Normal service resumed.

After last weekend's defeats, midweek salvation. Arsenal went to Belgrade, literally a cauldron of sound and secured a 3-1 victory. Once again I winced at the treatment handed out to Jack Wiltshere, and had my view confirmed that five match officials are really no better than three.

By the time the next round of matches come round the squad should be stronger, and a number of those recently absent through injury should be available. After Almunia's performance last Saturday, he developed an elbow injury. I don't have a problem if Arsene Wenger uses "dipplomatic injuries" to conceal dropping a player whose confidence must already be low. Anyway Fabianski took over in goal, and in spite of all our fears, came through unscathed He conceded only from the penalty spot, and in the last tem minutes with Arsenal sitting on a comfortable 3-1 advantage, he saved a spot kick and made a very good reaction save. One can only hope that this helps build his confidence, for the games ahead, starting at Chelsea on Sunday.

Last night in dreadful weather conditions the Dons took three points, to restore their second place in the Conference. The first half saw some great football but no goals. An injury to Yakubu saw Franks come on in the second half, and the substitute centre back scored twice, his goals the 1st and 3rd were separated by a goal from the very pacey Christian Jolley. The Dons looked excellent from wide positions and it was no surprise when Ryan Jackson was chosen as MOM. Hopefully the Dons can maintain their strong home form this Saturday when Forest Green Rovers are the visitors.

The wrong Ed

On Saturday afternoon while I was watching Arsenal capitulate to West Brom, Labour announced that Ed Miliband was the newly elected leader of the party. The Labour conference held this year in Manchester ( what's wrong with seaside towns) was the venue for the announcement . Of course the media picked up on the closeness of the result, the fact that Ed Miliband did not secure a majority vote amongst members or MPs and the Mail coined " Red Ed !"

Ed Miliband's strategy to become leader was all too obvious, the only way he could defeat his brother was to position himself to the left and hope to pick up second preference votes. The strategy worked, In the 24 hours after the result was declared, Ed Miliband appeared on the Andrew Marr programme, and Miliband worked at showing that he was not "Red Ed". However the real performance of the weekend was Jon Soppel's interview with Ed Balls, who produced the type of performance that suggested that he was the one Labour headliner who could battle the Coalition in Parliament.

In all honesty I'm far from impressed by Miliband, perhaps because as Minister for Climate Change he tended to talk a good job, but failed to deliver, none more so than at Copenhagen.

Whether he genuinely wants to reduce inequality and tackle climate change only time will tell.

Round Up - 100th entry

Let's start with politics its the week of the Lib Dem conference, and my chance to rant at Chris Huhne. Months ago i wrote that nuclear power would be the breaking point of the coalition; it seems I was badly wrong. I thought that nuclear power was an issue on which you could compromise, you either believed it was a safe alternative to carbon based fuels, and its cheaper or it remains deeply flawed , is fundamentally unsafe and leaves waste that is not disposable in any ethical sense. Well its seems you can compromise, Huhne says he still opposes nuclear power but will build new reactors, because they will be privately financed and anyway its part of his party's sacred deal with the Tories. The perfect case of power before principle.

On Tuesday night Spurs played Arsenal in the Carling Cup. arsene Wenger was banned from the touchline , but out foxed Redknapp and the Gunners came away with a 4-1 victory. Very sweet, I doubt whether Spurs will be bringing out a DVD of that game.

Wednesday and England rounded off an excellent summer by defeating Pakistan 3-2 in the ODI series. The last month has been ravished by controversy over spot betting and match fixing, but nevertheless its to England's credit that they remained professional and saw the job through. Today the Ashes squad has been announced and delighted that Surrey's Steve davis, Chris Tremlett have made the touring party. I'm also pleased that Monty Panesar is seen as the back up spinner to Graeme Swann. Monty may spend a lot of time carrying water bottles but that is in large part to Swann's magnificant performances over the last 18 months. He must walk away with the player of the year awards and could easily be rewarded with the ICC World cricketer of the year, he has been that good.

It's two months to the Ashes, and the weeks ahead will see me give greater priority to football,unfortunately I'm missing the AFC Wimbledon v Crawley game which has been moved to Thursday to suit TV; even at Conference level someone other than the fans is calling the tune.

A night out in Luton

Friday night isn't made for football, but because of Tv contract the Dons were obliged to travel to Luton on a Friday night. Now for me that isn't too much of an ask but for anyone finishing work around 6pm in South London, forget it.

After initially getting lost somewhere around the Luton town centre I discovered the route to Bury Park. The other news item of the day of course was the Pope's visit, and his comments about English society. Now Bury Park is one of the most multi cultural areas in England. Put bluntly it is dominated by muslim schools, community centres and what are described as ethnic shops. Nestling amidst these is Kenilworth Road, the home of Luton Town.

