I AM one of the sad fans who can wake up in the night fretting when their football team loses. Having been born and brought up near Arsenal, I haven’t been getting much sleep lately.

But I also follow my local team of the past 32 years and would like to add my thanks to all at AFC Bournemouth who enriched my season.

Who would have guessed last August that the Cherries would finish right up there near the top of League One and be in the play-offs?

And what a valiant display they put on at Huddersfield, twice coming from behind and even taking the lead in extra time.

Being beaten in a penalty shoot-out always seems to me to be a cruel and ridiculous way to decide which of two equally-matched teams triumphs. Exciting but more suited to the playground than the professional game.

But two kicks at the finish of a fine season does not hide the quality of Lee Bradbury’s team.

And if the club were able to keep most of its players one thing would be for sure... Cherries fans wouldn’t suffer from insomnia next season.

• On the subject of sleep and football… Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney, it appears, sent a provocative tweet to an abusive Twitter follower suggesting a meeting and saying: “I’ll put u asleep within 10 seconds”.

There seem to be so many stories these days about Premiership footballers behaving like total hollow-heads on Twitter that just reading about Wayne’s daft interchange put me asleep in eight.