The Gardeners' World Blog

I spent a chilly afternoon earlier this month at the New Den with my mate Rod, watching his team Millwall play my team Bradford City.

I hope Colin Todd forgives me, but Bradford were pretty wretched and 2-0 down after half an hour. Why do we put ourselves through watching it? Well, I suppose it beats being in the Saturday checkout queues at Sainsbury’s.

It’s also about the endless battle between hope and reality – the belief that one day in sport we’ll make it, however much the odds are against us. But this past year has tested the optimism of English sports fans to the limit. From Twickenham to Perth via Gelsenkirchen, 2006 was a catalogue of disasters.