CUP MANIA FOR ROMANIANS

FC Romania's aim to upset famous FA Cup giant-killers Sutton United in the second qualifying round on Saturday failed when they lost 2-3 to the. Surrey team.

The Essex Premier Division side hosted Conference South outfit Sutton, who famously beat Coventry City in 1989. They have already played two qualifying ties before taking on the U's.

FC Romania, who were formed by Romanian, Ionut Vintila,  in 2006, lie second in the Essex Premier Division, which is step five in the non-league pyramid.

The Hertfordshire-based side, nicknamed the Wolves, play their home matches at Theobalds Lane, which is also the home of Cheshunt FC.

With a side made up predominantly of Romanian immigrants, FC Romania have won seven promotions since their formation and are making their debut in the FA Cup this season.

Former Steaua Bucharest and Espanyol striker Claudiu Raducanu, who won two international caps for Romania, previously played for the club, which Vasile says is a focal point for the Romanian community.

Lots of people come here to work and most of them are football players as footballers are not paid well in Romania. That is the way this club has achieved so much in a short time.

Other well known clubs surviving the latest "cut" include Boston, Stockport, Scarborough and Bradford Park Avenue. Workington failed to make it into the next tie in round 3, to be played on October 11th.

RAIN IN SPAIN FOOTY KEEPS US SANE

Steady rain falls over Polenca and we have not gone to Palma, an hour's drive, to watch RCD Mallorca play Barcelona B. It is West Brom and Burnley on the tele but it is unlikely that the local bar will show it, so we invent a game of football involving a 2.95 Euros plastic football, four sun loungers and three immobile 60 year olds on a flooded pateo near the pool. Most of the original game of football included the use of hands, feet and even sticks to control a ball. The Roman game of ‘Harpastum’ was a possession based ball game where each side would attempt to retain possession of a small ball for as long as possible. The Ancient Greeks competed in a similar game entitled ‘Episkyros’, but both of these pursuits reflected rules closer to rugby than modern day soccer.

The most relevant of these ancient games to our modern day ‘Association Football’ is the Chinese game of ‘Tsu-Chu’ or ‘kick ball’ as it translates. Records of the game begin during the Tsin Dynasty (255-206BC) and represent a game in which soldiers competed in a training activity featuring a leather ball being kicked into a net strung between two poles. The main difference between Tsu-Chu and soccer was the height of the goal, which hung about 30 feet from the floor.

From the introduction of Tsu-Chu onwards, soccer-like games spread throughout the world, with many cultures having activities that centred on the use of their feet. The Native Americans had ‘Pahsaherman’, the Indigenous Australians ‘Marn Grook’ and the Moari’s ‘Ki-o-rahi’ to name a few.

Soccer began to evolve in modern Europe from the 9th century onwards and in England entire towns would kick a pig’s bladder from one landmark to another. The game was often seen as a nuisance and was even banned for some periods of Britain’s history.

Our "game" did not upset anyone, it kept our minds of the next glass of Rioja for a while and the rain continues to fall and apparently will do for  few days yet.

NO HOLIDAY FOR MALLORCA BOSSES

RCD Mallorca founded in 1916 has experienced 97 managerial changes in the club's 98 year history. A previous blog mentioned Jack Greenwell from Durham who in 1930-31 took charge of the team and another Englishman Luke Chopper Gray who was employed for a year in 1970. Michael Laudrup was also lucky enough to lead the club for a brief period in 2010-1, but mainly Spanish nationals have enjoyed being head coach on the island. Valerie Karpin, a Russian, is the latest recruit. The club has won the Segunda Division twice in 32 seasons and has its own plane to meet the various fixtures through the year on the mainland and on the Canary Islands. At home they play at the Iberostar Estadio, in Palma, which holds 23,000.

In 1931, Mallorca started competing in the national categories. On 22 September 1945, Es Fortí, the club's new ground, was inaugurated, and the team first reached Segunda División in 1959, and La Liga just one season later, going on to appear in the top flight a further four times until 1975.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Mallorca bounced back and forth between the top and the second levels. In 2002–03, under Gregorio Manzano, the team finished ninth in the league, also winning the first Copa del Rey trophy in its history. In 1998–99, it reached the final of the last UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, losing to Italy's S.S. Lazio 1–2.

