"Throwing my arms around Moscow", as Morrissey would say

Moscow is big.

You wouldn't believe how big.

You might think a walk down to the newsagents to buy a pint of milk might take the breath out of you. That's peanuts to Moscow.

So you're chances of bumping into a British football supporter are as slim as a supermodel on a diet.

Randy Lerner is staying in the biggest and plushest hotel of them all in Red Square.

He's bought some Villa fans a pint, so I'm told. Not bad when they cost £10 a throw.

I haven't yet worked out whether you are allowed to cross the roads on green, or even on a zebra crossing. Sometimes you just take your life in your hands and go for it.

And the street names and signs and completely undecipherable.

You can get lost in an instant.

Then you're in the hands of the dozens and dozens of taxi's which pull up looking for business.

Most would never get near an MOT back home. Some look held together by sticking tape.

It's cost you around a tenner to go a couple of miles.But that's takes a bit of bartering.

Each street full of opposites. A strange mix of extreme poverty and the fabulously decorative.

There are attempts to fuse Western culture - bright sparkiling lights added to old, grey office blocks, 100 foot cinema posters...

Starbucks in abundance. McDonalds too. Although you can only make out the 'm' and not the rest of the title.

The Kremilin looms large on the horizon. and the most beautuful, ornante architecture can be seen every few hundred yards.

Red Square alluded us last night.

We - and this is a group of a dozen or so supporters - walked the streets for two hours just searching for anything open late.

We didn't succeed.

Moscow was shut.

The casino, with a dozen sleek black Mercedes cars parked outside, definitely wasn't. But the guards outside were not open to the possibility of scruffy English folk taking a peek inside.

I take it all back about the cold.

Suddenly, after midnight, after we had been walking for an hour or more the temperature dropped alarmingly.

The canal was frozen right through. Even the edges of the wide Moskva River, were sludge.

Back at the hotel the only topic remains the game and the chosen team.

All agree the defence is strong and that John Carew can get a goal.

But the midfield?

One supporter on the flight over had suggested a win tonight would be as big as a four goal victory at Old Trafford.

Hope still lingers.

The coach is meeting these fans at 5.30pm local time, 2.30pm yours, to take them to the stadium around five miles away.

A police escort will drop them back in Red Square after the final whistle.

After recent trouble when England were over, and for that matter Arsenal, there is talk of more ahead.

But for the moment it is only rumour.

For these hardy fans the thought of defeat, coupled with a failure to beat Stoke City is not yet worth contemplating.