latest

Viewing all posts which authors have tagged ‘latest’. You can also subscribe to this tag's feed.

October 11, 2008

Match Of The Week: England 5-1 Kazakhstan

1
Diddums. Bless them. Apparently, the England team are starting to get a bit of a chip on their shoulders over playing at Wembley. They don't much like the fact that they get booed there when they play there. It's not fair. Why don't we all love them unconditionally? After all, they go to all the [... Click to continue reading...

Seconds Out… Round Two

0
Mohammed bin Hammam has been in London this week, and it looks as if he has been learning some new words. The chairman of the Asian Football Confederation has managed an almost complete volte face on the Premier League's Game 39 plans, and his choice of words gave away where he has been taking his [. Click to continue reading...

October 10, 2008

Showing The Way Forward

0
Far from the contrived excitement of this weekend's international round of international matches (and, let's be honest, it's pretty difficult to get too worked up about England vs Kazakhstan), the FA Cup reaches its Third Qualifying Round. The prizes involved are starting to get substantial. The winners of matches being played on Saturday will be [. Click to continue reading...

October 9, 2008

It Doesn’t Grow On Trees

0
The week before a round of international matches is usually a slow one for the press, but this week both UEFA and the FA have given them serious food for thought. Lord Triesman, the chairman of the Football Association, has been unusually outspoken in his criticism of Premier League clubs' current levels of indebtedness. Click to continue reading...

October 8, 2008

Review: “Wick To Wembley”, by Andy Ollerenshaw

0
Of all the years that Andy Ollerenshaw could have chosen to follow the FA Cup from the Extra Preliminary Round to the Final, this was the best that he could have chosen. Last season was the season in which the FA Cup re-entered the fabric of many people's lives, as story after story unfolded in [...] Click to continue reading...

October 7, 2008

Facing The Fax

0
Anybody that has ever worked in an office will be able to tell you that the humble fax machine is hardly one of the most reliable means of communication. I have spent many hours forlornly prodding at the keyboard on my office's fax machine, wondering why something that some promises me has been sent hasn't [. Click to continue reading...

October 6, 2008

Do I Not Like That

0
Those of you in the UK will have had the opportunity to watch the celebrated documentary about Graham Taylor's disastrous attempt to get England to the 1994 World Cup Finals last night. It is also being repeated tomorrow night on ITV4, starting at 9.00. For those of you living abroad that might not get the [. Click to continue reading...

October 5, 2008

Match Of The Week: Coventry City 4-1 Southampton

1
Coventry City and Southampton are, in many respects, two sides of the same coin. They are clubs that became regular components of the top division of English football for many years, arguably punching against their weight. For both of them relegation brought about the end of an era for both clubs from which they haven't [. Click to continue reading...

October 4, 2008

In Praise Of… My Blue & Yellow Bar Scarf

0
I'm not much of a one for merchandising. I mean, I'll stop and look at it when it's on sale, and I love football shirts, though I suspect that I am now too old to be able to wear them in public. I don't much like the idea of being "identified" as a football supporter [...] Click to continue reading...

October 2, 2008

Football & The Credit Crunch

1
September 2008 will be remembered as the month that the credit crunch started to bite. The world's financial systems have been exposed as being built on house of cards. Bad debts have been thrown from pillar to post, losing value every time they are passed on. Banks, hedge funds and investors have acted irresponsibly to [. Click to continue reading...

October 1, 2008

A Question Of Fort

0
Life in the Highland League could hardly be described as glamorous. The majority of the better known names are now playing in the Scottish Football League and, while there are still agitants requesting automatic promotion and relegation between the lower leagues and the Scottish League, the door remains firmly shut for the time being, unless [. Click to continue reading...

September 30, 2008

What On Earth’s Going Wrong At Tottenham?

1
One of the reasons why we like league football is that it is relatively meritocratic. From only a few games in the season, the league table doesn't lie. Setting aside aesthetic or moral arguments for a moment, few people argue that the Premier League leaders, Chelsea, have been the best team so far this season, [. Click to continue reading...

