AND DID THOSE FEET IN ANCIENT TIMES....

Yesterday was the anniversary of England winning the World Cup in 1966. Where were you? I was in John Bartlett's house in Rectory Close during the game and jumped out of his sitting room window on to his lawn in celebration after the game. My dad was in our house, two doors down and we phoned each other when ever a goal was scored. It was hot, sunny and a great afternoon for us “mid teenagers”.

It's been a long haul since then, but with a fair wind and looking at the draw we may qualify for the next one. Hooray.

Alf Ramsey was the man who changed English fortunes and he got his team, as he predicted openly and some say arrogantly, to the final and won it. He was a curious individual, no mean player and clearly somebody who was tough but loyal to his players. Ramsey was picked by the FA to run the England team having had success with modest Ipswich Town, taking them to the First Division Championship (in those days the top division) the year after they won the Second Division title in 1961. He was on a roll so the FA hope this would inspire the national team.

He was a small, unfashionable figure who became national team leader in May 1963. He ran his team as he would a league side and stood no nonsense from the star players. The likes of Greaves and Moore had a reputation of play boys!

He also favoured team men rather than individuals and hence it was Jimmy Greaves who got the chop during the finals in England. Greaves was suffering from an injury also which gave Ramsey a good excuse to bring in a team man like Geoff Hurst. The West Ham link was obviously a major factor in the team's success.

So it was his wingless wonders with an engine room of Charlton, Stiles, Ball and Peters that won the cup.

Preparing for the finals, the team was holed up for 18 days at Lilleshall, an FA facility in the Shropshire countryside. They played non-contact games like table tennis, their one break of freedom was at a local golf club where Ramsey bought them all halves of beer, bedtime was 9pm sharp and there were endless cowboy films including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid which they never saw the end of because the projector broke down. Geoff Hurst admitted in the 1990 that he never knew the ending of the film until then!

They changed room partners almost daily, so no cliques developed, they learned how to clip their toenails and look after their feet and endured a rigorous training regime.

It paid off!

HARRY HELPS THE HOMELESS

Maths did not help FC Midtjylland in their Champions league qualifier last night,losing 1-2 to Apoel Nicosia, but there is more to life than winning and Harry Redknapp, looking for something to fill his day is featured in a BT Sport Film which follows the lives of participants of the Homeless FA's Team England and it also highlights the work of The Supporters' Club, BT Sports' Charity. 

The film premieres on Sunday 2^nd August before the FA Community Shield match and maybe found online at http://www.thesupportersclub.org.

James Buckley, head coach of the team, lost his adoptive mother to cancer as a teenager, slept rough but has transformed his life through football. The Head of Homeless FA, Gareth Parker, says he is a “shining example”.

Fara Williams was homeless for seven years and this summer scored the goal that clinched England Women's third place in the World Cup.

The Homeless FA squad contains 40 players selected from clubs that have centres including:-

Arsenal, Aston Villa, Brighton, Bristol City, Derby County, Everton, Fulham, Manchester City, Norwich, Southampton and Sunderland.

Of course there is much football to be learned but a main point for these young people is to improve communication, social skills and confidence through team work.

Harry Redknapp has taken a practical interest in their progress and the team will be given the opportunity to take part in tournaments such as the Homeless World Cup in Amsterdam later this year.

See also:-

http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Homeless+FA

IT'S A NUMBERS GAME

 When Oxford educated and life long Brentford fan Matthew Benham took over the majority share at the West London club, he very quickly saw success, but not quite enough success to lift the unfashionable club into the top flight. He is convinced that this will be possible, so he sacked the seemingly successful Head Coach, Mark Warburton, and modelled his club on the “continental structure” with a Head Coach and a Sporting Director, both working towards maximising the efficiency of their players.

There is a mathematical approach to the way the club is run, ideas formulated by Benham in his career as a hedge fund operator and professional gambler. The numbers do not lie.

He has also invested £6.2 million in 2014 in the Danish club FC Midtjylland, from West Jutland, who play in the Danish Supaliga and are presently qualifying for the Champions League. They recently dispatched the Gibraltan champions the Lincoln Red Imps (see previous blog) and are playing this week in the 3^rd round against Apoel, the champions of Cyprus.

Mittjylland was founded in 1999 by the merger of two older and rival clubs, Irkast and Herning Fremad, who had achieved little in Danish Football. Once joined and with investment and a new stadium, the club quickly rose to become Danish Champions and are now heading for greater things.

The club now has an excellent academy and a partnership with Nigerian club, FC Ebedei. It has also become the first Danish club to sell the naming rites of the stadium, the MCH Arena, to a national company.

Both Brentford and Mittjylland now answer to mathematical models which accurately account for the success and a failure of players and team movements. Key Performance Indicators, long used in business, are monitored for every player and team plays. Dangerous Situations are recorded, for example, the success rate in the danger zone, that area between the six yard box and the D on the penalty area. 77% of goals in the Premier league come from there. The FA might call this Zone 14. Analysis allows players to understand where and how they will gain most success.

Set pieces for the Danes have a scoring rate of 0.88, second in Europe, whereas Arsenal can only manage 0.57 success rate. Texts and key messages are sent to players, keeping them all informed of what needs to be achieved. There is a successful Youth academy which supplies the club with a number of home grown players, all of whom rely on statistical models that exploit inefficiencies and errors of home players and opposition, of course!

KIRKWALL KICK BALL

Back to Islands then, and where better than a league that is presently in full flow, the OrkneyAmateur Football Association “Orkney Cheese” A league. Bit of a mouthful even for Charlotte thingy on the BBC.

