Thursday 31 January 2019

SKULDUGGERY AT ANFIELD

Groundstaff clear snow at half time during the Premier League match at Anfield, Liverpool.
I think I know this groundsman who is the lead groundsman at Liverpool FC. He is clearly trying very hard to clear the whole pitch during the 15 minute half time break. Was there enough time to cover the whole area?

There is always evidence in footballing history for a home team attempting to gain an advantage, by changing the pitch condition.
Last night at Anfield, the "Head" groundsman and his crew spent half time clearing snow and melt water from what was to be the Leicester final third of the pitch.
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fc-leicester-pitch-snow-15757557
Somebody made a decision to carry out the work prior to half time when it was obvious that Liverpool were finding the snow, slush and water detrimental to their slick passing game during the first half.

Leicester seemed to cope during the first half, applying a siege mentally around their final third, with occasion bursts via Vardy on the break. The Foxes quite rightly earned a 1-1 draw, having gone down in the very early stage of the first half (presumably when the pitch had not yet been roughed up) before the pitch conditions put a hand brake on Liverpool's passing in the opposition's half.

There has been some concern shown on "social media", in the press and on radio and TV that this was unfair.
Contributions on social media suggest that Liverpool should be fined somehow as a punishment for what is described as cheating. Is there an FA Law about this? There is one about patterned grass mowing, something that upset the Head Groundsman, who like to weave patterns into his pitch. The PL say the pitch has to be cut to help linesmen/refs make decisions (and more recently VAR).

You could argue that Leicester City may have benefitted from a "cleared" final third during the second half, being able to defend better on an "easier" surface.
The Institute of Groundsmanship probably has something to say about this?

Famous for adjusting pitches was John Beck who raised Cambridge United from obscurity in Div 4 in 1990 into the top end of the Second Division and to some Cup success too, by relying on the POMO style of play (that is getting the ball into the "position of maximum opportunity") associated with coaches such as Sam Allardyce and Harry Bassett (at Wimbledon).
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2016/03/pomo.html
Beck instructed his groundstaff to leave the grass long in the corners of the home pitch so that any long ball slogged there by his team, would slow down. He also had the away dug out repositioned to make opponents' pitch side experience less comfortable. Then there were the under inflated and water soaked practice balls, the L-shaped away changing room, with dodgy heating! and the scuffed up pitch "ruined" during the week.

Wednesday 30 January 2019

68 AND 63

Doncaster Rovers beat Oldham Athletic 2-1 in the 4th Rd of the FA Cup last weekend, following a penalty in over time.
 Doncaster Rovers FC.png
Oldham had spent 68 years outside the top tier of the Football League but won the Second Division title in 1991 and joined the Premier League, as founder members. This didn't last long, as they were relegated in 1994.
They also got to the Football League Cup Final in 1990, losing to Nottm Forest 1-0.

They had once got to the FA Cup semi-final in 1990 and this was a major achievement. They had lost that semi-final to Manchester United, 2-1 after a 3-3 replay.
Oldham Athletic new badge.png
Donny however are into the 5th Round proper for the first time in 63 years. Yes, they were 5th rounders in the 1956-7 tournament.

They joined the Cup in Round 3, the privilege of a Second Division club, Donny having been promoted in 1949-50 from the Third Division North. They pipped Gateshead, Rochdale and Lincoln and only two teams were promoted, one from the 3rd Div North and one from the South.

In that Cup run, Donny beat Nottingham Forest at home 3-0 in the 3rd Round, then visited Bristol Rovers 1-0 away in Rd 4 after a draw at Rovers.Tottenham put pay to their campaign in Rd 6, beating them 0-2 at Low Pasture, Belle Vue Ground, Doncaster.
They host Crystal Palace in the next round.

An historic Cup run continued on January 29th 1949, when Yeovil Town, the Glovers, of the Southern League, beat Sunderland 2-1 aet, in Rd 4, at the famous sloping Huish Ground (an 8 feet drop from touchline to touchline). Jack Hargreaves of Yeovil was injured after 10 minutes and left his team one short, since there were no subs in those days. 17,000 watched this giant killing with Alex Stock, their player manager sscring one of the goals.

