Plain Strains & Auto-biographies (Act II) – Ray of the Rivers

…. the thing about Roy Race is, well, he’s not really real but he’s sort of real in a life-mirrors-cartoon kind of way. Roy started out looking like Burnley’s Ray Pointer, big blond quiff and all but, as fashions changed, so did Roy’s haircut. To be seen as ‘with it’, suddenly, his hair was combed forward in a way that eerily anticipated Kenny Dalglish’s quizzical look. All the things that were deemed to be happening in the football world from the fifties through to the nineties, Roy and his team, the mighty Melchester Rovers did. European Cups, being kidnapped, repeatedly – all the exciting things that were being covered by the newspapers were given a slight fictional twist and fed to the boys who avidly read their weekly Tiger then Roy of the Rovers comics.

Eventually, they pensioned off old Roy when he would have been a sixty-year-old player/manager if he had not kept plunging himself into the Fountain of Youth. They made it permanent by slicing off his foot in a helicopter crash so that he truly was finished and there could be no more heroic hat tricks against Chidsea but not before the blurring of reality and fantasy had been accomplished. Actual footballers like Bob Wilson, Emlyn Hughes, Malcolm Macdonald and Trevor Francis began to be featured in the comic, presumably to make it seem more authentic. Geoff Boycott served for several years as Melchester’s chairman and Sir Alf Ramsey briefly managed them. When Roy announced his resignation as Rovers manager in 1992, he did so live on Sky Sports in front of the normally unshockable but for once shocked presenters Richard Keys and Andy Gray.

And now we have a strange reversal where current footballers at the very top appear to live in a fictional world, completely out of touch with reality. Fans don’t want to read about Wayne Rooney having to ring the Council seventeen times to have his drains unblocked, they want to read about how an extremely ordinary Scouse lad’s extraordinary talent has landed him in a gigantic goldfish-bowl world of spectacular goals scored by overhead kicks, and about his super-duper house and holidays in places not called Liverpool. And they definitely don’t want the low down about visiting any ‘grandmas’ – do they?

When you consider the real world, as most of us experience it, and the fictional world, it would seem that our superstar footballers have more in common with the fictional. And can Ian Rush and Gary Speed be entirely coincidental echoes of Roy Race? Perhaps football scouts should spend more time scouring the phone book for people with names like Dash, Sprint and Run-Fast.

Roy was way ahead of his time when it came to banana-swerve wonder goals whose impossible paths to goal were so neatly drawn, maybe with an added ‘whoosh’. Impossible? Only in the days when footballs were made of suet pudding. Now, with the modern, lightweight plazzy ones, the only thing a ball cannot do any more is fly straight, true and wobble-free.

 

Graeme Garvey

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FA Cup 5th Round 2010/11: Fab Four? Nah – Famous Five

With Fulham’s impending FA Cup 5th Round game on Sunday at home to Bolton Wanderers, I was thinking back to that particular round over the years that I’ve been watching football. I found to my surprise that I’ve never actually attended a 5th Round tie. From the 1st Round to the Final, the 5th Round is the one I’m missing. When I look back the one Fulham game at this stage I wish I could have got to would be the game at Goodison Park the year we got to Wembley. Whilst a regular at Craven Cottage that season, away games were few and far between because I was always playing football for the school in the morning and that restricted severely the amount of travelling times to fixtures beyond the Midlands.

Fulham played seven games in reaching the 5th Round of the 1974/75 FA Cup. The 3rd Round went to three games against Hull City and an incredible four against Nottingham Forest in the 4th Round. Viv Busby scored two goals in the 3rd Replay against Forest at the City Ground to set-up a tie away at Everton. The team from Goodison Park were top of the First Division and this game looked on paper one that for Second Division Fulham would be a tie too far. However, within a quarter of an hour Viv Busby had put The Cottagers ahead, pouncing on a mistake between Toffees keeper Dai Davies and defender Roger Kenyon. Fulham went in at half-time with a 1-0 lead, but this was soon wiped out in the second half when on 52 minutes Kenyon headed home an equaliser for the home team. Fulham must have feared that another replay beckoned as the game approached 85 minutes on the clock. However, Viv Busby changed all that with a swivel and shot from inside the Everton box with 5 minutes to go and send The Whites into the Quarter-Finals. The match details were as follows:

FA Cup 5th round, February 15, 1975

Everton                      1-2                  Fulham

Kenyon (52)                                      Busby (15, 85)

Attendance: 45,223

Everton: Davies, Bernard, Seargeant, Clements, Kenyon, Hurst, Jones, Dobson, Lyons, Latchford (Telfer), Pearson

Fulham:  Mellor, Cutbush, Strong, Mullery, Lacy, Moore, Dowie (Lloyd), Jimmy Conway, Busby, Slough, Barrett

I’d settle for a 2-1 win this Sunday and a trip to the Final please Mr Hughes, but with a different outcome to 1975 of course! Meanwhile, Everton will be hoping that they don’t come unstuck against another West London team as they visit Stamford Bridge for their 4th Round Replay. It’s a bit of a mix and match weekend as Manchester City also have a 4th Round Replay at home to Notts County alongside the other scheduled 5th Round matches. If your team is still in the competition – enjoy! That Wembley arch is getting ever nearer.

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2010/11: FA Youth Cup 5th Round – Leeds United v Aston Villa

Tonight at Elland Road, Leeds United juniors go up against Aston Villa in the FA Youth Cup Fifth Round, hoping to progress and get a step closer to bringing home the trophy for a third occasion. The trials and tribulations surrounding the Academy set-up at Thorp Arch and indeed Simon Grayson’s attitude to home-grown players has been a talking point at the Yorkshire club this season. So rather than focus on the negative, this article instead will focus on the previous two triumphs by Leeds United.

Both Leeds triumphs in the FA Youth Cup occurred within the nineties. The first in the 1992/93 season was secured over Manchester United, with the second in 1996/97 against Crystal Palace. The first triumph is probably best remembered by Leeds fans given the opposition and the reputation of the Manchester United youth team who were the Cup holders.

The 1st Leg of the Final took place at Old Trafford and an incredible crowd of 30,562 turned up as Leeds take a 2-0 advantage (with goals from Jamie Forrester and Noel Whelan) back to Elland Road for the 2nd Leg. For the return Leg back in Leeds, the attendance topped that in Manchester as 31,037 cheered on Paul Hart’s team to a 2-1 victory on the night and a 4-1 aggregate win. The squads for the respective teams was as follows:

Leeds United: Paul Pettinger, Andy Couzens, Kevin Sharp, Mark Tinkler, Kevin Daly, Rob Bowman, Lewis Atkinson, Matthew Smithard, Mark Ford, Noel  Whelan, Simon Oliver, Jamie Forrester, Alex Byrne, Steve Tobin, Darren Kerry.

Manchester United: Darren Whitmarsh, Phil Neville, Steven Riley, Chris Casper, Gary Neville, Keith Gillespie, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Richard Irving, Colin Murdoch, Robbie Savage, Ben Thornley, Nicky Butt, John O’Kane, Mark Rowlinson.

When you look at the names the interest for me is not with those progressed into the Leeds United first team squad, but rather those who didn’t. Of that 1993 squad, Jamie Forrester, Noel Whelan, Rob Bowman, Kevin Sharp, Mark Tinkler, Mark Ford and Andy Couzens did play for the senior team – although their total appearances were less that 170 and therefore none of them could ever be considered as regulars. In terms of the remainder of the squad, goalkeeper Paul Pettinger spent four seasons at Elland Road without making a first team start, before a career mainly taking in a number of Non-League clubs and he is currently plying his trade at Sheffield FC. Like Pettinger, midfielder Matthew Smithard also spent four seasons at Elland Road without making a first team start. In 1996/97 Smithard moved to Bradford City, where he made just one appearance as a substitute. Injury plagued his career in spells with Farsley Celtic, Ossett Town and Guiseley. Forward Steve Tobin also followed the Non-League path taking in Macclesfield Town, Altrincham, Leek Town, Hyde United and Mossley (amongst others) along the way – last playing in the early part of 2010 at Salford City. Simon Oliver was playing for Thackley in the Northern Counties Eastern League up to the end of the 2006/07 season. In terms of trying to trace Kevin Daly, Lewis Atkinson, Alex Byrne and Darren Kerry, I’ve drawn a blank, so would be grateful to anyone who can throw light on whether they stayed within football.