With teams having played 9 or so games this summer, Kirkwall Rovers are well top, Kirkwall Thorfinn are second and Kirkwall Hotspurs third, two points behind. Bit of a leaning towards Kirkwall then, not surprising with half the 20,000 population of the Isles living in the “capital”.

Elsewhere in the archipelago, its Stromness Athletic, Rendall, Dounby, Firth fighting for places and St Andrews coming up the rear with only 2 points.

There is the Clark Thomson Insurance B league with poor old Holm scoring NIL POINTS after 9 games and finally the CTI Reserve league, with clubs big enough to have a reserve league offering sides. Needless to say Kirkwall has much to say in this with those three teams queueing up behind Rendell.

Other Scottish leagues include the Sutherland Drug and Alcohol Forum NW Sutherland Amateur Football Association League (yes all one title , and the William Wilson Skye & Localsh AFA before we get to the MacLean Ross-Shire Welfare FA and the Caithness AFA South of Scotland League and the Press and Journal Highland League, with clubs like Deveronvale and Cove Rangers in their midst who appear in the Scottish Cup from time to time.

Throw in some ladies football and juniors and we can assume that all is well in the far reaches of the UK.

WHERE THERE'S HOPE THERE'S FOOTBALL

Got to go to the Peak District today, for a Swanwick Hall School reunion_my better half's old school. Chelmorton is the venue, meeting at the pub in the village and no doubt I shall have to earn my ale by walking a few ks beforehand.

So what about Peak District football? I could bang on about Glossop North End again-see previous blogs, but there is football in the heart of the countryside, such as at Tideswell which is pretty much central to the area and runs a few teams including a Vets XI, open age and juniors.

Even Eyam, the plague village, has a team and there is no shortage of possibilities of getting a game in one of our most luxurious National Parks.

I was not surprised to read in the local paper that recently, Andrew Bingham, the local MP, joined with 80 youngsters in a training session with “top flight” coaches from QPR, supporting a local community project in the Hope Valley. One of the great sights in the valley is the “Cathedral of the Peak”, the Hope Cement Works that gives much needed employment to the locals but also creates a significant eyesore in what is one of the most beautiful valleys in the region.

Yes, London is a long way away but Chairman of the Hope Construction Materials Company, Amit Bhatia, happens to be a co-owner of QPR.

Stephen McCarthy and three other coaches from the London club, travelled from the city and spent time working with U8 and U9 squads, helped by local club coaches and parents.

Local villages and towns invited to join in were Bradwell, Tideswell, Eyam, Baslow, Bakewell and Buxton.

Hope Works laid on refreshments and there was a mini tournament at the end for the young boys and girls to show off their skills.

McCarthy was delighted to spread the QPR word and also to have an opportunity to get out of Shepherd's Bush and ply his trade in a rural environment, for a change!

KEEP YOUR DRAWS ON

The World Cup draw for 2018 took place today at the Presidential Konstantinovsky Palace in St Petersburg, once the Swedish chancellor's estate, but commandeered by President Putin.

141 teams were entered into the draw and also Russia who qualify as hosts. There are 52 European places spread into 7 groups of 6 and 2 groups of 5, making 9 groups altogether. England along with the top nations will be in groups of 6, for broadcasting reasons. There is no Zimbabwe because they have not paid their fees and Gibraltar is not a member of FIFA so cannot be included although the Gibraltans are contesting this.

Nine top seeds head each group and two of these are England and Wales. The 9 winners from the groups will continue to the Finals and the 8 best runners up will play qualifying matches to complete the tally.

England appeared in pot 1 along with Wales (Bales??), so could have drawn Iceland, Albania, Faroe Islands, Moldova and Andorra. But actually the draw was quite encouraging setting us against Slovakia, Scotland, Slovenia, Lithuania and Malta. 53 teams come from Africa, 18 from ConCaf Central and North America), 10 from South America and 8 from Oceania.

The first matches begin in September 2016.

In 1930, the first World Cup held in Uruguay. The reason for this honour was that Uruguay was celebrating the centenary of their constitution and they had won the 1928 Olympics final. There was no need for a country to qualify, as only 13 nations opted to join in the new cup tournament. England were far too important in the World of football to travel all that way to play against ”minor opposition”, though to be fair, the journey did prevent a lot of the Europeans from joining in.

Belgium did, but they had to because their main FA man was vice-president of FIFA. France had to make the journey because Jules Rimet (trophy is named after his inspiration) was French! The Romanians were there after being encouraged by their King and Yugoslavia was represented by Serbians who were adopted by the Uruguayans as “iches or ichachos” because all their names ended in -ic or similar!!

Of the 13 teams, 7 came from South America, 4 from Europe, 2 from North America and the four groups produced four semi-finalists, with Uruguay winning outright beating Argentina 4-2, a repeat of the 1928 Olympics Games final.

There was a dispute about the use of the football for the final. Such was the indecision that a different ball, from Argentina was used in the first half and one from Uruguay in the second! See below.

Various death threats had been made to players of note and the referee, a Belgian, actually had asked for a boat to be ready in the port of Montevideo for a quick get away, should he need one!

THE GHOST OF BLOOMER

Sitting in coach A, in a reserved seat on an East Midlands train, I'm on my way to watch the Australians bowl against Derbyshire CCC, who have been suffering for a couple of days in the field. 

Derby County FC, founded by William Morley in 1884, is an offshoot of the County Cricket Club and their first pitch was at the cricket ground, known as the Racecourse Ground, where Derby played their league and FA Cup games till 1895. The ground also hosted an FA Cup final in 1886 and a full international.

Of course, Derby County FC is one of the founder members of the FLeague and one of only ten clubs to have competed in the FLeague for every year since its foundation.