On 22 July 2008, it was announced that 96% of Mallorca's shares had been purchased for over GBP50 million by controversial English businessman Paul Davidson. In November, it was revealed that Davidson was unable to complete the deal due to lack of finances, raising questions as to whether his interest was little more than a publicity stunt. On 15 January 2009, Spanish businessman Mateo Alemany purchased the club from the Marti-Mingarro family, returning to the presidency three years after leaving.

In late May 2010, Mallorca declared bankruptcy and applied to the courts to enter voluntary administration with debts estimated between £42.5m and £51.3m. It was announced on 28 June 2010, that a consortium led by former club manager Lorenzo Serra Ferrer that included tennis superstar and Mallorca native Rafael Nadal had bought the club, and the sale was completed on 9 July 2010.

However, due to the poor financial situation at the club, UEFA decided on 22 July 2010 against granting Mallorca the licence to play in the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League, after the team had qualified to the competition after finishing fifth in the league. Despite the off-field upheavals and financial struggles, Mallorca managed to stay afloat in its 14th consecutive season in the top division, under new manager Michael Laudrup.

Despite that, in the 2012-13 season, after Laudrup's departure, they were relegated to division two, after 16 seasons, ending their tenure in La Liga. Last season the club came 17th.

CROOK TOWN BOY MAKES HIS WAY VIA MALLORCA

I am off to Mallorca soon, so I thought I would seek out some history of the Balaeric island’s football. So I start with County Durham.

John “Jack” Greenwell was born in 1884 in Crook, Durham and was the son of a miner. He played for Crook Town in the Northern league and for West Auckland, a team that won the original “World Cup” known as the Sir Thomas Lipton trophy in 1909 (see previous blog). He played for Barcelona in 1912, and even brought Crook Town out to Spain to play friendly matches, which resulted in a win and two draws for the northerners. He became manager of Barcelona for seven consecutive seasons during the first Golden Age when he oversaw nearly 500 games and in 1939 went to South America to coach, winning national trophies for his clubs and also guiding the Peru International side to a win in the South American championship. He managed clubs such as Espanol, Valencia and RCD Mallorca.

The Civil war forced Jack to take his Spanish wife to safety in South America, where he coached in Peru and in 1940 he moved to the Colombian port city of Barranquilla, and worked with the national team.  He died there of a heart attack in 1942.

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES A YEAR MAKE?

Gary Neville suggests that Manchester City's squad is ageing and needs rejuvenating. Averaging at 28.9, the Champions are older than Chelsea, 26.9 and therefore has a physical disadvantage as the two teams meet in the Premier League tomorrow. Neville states that Mourinho has adapted his squad over the past year, selling and buying wisely, so that his squad has two years youthful advantage on their northern rivals. Having been very successful in the past three years, Neville suggests that Pellegrini should be looking to the future soon. Over the next eighteen months the value of the older players will drop rapidly and so will their influence against younger and more vital opponents. Football at this level is increasingly intensive, faster than ever before. Many mature players such as Toure can cover the ground and have an influence from a relatively limited area on the field, but as football gets quicker and quicker, it is a young man's game.

Alex Ferguson was a master at handling his players and moving them on regardless of their status, when he felt the time was right. Manchester City has built a superb academy and this must help their planning but there was only one Englishman in the starting XI against Bayern. Sheikh Mansour has spent freely and gathered a fine squad, it may be time to refresh his team. He has however invested huge amounts of money into the east Manchester area and helped regenerate that once run down part of the city. For this he should be congratulated. The youngest club is Newcastle at 25.1, Liverpool, Arsenal and Man United weigh in under 25.6. 

73 year old Dereck May still plays three games a week in South London and presently turns out for West Wickham Musicians.  Having played 2033 games, he has scored 1289 goals and still supports Spurs!

BERWICK HOPE SCOTS VOTE WITH THEIR FEET

The fear is that a YES vote today could cause English football club Berwick Rangers problems, especially if there was a border control established between England and Scotland. It could be a disaster and make it extremely hard for the club to still be a part of the SPFL. Most fans will be delighted if the No vote prevails. Berwick is closer to Edinburgh than Newcastle and most of the squad are Scottish, so competing north of the border seems obvious. Having to go through "customs" would prove a pain!

