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In January, I cast an eye on the unending cacophony of abuse in online football communities, with
a section on Doncaster Rovers website Viva Rovers, and provoking a compelling spate of comments
involving Leeds United blog, The Scratching Shed. The problems are not confined to Yorkshire alone,
but as an important follow up, Michael Wood here provides an epitaph on the Bradford City site, Boy
from Brazil, one of the very best chronicles online and one that closed towards the end of 2011.
Signing of the season?
So one of the most exciting days of the season is over, and Jim White's excitable gossip-hungry
clone can go back into suspended animation until next year. Yet spending is down nearly 70% versus
last year's January deadline, where Torres and Carroll dominated the headlines.
Following SJ Maskell's torrid Pompey prologue of yesterday, the spotlight now falls on a second
club beginning with P: the Valiants from Burslem in Staffordshire and a business that has fallen on
decidedly hard times after punching above its weight for much of the nineties. We last heard from
Tom Bourne in June; his coruscating post casting a light on troubling events at Vale Park.
Coventry City's Alex Nimely celebrates scoring their second goal of their terrific win against
Middlesborough
Every week, my brother places an accumulator on various Football League results, only a few
quid, but enough to make it fairly interesting. To this date, he has never won.
For the fifth in our Hopeless Teams series, we delve back relatively recently into the past by
welcoming Richard Bellis. Richard co-runs Richard and Neil's Football Blog with his brother Neil
and was the proud recipient of a nomination in the recent NOPA football blogging awards run by
Picklive. 201i, however, largely saw Richard and Neil occupy themselves with the production and
dissemination of The Blue & White Fanzine, a new print publication mainly devoted to the reformed
Chester FC: a luscious object designed by our own Michael Kinlan and featuring contributions from
TTUers William Abbs and myself.
One of this website's latest followers on Twitter, Simeon F. W. Pickup states his interests as
‘Reading FC, Atheism, Labour. In that order.' Although Ed Miliband's negligible impact on the
polls may have something to do with his party being relegated behind Brian McDermott and Richard
Dawkins in Simeon's thinking, I did read this as tongue in cheek.
[F]or our first proper post following the big redesign, we are very pleased to welcome back John
McGee. Bring Me the Head of Keith Mincher is John's blog devoted to Carlisle United and he likes
nothing better than to rail against anyone who disagrees with him on Twitter under the nom de plume
of @epouvantail - he's a little smug at the moment given the club's continued robust play-off push.
The furore surrounding Lyon's astounding 7-1 win in Zagreb last week puts one in mind of the
perhaps the most anomalous sequence of results in this season's Football League. In September,
warmly tipped Crawley Town followed up a 6-0 hiding at Morecambe with a 3-0 home battering by
Swindon. Having begun existence in the League well, these results were far from expected and
everything that has
The furore surrounding Lyon's astounding 7-1 win in Zagreb last week puts one in mind of the
perhaps the most anomalous sequence of results in this season's Football League. In September,
warmly tipped Crawley Town followed up a 6-0 hiding at Morecambe with a 3-0 home battering by
Swindon. Having begun existence in the League well, these results were far from expected and
everything that has happened since makes them seem still more unusual.
[T]he furore surrounding Lyon's astounding 7-1 win in Zagreb last week puts one in mind of the
perhaps the most anomalous sequence of results in this season's Football League. In September,
warmly tipped Crawley Town followed up a 6-0 hiding at Morecambe with a 3-0 home battering by
Swindon. Having begun existence in the League well, these results were far from expectedand
everything that has happened since makes them seem still more unusual.
Young boys in the park with jumpers for goalposts, or battering a ball against a garage door, dream
of pulling on that jersey, of scoring the winner at Wembley, of lifting the World Cup. Of making a
name for themselves. And yet some players make a name for themselves inadvertently, their
footballing achievements and exploits overlooked or forgotten.
Following the recent untimely demise of Bradford City blog, Boy from Brazil, our latest guest post
comes from Bantams fan Richard Beecham . Richard is a trainee journalist who was recently published
by the Leeds Scribbler site – follow him on Twitter at @RichardBeecham. 'Why don't you just
support Leeds?
