FOR me, the season begins as soon as that Fantasy Football email drops into my inbox.

Transfer gossip may have been doing the rounds for months – since the previous window slammed shut in January, it seems – but it’s not until players are priced up and the virtual budget is set that I feel the Premier League dawn is upon us.

I remember a time before dream team games were played online, when my old man would lay the paper out on the rug and my brother and I would circle players we wanted with a biro.

There was a certain romance in trawling through lists of names looking for a bargain, or a striker named in the midfield section.

Looking back, perhaps dad was testing out our maths more than anything. Or seeing if we could hold our nerve when ringing through player codes to make a transfer, only to be told we didn’t have enough funds to pick that 20-goal-a-season forward.

There was nothing worse than scribbling down names you couldn’t spell to realise you couldn’t squeeze a Jurgen Klinsmann or Gianluca Vialli into your line up without going broke – Chris Armstrong it is, then.

Picking out an under-priced poacher who will find the net, a winger who will rack up the assists or an attacking full back who is equally adept at keeping clean sheets as he is taking penalties remains the skill in this game.

Warrington Guardian: GIVING IT THEIR ALL: Scott Brown and Alan Hutton of Scotland attempt to block Claude Makelele of France

For years my brother would insist on adding ‘balance’ to his team, completely ignoring the fact holding midfielders score fewer points; no matter how well David Batty would complement Gary McAllister in the heart of midfield.

My line up would have more of a Garth Crooks’ Team of the Week feel to it – full backs at centre half, wingers playing the Makelele role and Darren Huckerby regularly leading the line in a 3-4-3 formation.

Of course the game is different now, the Premier League’s version includes three substitutes and the maths is taken out of the equation by automatic calculations.

But, if anything, this only harbours my love for Fantasy Football, and therefore cheering random Dream Team picks playing in sides I have no affinity for will go on – Allez Alex Athletic!

This week’s question, then: Who scored the first ever Premier League goal, and for which side?

Re last week’s trivia: The most watched sporting occasion of all time was, reportedly, India versus Pakistan at the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, when more than 1billion viewers tuned in.