The idea of playing football was to give the cricketers something to do during the winter and to attract a crowd with admission fees in their pockets,  but this got out of hand!

Clashes for the ground at the beginning and end of seasons led the football club, in 1895, to move to the Sir Francis Ley's Baseball Ground, named as such because unsurprisingly, baseball was played there.

The original club colours were amber, chocolate and blue but thankfully they adopted black and white in the 1890s and adopted the First Regiment of the Derby militia's mascot, the Ram.

The club was originally going to be called Derbyshire County FC but the Derbyshire FA, formed in 1883, objected because of the likely confusion with them! Hence the shortened name.

Accepted into the FLeague, their first game on September 8th 1888, was against Bolton. 0-3 down away from home,the Rams fought back to win 6-3 but the club ended up 10th out of 12 in the one and only division. They absorbed Derby Midland FC, who were a local league club, in 1891, becoming the only professional club in the area. 

So let's hope for a rain free day, otherwise I shall be looking for the ghost of Steve Bloomer, generally regarded as the club's best ever player. Eat your heart out Kevin Hector.

ITS ALL FOREIGN TO ME

Browsing through the sports' pages today, the transfer market is in full flow and there is speculation about one or two Englishmen, John Stones, Charlie Austin, playing in the Premier League but most of the names are from further afield and definitely foreign. I haven't counted up the number of foreign names appearing in the various top squads but there is a high proportion. Silly money.

Arsenal was the first club to field an all foreign team in February 2005 when Arsene Wenger's team played Crystal Palace at Highbury. Wenger criticise Manchester United's pursuit of success by buying expensive foreigners, so I suspect the Arsenal manager may have forgotten how he has kept the Gunners firing high since he took over in 1996. To be honest, he has transformed the way that football has been approached in many different ways, but he shouldn't gripe at United, Chelsea and City and the rest who can afford it, who are able to bring in some of the best players in the world.

Chelsea produced the first all foreign squad when they played Southampton on December 26^th 1999. Dr Jozef Venglos (a Doctor of PE and Psychology) was the first foreign manager (a Czech) in the Football League, looking after Aston Villa in 1990 and Bert Trautmann the first foreigner, a German, to win the Footballer of the Year award in 1956 after his heroics in the Manchester City goal during the Cup Final. Following a collision that broke his neck, he played on and made several important saves to help City win 3-1! Having been captured during the War he refused to be repatriated and settled in Lancashire, finally earning a place in City's cup team.

The first professional black player to play in league football was Arthur Wharton in 1886 who was born on the Gold Coast, had a half Granadian/Scottish father and a mother who was also half Scottish but also a descendent of the Fante Ghanaian royal family. Wharton was also a fine sprinter who held the world record for the 100 yards and later died a pauper having been distracted by fame and alcohol.

There were previously black players playing in the leagues, for example Andrew Watson, but they were amateurs.

Max Seeburg was the first European born player to appear in the Football League, a German, he made one appearance for Tottenham in 1908, before moving onto Leyton and various other clubs, including Reading,Grimsby and Burnley.

Hong Ying Frank Soo, born in Buxton, was the first Chinese man to play professionally and he turned out for Stoke City 173 times alongside Stanley Matthews and was capped for England nine times between 1942-45. He later went to Luton.

RIO OVERTAKEN BY STONES?

Rio Ferdinand signed for Manchester United on July 21^st 2002 for £30 million having spent the previous 4 years at West Ham, with a short loan spell at Bournemouth, and then two years at Leeds United, until the Yorkshire club had to sell him to help with their financial problems.

He proved to be an outstanding centre back, playing over 300 times for the Manchester club and he quite rightly earned 81 caps for England. He ended his career with a brief term at QPR.

At school he was a competent gymnast representing Stratford, did ballet several times a week, joined the QPR academy and had to suffer the trials of the death of a school colleague, Stephen Lawrence.

Retiring in 2015, he played over 700 games and scored 13 (yes only 13) goals!

Life was not entirely without controversy, but he was a true and reliable professional who has recently had to endure the premature death of his wife. With brother Anton and uncle Les close relations and also professional footballers in their time, Rio has much to look forward to.

This week John Stones, born in Thurlstone, just a few miles from me, and an ex-pupil at Penistone School will be pinching himself as his value as an English defender rises to over that of Rio's.

Once of Barnsley, now with what the Chelsea manager describes as a “smaller club”, Everton, he is likely to be transferred to Chelsea for some price over £30 million.

At 21, he is already an international, he can play at centre back or right back and he has a huge future ahead of him. Having signed for Barnsley in March 2012 and then Everton in August 2013, he made his England debut in 2014 and he has played only 86 top flight games.

Bit of as gamble? He is highly rated but he has already had an injury issue so the medical will be vital!

HOW TO QUIETEN 200,000.

Alcides Ghiggia, died on July 16^th 2015 aged 88. He scored the goal for Uruguay which won the 1950 World Cup. He said “only three people have silenced the Maracana, the Pope, Frank Sinatra and me.” The game was the World Cup Final against Brazil at the huge stadium, with 200,000 in the crowd.

Brazilian legend, Pele, said later that it was the first time he had seen his father cry and there were several suicides reported!

The blame was spread widely and one sufferer was the traditional white kit of Brazil which was changed to the familiar now gold and green. The home goalie, Barbosa, letting in the goal at his near post, suffered humiliation for twenty years,. When he could he bought the stadium's goalposts and burned them over a barbecue!

Ghiggia was attacked by a crowd outside the stadium and had to go home on crutches and years later he was still recognised by Brazilians and made to feel uncomfortable.

