The fourth departee from the Championship to be thrust under The Two Unfortunates microscope are those seemingly perennial upper echelon dwellers Norwich City. Back in the days of the old Third Division South, the East Anglians rarely troubled the press hordes, but the past half century has been good for the Canaries and a return to their 1950s pastures will have come as a major shock, especially as it arrives not long after the false dawn of a fleeting Premier League appearance in 2004-5.Last season’s catastrophe had its roots in the suspicious minded, edgy and uncomfortable management of Glenn Roeder,…
On the Turn?
For the second time in consecutive pre-seasons I made the short journey to Didcot Town’s Loop Meadow to witness Reading attempt to chalk up their annual cricket score over their First Great Western-serviced neighbours.Last year was a complete whitewash as the Royals strolled to a 9-0 tonking, with Dave Kitson memorably scoring within seconds of strutting on as a second-half sub, but yesterday evening felt different. The car park pre-match was a good indication: with not a single Baby Bentley in sight, it was immediately clear that this was a team on the turn. Only man-mountain Andre Bikey, the wideboying…
He could make them rich again
Nottingham Forest’s agreement to take Paul McKenna to the City Ground is the latest statement of intent from a side determined to recapture their days of yore. Few players can have clocked up the best part of five hundred starts for a club and then been tempted to move on, but McKenna’s quiet efficiency, incise passing and tigerish tackling have been evident to the Championship cognoscenti for some time now. McKenna is one of the few remaining links to David Moyes’ time in charge at North End, a golden period that relaunched the lilywhites as a respectable force within the…
Please don’t come back and bore us
Having previously trained our collective microscope on the departed Wolves and Burnley and their chances of avoiding rejoining us all in a year’s time, it’s now Birmingham City’s turn. Few articles that have featured the Blues in recent times have omitted the phrase “yo yo club” and this close season’s column inches will be no different. I must admit to being thankful for the second city side’s most recent parting however: charmless is an adjective often used to describe the club and its employees, and the prospect of another trip to a quarter empty St. Andrew’s did not appeal.Birmingham City…
Sky Blues
Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee’s excellent comment piece on Rupert Murdoch’s latest shenanigans brings an annual dilemma back to the forefront of my mind. While clubs prepare for the new season by renewing acquaintances with their local non-league feeders or by embarking on their annual globetrot, I, like many thousands of fans, carry out my own pre-season ritual: to recommence an internal battle over whether to subscribe to a TV sports package.Knowing that handing over Direct Debit details will directly contradict the line I take on the commercialisation of the game, it’s a decision that I’ve always struggled with (not to…
Frank Heaven: I had no idea Telford was so big. As you say, it is close to the West ...
Lanterne Rouge: I didn't know these nuggets - cheers for enlightening us Alexandriang...
alexandriang: Another factor is probably that both the TItans and Panthers played th...
P Squires: Interesting read, but '...which by train is comfortably further from L...
Lloyd: An enjoyable, snappy piece of writing Will.
Going through Worcester...
