Real life is something to stumble haphazardly through, the bits of my brain that are supposed to be occupying themselves with useful stuff daydreaming of Wem-ber-lee instead. Real life is Saturday and Saturday is a daze, having queued in Occupation Road for tickets to the away leg from half past ten on Friday night and got no nearer to sleep than ten minutes with my eyes closed. Real life is what awaits in the summer, which might start as soon as Thursday (and that’s a frightening thought). Real life is not Watford, so it’s nothing that I’d be interested in.

 WEMBLEY IS beckoning Watford – but Graham Taylor is refusing to look. The Watford manager was reluctant to acknowledge yesterday that victory in the first leg of the First Division play-off semi-final had improved his team’s chances of reaching the twin towers for the first time since the 1984 FA Cup final.