I managed to grab Ed Balls for five minutes as he swept through Gazette Towers on his whistle stop tour of Teesside marginals man marked by a posse of spin-doctors.
With a keen populist radar and knowing what plays well in these parts he agreed to have a quick chat about the Championship crunch with the Canaries and how Labour would handle the political football of the national game should they get into power .
It was supposed to be literally five minutes but it went deep into extra time as his people indicated "wind it up"- he is clearly a real football fan and I think he was happy to take a break from breaking big picture fiscal policy into bullet points on the hustings.
And he is a real football fan. In a world when any populist politician can pick a coloured rosette and pledge loyalty to a "soccer" club, this is a bloke who cut his terrace teeth watching Norwich in Division Three (South).
He knows his stuff. He came alive and had a twinkle in his eye when talking about lowly Norwich beating mighty Leeds when he was a nipper, his heroes in his formative years in the seventies and of the unlikely UEFA Cup victory over Bayern. He is either for real or his PR people have breifed him exceptionally well.
And he is up to speed with the current campaign too. He gave a precise and accurate analysis of the way Norwich are playing under Alex Neil and knows exactly what the permutations are at the top. And he's arranged his election diary to make sure he can get to the game on Friday.
On the big issues - ownership models, the grip of the Premier League and safe standing - there was some deft footwook as he outlined Labour's fan-friendly progressive positions without committing to legislation.
He came across as engaging and genuinely animated over the game although you suspect his stated wish that Norwich AND Boro go up may have been cutely tailored to his audience. In return I wished Norwich well for the rest of the season - after Friday.
Before we started he asked if I did match reports and I said no, I'm a cultural correspondent, enmeshed in the barbed wire of the pyscho-drama. If that pops up as a sound-bite in the coming weeks I'm claiming it as an assist.
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