Back in 1975 I went on a school trip to the Imperial War Museum in London and I witnessed good old-fashioned daylight robbery for the first time.

Waiting for the coach to pick us up, we watched a cowboy vendor charge some foreign students £1 for a can of coke when the price at that time was 8p!

Even though they were French, I felt sorry for them but not as sorry as I felt for the 200 or so Albion fans who last Saturday were charged £15 to watch Leyton Orient and Brighton in a pre-season friendly.

The extortionate ticket price and subsequent paltry crowd went a long way to creating a game which had all the atmosphere of a Doris Stokes gig and frankly, once again, highlighted how having no permanent stadium really puts the Albion at a disadvantage.

While I appreciate that pre-season friendlies are more about gaining match fitness, Leyton Orient players aren't even household names in their own households. Yet on the same day, Gillingham entertained Tottenham while Pompey took on Chelsea only a couple of weeks after Glasgow Celtic had graced Fratton Park.

Until Falmer is built, it looks like the Albion will have to make do with being the visiting attraction for smaller clubs, rather than getting the big clubs to play at Withdean, with yet more money going everywhere except into the Albion's bank account.

On the subject of Falmer, it is clear the anti-stadium brigade are prepared to try every trick in the book to scupper the project.

The Albion's application to stay at Withdean until 2005 is, according to the NIMBYs, a clear indication that Falmer is nothing but a stalking horse.

I am informed by one of the green welly brigade that 2005 marks the end of the Ecovert contract and it would then be possible for the Albion to take over the management of the ground. If the council was to build an athletics track elsewhere in the city, the Albion could build permanent stands at Withdean seating 15,000 which is possible, according to a top secret feasibility study carried out by the Albion two years ago.

I'm sure such a report would have found its way on to the pages of this paper. The rest is all very plausible if Falmer was a dead duck but it's not. So why don't these people just admit defeat and look for another crusade to latch on to?

Ignoring all the knockers and the snipers, I am actually enjoying the Commonwealth Games. The organisers should be congratulated on a job well done.

The stadium is proof this country can actually build a decent sports facility and perhaps the events in Manchester might make certain members of the government and the FA remove their heads from their backsides and get on with the Wembley project.

My favourite moment so far was in the super heavyweight boxing on Friday night when the great white hope (with the obligatory suntan) of Australia got put on his backside, not once but twice, by some rotund Polynesian who looked like he'd come straight from the pub!

And finally, Liam Brady once famously remarked to John Lees at Canvey Island: "If your Granny had balls she'd be your Grandad." But just think, if Nicholas Van Hoogstraten had been a full-on Albion fan, would Archer and Stanley have thought twice about going ahead with the Goldstone asset strip?