was thinking of nachos and dips and crudite for when the match is on and thenmaybe a barbecue later.
but that will be quite expensive won't it? all that meat?

any op tips please? any idea?

If I were you I would do too much meat - do some crusty bread, salad, pasta, cous cous etc and they can fill up on that with a little meat each.

you could have veggie things on the bbq too. Eg squewers of courgette, mushroom, onion.

Big pan of chilli or a sausage casserole.
Pizzas with salads
Bread with various dips and spreads.
couscous a good idea.
Make some sausage rolls/pasties and serve a vat of beans (proper football food!)

Jacket potatoes go well with BBQ and as schneebly said crusty bread.

All men love chilli, curry etc. Serve with rice and pitta bread, and they can just shovel it in their mouths and wash down with beer without even moving their eyes from the tv !!!

not all about the mnen though. this is my 'birthday party'

am planning on drinking lots of wine in the garden with the women

Have you thought about cold pie...? I use a modified Nigella recipe for a 'breakfast' pie with eggs, bacon and sausage. Something like this. If you ignore her pleas for fancy Italian ingredients and use English ones it's not too expensive. Or a couple of cold roast chickens? Any of those can be made in advance and served with couscous (agree with hairtwiddler) or bread or baked potatoes and salad.

All you need is a large never ending jug of pimms for the girlies, no??

Oh and happy birthday !

If you do Pimms, go to Aldis and get Austins, the same stuff but only £4.9 a bottle! No-one will know ;)

I do this kind of thing quite a lot and do a big chilli, salads, crust bread, a cheese borad, some nice meats (ham, chorizo etc), sometimes I get a side of salmon from Costco and poach it to have cold, crisps, couscous salad etc. Usually my Mum makes puddings for me, but if she didn't I would probably buiy/make a pavlova, big bowl of strawberries, maybe a cheesecake? Happy Birthday for Saturday!