Never look a gift horse in the mouth, so congratulations to Dick Knight for winning a Sussex Sporting achievement award! I'll grant you that it was a tad confusing, the award was in recognition of the club returning to Withdean, but as a colleague at work pointed out, the Albion were actually due to do this at the beginning of the 98/99 season!

Was it a case of the trophy being held over from last year and basically a quick trip down the engravers to have the eight changed to a nine? If Dick got a 'gong' for getting the Albion back to Withdean, what will he get next December if he delivers the planning permission and funding for Falmer - a knighthood?

As the season is fast approaching its halfway stage I decided to conduct a straw poll with 10 season ticket holders. The 10 came from a complete cross section of the Albion support, and I basically asked the question, "At this point in time will you be renewing your season ticket for next year?" It was a 50-5O split.

Taking the negative lobby first, one supporter said he would not return to his seat until Micky Adams was sacked! I do not concur with this opinion. Adams is a good manager and axing him would be a disaster. The next two said they would not re-apply unless significant funds were made available for players. The next dissenter was basically suspicious of Bill Archer's continued involvement in the club. What was in it for Archer? He wouldn't keep 41 per cent unless there was another 'golden goose' at the end of it! The last person said he had lost interest, pure and simple. He told me if he wanted to continue to sit in the rain bored he'd take up fishing! He bought his ticket in the euphoria of the summer and likened it to his brief encounter with skateboarding back in the Seventies. Back then, like now, he followed the crowd!

The 'yes' camp featured two fans who described themselves as 'lemmings', perhaps stopping short of jumping off Beachy Head with Dick but nonetheless he enjoys their blind loyalty. The next fan stated, quite surprisingly at this stage of the campaign, that he was prepared to write off this year and was looking forward to next season. The final two told me that they were both Albion fans and the only way of getting the club out of their current plight was to continue to purchase season tickets. The last three all said they thought Messrs Knight and Perry were doing a good job - however an injection of funds for players was desperately needed.

Football is indeed a game of opinions. Ten fans with differing views, probably with the exception of the 'impulse' buyer and the 'anti Adams' anorak, all wanting to see Albion progress. The money is an issue, but the Albion now enter a period where significant funds will be needed for the proposed Falmer development. But what is the point of having a state of the art stadium without a decent team to play in it? Just ask Reading!

I wonder if former Shoreham heavyweight Scott Welch will sit down to his Christmas turkey with feelings of what might have been. If he had been victorious against Julius Francis back in June, Scott might now be relishing the possibility of either having Mike Tyson bite his ear or knocking his block off.

Finally, may I wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and for those of you going to the Barnet game on Boxing Day, look out for a Gulls Eye Millennium special available outside the ground. A famous Archer adorns the front cover!

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.