So the phone rings at Blagg Acres and it's the Editor of Soccernet; "Blagg, we want to whet the appetite of punters and get them to tune in to the live ESPN game on Saturday. 200 words by this afternoon. My desk 5pm. Get to it"

What can I say? This is the type of game I tend to ignore nowadays; a pointless - in all senses of the word - mismatch that makes me think wisfully of the 1970's when, despite the fact that when you left home to watch a match you were never sure what state you were going to come home in, there was at least some sense of a competition in the league. Now, there isn't so much a gap between those at the top of the Premier League and those at the bottom, it's more of a gaping chasm that makes the Grand Canyon look like a fissure.