Ghiggia went to Italy to revitalise his career in 1951, after “thumping” a referee in a domestic game. He played for Roma and stayed there for 8 years, enjoying the life of a super star, living the Dolce Vita, becoming friendly with Gina Lollobridiga (ask your dad who this was!) and owning three Alfa Romeos. When he was team captain he had to serve two months in jail for being found in a compromising situation in one of his cars, with a young girl.

He then went to Milan and with Italian forebears, was nationalised and played for the country five times in 1958. Ghiggia then went home, playing in the top flight until he was 42 and dying on the 65^th anniversary of his most famous match, still talking about football.

In 2010 Ghiggia was honoured at the Maracana where there is a mould of his feet, set alongside those of Pele, Eusebio and Beckenbauer.

Below is the crucial goal scored against Brazil.

HUNT, A FOX IN THE BOX

Today is Roger Hunt's 77th birthday and I suspect that a few youngsters out there will have no idea who he is. Did he cross the South Pole? Is he a politician?

Roger Hunt still holds the record number of league goals scored for Liverpool FC, having started his career while the club was in the Second Division, scoring on his debut against Scunthorpe and then leading the line very successfully at Anfield in Division One, in the FA Cup Final win over Leeds in 1965 and later as European Cup Winners Cup finalists against Borussia Dortmund, a game lost.

His goal against Arsenal in August 1964 was the first goal seen on the Match of the Day programme and his international career began in 1962, with a debut goal and during the 1966 World Cup campaign, he scored (6 goals) in every round including the Final. He could have put pay to all speculation about Geoff Hurst's second goal (making it 3-2 in extra time), when Hunt, in the six hard box, turned away from the ball as it rebounded off the cross bar and down to the ground, apparently over the line-why didn't he just bundle the ball into the back of the net?

Hunt was meant to partner Jimmy Greaves in that tournament but injury to Greaves let in Hurst who scored a hat trick in the final.

Hunt had a spell with Bolton as he ended his career, scoring 24 goals in 77 matches in the Second and Third Division, and then was given an MBE in 2000 when a group of media decided than the famed 1966 team had not been given enough recognition for their achievement.

Happy Birthday “Sir” Roger as the Kop still call him.

THE MAN WITH NO NAME

Pre-season games have gained momentum and familiar names stand out in the Non League Paper, a must for those anoraks who like to keep in touch with the lower levels of the Pyramid. Ronnie Moran was watching Bootle and Southport play out a moderately interesting games which the home team won by the odd goal in three.

In the south Steve Claridge is working with a youthful squad at Salisbury, where his team were comfortably beaten by Darrell Clarke's Bristol Rovers. Clarke made his debut as a manager at Salisbury five years ago.

Former Northern Ireland international, Steve Jones, is scoring for Nantwich Town, whilst Gary Brabin's Tranmere Rovers club is beginning the new season out of the Football League for the first time for 95 years. They played West Cheshire league opposition Vauxhall Motors and Rovers' trialist centre forward scored four second half goals, but nobody knew his name or where he came from! Brabin used eleven new players at half time and Trialist H grabbed the headlines. Who is he?

Pontypridd Town who managed to get a friendly game against Valencia last season are aiming for Deportivo La Coruna later this month. Darren Campbell, the sprinter, is helping the players improve their speed by giving them a masterclass.

Darwen FC joined the Football League in 1891 but did not maintain their status for long.  Former Blackburn Rovers winger, 55 year old Peter Devine, is linking with fellow former Rover, Kevin Gallacher, to manage AFC Darwen in the North West Counties FL (Step 9 in the Pyramid). Darwen FC went out of business in 2009 and the new club rose from the embers.

THEY HAVE TALES TO TELL FROM FAR AWAY SHORES

I have just survived a very exciting motor boat trip to St Agnes, another of the delightful islands in this Isles of Scilly archipelago. I was allowed to steer for a while, avoiding obstacles such as seals, puffins and hidden rocks.

All the islands are attached to one another by sand bars which are revealed at low tide (especially now at a low Spring tide) and of course, all these islands are linked up to each other and the “mainlands” of France and England, deep down, by granitic rock on the sea bed, as part of the massive Permian batholith that stretches between north west France and Bodmin Moor and Dartmoor. 

I make that point because I want to keep the “island” theme going for a bit longer before I return from holiday. And by the way, find a map of the ocean bed for the region to check out what all this previous “guff” means.

The Pacific Games are on at the moment and the Federal States of Micronesia qualify for this four yearly event, entering especially in the football tournament. FSM are not doing very well. In fact they have played three and lost three matches, conceding 114 goals. The scores in their group have been:- v Tahiti 0-30, v Fiji 0-38 and v Vanuatu 0-46. Players are actually queuing up to go in goal because the slightest effort of success by a “guardian” is greeted by enthusiastic applause, where as any outfield player is barely getting a kick of the ball.

A goal is being scored every 142 seconds against them. Manager Paul Watson, whose brother is an English comedian, has kept his sense of humour.

FSM are not affiliated to FIFA and therefore cannot play in “official” competitions so they have to rely on friendlies and have to wait until, 2019, when the next Pacific Games is held, to try out their new team! With only a population 100,000 people, FSM lost to Vanuatu, a team ranked 200^th in FIFA rankings. T team is selected from four islands 100 kms apart and only 500 players fall into the appropriate age group, coming from Phonpei (subject of a fine footballing book called "Up Phonpei"), Chuuk and Yap-I am not making this up!

BUT they are taking part and getting an experience. Watson tells us that most of his team have never seen an escalator or a lift, so they have many tales to tell their loved ones when they return home.
The competition was won by New Caledonia, who beat Tahiti. new Zealand should have won but in their semi-final they fielded an ineligible player and were disqualified!

