DID anyone see that programme the other night called World at Their Feet?

I think it showed pretty clearly the joy and despair that football can bring.

Alan Smith is reaping the rewards of a career in the Premiership while one of his ex Lilleshall classmates is now doing a course at university.

Fortunately for the lad at uni, he seemed refreshingly free of bitterness.

For most of us, the dream of becoming a professional dies at about the same age as you stop believing in the tooth fairy, but to be told at 20 that your career is in tatters must be pretty hard to take.

I'm glad for Alan Smith's parents' sake that the young Leeds striker made the grade.

Can you imagine the scene if he'd been rejected? The coffee table and the cat would have taken a real kicking.

He'd probably have been banished to his bedroom without any tea for a lengthy period.