An SFA spokesman would only say: “Berwick Rangers remain a Scottish Football Association member club.”

The town of Berwick-upon-Tweed is near to the Scottish border and is closer to Edinburgh than to Newcastle upon Tyne. The old town is on the Scottish side of the traditional border, the River Tweed, and Berwick has formerly been part of Scotland. Berwick Rangers were officially formed on 7 January 1884 after a match was played in the town between a team of millworkers from Dunbar and a team of railway clerks from Newcastle. For much of the club's history it was believed that they had formed in 1881, though recent research indicates that 1884 is the more likely date of formation. Their first competitive match was against another team from Berwick, 'The Royal Oaks' on 16 February 1884. Berwick Rangers won the match by "one goal and two tries [sic] to nil". Note the old scoring system, similar to rugby!!

Berwick Rangers joined the Scottish Football Association in 1905 and entered the Scottish Border League that year, followed by the Border Amateur League (1908–09). The club joined the East of Scotland League immediately after the First World War, a new competition formed to replace the Borders League. The club made several attempts to join the North Northumberland League but were not invited. It was not until 1951 that they were admitted to Scottish League Division C Division (North & East). This third tier, made up largely of reserve sides, had been created in 1946 and was regionalised in 1949. The division was scrapped in 1955 and Berwick, along with the other non-reserve teams, were placed in an enlarged Division B (renamed Division Two the following season). Berwick Rangers have played in the Scottish Football League ever since, despite low attendances and frequent financial problems.

Following their foundation, the club had had a nomadic existence before eventually settling down at Shielfield Park in 1954.

Probably their greatest success was in 1967, when they beat Rangers 1–0 in the Scottish Cup under the management of player manager Jock Wallace. It was the highlight of a memorable cup run, which had seen them break a club record in beating Vale of Leithen 8–1 in the first round. The result sent shockwaves around Scottish football and led to a number of the Rangers players leaving Ibrox; it was also the club's greatest home attendance of 13,365. They then played Hibernian in the following round but lost 1–0 in front of a crowd of nearly 30,000.

DON'T LUMP IT, GET THEM CHECKED

A young West Ham striker has died after a three year battle with testicular cancer. Dylan Tombides, 20, passed away today with his family at his bedside. The Australian footballer was first diagnosed with cancer while representing Australia during the 2011 Under 17 World Cup in Mexico.

Perth-born Tombides was regarded as one of the most exciting young players to come out of Australia after signing with West Ham as a 14-year-old. After being diagnosed with cancer he battled back to make his first-team début in a League Cup match against Wigan in 2012. His death will be marked by a minute's applause before West Ham's home match against Crystal Palace this weekend.

John Hartson, another footballer to have suffered, said that by the time he  had spoken to doctors about the lumps he had found on his testicles, his cancer had spread to his lungs and brain. The ex-footballer, who is now assistant manager of the Welsh Football Association, said he had waited four years before asking doctors to check the two lumps he had found. He said: "I didn't know any of the signs or symptoms. I was fathering kids. I was scoring goals. I was moving from club to club. But I had lumps on my testicles. I wasn't aware that the cancer at that particular time was spreading slowly." He told listeners it had started with small nut-sized lumps on the outside of his testicles. But it wasn't until he had stated getting intolerable headaches that he had gone to his GP, he said. "My message to anyone who feels lumps down there is do as I say not as I did.”

Thanks to early diagnosis and successful treatment, footballer Neil Harris beat testicular cancer and was back playing for Millwall FC within months. The striker, known as Bomber Harris, was Millwall's top scorer with 138 goals. In 2011 he signed for Southend and retired in June 2013.

"It was in June 2001. I'd just completed a great season with Millwall. We'd won the old second division championship and I'd finished as top scorer with 28 goals. There was speculation that I might be moving to a Premiership club and everything was fantastic. Then one day I was watching television with my hands resting in my shorts, as blokes tend to do. And as I felt my testicles, I thought, 'This doesn't feel right.' One was bigger than the other."  He saw the club doctor and was checked out immediately. "I had an operation, which was quite straightforward, and afterwards I felt OK. Following the operation, I was lucky enough to have radiotherapy rather than chemotherapy, so I didn't lose my hair. Looking from the outside, you wouldn't have been able to tell that I was ill. But if I hadn't caught my cancer early, it could have been a lot worse for me. It could have been fatal."