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jul/07/micronesia-defeat-46-vanuatu-pacific-games

SCILLY BOAT TRIP TO THE SMALLEST LEAGUE

I am off to Tresco tomorrow, hoping to survive the Scillonian boat trip from Penzance. Remember stay on deck and get to the back of the boat.

Both the sons of our hosts are footballers, one a very useful goalkeeper, the other a casual and thoughtful midfielder who would boost a team on the island. The parents are very good supporters; they behave themselves on touchlines.

I was hoping to see some football on the island but of course it is out of season (actually it is from November to late March) and there is no pitch on Tresco. Only St Mary's, another Scilly Isle, has a pitch, at the Garrison. This is the home to one of the two teams that remains in the Isles of Scilly league, reputedly the smallest league in the world (check Guinness Book of Records).

From the 1920s there were several teams based at each major island:- Bryher, St Agnes, St Martins and the two already mentioned playing for the Lyonesse Inter-Island Cup. The war, out-migration of youngsters and the fact that there is no sixth form school on the archipelago, means that a lot of the youngsters hit the main land and never returned! Apart from summer holidays of course. If they do come back, this tends to be later in life, hence the older average age of footballers in the league which is well into the mid 30s.

By the 1950s there were only two teams and these presently are known as the Garrison Gunners and the Woolpack Wanderers. (sound like pub teams to me?) They play each other 17 times, every other weekend and there is a Young v Old match on Boxing Day-fair enough.

Affiliated to the FA , there is a Charity Shield at the start of the season, the league and several cups such as the Foredeck Cup played over two legs (good job it is the Isle of Man.....get it?).
There is an annual match of a combined XI versus Newlyn Non Athletico whose pre-season tour from the FL Pyramid Level 14 is always to the Scillys. (also sounds quite pubby to me)

In April 2008, Adidas ran a TV advert called Dream Big featuring Beckham, Vieira and Gerrard, highlighting the league. A survey returned that the 2,000 or so islanders are the mostly active in sports' activities, some football but others such as gig racing, golf and water sports. The islands are now attractive to migrants from the EU! and the Antipodes. Hugh Town, on St Marys, is the largest settlement with about 1,000 people choosing to live the urban life! I am going to New Grimsby!

Watch out for the Orkney League and other island associations around us.

LINCOLN IMPS HOPE TO COURT ONE OF THE BIG BOYS

As the Europa League continues to gain momentum and since I shall be living on an island for a few days, my thoughts turn to Gibraltar. Why? Well I have written about Gibraltar's football before and a friend of mine, Dave, has an interest in Lincoln City FC, so what better than to have a look at the progress in the UEFA Champions League of the Lincoln Red Imps, the prolific league champions of Gibraltar. 

Founded in 1975, the evolution of the club has included financial backing by the generous Freddy Shepherd, whom you may remember sunk a load of cash into Newcastle United. So Freddy, who had a house on the island, decided to sponsor them, changing their name from Lincoln ABG to Newcastle United. Freddy eventually pulled out from the sponsorship but the club carried on, successfully. The club has won the last twelve league titles for example.

There are other clubs in the local league named after English league clubs such as Chelsea Beacon Press and Manchester United. The Chelsea youth teams are financed by Roller Pet Shop, a local company.

So the Lincoln Red Imps, as they are again known, playing at the 5,000 capacity Victoria Stadium, are making progress in Europe's Champions League. Having won their first qualifying round against FC Santa Colomba from Andorra 2-1 on aggregate the Imps are now chasing the Danes, FC Midtjylland, who hold a 1-0 lead after the first leg.

Last season the club scored their first goal ever, a penalty, in European football versus HB Toshavn of the Faroe Islands but eventually lost on aggregate.

It all goes on this week, with small clubs from all over Europe eyeing up a future tie against one of the big boys.

POETRY IN MOTION, BARNSLEY BARD HAS A NOTION.

While I was enjoying our last season's football U11s presentation afternoon at Far Lane-the Hepworth United FC “stadium”-newly mown, spiked and seeded (the ground that is, not the club), my other and better half was listening to Ian Mcmillan, the Bard of Barnsley and the Tykes' self-styled poet in residence, reading and talking about his life at the Penistone Literary Festival.

Ian, born on the eastern fringe of Barnsley, in Darfield, where he has lived all his life, has written about Barnsley FC on many an occasion and revelled in their success, when they had it, especially during the heady days of the Premier League.

He generously signed my copy of the History of Barnsley FC, even though Mrs B had not bought one of his poetry books! “Brazil, its just like watching Brazil, Barnsley 1 Chelsea 0”. Generous man.

After Barnsley had beaten Manchester United 3-2 in the FA Cup Fifth Round replay at Oakwell, on 25^th February 1998, Ian was approached by an enthusiastic fan and told; “Tha'll not write a poem abaht that, tha'll write a bloody sonnet!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMCG56X_aTc

And while I have the book in my hand, why not get a copy of Alan Hodkinson's book “Life at the Top”-Queen Anne Press and have a jolly good read about Barnsley and their venture into the unknown.

Thanks Ian and here's to the Tykes' new season in Division One (again)!!!

AN ENGLISHMAN ABROAD

England play Hungary tonight in another Europa Cup game. Might be considered a meaningless excercise by some but for the FA it is another step in the devekopment of the national side. Where should we go to improve?

“Foreign managers abroad” usually refers to the many foreign managers and coaches who now grace our home football clubs. You know who they are, but how many Englishmen ply their trade abroad?

