As well as lots of local fans, a huge and growing number of people log onto U's Net from all over the world, and among them are several whose interest in Cambridge United arose in the strangest way! A young Norwegian fan contacted me last year and revealed that he started looking for information about the Us after he had 'managed' the club in the computer game Championship Manager. He found U's Net and has become a regular visitor as he follows the story of our season.

The Championship Manager story has been repeated from Sweden and Norway again, and most recently from Israel where Gabriel, Gil and ten of their friends use the school computers to visit U's Net daily. They call themselves the Israeli Cambridge United Fan Club and two of them are planning to visit Cambridge this year to see a match, as are three of the Norwegians.

It is also gratifying when supporters who have moved abroad discover the web site and rekindle their interest in the club, and in recent weeks I have had email from Washington State and Texas in the USA, China, and Australia on that very subject. It makes the hours I put into the site very rewarding when I receive a message that says "Your website has brought me back to the club I followed fanatically for many years in the 70's and early 80's before disappearing off to the States to seek my fortune."

Another recent message was from a local supporter who said the first thing he did when he plugged in his new computer was to dial up the Internet, and the second was to visit U's Net!

I read on another football web site that their mailing list belied the preconception that football mailing lists and web sites are occupied by a 'bunch of geeks', and I would like to confirm that point with reference to the Moosenet mailing list. A 'bunch of geeks' could not be further from the truth as we range from experts to the barely computer literate, and encompass a wide range of occupations and personalities. From researchers and lecturers to bankers and accountants, students to Mums, journalists and solicitors and other professions, the variety even extends to the fact that all the stands in the Abbey are represented!

It all makes for some lively discussion as matches are dissected, rumours are started and shared, and you might read a heated debate between the student who starts the songs on the North Terrace and a City lecturer, for example. They usually agree to buy each other a pint afterwards, though!

Recent debates have included discussion about the annual accounts, the plans for redeveloping the Abbey, wondering how Leyton Orient fans can call us a 'dirty' side, and why did the ref allow Barry Conlon to get away with his theatrics last weekend.

Interested supporters yes, a 'bunch of geeks', definitely not!