[Haggis316]

I am not sure that anyone would regard seeing 18 football matches in 15 years of marriage as excessive.

At various times I had all my kids in private school and as I was the only person prepared to make any meaningful sacrifices for this I have seen no games for most of my 15 year marriage.

Between 1991 and 2006 the only games I saw were Sheff Wed v Oldham c 1991, Sheff Wed v Portsmouth in 2002, Sheff Wed v Tranmere in 2003 and Sheff Wed v Stockport in 2003 and Sheff Wed v QPR in 2006.

Including and since Stevenage at home in 2006 I have seen Stanley 13 times.

Is this a crime given that I have spent the last 42 years dreaming of them getting back into what may be their only season in the league?

As for being lonely. Its pretty lonely getting dumped on a regular basis when the wife goes for sleep overs at her parents - that's why I went to Macclesfield with a clear conscience and saw Wednesday win at Stoke on Boxing Day with my dad.

In December 05 my father in law barred me from their Boxing Day celebrations because my commitment to School fees prevented me paying more than £250 towards a week long family holiday that I was excluded from. I only managed to pay the fees because I put my mum's Christmas present towards them.

My kids have led a sheltered existence and just want to play computer games at home. When I go to Stanley we could make a day of it - I pass Bolton Abbey, Harrogate, and Wycoller Country Park - no one wants to know, my wife associates Lancashire with my parents and likes neither.

The present crisis has arisen because my eldest son is very academic and could not settle with normal kids at the local comprehensive.

As a result my wife has unilaterally put our two elder sons into a private school where I would have to gross £32,000 per annum just to pay the fees. With a big mortgage and all our other commitments that's not on.

Me, my dad and my sister all went to Oxford Uni from state school (Ormskirk Grammar) so it was good enough for us.

Most people who know me are surprised I did not petition myself and I talked about it before Christmas but I decided to try and hold it together for the kids. I did offer to suspend my pension contributions for 10 years - not easy given that I am 47 already and have not been able to save what I should because of the private school but that was not enough.

She reckons she will get a job. She has not worked for over 15 years. Any job would have to fit round the school run and where we live is not exactly a hot bed of employment opportunities - it takes nearly an hour to get to York and Hull in the peaks.

As to the cycling I am advised by one of the leading divorce lawyers in the country that my cycling to alleviate a very stressful job where billions of quid rests on my ability to draft documents properly is quite reasonable but if someone wants to put it in a divorce petition I am not going to waste time and money challenging it.

The petition also commented that I come home too late for tea. I am usually home by 7. Not many Leeds law firm partners working 40 miles from home can say that. I am a bit surprised that the person who drafted the petition should think it untoward.

As part of the attempted reconciliation I have not been to football and spent the weekends at home doing jobs including re- roofing my wife's storm damaged gazebo. The probability is I would have been limited to about one Stanley game between now and the end of the season.