I am not particularly interested in David Moyes' progress and we do have a Paul Clement's finger in Real Madrid's pie, but I am fascinated by the influence of one of our own in Europe in 1915. It's a hundred years since Jack Reynolds established the Ajax Youth system in Holland. This tradition eventually led to the production line of such great players as Cruyff and Bergkamp.

He spent 25 seasons at Ajax and drummed into the young players an attacking mentality for which the Dutch club has always been famous. He developed skills rather than fitness and in those days that was a remarkable feat.

If you read the accounts of training regimes at professional clubs in England, I am afraid that running and strength came first on the daily routine. William Hibbert, a former Bury and English centre forward (well, he played once for England), went to New York to coach in 1923 saying that “Our (English) players prefer not to be taught”.

In the 1920-30s teams from Europe and South America snapped up English ex-players, who couldn't get jobs at home when the concept of "hiding the football from English professional footballers until Saturday to make them hungry for he ball", still existed. 

Jimmy Hogan from Burnley thought outside the box. Hogan had coached Switzerland to the 1926 Olympic final and he repeated this feat with Austria in 1936. With Hugo Meisl he created the Austrian “Wunderteam”.

Hogan introduced chalk blackboards for tactics, special diets and hours of skill drills, taking his ideas all over Europe. He set up the “Danubian School” of teams from Hungary and Austria and this led to the rise in their success over the next 20 years or so. Remember who beat England 6-3 and 7-1 in the 1950s? Gusztav Sebes, the coach of the great Hungarian Magyars said “When our football history is told, his (Hogan's) name should be written in gold letters”.

Hogan was employed by Fulham in the mid-30s but was sacked after 31 games with the explanation that “seasoned professionals do not need coaching”. He joined up with Celtic, Brentford and then Aston Villa after the war and took Villa to a promotion back to the First Division (the top flight in those days) and an FA Cup semi-final, influencing Tommy Docherty and Ron Atkinson on the way. When Hogan watched the Hungarians (essentially his team!!) beat England 3-6, at Wembley in 1953, he was in the crowd with Aston Villa youth footballers and not in the Royal Box! Hogan died in 1974 aged 91.

Fred Pentland, once of Blackburn Rovers, watched his team, Spain, upset England 3-4 in Madrid in 1929 and George Raynor did his stuff for the Swedish team that beat England 2-3 at Wembley in 1959, a season that saw England lose 4 and draw 2 matches out of 9, winning only against Scotland, the USA and N.Ireland.

(Have you noted the Lancashire influence here??)

And finally, we must not forget Roy Hodgson's pedigree, must we!

WOMEN TO THE FORE AT LAST

In the 16^th Century, Sir Philip Sydney's poem “A dialogue betweene Two Shepherds” makes mention of women and football and indeed there is evidence of Mary Queen of Scots owning a football. Rather like the men, women's football seemed to have a quicker and earlier development in Scotland and a tour with an English team to Edinburgh in May 1881 was arranged by Helen Graham Matthews. There were riots at the games and this resulted in a ban of women's matches, which at the time clearly caused too much excitement.

Matthews south of the border, formed the Lady Footballers' team and in 1894 Nettie Honeyball formed the British Ladies FC, whose president was the 8^th Marquis of Queensberry, Lady Florence Dixie.

In 1885 Preston North End offered free admission to women to their matches, as did other clubs but this proved too popular and clubs realised they were losing money. The women used club grounds for their matches and during the 1^st World War, ladies' teams played and raised money for the war effort as well as joining in football matches with men as they worked side by side in the munitions factories.

One of the best known is Dick, Kerr's Ladies FC, a team formed from a Preston factory, that blazed a trail in football in that era and beyond. Between 1917-1965 the team raised ten of thousands of pounds for Charity. (see previous blog)

A French team organised by the National Sports' Governing Body toured England playing at Preston, Stockport, Manchester and London. There was a reciprocal arrangement with a selected English team visiting the French.

In 1969, the FA, for ever looking to the future, banned women from playing on FA affiliated pitches-ie club grounds. Thankfully this has changed and the Women's Super League now flourishes and is The FA is promoting international football, as we have seen in the latest World Cup.

FRY UP, THE ULTIMATE ALL ROUNDER

Some of you may have seen David Beckham catch a tennis ball at Wimbledon yesterday, so I immediately thought of “all rounders” and those sportsmen, especially footballers who play more than one sport. These days of course professional footballers cannot afford to take up other games and notably injuries occur even in a friendly moment. Geoff Hurst played for Essex CCC, Ian Botham played for Scunthorpe FC, David Bairstow was at Bradford City, the Neville brothers could have played serious cricket but devoted their time successfully to football and of course Gary Lineker was a decent batsman. I know, I played with him!

But we have to go back to the halcyon days of GO Smith, Max Woosnam and Charles Burgess Fry to find the true polymaths.

Notably, Fry was a footballer, cricketer, athlete, politician, teacher, writer and taught at Charterhouse for two years from 1896.

He went to Repton School in Derbyshire where he played in teams ahead of his time and then Wadham College, Oxford. He got Blues in soccer, cricket, athletics, could have got one in rugby but was injured, he skated and was a mean golfer.

He didn't do too well in his exams and got a “fourth” apparently. Nevertheless, he would get a job in some establishment and he ended up appearing on the Brains Trust, a BBC Radio panel “game” and also was the subject of BBC TVs “This is Your Life” with Eamonn Andrews in 1955.

John Arlott, the famed cricket commentator, described CB as “the most variously gifted Englishman of any age”

CB played in an FA Cup Final for Southampton against Sheffield United in 1901-2 and for England against Ireland in that year, he equalled the world long jump record at one time, was once offered the honour of being the King of Albania and played 26 times for England at cricket, averaging 32 and nearly 400 first class games for Sussex and Hampshire, averaging 50.

