Forgive me if I have only one thing on my mind today – no not that, nor even plugging Maya (out soon by the way and may I say the man from the Mirror, who gave my first novel a great write up, says he likes this one even more) so what with Time Out’s Book of the Week, and ‘steamy and intriguing’ from the Mail on Scumday and that nice write up in Saturday’s Times, Maya is shaping up nicely. I LOVE the cover.

But no, not even the excitement of a novel about to be published, nor any political event, nor even the fact that Leukaemia Research yesterday rebranded and became, enfin, Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research (makes sense all round), nor even a family event, no, nothing can get away from the fact that Bolton v Burnley matters more than anything else in the world today.

It’s a big game anyway, two North West rivals in need of points to climb away from the relegation zone. But the departure of Owen Coyle from the manager’s job at Burnley to the same berth at so-called ‘bigger club’ Bolton has added considerable spice to this fixture.

Unlike Bolton, on whom I spied at Arsenal last week, Burnley always have a pretty good away support. And Bolton having generously allocated us 4,700 tickets, all went quickly and plenty of Burnley fans are still looking. Of course Coyle will always be remembered in part because he led us to the Premier League but his departure and the manner of it left a bitter taste in a lot of Burnley mouths, and he knows he will be on the receiving end of a lot of noise tonight.

Hopefully the players will be up for it every bit as much as the fans and it promises to be a great night.

So apologies in advance to the people I have meetings with this morning. I won’t be concentrating. I just want to get on the road again and hope it is a better journey than the one I made at the weekend. I had been hoping to make a little vlog about the magic of the FA Cup. Didn’t quite work out like that, as you can see.