Luton is an usual town in southern England, rows and rows of back to back terrace houses, front doors directly onto the street that seem to have been transported from a Lancashire mill town. It is worth noting that Luton is represented by the only Labour MPs in eastern region at present.

Ironically I found myself in the press box doing the match stats and accompanying Mikey T on WDON. First time I've acted as guest summariser, and a real pleasure. Shame about the result.

Luton deserved the win , the final score of 3-0 was a reflection of how well their keeper played and how poorly we defended set pieces.

Luton is one of the first times as AFC Wimbledon that we have faced a Club with more supporters than ourselves, fans who are not in awe of us. Last season to quote Mikey T it was a bit of a John & Yoko love in, as both sets of fans united in their hostility to MK Dons, last night usual hostilities were restored.

On the way home I listened to a debate on the Pope's visit. What became apparent during the programme and in discussions during the day, is the acceptance by catholics that they can pick and choose which is the Pope's views that they follow. Its obvious that most British catholics do not follow the church's teachings on contraception, yet this is accepted with a shrug. As I said it's the equivalent to someone claiming to be a vegetarian while devouring the Sunday roast. Of course the Church decides to turn a blind eye in this country, while denouncing birth control in the third world.

Wednesday night in Highbury

It was the first Champions League game and perhaps a mixture of low key opposition, televisation and the sense that we've been here before meant that there was a rather muted atmosphere before the start of the match.

It only took a few minutes to change that, Arsenal without the services of Van Persie, Walcott, Diaby and Vermaelen simply dominated from start to finish. The Portuguese opponents, SC Braga, literally must have wondered what hit them. It was a great night, after two penalty appeals , one of which looked "half decent", Fabregas threaded the ball through to Chamahk who was upended by the keeper, and the referee pointed to the spot, Fabregas obliged.

Arshavin made it two, again Fabregas the provider. An audacious back heel from Wiltshere set up Chamahk for the third. In the second half Arshavin hit the post before crossing for Fabregas to head home the 4th, and finally substitute Vela hit numbers 5 and 6.

When Arsene Wenger started to make substitutions Chamahk and Song went off to a great reception. Song already established as a crowd favourite but Chamahk worked tirelessly , was always available and was a constant threat. The loudest reception greeted the introduction of Eboue who had previously acted as leading cheerleader. Eboue has great spirit and clearly loves his cult status, what a change from 18 months ago.

6-0 and a bag of chips after the game, can't beat that.

Not welcome

So the pope arrived today and warned against "aggressive secularism", he congratulated Britain for its traditions of tolerance, how ironic for as head of a church that is anything but tolerant.

There are so many areas of discussion. How is the pope afforded the privileges of a state visit, no other religious leader would be so treated. When public services are being cut what defence can the government have for the expenditure on such a visit.

The pope congratulated Britain on its fight against Nazism, yet of course he was involved in that fight as a member of the Hitler youth movement and at 83 he is certainly the age to have fought for Hitler's Germany. The facts that the media seem to not want to dwell on. Of course the pope also rehabilitated the priest who was a holocaust denier.

The Catholic Church remains fixed in its views that deny equality to women, and labels gay and lesbians as incapable of good. Meanwhile over years to has shielded priests who sexually abused children, this new found attitude of care for the victims is opportune, but what about bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Meanwhile the Catholic Church vetoes the use of condoms in 3rd World nations , while turning a blind eye to the fact that in Europe those who follow the faith obviously practice birth control. It opposes abortion even for victims of sexual violence and abuse, and attacks stem cell research that offers hope to many who have to live with what are currently incurable conditions and diseases .

Frankly the last thing we need is to be lectured about civilised behaviour by this man. If members of the church wish to hear him no problem, but as to why those of us who believe in equality should have to foot the bill , no way.

Council Elections and Conference

Thursday night and sadly the Greens didn't take control of Norwich Council. The Party won an additional seat taking them to 14, while Labour held 16. Nevertheless it's the largest green group of councillors in the country and Norwich as a city should be able to mount a campaign against the cuts that the Con Dem government will surely attempt to impose.

The day after the Green Party Conference began in Birmingham. It's the first conference since Caroline Lucas won the seat at Brighton Pavilion, and the importance of that fact was confirmed when she was interviewed on Radio 4 and 5 in the morning. BBC News carried a short soundbite from her at the conference, and the Guardian, Independent and Telegraph carried reports the next day.

Her speech focussed on welcoming those disillusioned with the three main parties, she ridiculed the choice put in front of Labour members in the current leadership contest. In fact she could have been speaking to me, since leaving Labour I've not felt compelled to return. I was energised by working for the Greens during the election campaign, but in truth the yawning gap between the level of debate at national level and the near moribund state of the local organisation deters me from involvement. I sense I have to resolve this in my own mind during the remainder of thw year.