Leeds second Youth Cup came in 1996/97 after a 3-1 aggregate win against Crystal Palace. This team produced a crop of players who were later to be part of the period of Premier League and Champions League football at Elland Road. Robinson, Woodgate, Kewell, McPhail and Smith provided the mainstay of the first team during that period. Whilst Alan Maybury and Matthew Jones also made their contribution in the first team games they played. Of the rest of that squad, Tommy Knarvik came on as a substitute against Portsmouth in an FA Cup tie which proved to be his only outing in a first team shirt, before returning to the Norwegian League and he now plays for Tromso. Lee Matthews made three appearances in the first team and suffered an injury hit career before finally retiring in 2007 after a stint with Livingston and is now a football agent. Midfielder Wesley Boyle had just one substitute outing with the first team and is still playing for Portadown in Northern Ireland. Neither Kevin Dixon nor Damien Lynch made it into the Leeds senior team, with Dixon returning to his native North East playing for a number of Non-League teams including Seaham Red Star, Newcastle Blue Star, Sunderland Ryhope and Bishop Auckland. Lynch returned to the Republic of Ireland after his time at Leeds United and Nottingham Forest and carved a career in the League of Ireland with Bohemians, Drogheda United and St Patrick’s Athletic. Perhaps the most interesting story involves the last member of the 1997 squad Stuart Gore. The following piece is taken from the website of AC Crusaders a football team in the USA who are due to make their debut in the Northeast Keystone Division of the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in 2011.

“…Stuart Gore brings a fantastic playing experience to the AC Crusaders. Having been exposed to some of the game’s most successful soccer coaches, Stuart has used his experiences to develop into a forward thinking coach with a strong tactical sense.

As a player, Stuart was part of the youth team with Leeds United, helping them to win the FA Youth cup. He has also represented the England national team at under 16 and under 17 level. Stuart then attended college here in the states at the University of Montevallo, after which he return to pro soccer with UD Lorca of the 2nd division in Spain.

As a coach Stuart has been coaching with Luton Celtic soccer club and AFC Dunstable, where in 2007 he was given the position of “Head of Coaching and Player Development”. Stuart also served as the vice chairman of the Dunstable schools soccer league in which his team won back to back titles in 2006 and 2007, winning the league cup in 2007.

He holds a UEFA B license, Level 2 in Futsal coaching and is a native of Dunstable, England.

For those players lining up tonight, a place in the next round of the Youth Cup will be the main thing on their mind. The future? Well as the teams of 1992/93 and 1996/97 demonstrated even Cup victory is no guarantee of a successful career. Sometime you just have to enjoy the here and now.

My thanks to the following websites in providing background information used in this article; AC Crusaders official website, The FA, Soccer Base and Wikepedia.

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2010/11: NCEL Div 1 – Leeds Carnegie v Glasshoughton Welfare

If you study the names of the teams currently within the two divisions of the NCEL, the terms, “Main”, “Collieries” or “Miners Welfare” appear and gave a massive clue as to the origination of the formation of a number of the clubs and specifically their mining roots. There are a number of exceptions of course and one of these is Leeds Carnegie FC, which is essentially the Leeds Metropolitan University first team. As a result their history is different to many of their league counterparts and I’m grateful to the Leeds Met, Leeds Carnegie FC websites and Wikepedia for information regarding the clubs background.

The team was originally called Leeds & Carnegie College F.C. and was founded in 1970. Their first nine years were spent in the Yorkshire Football League structure and in their first season Carnegie won the Division Three title. Success came their way again when in 1972-73 the club became Division Two Champions. The seventies also saw Carnegie have their best run in the FA Vase during the 1976-77 season, when they reached the Fourth Round before going out to Newcastle Blue Star 1-0.

In 1980, Carnegie left the Yorkshire League in favour of the Northern Universities League (NUL) . This period also saw a name change with the team known  as Leeds Polytechnic. The Poly had a 14 year stint in the NUL and was a period of great success. The Premier Division title was captured on nine occasions (1980/81, 1981/82, 1982/83, 1988/89, 1991/92, 1994/95, 2000/01, 2002/03 and 2003/04) as well as the NUL League Cup in 1999/2000 2002/03. In 1992 Leeds Polytechnic became  Leeds Metropolitan University and as a result the football club name was changed to Leeds Met Carnegie.