His party piece was to stand facing a fireplace and leap with a 180 degree turn onto his feet on the mantelpiece, facing his audience. He died in 1956, his ashes are buried in Repton parish church graveyard  and he had two Brighton and Hove buses named after him!

DERBY NORTH OF THE MERSEY

Just been to Liverpool and visited a number of great venues, including the Museum of Liverpool where there is a substantial exhibit of sport in the city and especially,of course, football. Visit the website to find out about the film show that shares time slots with the Beatles, naturally.

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/visit/galleries/wondrous/football-show.aspx

The first derby was played on October 13th 1894, at Goodison, with Everton winning 3-0, before a crowd of 44,000. There have been 224 derbies of which Liverpool have won 88 and Everton 66. Neville Southall is the player with most derby appearances (41) and Ian Rush top goalscorer with 25.

Everton played at Anfield, originally a ground owned by club chairman John Houlding,who was a brewer and the Orrell brothers. The Everton board were mainy Liberal voters and members of the National Temperence Federation. Houlding was a Conservative and an Orangeman, though religion is not the reason for the differences between the Red and the Blues. There was even a thought that having masses visiting matches there might be an opportunity to influence voting in elections. Clearly brewing and temperance did not go together.

In 1884 on September 27^th, the club played its first match against Earlstown, winning 5-0 and in 1888 they became founder members of the Football League.

In 1892, due to a disagreement over rents (£250 pa-a lot in those days) and that Houlding held rites to sell refreshments at the ground, Everton vacated Anfield and went to their new ground at Goodison, across Stanley Park, whilst Houlding founded a new club to play at Anfield, Liverpool FC.

There was no match scheduled at Goodison on August 24^th though some athletics, music and fireworks took place. Lord Kinnaird and Frederick Wall represented the FA at this grand occasion.

Liverpool FC did not play their first league game until September 2nd 1893, away at Middlesbrough in division 2!

On September 1^st 1892 Everton played Bolton Wanderers in the first ever match at Goodison, in front of 10,000 people, winning 4-2, whilst on the same day, only a few spectators watched Liverpool's first match at Anfield against Rotherham.

Later, on November 17^th, the clubs met again at Anfield in a 2-2 draw. Everton continued to succeed in the division, but Liverpool struggled and were eventually relegated for two years.

Between 1902-32 the clubs shared the same match day programme.

TEARS AND FEW SOUVENIERS

It was 25 years, on Saturday, since that fateful World Cup semi-final in Turin when, once again, the West Germans beat us on penalties, 3-4, after we bravely drew 1-1 aet with Gary Lineker scoring our goal. This equalised the match after Brehme's free-kick was deflected off Paul Parker's boot and over Shilton's head. Bad luck.

Parker made up for this sad moment by finding Lineker, who as usual was lurking in the penalty area and he stabbed the ball home.

Extra time ebbed and flowed and Gascoigne was booked for a headstrong foul and that cost him his place in the final, should England have got there. Tears!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH_Yt0K3tZA

Each side hit the post in the closing stages but it was Pearce and Waddle that could not hit the back of the net from 12 yards.

The team that day was selected from Derby, QPR, Nottingham Forest, Rangers, Aston Villa, Spurs. Liverpool and Marseille. How times have changed?

On July 7^th in a meaningless match in Bari, we lost to Italy 1-2 (Platt scored), to come 4^th in the World!

Shilton made his 120^th appearance in goal against Holland (0-0) in a qualifying tie in Cagliari, keeping a clean sheet.

We also played ROI (1-1) (Lineker scored) , Egypt (1-0 Wright), Belgium (1-0 with Platt's overhead hook) and the Cameroon (3-2 Lineker 2 pens and Platt) on the way to Turin.

CALCIO SUPPORTUS DEMANDIT

With a variety of cultures influencing our language, it is from the Germans and Danes that many of our words have evolved. English is mainly regarded as Germanic and not Roman but a number of football words have come from Latin, as the ancient language crept into use following St Augustine's missionary from AD 597.

Football however remained as "football" and not calcio (from the Latin) as it was regarded as a game for the rustics and common folk, those north Europeans.  It was originally not a game played by the academics and wealthy, who were more likely to use Latin, as in the schools where boys were required to speak Latin all the time.

Fot-foot, was Anglo-Saxon, bollr was Old Norse-ball, boti-boot, skit-score, skyrta-shirt and grund-ground all came from similar sources.

Latin has its influence however, such as fixture-fixus meaning held firmly, cup-cuppa meaning tub or vat, medal-metallum meaning metal. League has its root in legare meaning to bind together, Champions comes from campus-a field and trophy from trophaeum.

Soccer will have been chipped out of "associare" meaning, join together and the word soccer is reputedly first used by Charles Wreford Brown, an Old Carthusian, who was Chairman of the FA. Through the late 19th century the game was associated with the Public Schools, universities and militia, hence its gentrification.

These were amateurs (from amat- love of the game), with referees (refere to refer back) sorting out professionals (professus-declared aloud ie their status?) who were less reliable in their behaviour.

The phrase, "bis dat qui cito dat" means "make it count son, shoot early!" and might suit many a "common striker"!

So look at the club crests (crista-plumes) and mottoes (motto-I say) for more inspiration:-

Bournemouth- pulchritudo et salubritas which translates to "for health and beauty"!

Tottenham- audere est facere-"to dare is to do".

Crewe-"iuvare non impedire"-help not hinder.

At Everton, nil satis nisi optimum means "nothing will satisfy except the optimum" or simply only the best will do. This might be thought as a rather moderate approach to a multi million pound business.

