What never ceases to amaze me is the number of supporters who leave a game ten minutes or more before the end. They really have got it coming to them as far as I am concerned and deserve everything that they don’t get, if you see what I mean.

From my seat in the Clock End at the recent League match against Watford, I watched these so-called supporters start to filter out with some 12 minutes to go. The West Stand appears to play host to some of the worst offenders, and, as you can imagine with the surfeit of fair-weather fans at Wembley, they start that shame-faced shuffle even earlier. I suppose that under interrogation, the odd few could present a valid reason for their early departures but those that conduct an early sprint to the car park or tube, have, this season alone, been deprived of a lorry load of dramatic football.

Those that habitually practice the art of the early au-revoir will have missed, among others, this season’s dramatic last-minute winner against Leicester City, a late late goal against Watford from the boot of the charismatic Kanu and the two-goal injury-time thriller at Wembley against AIK Solna and of course Kanu's heroics at Chelsea. And that’s not just five goals, but four games that eventually gave the side four victories when three draws appeared as good as it was going to get. And as for Stamford Bridge, well, two-nil down departer, how do you feel?

But it doesn’t end there. How many games have you ever stood or sat at where the ‘supporter’ next to you has been engrossed in reading from cover to cover the match day programme or latest Arsenal fanzine, while the action goes unnoticed in front of them? Maybe it’s become unfashionable to watch football at a football match.

As Tony Madden wrote in the last edition of Highbury High, the price of watching live Premiership action has gone beyond a joke. The ‘£30 barrier’ has already been broken by many clubs in return for what are often among the worst seats in the ground. Indeed, the Scum will be charging us £32 for the ‘pleasure’ of watching Dominguez et al this year at Shite Hart Lane. What else would you expect though from a club that compensated loyal supporters who missed their first two Premiership games due to some season ticket allocation cock up with a complimentary THFC handbook?

Some clubs are becoming nothing less than leeches that suck the blood of the blindly loyal supporter simply because they know that they can get away with it. Indeed, there is more chance of Ken Bates donning the new Arsenal away shirt than seeing football’s big bucks train stopped in its tracks. The crazy thing is we’ll cough up this year and the next and the next… So obliged as we are to pay these high prices, we should never forget that the likes of Adams, Bergkamp and Suker won’t be plying their trade at Highbury forever so make the most of them while you can.

It was the latter two who came on as substitutes to disrupt the Watford defensive line, opening the door for Kanu’s decisive strike. The goal led their manager, Graham Taylor, to remark in jest, "You used to bring on good players here." The thing is, not so long ago we didn’t. So for goodness’ sake start getting your money’s worth from these clubs now by enjoying the high quality football on offer right up until the final whistle blows. After all, there’s no trophy for first to the car park.