September 29, 2008

Rumour, Counter Rumour & Market Confidence

0
Another week, and another batch of rumours concerning the financial well-being of clubs in the Blue Square Premier. Fortunately, at least some of the rumours flowing around over the last seven days or so appear not to have too much meat on them, though they do help to perpetuate the understanding (which comes close to [. Click to continue reading...

September 28, 2008

Match Of The Week: Dulwich Hamlet 2-2 Hendon

0
As September starts to roll into October, the evenings start to get shorter and the autumn leaves crispen and fall underfoot, The 2008/09 FA Cup continues to rumble on. We're at the Second Qualifying round stage now, and things are starting to become rather more serious than they were. This is the fourth round of [. Click to continue reading...

September 27, 2008

Hang On A Minute - Joe… WHO?

0
Newcastle United supporters have spent much of the last couple of weeks being chippy about the rest of the world laughing at their football club. Far enough, in some respects. There has been a nasty undercurrent to muchf the criticism of Newcastle's supporters over the last few weeks, though my personal reaction to such chippiness [. Click to continue reading...

September 26, 2008

I Don’t Really Have Much To Say Tonight, Apart From This:

4
It's a strong, strong look. Click to continue reading...

September 25, 2008

Match Of The (Mid)Week: Brighton & Hove Albion 2-2 Manchester City (Brighton Win 5-3 Penalties)

0
Some people danced in the car parks at the City of Manchester Stadium when the Abu Dhabi United group bought Manchester City. Some of their supporters were devastated. Many of the rest of us rolled our eyes and looked to the heavens. The reinvention of Manchester City might take some time to complete, and last [. Click to continue reading...

September 24, 2008

When Was Football Best? (Or At Least Least Worst?)

1
Tonight's message is brought to you from One Touch Football, the message board for the venerable magazine, "When Saturday Comes". A debate started there this morning and, since I don't have the time to post my thoughts on the subject up on there in sufficient detail and put something up on here in the same [. Click to continue reading...

September 23, 2008

Hammers, Blades & The Damage Done

1
Such was the effect of Bryan Robson's predictably disastrous spell of Sheffield United in charge the following season, the saga of The Blades, West Ham United and Carlos Tevez has been largely forgotten by the media over the last twelve months or so. The story has, however, roared back into the headlines following the release [. Click to continue reading...

September 22, 2008

The Goal That Never Was

1
It was, by any standards, the most bizarre moment of the football season so far, and it's difficult to imagine that it will be bettered. During Saturday afternoon's match in the Championship between Watford and Reading, a goal was awarded that was not only controversial but didn't actually happen at all. Click to continue reading...

September 21, 2008

Match Of The Week - Preston North End 1-3 Wolverhampton Wanderers

0
The term "sleeping giant" is a misused one, often used to describe a club that had a few glorious seasons, many years ago. If there are two clubs that deserve this particular epithet, then it would probably have to be Preston North End and Wolverhampton Wanderers. These are clubs that have hit the highest heights [. Click to continue reading...

September 20, 2008

In Praise Of… Justin Fashanu. Norwich City vs Liverpool. February 9th, 1980.

0
You have to have some degree of sympathy for David Fairclough. Hamstrung from the start by the "Supersub" nickname that he acquired when he first appeared for Liverpool, everything he did seemed to be overshadowed by something or someone else. So it was with his hat-trick for Liverpool against Norwich City in February 1980 - [. Click to continue reading...

September 19, 2008

In Praise Of… The St Albans City Club Video (1991/92)

0
It seems almost difficult to believe now, but there was a time when, if you saw the football on the television, that was it. You'd see the goals once, maybe twice, and then they'd disappear into the vaults of the BBC and ITV, only to resurface once or twice at random intervals on the likes [...] Click to continue reading...

