Author: Lanterne Rouge
This is the Best Derby County Team For Some Time
Just over nine years ago, in January 2005, Derby County came away from a televised fixture at Reading with a 1-0 win thanks to a Tommy Smith goal.
At the time, the Rams were riding high in the play-off zone, a performance that constituted something of a surprise after a period of rebuilding following on from the financial excesses of the Lionel Pickering era. With Smith a darting …
Graham Westley and Stevenage Are Not Disappearing Yet
Iin a fascinating article in the most recent issue of The Blizzard , one which largely debunks the idea that football has any real likeness to the game of chess, Scott Oliver bemoans ‘the obsessive measurement of atomised players’ individual contributions’ measured by way of ‘output’, suitable perhaps ‘for ‘the neoliberal market’ but not for ‘the socialist midfield’.
Graham Westley, that lower league bogey man, might concur. In Westley’s …
Book Review: Falling for Football
Falling for Football edited by Adam Bushby and Rob MacDonald
Published by Ockley Books
2014, £11.99
Falling for Football is a highly significant book and not just because of the way it expertly conjures up why we fall for the sport, its tribulations and tensions, its vitality and emotion, in the first place. It is also noteworthy for the service editors Adam Bushby and Rob MacDonald have performed …
Yeovil Town: Three Sent Off But All Three Outstanding
Any rundown of Reading Football Club’s top ten most embarrassing performances would be sure to include some real horror shows – a 6-0 beating by Bristol Rovers at the Madejski Stadium in which all the goals were scored by future Royals Jamie Cureton and Jason Roberts, all in the second half; a 6-1 dynamiting by Crystal Palace, also at home and that ridiculous 7-5 defeat against Arsenal which had …
Patrick Bamford and the Rise of the Privately-educated Footballer
Stewart Robson was something of an under rated footballer of the 1980s. Unfortunate to have figured most prominently for Arsenal during the dog days of the Terry Neill/Don Howe era, George Graham preferred Steve Williams in the midfield anchor role and the tough tackling and energetic Robson is now half-forgotten.
I say half-forgotten because Robson has since gone on to forge himself a career in the media after subsequent …