"Well, fertility was one of my big worries. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy can stop you having children, so in between the operation and the radiotherapy, I had some sperm stored just in case. However, in the six days between the operation and the start of the radiotherapy treatment, my wife and I had sex twice and my wife conceived during that time. So losing one testicle wasn't the end of the world because the other one took over. Since the radiotherapy, we've had a second child, so I'm obviously still fertile." "I was diagnosed in July 2001 and was back playing football in November. It turned out that I'd rushed back a bit too quickly, so I needed another rest and then I started again on January 1 2002. Although the cancer has given me a new perspective on life, I still love my football."

"If you think anything might be wrong, just go to see your GP. That's what they're there for. I understand that some men don't want to go to a doctor for any reason, let alone such a serious one that involves their private parts. But this is your life we're talking about. It takes a bigger man to go and speak to his doctor than it does to pretend nothing is wrong. So just go."

Bobby Moore survived testicular cancer before the World Cup in 1966 and played on afterwards for a decent time. He dealt with it quickly.

TWINS SHOULD NOT SHARE SHIRTS.

Enner Valencia opened his West Ham account with a splendid goal in last night's 2-2 draw at Hull City. Meanwhile, back in his native Ecuador, his old club were missing him. Emelec lost 1-0 to Barcelona in the latest installment of the country's biggest local rivalry, the "shipyard derby" in the port city of Guayaquil. You might go to Guayaquil one day to visit the Galápagos Islands.

Ecuador has two major cities: Guayaquil and the mountain capital of Quito, which is where the Ecuador national side stage their home games, and the altitude is clearly a factor in their strong record in front of their own fans. It was also an advantage for local club side LDU when in 2008, they became the first, and so far only, Ecuadorian side to win the Copa Libertadores, South America's equivalent of the Champions League.

But football first caught on in Guayaquil, as port cities are more open to new ideas associated with industry and immigrants. Both Emelec, set up by the local electric company and Barcelona, as their name suggests, established by Catalan immigrants have national followings. The derby is a big game. 

It is a rivalry capable of pitting brother against brother, quite literally, in the case of last Sunday's game in Barcelona's imposing Monumental stadium.

Attacking midfielder Miler Bolanos started his career with Barcelona. But via a roundabout route including drug abuse and a spell in the MLS, he has ended up at Emelec. Older brother Alex Bolanos, a more defensive midfielder, remains at Barcelona.

The two, in the South American custom, swapped shirts at halftime, with the game goalless, really! The deadlock had still not been broken after the break, when they clashed on the field. Alex grabbed Miler's shirt, which ripped as a result. Miler went over to the touchline. There was no other shirt for him to wear. The coaching staff were unable to patch up the torn one. And so, in such bizarre circumstances and to his own enormous frustration, Miler Bolanos had to be substituted. Emelec had lost one of their most effective players, and with a goal 15 minutes from time, Barcelona claimed all three points.

So, the moral is, don't play against your twin brother and if you happen to, don't swap shirts? 

This story, courtesy of Tim Vickery, whose knowledge of South American is worth listening to on the wireless.

MANX MEN OFF TO UEFA TOURNAMENT

The UEFA Regions' Cup is a football competition for amateur teams in Europe. It was held for the first time in 1999 and has been played biennially since. The current champions are the Italian Veneto team, who became the first team to win the competition twice,menacing won the first competition.It was created in 1996 as there was no European level competition for amateur teams. The UEFA Amateur Cup, a previous attempt to organise a continental competition for amateurs, had run from 1966 to 1978, but ceased due to lack of interest from both the public and amateur teams themselves. In contrast to today's Regions' Cup, in which amateur clubs are represented, the previous competition was for representative amateur national teams.

Each UEFA member nation may enter one representative amateur team into the competition, with clubs having to win a domestic amateur competition (such as the FA Inter-League Cup) in order to qualify.

The first two finals were won by teams from the host nation and, thus far, Italy has been the most successful nation in the competition, with Italian sides winning three of the seven editions.

British teams involved this time are:- Isle of Man, Eastern Region Northern Ireland, North Wales Coast and East West Central Scotland. The IOM side has warmed up for the tournament playing against ROI in two matches. They fly to Poprad, Slovakia for this year's tournament.

www.uefa.com/regionscup

LIVERPOOL AND VILLA PLAY AGAIN-HOW MANY LEAGUE CLUBS WITH A "V"?

