No one likes us - do we care?

I didn't go to the Villarreal match on Saturday. In all honesty, I didn't even know it was taking place. Our 'glamour' pre-season friendly is usually staged on the Sunday before the season kicks off. My excuse is that I'd got back from a month-long holiday in Central America only the previous day, and I was due to compete in the London Triathlon on the Sunday.

I think the last pre-season friendly I went to was at Brisbane Road. We beat Orient (as they were then known - it was that long ago) 2-1, with Frank McAvennie scoring the winner. That was in the days when I couldn't get enough of West Ham. Despite entering my 22nd consecutive year as a season-ticket holder, nowadays I look for excuses not to attend matches. Wigan at home? I'm afraid I'm going to gatecrash the wedding of my second cousin twice removed - in Grimsby.

The nature of the opposition on Saturday made the idea of attending the game even less appealing. The last thing I needed was 90 minutes of the Idiot Behind Me (IBM) - how I pray that he hasn't renewed his season ticket - spewing a hate-filled diatribe about 'paella eaters', while managing to fit an insult about Frank Lampard's weight into every sentence (I'm sure Frank would love to swap places with a foul-mouthed loser with a waist size higher than his IQ).

It was interesting to hear that triallist Ben Thatcher - who not only started his career at millwall, but has also gained a well-deserved reputation as a snarling thug, epitomised by his forearm smash on Pedro Mendes a couple of years ago - was booed. It seems that Curbishley has got his eye on one title this season - that of most hated club. We came eight in such a poll recently, largely thanks to the Tevez affair and counting the likes of Bellamy and Bowyer in our squad, and Thatcher's addition to the ranks should help us rise a few places.

It's a far cry from when the Academy of Football was everyone's second-favourite club. Looks like I'm not the only one who has fallen out of love with all things claret and blue.