This is quite brave for Lola on a night with a full Premier League programme. She’s at the top of the stairs, rather than hiding under the desk in my office. It’s probably because we’re watching “Jeff”, even though it’s not Jeff tonight, rather than a live game. As soon as she realises what’s in store, she takes herself off and does something else for a couple of hours.

It’s strange. We think it’s because of the strained atmosphere in the house while there are matches going on and she senses our tension. At the moment it’s 0-0 in our game and the second half has just kicked off. We’ve made a change in line-up and now hope to do a bit better. She doesn’t want to know…unless we score that is when she’ll burst into the room, do a little celebratory jig with us and then slink off again to somewhere that’s got a bit less stress hanging about.

There are about 35 minutes of the match left and then, if we’re very lucky, she’ll grace us with her presence. Until then, she’ll sit atop the stairs and look melancholy.