The 1894–1895 season was the seventh season of The Football League and the first time Aston Villa and Liverpool played each other. Results that season were:-

08 Sep 1894 Liverpool v Aston Villa L 1-2 League

27 Oct 1894 Aston Villa v Liverpool L 5-0 League 

On the opening day of the Football League season, an extraordinary game between Sunderland and Derby County was played over three halves. The referee appointed for the match, Tom Kirkham, was running late so John Conqueror took charge. When Kirkham arrived, Sunderland were 3–0 ahead after the first half but the decision was made to start the match again at 0–0, annulling what was played so far. The decision didn't bother Sunderland in the end, as they officially ran out 8–0 winners.

On 13 October 1894 the Merseyside derby was contested for the very first time. 44,000 watch Everton beat Liverpool 3–0 in a league clash at Goodison Park.

At the end of the season, Liverpool was relegated as Villa came third and won the FA Cup. There were two divisions in the Football League and then the Southern League, a competition for both professional and amateur clubs, was founded in 1894 under the initiative of Millwall Athletic (now simply Millwall), to cater for teams in southern England, who were unable to join the Football League. The nine founder members were:

Chatham

Clapton

Ilford

Luton Town

Millwall Athletic

Reading

Royal Ordnance Factories

2nd Scots Guards (later withdrew and were replaced by Southampton St Mary's)

Swindon Town

WHERE DOES IT ALL GO WRONG?

Senior Men and other England's international results for 2014. We win a lot and lose a few.

Win        Switzerland 0-2 England

Win        England 1-0 Norway

Draw      Costa Rica 0-0 England

Loss       Uruguay 2-1 England

Loss       England 1-2 Italy

Draw      Honduras 0-0 England

Draw      Ecuador 2-2 England

Win        England 3-0 Peru

Win        England 1-0 Denmark

Senior Women

Win        Wales 0-4 England          

Win        Ukraine 1-2 England

Win        Belarus 0-3 England

Win        England 4-0 Ukraine       

Win        England 9-0 Montenegro

Men U21

Win        Moldova 0-3 England

Win        Lithuania 0-1 England

Win        Wales 1-3 England

Win        England 1-0 Wales

Men U19

Win        Germany 1-1 England

Win        Ukraine 1-0 England

Win        England 2-1 Scotland

Win        England 6-0 Montenegro

Win        England 3-1 Turkey

Men U18

Win        England 3-1 Holland

Win        England 4-1 Holland

Win        England 2-1 Germany

Loss       England 1-2 Croatia

Win        England 4-0 Belgium

Men U17

Win        England 4-3 Italy

Loss       England 1-2 Portugal

Draw      England 1-1 Czech Republic

Loss       England 0-1 Denmark

Loss       England 0-3 Sweden

Draw      Finland 1-1 England

Win        England 5-1 Iceland

Draw      England 1-1 Holland (4 - 1)

Win        Portugal 0-2 England

Loss       England 0-2 Holland

Win        England 4-1 Turkey

Win        England 1-0 Albania

Win        England 1-0 Czech Republic

Loss       Germany 1-0 England

Draw      Portugal 2-2 England

Win        England 2-0 Holland

Loss       England 1-2 Belgium

Win        England 2-1 Belgium

Men U16

Loss       England 3-4 Belgium

Win        England 2-2 France (5 - 3)

Win        England 1-0 Portugal

Draw      England 3-3 Belgium

Win        England 4-1 Denmark

Loss       England 1-3 Spain

Women U20

Loss       Nigeria 2-1 England

Draw      England 1-1 Mexico

Draw      England 1-1 South Korea

OLDEST CLUB PLAYS BY THE RULES

In 1855, members of a Sheffield cricket club organised informal kick-abouts without any official rules. The inaugural meeting of Sheffield F.C. took place on 24 October 1857 at Parkfield House in the suburb of Highfield. The original headquarters was a greenhouse on East Bank Road lent by Thomas Asline Ward, father of the first club president Frederick Ward, and the adjacent field was used as their first playing ground.  Initially, Sheffield FC games were played among club members themselves and took the format of "Married v Singles" or "Professionals v the Rest". The Sheffield club is officially recognised by FIFA as the oldest football club in the world.