On their way to this match,
Yeovil beat Romford in Rd 1, at home 4-0 on 27 November 1948,
Weymouth away 4-0 (11/12) in Rd 2,
Bury h 3-1 8th Jan 1949 in Rd 3,
Sunderland in Rd 4 and finally they met
Manchester United in Rd 5, who took it seriously and scored 8 to none! on 12/2 1950. This was in front of 81,000 at Maine Road (used due to the war damage at Old Trafford)
United went on to lose to Wolves in a replay, who won the final beating Leicester City 3-1.
Yeovil Town FC logo.svg




Tuesday 29 January 2019

MANAGERIAL U-TURNS

Francesco Guidolin was manager of Italian club Giorgino in 1986. He then spent short times at Treviso, Feno, Empolin, Ravenna and Bologna in 1999 at the start of his management career and then led Sicily's Palermo in 2003-4, where he brought the club up from Serie B and manoeuvred them to a top league sixth place and into the  UEFA Cup.
Guidolin francesco (1).JPG
Flushed with success he moved on to Genoa who had just been promoted to Serie A. Their success was short lived as a match-fixing scandal was unearthed, Genoa were relegated and Francesco rescinded his contract. He was then responsible for managing Monaco in 2005-6 and in May he left the club, making a U-turn to Palermo in May 2006. During the next year the club had bad luck, bad results, a riot involving a policeman being killed, so he was sacked in April 2007 and then re-employed in May. He was sacked but found himself back at Palermo in November. The club had terrible results and he was sacked again in March 2008. This was not the end.

He goes on through Parma, Udinese and in 2016 Swansea. briefly, when he was sacked and replaced by American Bob Bradley!

After that lot, in England, we have a few up and downs in management.
Darren Ferguson has been recalled to Peterborough, for the third time, having been there in 2007 and 2009.

John Sheridan has been manager at Oldham Athletic on five different occasions. He has recently been recalled to Chesterfield having also "failed" once.

Keegan did Newcastle twice, Mourinho twice at Chelsea and Jardin twice at Monaco (surrounding Henry); AND don't forget Josef Heynckes at Bayern Munich 4 times and finally Vittorio Pozzo, who managed Italy in 1912, 1921, 1924 and between 1929-48. Quite successfully! Like all Italians, beautifully turned out. He also managed Torino and Milan.
Vittorio Pozzo 1920 year.jpgThen there's Harry Redknapp............

Monday 28 January 2019

BARNET BEES v BRENTFORD BEES


Brentford FC, home of The Bees hosts the FA Cup 4th Round tie tonight.
Underhill was the home to Barnet FC from 1907. The club was founded in 1888 as New Barnet and Woodville FC, mainly from students of local Cowley College and Lyonsdown Collegiate. Known as The Hillmen, players for Barnet FC in Edgeware, now play in the National League 5th Tier.
In 1901 workers from the Alston Works that made dental materials, gave the club the nickname of The Dentals". After securing a home at Underhill, the club joined the Athenian League in 1912 and became known as Barnet FC in 1919, after the war.
In 1946 the first televised football was filmed live at Underhill in a match against Wealdstone. The TV showed 20 minutes of the first half and 35 of the second, until "it got too dark".
In 1947 Barnet FC played SingTao Sports FC from China, the first time a Chinese club had played in the UK. Barnet won 5-3.

The club was relegated from the Football League in 2017-18 having earned a place in the 4th Division of the Football League in 1991. Having won the Conference under Barry Fry's eccentric and effective management, the club quickly rose to the Second Division (3rd tier) of the FL by 1993.
The last game at Underhill took place against Wycombe Wanderers on April 20th 2013, Barnet winning 1-0.

The Hive, home to Barnet FC from the National League and London Bees FC, Ladies Football and also until 2013 London Broncos Rugby League club. The new stadium includes the Hive Bar with seating for 120 fans, a fitness centre and 44 acres of sports' facilities to accommodate the local community as well as the club's football academy, men, juniors and women.
Barnet FC.svgThe Barnet crest represents the Green Hill of High Barnet, the white and red roses to represent the Battle of Barnet in the War of the Roses and apiaries (bee hives) which were numerous in the area and note that Brentford FC nickname is also The Bees and Watford FC is The Hornets.
Brentford FC crest.svg

Sunday 27 January 2019

OAPs

On the 27th January 2015, the Canterbury Walking Football team took on near neighbours Herne Bay WF in a friendly encounter. Walking Footy is usually played on an five a side pitch, not too large and with small goals. Some of the brethren playing were as old as 70 and all of them over 60 years old, of course, that's the point!
But the competitive spirit is loitering in the blood of these silver heads and a walking opponent is easier to get!
So a crunching tackle and a brisk shoulder barge early in the game led quickly to a "coming together", albeit slowly and a brawl. The referee, presumably reffing because he was less able or infirmed to play, abandoned the game after two minutes! Was there history between these two clubs? At 60+ there must have been. They may not be able to run but they were perfectly capable of throwing a punch or two!
Old age couldn't be used as an excuse by Sam Bartram, Charlton Athletic's goalie, who on Christmas Day 1937 was playing at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea on a foggy day. The ref decided to abandon the match and Bartram didn't realise for 15 minutes or so, thinking the lack of action was due to his team's dominance. Eventually he was "found" by a policeman and Bartram left the pitch to find his colleagues lounging in the sunken bath!
https://youtu.be/aiLxBDIT4WE
Bartram played over 550 games for Charlton, winning the FA Cup in 1947.

