Hazy images of Liverpool, Arsenal and England aside, my first real memory of football was the 1994 FA Cup final, in which Eric Cantona scored two penalties in a comprehensive 4-0 defeat of Chelsea by Manchester United.

In 1995 at the Baseball Ground, seventeen odd thousand bore witness to an unremarkable 1-1 draw. Unmoved but intrigued, my first season watching Derby with my father and older brother ended in riotous scenes of celebration as the Rams clinched automatic promotion to the Premier League.

Days later and Manchester United, admittedly my team of choice in the playground, secured the League and Cup Double, led by the rehabilited and by then near-mythical figure of Cantona. Needless to say, every collar on every pitch around the country was turned well and truly up on the shirts of the young and the impressionable.

The coup de grace came with Euro 96, the tournament that cemented England's rehabilitation into polite football society. Attendance at a group stage game and a quarter final (both at Villa Park) completed my education and the seeds of obsession were irremovably sown.

The best of Derby's Premiership years were witnessed in a final season at the Baseball Ground and then at Pride Park. A timely escape to Melbourne, Australia in 1999 came before the Ram's eventual relegation in 2002.

Four years in Australia were spent watching Premiership and Champions League games at strange hours recorded onto VCR. Local games consisted of historically Greek team South Melbourne and their Croatian rivals, Melbourne Knights (the club that gave the world Mark Viduka).

The World Cup in 2002 brought an enormous increase in my appetite for football and upon the end of my antipodean exile in 2003, a return to England saw live football consumed at a prodigous rate. Highlights include Internazionale vs Marseille at the San Siro in the Uefa Cup, Real Madrid vs Osasuna in a La Liga Game, attendance at the European Championships in Portugal and Deby's play off victory at the new Wembley in 2007.

2008 brought a return to Australia in search of Dual Citizenship, in order to make myself available for the both the Socceroos and the Three Lions. The old National Soccer League had been swept away, replaced with the Hyundai A League,.

So while I once again ingest European and world football at strange hours (now with the gratefully reiceved assistance of digital recording), I will tell you what I make of the much changed nature of Australian soccer and the exploits of the national team.