The club's rules of play, were decided upon at the club's AGM on 21 October 1858. They were referred to as the Sheffield Rules. At the time, before the formation of the Football Association, many different kinds of football were popular in England. For example, each of the various public schools played football according to their own individual rules, and these varied widely.

The first rules were distinctive. There was no offside rule and was the first to introduce free kicks for foul play. Australian rules football resembles the original Sheffield code in various respects.

Sheffield's near neighbour, Hallam, was formed in 1860 and in the same year the two clubs first played each other in a local derby which is still contested today. By 1862 there were 15 clubs in the Sheffield area. These rules were later adopted by the Sheffield Football Association when it was formed in 1867. By this time the club had decided only to play teams outside Sheffield in order to seek a bigger challenge. They became members of The Football Association in 30 November 1863 but continued to use their own set of rules.

On 2 January 1865, the club played its first fixture outside Sheffield against Nottingham, playing eighteen aside under Nottingham Rules. The rest of the season also saw them visit Nottingham Forest and Lincoln City.

On 31 March 1866, there was a match between a team representing Sheffield and one representing London clubs, at Battersea Park. Rules that differed only slightly from the FA rules were used. The game, played as an eleven aside, was won by London by 2 goals and four touchdowns to nil.

However the matter of rules remained a problem with Sheffield continuing to play by their own rules. A number of rule proposals by the club were rejected by the FA in February 1867 and the London Committee were reluctant to commit to further fixtures over Sheffield's refusal to play strictly to FA rules. Sheffield finally adopted the FA rules in 1878.

The club have had some success in national competitions, with an FA Amateur Cup win in 1903–04, and a Wembley appearance in the 1976–77 FA Vase final (although they lost the replay at the City Ground, Nottingham to Billericay Town). They have not been in the more senior FA Cup since the 1880s, but they did make the quarter finals on three occasions in the 1870s. They have a unique place in FA Cup history, knocking out Shropshire Wanderers on the toss of a coin in 1873; the only time a tie has been decided in this way

Its decline from the top echelon of football began with the introduction of professionalism in July 1885, with the amateurs of Sheffield failing to compete with professional teams, losing heavily that year to Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Notts County.

After the legalisation of professionalism Sheffield Club suggested to the FA the creation of a cup exclusively for amateur clubs. This would become the FA Amateur Cup and gave Sheffield their first ever cup success in 1904. 

On Saturday Sheffield FC play Shephed Dynamo in the First Qualifying Round of the FA Cup.For non-league footballers, this Saturday is always one to look forward. The aim? to get to the first round proper. 

WILL ROY'S BOYS GO CUCKOO

Roy Hodgson, much criticised manager of our national team,  sparked a revolution in Swiss football.

‘We are still benefiting today from the structures he put in place at the time,’ said new Swiss manager Vladimir Petkovic,  reflecting on Hodgson’s influence on Swiss football, nearly 20 years ago. Petkovic was playing in Switzerland at the time, but coming to the end of his career and beginning to take an interest in coaching.

Hodgson proved to be a modernising force. It was his work with the Swiss FA that led the national team to their first World Cup finals in 28 years. The popular tabloid newspaper “Blick” ran a series called ‘Roy was for me…’ which featured memories from the stars of his USA ’94 squad.

‘Roy welded us together,’ said Ciriaco Sforza, who won 79 caps for Switzerland. ‘We would train and train again. By the time we were finished, we could do it blind. We had success that made us strong against any opponent. ‘Before the World Cup we were average players and after the World Cup, our success allowed us to be bought by foreign clubs. This open doors for following generations.’

Having been appointed in January 1992, at the age of 44, Hodgson devoted time to drilling the team into his style. Clubs agreed to release players for four mini training camps each year. They would gather in different parts of the country for three days of intensive tactical work.

Most Swiss clubs were playing with a sweeper at the time and he was keen to reshape them into  4-4-2 formation. At one point in 1993, they were ranked third in the world by FIFA. After the World Cup in 1994, they qualified for Euro 1996, although Hodgson had  left for Inter Milan by then.