In his regular column for The Seventy Two, AFC Wimbledon striker Jack Midson tells us that the
latest prank to achieve popularity among the players is to place items of fruit in each other's kit
bags. Given that in their heyday, the original club's 'Crazy Gang' were prone to setting fire to
Armani suits, smothering jock straps with Deep Heat and christening taxi doors with steel toe caps,
this
Firstly, we'd like to apologise to the author of this piece, Danny Brothers, for furthering his
torment on Saturday. Not only did he have to sit through a ponging performance from Northampton, he
had to write about it afterwards following an opportunistic request prior to the game from yours
truly. Fair play for following up with this, Danny.
Fair play to West Ham. They may have poached one of the lower leagues' most prolific marksmen, Sam
Baldock, from MK Dons but it's not all take, take, take - on the contrary, they seem to be
vigorously pursuing a policy of loaning out their youngsters to the benefit of both other clubs and
the players themselves.
With year-end targets at work biting, it's an express preview this week based predominantly on
recent first-hand impressions rather than diligent research.Indeed, along with the other original
unfortunate (not to mention a further couple) I made the trip to the Kassam on Tuesday to see a
youthful Plymouth side soundly beaten by their hosts.
Anyone who takes even a passing interest in the Football League, let alone obsessives like us, will
be aware of Thursday's vote to approve the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP). For those of you
who remain unaware aware of its details, the EPPP can be summarized either, by its cheerleaders, as
a blueprint for the improvement of the England national XI or, by its detractors, as an attempt by
He's at it again, that Paul Sturrock. Having struggled for success since his days at Swindon,
Luggy's Southend lead the League 2 table and the only surprise is that so many people seem to have
failed to see it coming.Coming up to 18 months in charge of Blues, Sturrock has gone about his work
in a canny fashion.
Our latest conversation is with Danny Brothers, author of a number of posts for us including a look
back at Northampton Town's 1996-7 play-off winning side. Danny runs his own blog and this has the
obligatory moniker, A Load of Cobblers, although he spreads his net beyond the watershed of the
River Nene to League 2 as a whole, joining forces with our last interviewee Ben Mayhew and Maxi
Hobbs for
TTU regulars will know that Plymouth Argyle receive more than their fair share of coverage on these
pages; although we try to split our attention 72 ways it can be difficult to abstain from repeat
postings when there's so much to be said.The goalposts in this long-running saga have moved daily,
so we've largely played the admiring onlooker of late as others, such as twohundredpercent, have,
to
Blow me down with a feather, Crawley have lost five in six. Tipped widely to succeed for a second
consecutive season, the Red Devils Mark II have been up against it in the last few weeks, their
League Cup defeat at Palace preceding a woeful run that has witnessed pointless games against
Cheltenham, Morecambe and Swindon.
Our latest discussion piece features Ben Mayhew, head honcho of one of the best club blogs around,
Greenwich Gull - 'a League 2 blog with an overwhelmingly pro-Torquay United bias'. Since commencing
his scrawlings, Ben has actually hopped on the London Overground to live in Highgate, but retains a
site name that evokes maritime leanings.
I don't wish to gloat, I really don't, but the tomfoolery witnessed at the close of Tuesday night's
game between Swindon and Southampton was just, well, all too predictable. Back at the beginning of
August, I contributed towards a League 2 prediction piece for Two Footed Tackle, and questioned why
bookmakers were backing the Robins to do well.
Darryl Duffy's career trajectory may perhaps have left the striker wondering if he has perpetually
arrived too early for the party. Most notably, journeyman though he may appear to be, he has
enjoyed spells at two clubs which, not long after his departure, have attained Premier League
status. First, he joined Hull City in a fanfare of publicity five years ago, his 37 goals in just
68 games for
Following my side's two successive relegation seasons after a decent stretch in the Championship,
I've now reached the point at which I'm struggling to recognise opposition players. Hell, I'm even
having trouble with our own. It's only been two years since those halcyon days when I was
accustomed to seeing the same faces and was able to build up personal beef with individuals (since
you ask, I
It feels a bit like Groundhog day at the moment and it's not because I'm stuck in the Insurance
industry from 9 til 5 during the week. It is however because Stevenage have begun this season in a
very similar fashion to last year's campaign. A draw at home was followed by a narrow defeat in the
Carling Cup first round to Championship opposition.