Old age might be helped by a toilet roll or two and the fans at this game between Ajax and Groningen had plenty of them in April 2008. This didn't seemed too hazardous, so play went on for a while until some joker set fire to them. Game abandoned.

Saturday 26 January 2019

ROY OF THE ROVERS

Thank you to readers who were "keen on the eye"folloowing yesterday's offering. My Godalming agent has noted that the dates and scores of the Arse v Man Cup ties recorded yesterday included an error.
Point One: The Letter M or A represented the team at home (not the winner). I didn't explain that yesterday. The scores are correct except for the 1979 tie which was recorded as a M 3-0 suggesting United winning 3-0 at home. We ALL know that this game was played at Wembley of course and the score was 3-2, a game named the "Five Minute Final". Arsenal were 2-0 up, 5 mins to go. United fought back to 2-2 in the dying seconds, when Rix crossed, having been fed by Brady. Gary Bailey (no relative) flapped, Sunderland (Arsenal forward not club) pounced 3-2! Glory.

The Fourth Round of the Cup goes on this weekend. To help commemorate the statement "It was comic book stuff" made by caretaker boss, Peter Wild, following Oldham Athletic's courageous win v Fulham in the Third Round upset, Roy of the Rovers Publishers, Rebellion, have produced a Cup themed storyline using the artistic skills of Ben Willsher, featuring the likes of goal scorer Calum Wilson.

Newport County's 2-1 victory over Premier League Leicester City was described as the win of the Round and manager Michael Flynn celebrated this as "Roy of the Rovers Stuff". Here is Padraig Amond cartooned in history, something he never thought would happen to him as he read the comic all those years ago.
Image from comic and on video...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46988009
A limited number of cartoon books have been released to record the success of Newport County, Barnet, Gillingham and Notts County. Children from a local Oldham school, St Paul's Primary were queuing up to have a signed piece of history.


Further information if this can be found on www.TheFA.com
Page from comic
Andy Ambler, the FA Director of Professional Game Relations supported the initiative which has helped revitalise the Roy of the Rovers character, 17 years after its hiatus.
The 2018 Roy brings a brand new story of 16 years old Roy, a prodigy, who is on his way up in the game.
The 4th Round will bring a £180,000 reward to the winners.
More shocks this weekend?

Friday 25 January 2019

GUNS AND DEVILS

Arsenal entertain Manchester United tonight at the Emirates and this will be the 228th meeting of the two leading clubs in the English League. United have won 98, Arsenal 82 and the rest drawn.
Arsenal FC.svg
There is an astonishing number of these fixtures that have been played in the Premier League since November 1992 and prior to that in Division One (as it was the top division) as far back as January 30th1904,
Before 1904 the two met only in Division Two where they first met in October 13th 1894.

United joined the Football as Newton Heath in 1892 when it expanded to 16 clubs and they came bottom. The same happened in 1893-4 and "United" were relegated. Woolwich Arsenal joined the Football League (Division two) in 1893-4 season. So their first meeting was on October 13th 1894 in a 3-3 draw.
The words "Manchester" and "United" surround a pennant featuring a ship in full sail and a devil holding a trident.
A first cup tie was on March 10th 1906 when Arsenal won 2-3 away and there have been 16 FA Cup meetings in total. 1937 A 5-0, 1951 M 1-0, 1962 M 1-0, 1979 M 3-0, 1983 A 1-2, 1988 A 2-1, 1999 M 0-0 A 1-2, 03 M 0-2, 04 A 0-1, 05 0-0 A on pens, 08 M 4-0, 11 M 2-0, 15 M 1-2, and 2019???
There have been 4 League Cup meetings too. a Champions League tie M win 4-1 over two legs, and a handful of Charity Shield season openers.
A black-and-white photograph of a football team lining up before a match. Four players, wearing dark shirts, light shorts and dark socks, are seated. Four more players are standing immediately behind them, and three more are standing on a higher level on the back row. Two men in suits are standing on either side of the players. United 12 FA Cup wins.  Arsenal 13! and they both been in the Final 20 times.