Twelve out of the 23 named squad are playing with German teams, three play in Switzerland and Philippe Senderos plays for Aston Villa. Xherdan Shaqiri, 22 years old, from Bayern Munich, has scored 12 goals in 38 appearances from midfield. Presently 9th in FIFA ranking, Switzerland is more highly thought of than England.

KEEPING IT ON THE ISLAND?

Tonight (Sunday), the Gibraltar international team makes history when it plays its first ever European Championship match against Poland. UEFA has done something that Spain has ignored to do for more than 300 years; when the 2.3 square mile rocky peninsular was handed to England in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht, Spain refused to recognise Gibraltar as a separate country,  Needless to say Portugal has lent the island a stadium to play in. Recent fixtures against Estonia and Slovakia (drawn), Malta (won) prove that Gibraltar has something to offer.

The present squad includes four notable Englishmen . Scott Wiseman qualifies through his mother’s birth and has been a journeyman footballer, presently with Preston NE. Jake Gosling is with Bristol Rovers and has a Gibraltan born father whilst Adam Priestly, at present with non-league Farsley, was born on the island when his father was stationed there with the RAF. David Artell plays for Bala Town in the Welsh league.

They will have to leave for the game early to get through the very slow customs point into Spain. 

GATES UP, VASE LOST

Vanarama and Matt Le Tissier join forces to support Non-League Day 2014 September 6th.

As sponsors of The Football Conference their primary objective for Non-League Day is to get as many fans through the turnstiles as possible, shattering the league's 2013 and 2012 attendance figures of 39,000 and 36,000 respectively. They will also be working with our official charity Prostate Cancer UK to raise funds by donating 10p for every fan that attends a Conference game on Non-League Day. Based on last year's attendance this would generate at least £4000. However, if 50,000 fans attend a game, then Vanarama will double their donation, making at least £10,000 for Prostate Cancer! Gates were around 38,000 on Saturday-not as many as attended the friendly at Wembley last Wednesday, but many venues had high turn outs.

Yesterday was a big day for FA Vase competitors and local club Penistone Church took a bus across the Pennines to Atherton Colliery, only to lose 0-4, in the first qualifying round. Meanwhile, Hepworth Utd, not far enough up the pyramid to qualify for the Vase, played another local derby against the ambitious Holmfirth Town, forcing a creditable draw 1-1 in the Huddersfield District league. In Surrey, the Old Carthusians FC beat the Charterhouse schoolboys 6-3 in their annual match; 150 years since the first fixture was played.

150 YEARS OF CARTHUSIAN FOOTBALL

Tomorrow at Charterhouse School in Godalming, the school 1st XI plays the Old Carthusian Football Club, the old boys. This match was first played in February 1864, when the game was played partly on Green (the field sited near the origin school in Charterhouse Square, London) and partly in Cloisters, where the game was played along a narrow stone built corridor. Since then the annual contest has been played continuously apart from the war years. OCFC is renowned for winning both the FA Cup and the FA Amateur Cup, a feat only achieved by the same named club Wimbledon FC. The school teammhas appeared in five Independent School FA Cup finals and won the trophy twice. Kick off at the School is 2.15. It is NON-LEAGUE DAY tomorrow so why not go along and watch football in its purest form?

SCHOOL TOMORROW, EARLY NIGHT.

40,181 supporters watched the gentle warm up for England's European Championship squad against. Norway, so perhaps the FA should get more attractive opposition? Well, Germany v Argentina, re-enacting the 2014 World Cup Final, on the same night, mustered only 51,132, but then it was a 2-4 result which certainly entertained those who bothered to turn up. The Irish playing Oman could only draw just over 14,300? Friendlies? End of holidays, with school tomorrow? Costs? The Great Bake Off? Perhaps Wembley and the FA should consider the Arsenal plan which involves counting the advance sales, add this to on day purchases and then guess a number. At one time Arsenal had a painted mural representing a crowd behind a goal, but that was to cover a building project at the ground. England's all time low at the national stadium is 15,628 v Chile in 1989 and at the revamped stadium 48,876 against Sweden in 2011. Will crowds ever come back in their huge numbers for England's international matches.....Not unless the team perks up and maybe the ticket prices are made more reasonable, as in the family sections. Meanwhile Accrington drew 818 to their Johnstones Paint trophy 1st round against Carlisle on Tuesday evening. At least that's more than most Scottish league games.