Do you recall our old friend Odysseus? The chap I’ve mentioned in several of my earlier blog posts?

You do? Good, because he pops up again in this one. In fact, here he comes now.

During his return home to Ithaca, Odysseus lost everyone under his command. All his men – his captains and his soldiers, his advisors and his trusted friends – had perished in the ten-years since they set sail from the battlefields of Troy. Whether devoured by a monster, killed in battle or lost to the wine-dark seas, no man made it back from the Trojan War alongside him.

Consequently, by the end of his epic journey, our old pal Oddy washed up on his craggy island home all by himself. Lonesome and bereft of companionship. This was, literally, a Classic Billy-no-mates situation. Which, on the Sunday just gone – 16^th February – was similar to how I found myself as I travelled to the LSV Stadium to watch my girls, the Manchester United Women, take on Crystal Palace. Like that song, “All By Myself”, I was alone.

My usual fellow travellers – #DaughterNo1 and #SonInLawNo1 – couldn’t make the match. Their absence wasn’t due to being lost at sea or because they’d been munched by giant, one-eyed shepherds. Liam was missing because he needed his beauty sleep after finishing a fourteen-hour night shift. While Bethany was at home caring for Emilia after #GrandDaughterNo1’s ambulance dash to A&E a few days earlier. Fret not, folks, little Mi-Mi’s trip to hospital was mostly precautionary; our future Lioness is doing just fine. She’ll be leading the England forward line in no time at all. Keep an eye out for her around the year 2041.

So, I was alone at the match. Just me and a shade over four thousand fellow fans. But, you get my point. Thus, Odysseus and I were joined – if it’s even possible to be joined by someone when both of you are quite busy being alone (that’s an existential conundrum to consider) – by our solo traveller statuses.

Our MUWFC girls – I so want to name them The She-Devils but have no idea if this is a huge “no-no” in today’s world – won 3-1 to maintain our hold on second place in the WSL. I have to confess to hoping for a larger margin of victory against the league’s bottom team but, to their credit, Crystal Palace put up a very decent fight against a United side that didn’t really get going. In the 85^th minute Grace Clinton, our young midfield Lioness, rose high in the area to reach an Ella Toone free kick. The Palace keeper leapt alongside Clinton but the United player got to the ball first and her brave header looped lazily into the net for United’s third. That goal finally ended Palace’s hopes of taking something away from the game.

Elsewhere in the WSL, England star Lauren James scored deep into time-added-on to help Chelsea win 2-1 against Everton. Our rivals, Arsenal and Manchester City, both won convincingly to strengthen their challenge for the two remaining places in next season’s Champions League. It’s going to be an exciting run-in to the end of the season. Hopefully United can see off their challenges and, maybe, make it to the cup final too.

It was interesting to see Chloe Kelly was only named as a substitute for Arsenal; she came on for her second Arsenal debut in the second half. I still retain hopes that her loan stay with the Gunners will be brief ahead of her – fingers crossed – move to United in the summer. After Arsenal’s match, Beth Mead and Lotte Wubben-Moy withdrew from the current England squad due to injury. I don’t think either is a major concern but them leaving the training camp has meant Kelly has been called back into the Lionesses squad for the games against Portugal and Spain.

I am interested to see if Sarina picks Kelly to play against Portugal on Friday evening.

Such a return would be epic. Just like that of our old mate Odysseus.