In my quest to gamble my way to £2,500 to go to South Africa 2010, I’ve had two more unsuccessful bets this week.

The first was £20 on Crofts to score first and 1-0 to Brighton and Hove Albion against the Villa, at odds of 160/1 (a great day out for me and the boys).

The second was and Tevez to score first in the Manchester City vs Manchester United game, with a score of 3-1 in that thrilling semi on Wednesday. I was pretty close on that one.

But not close enough. That's 80 quid down now since Jan 1.

As for tickets, the third phase of official world cup ticket sales finishes today. It is a huge global lottery. I’ve put in for both semi finals and the final and I am on tenter hooks waiting for the resulting email. My hopes are that England will be featuring in these games.

As part of this blog , I’ll be looking at the highs and many lows of England world cup experiences. We start with Mexico in 1970.

Alf Ramsey's star studded team flew out to Latin America with high hopes of retaining the Cup. Any travelling England fans would have experienced a trip of a life time. In 1970 a flight to Mexico would have been a massive deal. If there is anyone reading this who actually attended this one please contact me on bowmansgang@aol.com. Home fans were treated to watching in full colour.

Things got off to a bad start at their pre tournament base camp in Bogota where Bobby Moore was arrested for stealing a gold bracelet. Ensue massive media attention and disruption to preparation. Moore was later released.

England found themselves in group three in the Estadio Jalisco stadium against two Eastern European teams and the mighty Brazil. The weather was hot and steamy.

In the first match on June 2, England beat Romania 1-0, with Hurst scoring the winning goal in front of 50,000. Then on June 7, 66,000 people watched Brazil beat our boys 1-0 – but England played well and all England fans will recall the Banks save against Pele. On June 10, a Clarke penalty saw England beat Czechoslovakia 1-0.

Finally, on June 14, England qualified for the quarter final against their big rivals West Germany at the Estadio Nou Camp Leon. There must have been mass hysteria at home as England cruised into a two lead courtesy of Mullery and Peters.

On 68 mins Beckenbauer pulled a goal back with a tame long shoot past goal keeper Peter Bonetti (Banks was stricken by food poisoning). Ramsey decided to sub Bobby Charlton which left the England midfield exposed. Seeler took the match into extra time with a header. During extra time Germany were the dominant force and Muller broke England hearts with a volley on 108 mins. Memories of 1966 were fading fast.

Brazil went on to win the tournament completing a 4-1 rout of Italy in the final, taking football to a new level.

For England and their legions of fans, this bitter disappointment was the start of decade of decline on the world stage. More of this in later posts.

South Africa is now only five months away and excitement from England fans will be rising. Watch out for the next instalment.