soccer Weekly in the case of New South Wales. Those people who have been arguing the urgency of reform of the game at the state level must be distraught that so little has been done to capitalise on the growth in the profile of the game in recent years.

Attendance at Victorian Premier League matches received a substantial boost in 2005 when the National Soccer League was terminated and there was a hiatus while Frank Lowy and his team took over the governance of Australian football. Two of the powerhouses of the NSL, South Melbourne and Melbourne Knights, returned to the VPL for the first time since 1977 and 1984 respectively. The league was increased to 14 teams. Crowds rose to an average of 1373 per game, atmosphere improved and the standard of play was boosted. An aggregate of over a quarter of a million spectators attended VPL home and away matches in 2005.

Subsequently it does not appear that the VPL has participated in the growth in football spectatorship encouraged by the Socceroos qualification for and subsequent performance at the FIFA World Cup in 2006, the successful launch of the A-League and Australia’s move to the Asian Football Confederation. Crowds for the first five rounds of the 2007 VPL season averaged around 1319 per match according to the data supplied by the clubs to the FFV results service. Too much reliance should not be placed on this information since the figures provided are all rounded and labeled approximate. A well informed source in the FFV commented to me, ‘I have been at games where I would estimate there was a thousand and the report will say 400 – then there are other[s] the opposite way around’. It cannot be assumed that these errors cancel each other out. A president of one of the leading VPL clubs has privately expressed outrage at the inflated attendance figures claimed by some clubs.

Since 2005 attendance has plummeted. In Round 12 of the Foxtel Cup in Victoria, estimates were given for only five of the eight games and the average crowd for those was under 500. In New South Wales the average attendance for the first 13 rounds was 779. Clubs cannot survive on these derisory figures and there are suggestions that at least one high profile club in Victoria will shortly fold.

In many ways we are repeating the errors of the past. The boom in interest after World Cup qualification in 1974 was soon dissipated and Johnny Warren believed that attendances at state-level soccer matches were actually falling in 1975, despite the World Cup euphoria, as older fans died off and were not replaced by youngsters (J. Warren with A. Harper and J. Whittington, Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters: An Incomplete Biography of Johnny Warren and Soccer in Australia, Random House, Sydney, 2002, pp. 177–8). The year 1975, however, saw the break in the post-war boom and a rise in inflation and unemployment in Australia, which may help to explain the decline in attendance.

It is true that television, the rise of globalisation, the internet and generally cheap communication has brought the highest level games into the homes and hotels of the mass of football supporters in this country. Hence the attractiveness of local competitions generally has declined. But it need not be so. Attendances in the second tier, the Championship, in England have risen, despite the global reach of the English Premier League.

Late last year the FFV announced plans to replace their Premier League by a new V-League modelled on the A-League at national level. The timescale for implementation was to be by the end of this calendar year with the new league to begin in 2008. Those plans were equally quickly scuppered and in recent months the FFV has been concentrating heavily on the constitutional changes required if it is to have a place in the new structure of football in Australia. So it and its constituent clubs appear to have taken their eyes off the ball at a critical point in the history of the game. Time to refocus, gentlemen and ladies.