Nominations have opened for this year's 'Citizen of Southend' awards. It's time to recognise those unsung heroes who perform selfless acts of kindness or make an outstanding contribution to the community.
The awards cover two categories - Adult and Youth (under 19) – with nominations coming from members of the public.

Newcastle Jets have a plan, and it's taken SIX years. Fantastic to have a plan, but errrr it's Season 6 coming up.
You mean you seriously never ever thought of this, linking the juniors to our game. I'll get my coat.
I'm available for any dozy A-League Club for just a thousand dollars you can have a five page plan on how to connect your male dominated professional club, with the community, your junior base and yes the females who love and play the game.

No puns at Tiger Woods and his 'adult' lifestyle here because I am very much against making an issue out of celebrities' personal life but this is something that he could use every time he's going for a hole.

Although I believe that golf should not be counted as a sport and EA should not bother making a video game over it.

How many pairs of soccer cleats do you own, including the old tired ones? How many other pairs of shoes?

Yet millions of people in our world have no shoes at all, which makes walking to school or a job nearly impossible.

Now here's the great news: donate a dollar to Shoes 4 Life and they'll send a pair of shoes to a barefoot soul, and you will be entered to win more than $800 of soccer cleats.

LIVERPOOL, England Liverpool is giving away free tickets to youngsters accompanied by a paying adult in the latest bid by the team's American owners to win over supporters. Boston Red Sox and Liverpool owner John Henry is trying to repair the Premier League club's frail relationship with fans after buying the team in October [.

The Avila University Men's team, in conjunction with the KC Wizards, are hosting an 8v8 Tournament for players over 18 years old. The games will be played at Community America Ballpark prior to the Wizard's MLS match against the LA Galaxy on Saturday April 24th. Time to put together a team and get registered, participation fees are Wizard's tickets.

David Ngog might prove in time that he can master the art of being a centre-forward.
It is often a thankless task being asked to assume the role of a lone frontman and even when I was in the prime of my career, there were times when I found it hard going.
But we saw at Arsenal on Wednesday night that, once again, playing Ngog in that position does not really add anything to Liverpool's team.

The Avila University Men's team, in conjunction with the KC Wizards, are hosting an 8v8 Tournament for players over 18 years old. The games will be played at Community America Ballpark prior to the Wizard's MLS match against the LA Galaxy on Saturday April 24th. Time to put together a team and get registered, participation fees are Wizard's tickets.

(Media Information from Football Association of Singapore)
Eagles hope for better showing against Thai Port in after drawing their last two matches
SINGAPORE, 31 March 2010: Geylang United will host Thai Port (THA) in their second home match of the AFC Cup 2010 campaign next Tuesday, 6 April 2010 at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

A ground-breaking project has just stepped up its hugely successful campaign to take a new look at learning disability.
The Southend-based ‘Ordinary Lives' project - which challenges attitudes on learning disability - has now launched a website showcasing its achievements so far, and its continuing progress.

I can't work out what Samir Nasri has to gain by having a pop at William Gallas. I think it is a stupid move by him and Arsene Wenger needs to clamp down on players giving these idiotic interviews.
Personally I couldn't give a shit whether Nasri and Gallas hate each other more than I hate Harry Redknapp's twitchy face.

The saga continues...

There's no real new information yet today, although I will update if there is. See yesterday's post for my overall take on things, which I certainly haven't changed. I still think Cesc stays, and if he goes, this thing is going to drag out for a long time.

Supposedly sources from within Barca have told Cesc to make his exit wish public, in hopes that that could put more pressure on Wenger to sell him cheaply.

How many pairs of shoes do you own? 5? 10? 20? I have a friend named Donte who works at a shoe store and owns over 70 pairs of shoes. Yes, Donte has too many shoes, and this truth becomes even more apparent when you stop and think that there are people on this planet who don't have any shoes at all.

One of the things I decided early on, once the initial euphoria of finding that I enjoyed reffing faded (rather suddenly as it turned out, since my first outdoor game involved an adult verbally abusing a 14-year old), that if I was ever physically assaulted, I was done. After all, I started reffing because I wanted more time running (which I wasn't getting between the sticks) and because I was less likely to get hurt.

My season ticket arrived this morning. Of course there's still the excited feeling in the pit of my stomach but a certain amount of frustration, and even shame to a certain degree, now comes with it.

I was interested to see what came with the season ticket this year. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure we used to just get a free yearbook (members used to get one of those too a few years back but I think they nipped that in the bud) and a discount on the museum/Red Cafe.

I'm not sure why this happens every year, but every year there's a snit about jewelry. Actually, I know why - because other referees let it go, but I don't know why some many refs don't bother with enforcing that rule. And because of this, every year the league presidents come to us and tell us, no jewelry or no play, no exceptions (medi-alert bracelets are not jewelry and must be taped down).

Had been doing just great on the exercise front for @ a month when, on Tuesday, my foot started hurting. I skipped my run on Wednesday and Thursday because it was obvious that it was a bad idea. Yesterday my foot felt better, but I thought, "I'll give it another day, just to be sure."

Today?

Did you know?

• Men spend 25% more time thinking, talking and watching football than loking after children.
• Men spend more time per week thinking, talking and watching football than they spend on cleaning, washing and ironing.
• Even in recession, 25% of unemployed Britishers who support a football team would miss a job interview in order to watch their team play.

The lovely people over at latelategifts.co.uk have decided to give away a stadium tour to one of our lucky readers...

This requires skill more than luck and it is very simple to win. All you have to do is finish top in September in our Fantasy Football League (on Premierleague.

As much as I love this site edited by Nick Dunmore, I shall not mention it by name. Why? Well, the adult themed misclicks do line my pockets with PPC revenue, but I feel seedy riding on the coattails of adult themed sites featuring coat less adults.

My most recent guestpost focuses on a certain Nigel De Jong.

It is impossible not to notice Michael Ngoo. During games he sticks out as an adult playing with a bunch of kids would, such is the gap in height between the 6 ft 4 tall striker and the rest of the players. The difference is so marked that it is difficult not to presume, even if fleetingly, that his inclusion might be purely to leverage on his height and get the team some easy goals.

Read, if you haven't yet, my new Slate piece on Wayne Rooney, which is less ROONEY CONTRACT PANIC than a look at how the notion that he's some kind of half-formed man-child, or an eternal adolescent, has clustered around his career. The gist is that for all the (sometimes justified) criticism he's received for being immature or childish, what's really infuriated his fans this year is that he's acted too much like an adult, particularly in taking a view of his career that didn't simply give everything up to the greatness of Manchester United.

Haradona digs up a list of interesting incidents missed amidst the snow and freeze! Owners Gesture, Bearers Torture: Liverpool's new owners Tom and John decided to allow up to four kids to enter Anfield, free, with every adult paying ticket ... Continue reading →