September 18, 2008

Stable Management And The Conference

0
An interesting article by David Conn in The Guardian yesterday highlighted steps being taken by the Football Conference to limit the boom and bust culture which has blighted the league over the last few seasons. They have lost Scarborough, Canvey Island, Halifax Town and Boston United in recent years, and drastic measures have been put [. Click to continue reading...

September 17, 2008

Subsidising The Ultra-Rich

1
Bernie Ecclestone is said to be worth £2.243bn, according to the 2008 Sunday Times Rich List. Lakshmi Mittal has done even better for himself than Bernie. Mittal is, according to this year's Forbes Rich List, the fourth richest man in the world. He is worth an estimated £20bn. Flavio Briatore doesn't quite exist in this [. Click to continue reading...

September 16, 2008

The Last Time I’ll Mention Newcastle United On Here For A While. I Promise.

0
So, it would appear that Newcastle United's supporters have got approximately fifty per cent of what they wanted, with Mike Ashley's official announcement that the club is up for sale, although it had been widely rumoured that he had been looking for an exit strategy for quite some time. The other fifty per cent - [. Click to continue reading...

September 15, 2008

A Word From Our Sponsors

1
The collapse of the holiday firm XL has had a significant effect on tens of thousands of tourists that found themselves stranded without anywhere to go on holiday, and it also caused an unusual sight on Saturday evening's "Match Of The Day". XL were the shirt sponsors of West Ham United, and the sudden non-existence [. Click to continue reading...

September 13, 2008

Match Of The Week: Barnet 1-1 Morecambe

0
One of the least desirable effects of the Football League's absurdly disproportionate points deductions in League Two has been the comparative lack of competition at the bottom of the table. With Luton Town, Rotherham United and AFC Bournemouth having been deducted a massive amount of points between them over their recent financial difficulties, several clubs [. Click to continue reading...

Boooooooooooooo

1
There are few things in football that are more pleasurable to hear than a damn good booing, but you don't hear enough of it these days. Too many football supporters are far too supine these days - they put up with whatever they're given. There's none of that going on at Newcastle United at the [...] Click to continue reading...

September 11, 2008

Broadcast News

0
Like most of us, for me, last night was a first opportunity to sample the delights of Setanta Sports. The newest entrants into the British sports broadcasting landscape have aggressively asserted themselves in the marketplace, having purchased FA Cup, Premier League, Conference and England away match television rights over the last couple of years or [. Click to continue reading...

September 10, 2008

Match Of The (Mid)Week - Croatia 1-4 England

1
Goodness. Well, I don't think that any of us were expecting that. The build up had been about as horrific as could be. A terrible performance against the Czech Republic that was not masked by a flukey, last minute equaliser in front of a booing crowd. Then, a disjointed performance against an Andorran team that [. Click to continue reading...

Worcester Sauce

0
On the day that the England team are due to get a pasting in a World Cup qualifier, it feels apt that we should be dropping in on another team in crisis with a link to St George. St George's Lane, Worcester, was the venue of one of the FA Cup's greatest upsets. Liverpool weren't [...] Click to continue reading...

Share & Share Alike

0
Liverpool supporters must be looking at The City Of Manchester Stadium and wondering where it all went wrong. So keen were they to jump into bed with the first "billionaires" to come along with a sackful of promises, that they found themselves landed with Gillett & Hicks. All they had to do was wait a [. Click to continue reading...

September 8, 2008

When Technology Fails

0
One of the great innovations of modern football is the ability for someone sitting at home to keep up to date with the latest scores in almost many match the you care to think of. It wasn't so long ago that this was impossible. If you supported a non-league club, the chances were that you'd [...] Click to continue reading...

September 7, 2008

Match Of The Week: Andorra 0-2 England

1
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss? It's reassuring, in a way, actually. The new season has started, and England are being terrible. Last night in Barcelona, England toiled and struggled and huffed and puffed their way to a tortuously laboured win against a country with a population of less than half the [. Click to continue reading...
 1  2  3  4     »