My young daughter runs the house but I'm just lucky to get to spend plenty of time with her

David Artell / Editor / 20 September 2007 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

Morecambe's David Artell tells us about Peterborough's promotion hopes, scouting from the comfort of his sofa and why the pink is the predominant colour in his home

We are currently in the middle of five very tough games. Having beaten Chester away a week last Friday we finally had a home game (after four away) and put in a poor showing and lost 3-0. After winning three and drawing once in our four away games it might be an idea to play all our games away! Our next three games are Peterborough away, Sheffield United away and MK Dons at home. All three sides have squads considerably larger than ours and we will need to be back to our best to get anything from them. Peterborough are 1.97 favourites for promotion and MK Dons are not too far behind at 2.18. It would take a brave man to lay either team as MK Dons missed out in the play-offs last year and after all the money Peterborough have spent in the summer, they too will be challenging come May. One of the main reasons for this is the size of their squads and the money they can offer players is far greater than most in league 2.

With the women's World Cup underway it's a chance to see some more football on the TV. I usually watch Match of the Day on a Saturday night but have to put up with X Factor and Ant and Dec beforehand! I don't watch much football on TV unless it's a team from league 2 as I prefer to watch sports other than football, especially cricket and the Grand Prix, which is heading towards a pretty exciting finish. The only reason I'd watch a league 2 game is to pick up a few tips on forthcoming opposition, although we do receive information on our opponents which is always handy to read. It goes through how the opposition played their last game, has a report on each player, all the set pieces and various other bits of information information like how deep a team defends, whether they have pace in their side and if they had a penalty, which side it was placed.

Some of our lads find it really helpful as they don't know a lot of the players and they like to know all they can beforehand. However other players (generally the forwards) don't bother looking at them as their response is 'they will have to worry about me'.

We have five games in fourteen days coming up which will keep me busy but not half as busy as our second child which is due in November. I already have one daughter (who runs the house!) and with a second on the way I'm going to have to put up with all things pink and girly. One of the massive advantages of being a footballer is that you get to see your children grow up more than most as I'm normally back in the house by three o'clock. This allows me to do activities with my daughter that I wouldn't normally have the chance to do. I take her swimming once a week and my wife takes her dancing. With the levels of childhood obesity being on the increase, it's more important then ever to encourage an active lifestyle. I'm sure she will get the chance to take part in more sports when she starts school and I certainly wouldn't discourage her from her choosing a career in professional sport.

The first games of the European competitions start this week and looking at the UEFA Cup odds it shows Bayern Munich as hot favourites at 4.6. Having had a poor season last year, I'm sure their fans will be looking for some payback and they have started well domestically and sit top of the Bundesliga. With the winner from the last two years now in the Champions League (Sevilla) I cannot see who would challenge Bayern for the cup. With the likes of Luca Toni, Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose in their forward line if any team are to test Bayern then they will have to stop one of the best forward lines in Europe.

David Artell plays for Morecambe FC

http://www.morecambefc.com/

Tags: David Artell, Match of the Day, Morecambe football, Peterborough