By the end of January I think everyone wanted to let Owen Coyle pass into the history books and forget his ill-timed departure. Yet, annoyingly, it was either Coyle himself or tabloid writer Nixon who kept stoking the fires with more newspaper pieces.
The Sunday Papers after the Cup exit praised Reading but I fancy in private Brian Laws was a bit shell-shocked by the paucity of his own team's display.
It was the day after the night before, time to be constructive I felt; stop the inquests, time to put away the accusations, and the vitriol, although maybe that's a word a bit on the strong side perhaps.
But none of us thought it would happen quite so soon, and as suddenly as this. He was only here for a little more than two years but what a two years it was.
With Christmas just three days away at last we had confirmation that the lunatics had taken over the Premiership asylum with Mark Hughes sacked by the Arabs at Man City and Benitez promising a top four place at Liverpool.
Following a night of terrific football, a Cup-tie atmosphere and a wonderful game that could have gone either way; probably that's what I immediately should have been writing about.
My hero is Stuart Hall. I love his radio reports, his wit and artistry with words. His book Between Heaven and Hall has pride of place on the shelf next to all the books wot I have wrote.
There was a nice Stan Ternent story in the Man City book-sized programme that I actually got round to reading a few days after the game. It concerned ex City player Paul Lake who became a physio after injury prematurely curtailed his career.
It was one of those silly months with a blank Saturday because of another ridiculous England friendly. England played Brazil in Dubai and one by one all the top names dropped out.
How privileged I was to have worked with Margaret Potts for over a year writing the story of husband Harry and her life with him. It was a work she always wanted to complete.
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