Once upon a time, the PFA Awards were the undisputed measure of a season’s most valuable players. Voted for by the Professionals themselves, the response to their announcement was one of awed hush and consent – how could mere onlookers presume to know better than those involved in the rough and tumble of the actual sport? But the saccharin, sentimental and simply silly award of the 2009 Players’ Player award to Ryan Giggs changed all that. In one fell swoop, footballers were shown to be as susceptible to a bit of old fashioned press lobbying as the rest of us….
All posts tagged Notts County
Never Write Off a Wounded ‘Banger’ – Carlisle United Will Go Down Swinging
This time four years ago Carlisle United stood on the brink of glory. A single win from their last four games against Leeds United, Southend, Millwall or Bournemouth would have been enough for the Cumbrians to claim the final automatic promotion spot from League One and reach the heady heights of English football’s second tier for the first time in 20 years. Some fans will tell you that the intervention of a single player cost the Cumbrians that year – Middlesbrough’s Nicky Bailey, then of Southend, is held in peculiar affection at Brunton Park – his histrionics served to con referee Anthony…
Notts County’s not so mad promotion push
One of the most cacophonous reactions to this season’s many managerial changeovers in the Football League followed Martin Allen’s departure from Notts County and Keith Curle’s installation as his successor. Here, Luke Williamson sheds light on the situation at Meadow Lane and the generally buoyant form Notts have shown since the swap. A little over four weeks has passed since the Notts County board dismissed Martin Allen from his post after a 3-0 defeat on the road at Hartlepool United. Amid fears of a further slump and potential capitulation towards the relegation zone, fans spoke out even louder than normal…
The Thursday Preview: Notts County Vs Brentford
League 1′s top-eight looks, as things stand, much like the masses predicted back in August, with the monied Charlton, Huddersfield, Franchise, Preston and Sheffields United and Wednesday all present and correct. Yet, defying convention and sticking it to Big Boyz are two of the division’s less chic teams, Notts County and Brentford. The pair meet at Meadow Lane this weekend.Following a tumultuous 2010-11 for both, this term has been about tightening up and bedding down new systems but, given a little momentum, could either side go all the way this season?Focusing on the Magpies, form certainly suggests that a crack…
The Monday Profile: Andy Hughes
In last week’s profile of Joe Bennett, I ruminated on the nature of the attacking full back and although we have no intention of focusing the Monday Profile on archetypes alone, this third study of September again concentrates on a boilerplate figure.For Andy (like Mr. Cole, seemingly now known as Andrew) Hughes is surely the epitome, the quintessence, the very embodiment of that well known footballling character – the willing trier.And yet we could go even further – for in being this, Hughes is perhaps the dictionary definition of the British sportsman in general. Watching Mike Tindall attempt to bludgeon…
James: Are the wealthy middle classes really the ones to back a football team...
Lanterne Rouge: Garath McCleary on signing for Reading today:
"It's amazing to be a...
Lloyd: On the Oxford / Reading thing, Lanterne, you write that "there is no c...
Ben: Yes, it does loom a bit, doesn't it? Moxey's comments on the ground re...
