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This morning I decided that it was about time I popped up to Gavin's house to see his and Tracy's new little 'un, Isabella, and to give them her 'welcome to the world' present. She is absolutely adorable... and tiny (although not any smaller or larger than she ought to be). I didn't want to outstay my welcome at what must be a difficult time for them all, so I stayed long enough to drink a cup of coffee and have a blether. In any case, I had to get back home to await the arrival of Dave, our handyman, who was due to come up to the house and repair some gutters and downpipes. Sure enough, by the time I got home, there he was with his mate, Terry, almost finished. He wouldn't take any money just now - preferring to wait until we have some rain and can see that the repairs are good. He knows I'm good for the money anyway - afterall, he knows where I live! The rest of the day was spent working and waiting for the start of the competitive football season and Celtic's Champions' League qualifier against Artmedia of Bratislava. I think the only people who believed the Slovakian side had a hope in hell of getting any sort of result were the Slovakians themselves. I was full of confidence before kick-off. Even although Celtic were woeful during the first half, and went into the break one goal down, I was still confident that we would do enough to make next Tuesday's return match in Glasgow irrelevant. I could hardly believe it when I saw that we were even worse in the second half. It was worse than just a group of highly paid sportsmen having a bad day. They weren't communicating with each other on the field; the defence was absent, the midfield was at sixes-and-sevens, and the forwards weren't getting any service. Tactically, we were inept and unable to deal with Artmedia's pace. Worse, they were playing long cross-field balls, which should be bread-and-butter to our centre-halfs. The full-backs were playing too far forward, and were being caught out of position and unable to get back quickly enough. The centre-halfs were not covering their absent colleagues' positions, while the holding midfield player was sitting in front of them, effectively telling Artmedia's pacey forwards and wide-midfield players to go into the space vacated by the full-backs. I thought that the manager and players had noticed the problem, and that they would sort it out at half time - and it could have been sorted out quite easily by telling the full backs to stop going forward, and to stay back and deny the Artmedia wingers the option of the crossfield ball. This would also have freed up space for our wide midfield players, which would, in turn, have allowed our attacking midfielder to move into the centre where he is much more dangerous, and where he could have supported the forwards, allowing them to stay forward and putting pressure on the Slovakians' defence. Alas, it was not to be. The tactical changes that were made - going from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 - did not work, because the full-backs were still racing up the pitch, effectively making our formation 3-4-3. The final score? Too painful for me to say, so I'll leave it to the BBC. I just hope that that was as bad as it's going to get. Now, can we score six without reply on Tuesday? Of course we can! Whether we will or not is a different matter altogether, however. We can but hope.

Last year all I had to worry about was scones