Our series of posts this week has analysed the various impacts geography can have on the fortunes of soccer clubs. To round things off, we thought we would examine a cross section of eight cities, towns and city regions which can be said to be under performing in football terms and which may or may not have the potential to rise to Championship status or above. Back in 2010, we picked out Peterborough United, Swansea and Cardiff Cities, Notts County and Doncaster as having Premier League potential and while the inclusion of the Rovers now embarrasses us, we predicated our…
All posts tagged Oxford
Running out of steam
Momentum: a priceless commodity at any stage of the season, and even more so now. Not downward movement, of course – the sort of inexorable slither towards the relegation trapdoor exemplified by Wolves – but the unstoppable force of a Reading, hitting full stride and storming past rivals on an irresistible rise to the top. Momentum is something that two sides who met in League 2 on Saturday afternoon, Oxford and Gillingham, appear to have lost, and not just temporarily down the back of the sofa. The home side went into the match clinging desperately onto the final play-off place,…
Book Review: Where’s your Caravan?
Where’s your Caravan? By Chris Hargreaves, Published by The Friday Project, August 2011, £8.99, ISBN: 9780007364145 What next for a lower league footballer upon retirement? A simple enough premise, but too few biographies have tackled the theme with any distinction, so Chris Hargreaves’ recent release, which engages throughout with the realities and emotions of signing off from one’s playing days, is a welcome addition. An unravelling set of new challenges, the ennui and the odd bout of despair rub shoulders with feelings of regret and nostalgia here, and Hargreaves does well to convey all of this with relative precision. As one might expect…
The Monday Profile: Robert Hall
Fair play to West Ham. They may have poached one of the lower leagues’ most prolific marksmen, Sam Baldock, from MK Dons but it’s not all take, take, take – on the contrary, they seem to be vigorously pursuing a policy of loaning out their youngsters to the benefit of both other clubs and the players themselves. Currently plying their trade in League 2 are defender Callum McNaughton (AFC Wimbledon) and midfielder Ahmed Abdulla (under the maverick tutelage of former Hammer Paolo Di Canio at Swindon), while full-back Jordan Brown has spent a month at Aldershot. But their League 2…
The Thursday Preview: Oxford Vs Port Vale
With year-end targets at work biting, it’s an express preview this week based predominantly on recent first-hand impressions rather than diligent research. Indeed, along with the other original unfortunate (not to mention a further couple) I made the trip to the Kassam on Tuesday to see a youthful Plymouth side soundly beaten by their hosts. It was a depressing event; besides being a pain to get to, many will appreciate that the stadium is about as spiritless as they come and, perched a distance away from home supporters at the far side of the North Stand, I did start to…
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...
