Went last night with the old man and we were chatting about old fashioned Reserve Team Football.

He said he used to take me and my brother and remembers us once seeing Bryan Robson playing for Man United Reserves against us.

I’m nearly 35. I don’t remember going to any Reserve Team games but have a memory it was a thing and through reading and listening to a variety of football podcasts, am aware it was a genuinely worthwhile thing. It seemed to act as a pathway for youngsters, minutes in legs for those returning from injury and minutes for those on the edges of first team squads. It was also genuinely competitive too.

Guessing there are various factors, but how did Reserve Team Football essentially die?