General football

Now that we won’t be hosting Peterborough United in round four of the Carling Cup, I thoroughly recommend you try and get to the Playhouse on Wednesday October 28th to catch Tim Minchin. Looking like a younger, ginger-haired brother of Robert Smith from The Cure, the Australian pianist/comedian’s material isn’t easily pigeon-holed; I’d say he’s a cross between Ricky Gervais, Eddie Izzard and Victoria Wood, as unlikely as that probably sounds. And howlingly funny.

You may be wondering why I’m telling you this. Bear with me. Don’t worry – I’m not a Posh fan trying to offload a couple of tickets so I can make it up to Blackburn. It’s just that I happened to see Minchin at last year’s Edinburgh Festival, and particularly recall a number in which he debunks the whole ‘soul-mate’ thing.

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Another article in response to Kammy’s picks of the season, this time I’ll focus on the Championship season past.

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So, skysports.com favourite pundit Kammy has produced his picks of the Premiership season, and there are few surprises. I however am fed up of the teams further down the league not getting the recognition they deserve, so I’ll endavour to produce an alternative set of picks of the year.

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Another season gone, and as the late, great George Harrison once sang, ‘all things must pass’. In Newcastle, Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion’s cases, this means passing down toward the Championship, with Burnley, Birmingham and Wolves replacing them.

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The leading scorers and shot-stoppers from all three divisions of The Football League are to receive PUMA Golden Boot and Golden Glove awards to mark their respective achievements in all competitions this season.

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Chelsea were hard done by last night by anyone’s standards. Their game plan worked like a dream, albeit one of those dreams where nothing much happens and you become trapped in a tedious loop. But if you’re up against the most fearsome strike force in Europe I guess that’s what you have to do, so fair play to them.

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I thought I would make a quick post to acknowledge Justin Fashanu Day, an initiative by the Justin Campaign to mark the anniversary of the former Forest player’s death.

Justin, one of football’s most tragic figures, committed suicide 11 years ago tomorrow (2 May), hence the commemorative day.

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As revealed in October, LTLF has secured and conducted an interview with BBC Radio Nottingham’s Pitchside Commentator, Robin Chipperfield. I posed your questions to him, and the answers make most interesting reading.

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The FA very grandly trumpeted their new ‘respect’ campaign earlier this year. Notionally they wanted to improve player behaviour (and that of ‘pushy parents’!!) at grassroots level. The more public face of this was high profile endorsement by famous respecters of referees and their like (sic), John Terry. It’s why we seem to have a Champions League style line-up before each game now, and supposedly players are strongly encouraged to, well, behave themselves. This should manifest in no more niggly fouls, no badgering or surrounding the referee, an attempt to cut out the gamesmanship. Well, clearly these messages aren’t reaching League One referees.

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Sympathy this morning to our neighbours across the Trent following the sad news of Jimmy Sirrel’s passing.

Mr Sirrel was best known for leading Notts County in an unlikely charge up the Football League in the 1970s. He was also briefly manager of Sheffield United, before returning to Meadow Lane for more against-the-odds success in the ’80s. He retired in 1987 and the Magpies’ County Road Stand was named in his honour.

He was famous for saying, “Ask any kid what he knows about Notts County and he’ll tell you they’re the oldest football team in the world. By the time I’ve finished he’ll know a lot more.”

Pay tribute to Jimmy Sirrel here.

I love the smell of freshly cut grass in the morning – especially that cut from my own garden as it has a very distinctive smell.  It makes me feel like I am home again, like a returning hero after a bloody conflict in a distant land.

I am sure this is exactly the same smell that Kevin Keegan and many others in recent history have caught of whiff of. This smell, along with huge financial reward, has persuaded them to go back to the land from whence they came or at least in ‘King Kevs’ case, made their name, in order to become conquering heroes one last time before disappearing into the sunset….or something like that.

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Amidst the sumptuous competition that was Euro 2008, ran the campaign for respect towards referees. If you stretch your mind back you can possibly remember the cringe worthy cameo from our (post-Croatia) talismanic coach Fabio – the great – Capello. Now like many football fans I operate the fence hopping position, let me explain; things go right, then my view is that referees do get a hard time and deserve all the respect in the world. Things go wrong, then a chorus of, ‘he don’t know what he’s doin!!’ is but a prelude to the torrent of abuse that will leave my lips within the confines of 90 minutes, and in truth beyond the 90 minutes.

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Is there no place for a director of football in England? Recent situations such as Alan Curbishley’s tenuous position at West Ham and Kevin Keegan’s at Newcastle would appear to have already answered the question.

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Now like many people across the country, I am someone who takes great interest in perhaps one of, if not the greatest football league in the world; the Premiership. The level of football is often sublime; the atmosphere at the games electric and on top of all of that, the number of superstars present in the game gives season ticket holders across the country something to get excited about on match day, even more so if you happen to be a fan of one the promoted clubs that come up each season and quite often end up going back down again.

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