Thursday 24 January 2019

JANUARY 24th

On 24th January 2015 promotion chasing Watford FC were 0-2 down at home to Blackpool at half time, with the Tangerines rock bottom in the Championship Division, looking to record their first away win that season. In the second half however, Blackpool conceded seven in a goal rush mainly from Watford's Odion Ighalo, who scored 4. Final score 7-2.

Things looked promising for Watford on Saturday January 13th after a 0-0 in the 1st Round of the FA Cup. 103 years (24.1.1912) earlier, Southern League side, Watford was thumped by the very strong Wolves, 10-0.

On the same day in the Cup, Croydon Common, a non-league team, had forced a 0-0 draw with Leicester Fosse, then a Second Division side. The "Common" lost the replay on the 22nd 6-1. Common was founded in 1897, joined the Southern League Div 2 in 1907 and was wound up in 1917.

In those days, Brighton & Hove Albion, West Ham Utd and many other established clubs were still "non-league".
Leeds City (eventually United) beat Glossop 1-0, Southport Central lost 0-2 to Reading, and Swindon beat Sutton Junction 5-0.
SouthportFC.pngThe modern Southport FC badge.
 This is Sutton Junction!
Later, in the 4th Round, Barnsley took 4 attempts to get past the Cup holders, Bradford City, and went on to win the 1912 Final beating West Bromwich Albion on the replay 1-0 following a 0-0 draw, first time round.

Wednesday 23 January 2019

WHO LET DEFOE OUT?

The 23rd January 2001; Bournemouth played Cambridge United and 18 year old Jermain Defoe scored a 64th minute goal in a 2-0 win. Defoe who had played for the famous Senrab Sunday team (John Terry, Ashley Cole and more as team members) was on loan from West Ham, playing for the south coast team when he created a post war record of scoring in ten consecutive Football League matches. Defoe made his debut for West Ham in 2000 and played on for Charlton Athletic, Tottenham, Portsmouth, Toronto, Sunderland, AFC Bournemouth and presently at Rangers. His England career was worth 57 caps with 20 goals.
Jermain Defoe has made just eight Bournemouth appearances this season
Dixie Dean at Everton had scored 23 goals in 12 consecutive games and Pele 14 goals in consecutive matches for Santos.

On the same date but in 2013, Swansea City hosted the European Champions, Chelsea and having beaten them 2-0 at Stamford Bridge, the Swans were on the verge of getting to the Capital One (League) Cup Final. Slightly frustrated by not making up the difference, Eden Hazard was accused of "kicking a Swansea ball boy". He was red carded (Hazard not the ball boy), BUT the ref got it wrong and should have sent off the ball boy!

17 year old Charlie Morgan, the ballboy, was a son of one of the Swansea directors, a man who owned a large fortune. Charlie had bragged on Twitter that he would waste as much time as possible to help his dad's team. The link below shows what went on...Hazard innocent!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd38KUjmOho

Tuesday 22 January 2019

LORD OF HERALDS, KING OF ARMS

This link will take you to a fascinating feature on Scottish football club badges....
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/call-to-arms-over-threat-to-scottish-club-badges-1-3746851

If you have a few hours to spare then researching the Kilmarnock FC badge might grab your attention. In 1993 Killie were told "by law" to update their club badge which was deemed to break "heraldic rules". 

Since Killie is the oldest professional club in Scotland and took part in the first ever Scottish Cup match v Renton (now defunct) in 1873, you would think they could do what they like! 
The club was formed by cricketers wanting to keep busy in the winter (1869) and their game was more like rugby in the early days.
Here is Killie's club badge motto "We Trust", as you will note-not controversial, unless you reckon the squirrels are not quite anatomically correct!
KilmarnockLogo.svg
and here is the 150th anniversary badge
Front
Lord Lyon, the King of Arms, was first put into action in 1592 when an Act announced rules that would prevent the misuse of certain features on crests that would offend or break Heraldic Law! The Lyon Court, the oldest in the country, still handles the granting of new arms and clans too. A number of present clubs have run into trouble by breaking these conditions and are actually "breaking the law"; for example
clubs using the Saltaire (Scottish flag), no crowns allowed, lion rampant is a Queen's standard and not appropriate for a common crest, no features such as turrets, bricks, no repeating of town coast of arms, no letters or numbers, limit choice of colours.

There is a Register of all Arms and Bearings and 25 clubs have run into trouble:- 
Airdrieonians (Airdrie) have employed an heraldic devise-not allowed so they improvised!
Airdrieonians FC logo.png
Ayr United uses the Saltaire-which is not allowed because the club is not a national institution, however there is some leeway.
Rangers and Dundee Utd-rampant lion.
St Mirren-a turret above a shield; note subtle change from 1996 to 1997.
Crests/1995-96.jpgCrests/mr28-003.jpg
Other Scottish groups such as a golf club or school are similarly affected.