Thanks heavens for David Beckham's tattoos which promote the great Latin language- perfectio in spiritu and ut amen et foveam. You look them up. 

Let us be judged by our acts...........by the way, what are the two men doing?

IT'S FAIR PLAY IN EUROPA LEAGUE

If you want to spend a quiet hour or two with your computer, then why not try to work out the various ways that a club in Europe can qualify for the Europa League? I am not going to bother, though the idea of a team being exposed to the continental experience for being FAIR and qualifying as a result of Fair Play seems perfectly acceptable. 

West Ham did that and they had a comfortable 3-0 win  last night, nearly thumping an Andorran side, FC Lusitans (founded in 1999 by the way) by 20 shots to 2, 11 on target, whilst they had none and no corners, either. 

So assuming that they were not going to be overwhelmed by the mountainous part-timers, West Ham gave 1^st team football to their youngest debutant in history, Reece Oxford, who at 16 years and 221 days is a Rio Ferdinand type centre back, standing 6'3” and is England U17 captain. That's Fair.

The other clubs playing last night included (their result, Win, Lose or Draw comes after their name!)

Scots: Aberdeen D and St Johnstone L,

Welsh: Bala Town L, Airbus UK Broughton L and Newtown W,

N. Irish: Glentoran L, Linfield W and Glenavon L and

Southern Irish: St Patrick's Athletic L, Cork City D and Shamrock Rovers D. Not looking so impressive.

BUT University College, Dublin's 1-0 win at home against Luxembourg's FC91 Dudelange, who have been best team in their country for a number of years, was exciting. This result ranks alongside UCD's amazing performance against a fairly full strength Everton FC, who in 1984-5 played UCD in a qualifying round of the European Cup Winners Cup, which Everton went on to win outright.

UCD, founded in 1895, drew at home 0-0 and they only lost 1-0 at Goodison and had they scored rather than hit the bar towards the end of the game, they would have gone through on away goals! Southall, Reid, Sheedy, Sharp and Gray were in that Everton team, that was eventually voted best team in Europe!

Tottenham, Liverpool and Southampton join in the Europa fun later.

OWN GOAL SENDS LIONESSES HOME

With the lure of £35,000 per player if they reached the Women's World Cup Final, our Lionesses had a lot to play for, as well the pride! A devastating own goal in added time meant that the champions, Japan, sneaked through this intriguing semi-final. After a battling and well organised performance, it was Laura Bassett's unfortunate freak deflection that sent England out of the tournament in Canada. So dreams are broken but there is the knowledge that England are getting better and surely must rank in FIFA's top four now. Videos of the goal are on You Tube!

There has only been one other English own goal in the FIFA World Cup and we have to go back to the Men's finals in 1954 and Switzerland to find it. In a tense tournament match with Belgium, England would be expected to win, but the Belgians were managed by a Scot and he was not going to let the old foe past.

Having been 3-1 up, England gave away two goals, then restored their lead only to falter in extra time and it was Jimmy Dickinson of Portsmouth, a hero in anybody's book, who scored the equaliser for Belgium.

The English team including greats such as Gil Merrick of Birmingham City in goal, Roger Byrne and Tommy Taylor of United who both died in the Munich air disaster, the legend Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney, stalwart centre half, Billy Wright and Nat Lofthouse who scored two for us!
Ivor Broadis scored the others and Syd Owen of Luton and Ron Staniforth made up the eleven, managed by Walter Winterbottom.

Broadis had flown 500 hours in Lancaster and Wellington bombers during the war and in pace, was at Newcastle United in 1954. He did not play in the Magpies Cup Final win over his old club Manchester City in 1955 after a disagreement with the club's trainer.

Staniforth played for over 200 times for Stockport County, then Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday at the height of his career. He won 8 caps for England, whilst Billy Wright, one of the first celebrity footballers, won 105, playing his entire career (490 times) at Wolves. Wright married Joy Beverley, a singer who made her fame in the 1950-60s Beverley Sisters singers.

YAMATO NADESHIKO ON BRINK OF LIONESSES' DEN

England Women will hold the interest of the nation's football fans this evening/night/early morning, as they kick off around half midnight against Japan Women in the semi-final of the FIFA World Cup. The USA and Germany play out the other semi-final.

Japan's football, both male and female has come a long way quickly and it is the women whose beginning were in 1970 when some regional leagues were started and after 10 years there was an All Japan Championships leading to the country's first international against Hong Kong in 1981, with players chosen as representatives of the All Japan League.

An “All Japan Team” emerged as late as 1986 under the management of Ryohei Susuki, who got things going, so to speak.

The Japan's Women's League developed in 1986 known as the “L” League and in 1991 they joined the FIFI World Cup, losing most of their games. In 2000 the team failed to qualify for the Olympics and Women's football in Japan lost its impetus.

But under Eiji Ueda, a new manager, the team revived and Women's football regained its momentum. By 2004 they qualified for the Olympics and earned a nickname of Yamato Nadeshiko, meaning the “Ideal Japanese Women”.

In World Cups since 2001 their only loss has been to England 0-2 in 2011 and they have won every other game, beating the USA in 2011 recovering to become champions of the World.

England also played Japan in the World Cup in 2007 drawing 2-2.

Japan were silver medal winners in the 2012 Olympics losing in the Final to the USA and they have won the Asian FA Cup in 2014.

So, in the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton tonight, Japan under the guidance of Norio Sasaki, meets our girls. Homare Sawa is most capped with 197 (82 goals) and several players earn their living in either France or Germany playing for the likes of Montpellier or FC Bayern Munich.