The U's News page and "This Season" section, which I wrote about last time, are benefiting from Mark Johnson's input this season. Mark, who many of you know from his extensive travels to report on United and from his articles elsewhere in this programme, provides match reports from up and down the country for the Clubcall Abbey Update service. This season, after a Steve Greenall brainwave, he is also supplying goal flashes and half- and full-time updates to U's Net. That means the team line-ups, latest score and eventually the first match report can be on the Internet within a few minutes.

United fans can then access this information almost instantly. During recent games the site has been viewed from all over the UK and other countries including the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Scandinavia, and the Far East. So while you watch the game this afternoon, United fans in exile will be going through it with you - and hopefully celebrating too!

Recently I saw evidence of how closely the foreign-based fans follow results. On the web site there is a real-time 'chat room' - of which more in a later article - and last Tuesday, after the Watford game, there was a real celebration worthy of a chat room called the "Abbey Arms". Supporters who were arriving at their homes following the game logged on to celebrate and swap details with U's from other parts of the British Isles, and we were joined by Mike in Australia - for whom it was already Wednesday morning - and Halvor from Norway. This Wednesday night several fans were in the "Arms" as the Worthington Cup second round draw was made, ready to discuss our next opponents.

One of the most popular areas of the site is the section devoted to the players. As you would expect if you have seen other club sites you can find the usual information about their age, height, previous clubs, career appearances and goals. But in addition I record as much information as possible about the type of player they are, what the fans think of them, what the manager and coaches have said about them, and up to date pictures.

This section also details the in and outs in terms of transfers, and the appearance and goal statistics which are updated after every game.

More next week, but in the meantime if you are on-line and haven't tried out the "Abbey Arms", wander in one evening and introduce yourself. You'll be very welcome!