Monday 21 January 2019

WATCH OUT-THE BEAST'S ABOUT

Bolton Wanderers are in the news for their game against WBA tonight but also for the turmoil that is being felt through the club over wages' disputes and its future.

On 21st January 2017, Southend United were to host Bolton Wanderers in a League Division One match but it was Ken Hare who lost out, being "sacked" as head groundsman, the person apparently responsible for the postponement of the game. After 27 years in Southend's employment, Ken was given the boot and despite a campaign to have him re-instated, he was offered a "mutally acceptable settlement", which resulted four months later in being sent a pair of club season tickets. Ken gracefully left the job.
http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/football-league/250093/ice-cold-southend-united-sack-head-groundsman-after-match-cancelled-due-to-frozen-pitch.html

In 1962-3 the Big Freeze took its toll and from Christmas for 3 months there was a huge backlog of fixtures cause by postponements due to frozen ground. The FA Cup Third Round, traditionally played in early January, only had three ties played at the first attempt. Its last tie was played on March 11th. Lincoln v Coventry was postponed 15 times. 14 other ties were postponed 10 or more times and of course, all this caused programme printers major problems.

On December 8th 1962 Bolton beat Spurs 1-0 but did not play a single competitive match until they lost 2-3 to the Arsenal on February 16th. The Cup match against Sheffield United was meant to be played "after many postponements"on 20th February, but it got postponed again (so we thought until one hour beforehand) to Wednesday March 6th. The Blades won 3-1 and the two met again on the 9th in a League game, Bolton winning 3-2.
The two clubs met twice more in 1963, on 25th September in the League Cup, 1-2 to Bolton and on the 16th November in the League with Sheffield losing at home 0-1.

Iverness Thistle and Falkirk tried to play their Scottish Cup 2nd Rd tie 29 times between 6th January 1979 and 22nd Feb 1979 when Falkirk eventually won 4-0 at the 30 try.
Three days later they played Dundee in the 3rd Round and lost at the first attempt.

Sunday 20 January 2019

AUCHINLECK TALBOT AND a Tasmanian devil

Auchinleck FC, from a town located near Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, was founded in 1909 and took its name from the owner of the land on which they set their pitch, Baron Talbot de Malahide. Their ground is called Beechwood Park and now, has a capacity of 4,000.
Today the "Bot" were drawn against Heart of Midlothian (Hearts) in the 4th Round of the Scottish Cup. "Bot" played today with a 12.30 ko....lost 0-5and will have to find success in their league, the West of Scotland Super League, Premier Division, or in less prestigious cups. 


The Australian wing-back in Hearts' squad, Nathaniel Atkinson (above) was handed a debut in today’s Scottish Cup tie at Auchinleck Talbot. The right-sided wing back joined the Jambos in early January from Melbourne City on a three-and-a-half-year deal for an undisclosed fee. 22-year-old Nathaniel, an Australian Olympic teammate of Cammy Devlin, has been a rising star in his homeland over the past couple of years, culminating in a league title and man of the match award in last season’s A-League Grand Final. Tasmanian-born, Nathaniel joined Melbourne City’s academy in 2016, plying his trade with the reserve side in 2016/17. Impressing with the reserves, he was called up to the senior side the following campaign and made his first-team debut in August 2017. His form was rewarded with a two-year professional contract in January 2018, and he would pen another two-year deal in 2020 after a move to Perth Glory fell by the wayside due to the pandemic. Last season saw Nathaniel earn rave reviews. He helped Melbourne City to win the A-League Premiership before putting in a man of the match performance in the 3-1 Grand Final win over Sydney FC, where he scored City’s first goal, which won him the Joe Martson medal for best player in the game. With three Australia U20 caps to his name, Nathaniel was named in the Olyroos’ Olympics squad, alongside Cammy, for the 2020 games – held in 2021 - in Tokyo. He played in their 2-0 win over Argentina before putting in another man of the match display in a 1-0 defeat to Spain.

Auchinlecktalbot.png

Do look at this link which is a short film about the club; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbjZVUt3oao



Here is the latest Premier Division Table of the West of Scotand Football League. 2021-22. Some delightful names and real anoraks out there will show an interest in where these clubs are located and the history of their names.

PREMIER DIVISION




Look up these clubs (above) on the www. and get some Geography on your c.v. How can you resist Benburb and Kirkintilloch Rob Roy?