Last month saw Cardiff triumph in the Premier League’s first South Wales derby. Tonight, the artists formerly known as The Bluebirds will reacquaint themselves with another old foe – yet their grudge with Stoke City, which stretches back to the two clubs’ dark days in the third tier, has its roots not in geography but in betrayal, bitterness, and one enigmatic man’s backside… Pitching up in the Valleys early in the new millennium, Sam Hammam had big plans for Cardiff City. With the club returning to what is now League One at the first attempt under his hand-picked manager Alan…
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Great Football League Teams 44: Gillingham 1999-2000
Number 44 of our Great Teams sees us return to the turn of the Millennium, a year which has not yet featured among our selections although David Moyes’ Preston North End dynasty were Champions of Division Two that year and you can read more about the lilywhites’ subsequent fate in our last installment penned by Jo Breen. One of the most impressive teams of that era, however, were Gillingham and here, David Field looks back to some Medway glory days. … I must confess I have never seen Rocky. However, from what I gather, the story for most episodes of the franchise…
Have Football’s Boo Boys Gone Too Far?
It may have taken half an hour of the hors d’oeuvre clash between Porto and Napoli, but the largely partisan home crowd at Arsenal’s showpiece season opening ‘Emirates Cup’ have finally found a reason to become animated. Often noted for their quiet approach to both triumph and despair, the patrons of Ashburton Grove have laid to one side their sang froid and sputtered into a chorus of boos. The object of their derision, as is often the case, was so recently the object of their affection – Gonzalo Higuain, the striker spirited from Madrid to Southern Italy from under the…
TTU Go Predicting: Best Free Agent
A look at the Professional Footballers’ Association list of out of contract and available players becomes more depressing by the year, even if there are Premier League outcasts aplenty whose current availability is often more a consequence of protracted contract negotiations and a choice of suitors. Hence, Chris Baird, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Carlton Cole and the like will end up somewhere eventually. Of those, the pick of the list is perhaps Hitzlsperger and whilst ‘The Hammer’ may well find interest from a top tier team in Europe, his recent injury record and failure to last more than a year at any…
Book Review: I am the Secret Footballer
I am the Secret Footballer Published by Guardian Books July 2012, £7.99 ISBN: 9780852653081 The Guardian’s decision to gather together their Secret Footballer columns into this new book appears to have been handsomely vindicated on first glance; sitting as the volume does atop their online bookshop chart as well as prominently on the shelves of Britain’s retailers. Serialization never hurt Charles Dickens’ chances and it will be comforting to the paper’s proprietors that opportunities remain to charge for content in this increasingly open access world. Few who read this blog will be unfamiliar with the columns; their having become something of…
Lanterne Rouge: cheers Tim - great stuff. I was in my first year at Manchester Univers...
Tim Vickerman: Hope I can post this. This is the Rob Edwards goal:
http://youtu.be/r...
Chris Walker: Very curious story! Piqued my interest but very little appears to have...
HughPhamism: Ah, yes Malcolm Macdonald and his 5 year plan. In his post match inter...
