It's a way of stepping outside my usual day to day existence. I feel I am getting involved in an adventure and a Palace season is an unfolding story, and you never quite know how it will end (mind you at the moment ...)

I am generally a quiet person but I can let rip at a match in a way I never would anywhere else. I can feel extremes of emotion - elation, anger, frustration, fear - without loading those feelings onto someone else i.e.friends and family.

It's all a grand drama with its passion and its heroes and villains, but, in some ways, it's not real life.I can walk away from when it gets too much, and come back later when I'm ready for more.