Oddly enough, when we were seated in the Canberra Stadium waiting for the match between United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to kick off, Colin introduced me to a few of his football-loving friends who were also present. I was suddenly surrouded by a sea of Glasgow accents, friendly men of my age and their adolescent or twentysomething children. All diehard Celtic fans. Any one of them could have been dressed like Colin. Naturally, in the spirit of footbll bantering males, each was advised I am a supporter of Partick Thistle. None laughed openly but there was an expression on their faces somewhere between jocular pity and sympathy for the terminal illness from which I was suffering.
There was no rain tonight. It was a perfect evening for playing and watching football: blue sky, warm sunshine, decent crowd reported to us as 7,992 people.
The UAE took all of 14 seconds to score the first of their 2 match winning goals. Blink and you'd have missed it. Lots of fun. Looking forward to my next match. China v North Korea. Never done that pairing before.
