Here's a bit of light reading from Saturday's matchday programme v Darlington.

Not only is the football first class but you can enjoy some top articles in the club's match programme too

EXPECTATIONS

By Steve Bond

I quite often struggle for subject matter when asked to pen a few lines for

the programme.

I appreciate that it has to be football related and preferably doesn't descend into one of my rants at the many things which seem so irritating about England in 2009.  However, at the moment I'm feeling pretty mellow. After all winning the World cup is now a mere formality.

Just over a month ago it was the flares on the pitch that caused us to be distracted for Ukraine's goal so not our fault at all. As we've vanquished the mighty Belarus, Croatia and Kazakhstan and as I believe everything I read and realise that we only have to turn up in South Africa and go through the formality of a few football matches before we're handed the trophy.  The tabloids won't need to find any puns based around root vegetables for Fabio Capello as he is obviously the finest manager who has ever lived and England have the best squad since records were kept - or 1966 whichever was the earliest.

Expectations are marvelous things but our papers aided by (or owned by), Sky never manage to find a realistic middle ground.  Journalism today is all sensation and outrage-based - full of 'celebrities' and 'miracle tots', with objectivity in very short supply.  If you believe what you read and believe the sledgehammer advertising between games and terminal punditry on TV, you really might think we are guaranteed to win the World Cup. I refer especially to the relentless plugging and 'expert banter' on what have become monotonously regular 'Super Sundays'.

This might appear sad, but its quite common in the cricket world, so give it a try - have a game on Sky (ITV will do for a European game) and watch it with the sound turned down and Radio 5 on.  Suddenly a game which is being relentlessly talked up on TV magically becomes rubbish.  If it is tedious (often referred to as 'tactical', or a 'game of cat and mouse'), which many are, Alan Green will say so.  No longer will you be wondering if you have mental issues discerning sporting good from bad.  Things will become clear and maybe you'll begin to wonder if the World cup is such a foregone conclusion.

To put things into perspective: Fabio Capello is under no illusions about his players abilities and has a game plan. England, as usual, have a couple of very good players and a lot of middling ones. Oh, and other teams will be there: Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain and Holland for example.  So, let's be realistically optimistic about the Quarter Finals with anything more a bonus.

Unfortunately Brazil, at half pace, comfortably beat an admittedly under-strength England side in Doha and confirmed my honest expectations that when Rooney is off-form we have very little to offer. We failed to keep possession for more than a few seconds and maintained throughout the standards of English League football which is run around busily and hope that is enough.

It isn't and never will be! Not that the press will let you believe we can fail; they've got papers to sell and stupid headlines to invent.

Thanks for reading.  I'm now off to watch my taped Football League Show. Can I just mention that its taped, not because I go to bed before midnight, but so I can fast forward through the inanities of the emails and texts which are obligatory on all TV programmes nowadays.  Quite frankly I don't give an expletive if 'Chug from Leeds' thinks they are going up, or 'Dazza' thinks Benitez should be sacked or spend £100 million on Kaka (who, unless I'm very much mistaken was a rather attractive cat on Hectors House?)