It feels a bit like Groundhog day at the moment and it's not because I'm stuck in the Insurance
industry from 9 til 5 during the week. It is however because Stevenage have begun this season in a
very similar fashion to last year's campaign. A draw at home in the league has been followed by a
narrow defeat in the Carling Cup first round to Championship opposition.
The penultimate amuse-bouche to the Season Preview that you might well be getting a little bored of
by now focuses on the specially commissioned quintent of articles that may have gone unnoticed in
the midst of the club-by-club chow down. Rob Langham, aka Lanterne Rouge, exploited his day job
experience as a Commissioning Editor of books to hook in five writers to this section.
We continue our Five Days of Football League build-up with a focus on the archival section of our
108-page overview of the coming season. In putting together the Preview, we wanted to touch upon
the writing that we feel best represents our sites by giving selected pieces a second airing.So,
kicking the section off on page 66 is Iain Macintosh's ode to Southend, which first appeared on The
Seventy
Today, our bumper (there really is no other word) preview of the coming football league season has
gone live, a collaborative venture with The Seventy Two. The whole thing is presented in pdf format
and is available for free download here or navigate the widget on the right hand side of this page.
There is a whole lot to enjoy from a myriad of the blogosphere's best writers, but if your
A few weeks ago I commented on MK Dons striker Sam Baldock's decision to favour heart over head and
spurn newly promoted Peterborough's advances. Baldock claimed not to have felt excited by the
prospect of a move to Posh, and I praised his honesty, speculating as to how often the inane smiles
of new signings paraded before fans and media 'mask an expression of grim resignation at having
been
One of the curiosities of African football has been the relatively undistinguished performance of
national teams from the east side of the continent. Ethiopia and Sudan may have won continental
titles in 1962 and 1970 but that was before the era when most countries participated, and the
cultural and ethnic make up of those states is quite different from the the cluster of countries
that tends to
The Football League would always have witnessed a flurry of activity this past Friday given that
contract time periods tend to run from June to June, but amid the plethora of deals variously
initiated, extended and rubber stamped, the actions of Gillingham boss Andy Hessenthaler really
stood out. No less than six incomers were lined up for Priestfield photo shoots - most tellingly,
the capture
In the third installment in our Conversations series, I speak to Scott Walkinshaw, Oxford supporter
and curator of that fine Yellows blog, Oxblogger. It's been a busy summer thus far for the Us, and
we speak about their recent transfer activity, as well as drilling a little deeper into ownership
issues, the role of the Supporters' Trust and the ways in which a period out of the League can
alter
On this day, the Summer solstice, supporters should be wedged into a period where footballing
issues come second to family holidays, all those cultural pursuits that we've neglected for the
past 10 months, and DIY. Instead, though, too many of us are forced into a state of continued
misery where ownership wrangles and uncertainty over our clubs' futures mean that we're still glue.
It will come as no surprise that the words ‘simply' and ‘astonishing' were used by several
different contributors independently of one another in reference to Paul Lambert's stewardship at
Carrow Road. It's a kind of rags to riches story that's been done to death, of course. Indeed, in
trying to sum the past two years, which have seen Lambert pick Norwich up by the scruff and
build a mentally
Our votes in this most storied of categories were split evenly and many of the usual characters
cropped up. Grant Holt, so hearteningly wonderful in this year of Canary yellow, will be looking
back on his days as a definitive journeyman and Singapore leaguer with disbelief and Scott
Sinclair's play off heroics confirmed an ability to link wideside flair with end product.
For the simple reason that we think the Seagulls would have been less likely to stroll to
promotion like they did without him, Elliott Bennett takes this year's Young Player award. Of
course, the man of the protruding tongue has since caved in to Paul Lambert's advances but given
the Canaries' rising star, who can really blame the lad?
There's a whole other article that could be be written on the dynamic between Stockport County
and Sale Sharks, but for the purposes of this award we'll focus on the pitch at Edgeley Park.
Plenty of football clubs share grounds with those amateur gents of the oval ball, Reading and
Wycombe to name but two, and at points those playing surfaces may suffer from the sheer amount of
game time
What makes a good day out? Three points would do nicely for a start, even in Dagenham, but other
variables might range from a particularly memorable chant to the discovery of cracking pub in
the shadow of the ground (more to come on that later in the summer on this site...). This year, the
award goes to a trip that happened to provide positive results in two of those criteria for this
very
