SPORT: The real football starts tomorrow.

FOR hundreds of thousands across the country, 3pm tomorrow marks the end of high hopes. Reality comes crashing in. The dread of what the next nine months will hold bites.

Yes, the football season gets under way in England tomorrow. Not that you'd know it from the coverage in the national press. As far as some of them are concerned, it's still a fortnight off.

But for anyone who has yet to witness a double-digit million signing joining the club, they know the truth. The REAL football starts tomorrow.

It's so easy being a fan of a Premiership club. Sure, supporting Sunderland must have been painful last season, but at least you got to see the liked of Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry and Wayne Rooney knocking in the goals against you.

Down a league in the Championship, you don't even have that consolation. A drubbing is made all the more embarrassing by the fact it could be against Derby or Luton.

Not that I have room to talk. Preston North End are hardly the most glamourous club going.

Supporting a Premiership club also comes with the benefit of seeing your lads on telly most weeks - particularly if you play in Red and have a ground quite close to the Trafford Centre. If it's not live on Sky, it's being shown live in pubs tapping into dodgy Norweigan channels.

At clubs like Preston, the arrival of Sky TV cameras for a Friday night or Sunday lunchtime - primetime all the way down here! - can make back page news in the local papers. Bring out the bunting, we might get Chris Kamara telling us what's what.

If Jose Mourinho shops at football's answer to Harrods for his signings, then most Championship managers make do with bring and buy sales down the village.

There's no point spending big in the Championship. There's no room for showboating down here. It's good stuff, but if it gets too good, the players are soon being tempted away to the Premiership - with club chairman unable to refuse because he/she knows the cash will ensure the club remains in business until next season at least.

So, unless you're one of those clubs just down from the Premiership with a bit of cash to splash - or Leeds United on a quest to sign every striker in the land - it's a case of hunting lower down the leagues for a 'hidden gem.'

Everyone reckons their manager is good at spotting such buys during the close-season. That bargain buy from Scunthorpe will shock everyone in the Championship, you insist at the pub. And shock he will. Not only tomorrow, but week in, week out until the manager gets sacked or he quietly gets sent out on loan - possibly to Scunthorpe.

And the best thing about pre-season is the friendly games. Victories against Premiership teams who have, in truth, just fielded the youth team, and you reckon you are on to a winner for the start of the season. Lose against lower league teams, and, well, it doesn't matter, the manager was just trying something that didn't work. Better do it now than when there are 3 points at stake.

And so it goes on. Right up until the whistle blows at 3pm. You wanna see it live? Be in the ground. You're soon back to earth with a bump. But while the quality may be lacking, the Championship has so much that the Premiership can't offer. Unrivalled optimism about making the playoffs, fans with a passion which goes beyond the norm.

And a car park which isn't filled with SUVs bearing number plates from 300 miles away. Oh yes, none of the glitzy stuff to bring in Tarquin and his friends from the stockbroker belts around the UK - and it's all the better for it. Real football. And long may it stay that way. As long as we're winning.