In 2004 Carnegie left the NUL for the West Yorkshire League, (part of the English football pyramid – the Premier Division is at Level 11) and were crowned champions of the Premier Division in 2005-06. The club was denied promotion as they didn’t have a ground up to the required standards. However, Carnegie were able to step up to the NCEL Division One in 2006-07 when they agreed to play at the home of Farsley at Throstle Nest.

As 2011 dawned Carnegie found themselves holding a mid-table position but were hit with the news in January that manager Graham Potter intended to leave to take over Osterund FK in Sweden. The club wasted no time in appointing Mark Macrow as his replacement with James Earl as his assistant.

The fixture against fellow mid-table side Glasshoughton Welfare in early February gave me the chance to see if team had been affected by the change in manager. So far on my Non League travels this season I’ve been impressed by the set-up at the various grounds and clubs I have visited. However this Saturday was a little disappointing. The reason for this? Well, it comes down to issues around the programme and lack of match day announcer. In the case of the programme, I expect to see brief pen-pictures of the opposition rather than those of the home squad. Unfortunately those provided for the Carnegie team were in my opinion not appropriate for this level of football and did not portray a professional bearing, given that there were loaded with comments which maybe fine in the dressing-room, but which meant little to the paying public. Also, the programme contained the respective squads and not team line-ups. Now this is fine, as long as there is an announcement of the team line-ups so that the crowd know who is playing. Unfortunately on Saturday, this didn’t happen and it did take away some of the enjoyment of watching, in that I was unable to identify who was who.

Of the game itself, Carnegie throughout tried to keep the ball on the ground, but were ultimately undone by being reduced to 10 men in the first-half. In a game of few chances, Carnegie looked like they might be able to get a point from the game when with 15 minutes to go the score was still level at 0-0. However, the deadlock was broken on 78 minutes when Damion Liddle latched onto a through ball to seal the win for the visitors. On balance I thought Glasshoughton just about shaded it, although Carnegie put in a brave display.

 Leeds Carnegie reported the match as follows:

10 Men Carnegie Just Fall Short

Despite a spirited performance for a character filled 10 men, Carnegie were just short of holding Glasshoughton to a draw – and could have won it!

Leeds Carnegie were put under pressure early by Glasshoughton whose physical approach saw defender Scott McGrory have to leave Throstle Nest with a suspected broken ankle in just the second minute.

 This lead to a physical, scrappy game with Carnegie being error bound which opened up two early chances for Glasshoughton – but failed to trouble stand in keeper Jordan Clarke.

Mid-way through the half however came the turning point. Following a silly booking for throwing the ball away, Matt Freeman lunged into an unnecessary challenge which gave referee Nigel Haycock no choice but to show the second yellow.

As the half wore on, Carnegie with their 10 men settled into their usual game and had chances through McGrory and Hawthorn but failed to really carve any openings of note.

On reflection of the first half, Carnegie would have been happy to go in at 0-0. The second half, however saw the home side come out in an alternative formation that proved to work as they began to put together some fantastic flowing moves, working the ball across the pitch picking gaps through the Glasshoughton team.

One of Carnegie’s best moves came from a Glasshoughton attack where the visitors forward missed what looked to be an easy chance , Carnegie coolly played the ball out of defence through the midfield and out to the left flank where Mycoe played the ball back inside. The ball was then worked over to the opposite side of the pitch through the Carnegie midfielders with a sequence of short but effective passes eventually finding Greig McGrory who, with an excellent first touch managed to control the ball into his path before seeing it flash across the goal mouth. An excellent strike from the clubs top scorer.

Jordan Clarke, put in a fantastic display in the sticks on his first team debut but was unable to prevent a clever low finish from the Glashoughton striker. The ball was played through the Leeds Carnegie defence, with Clark advancing out of his goal, the away sides striker tucked the ball underneath him.

Just moments later, against the run of play – Carnegie almost went two down but a clever chip could only find the top of the goal. Despite a couple of chances falling to the visitors, the home side continued to dominate the half despite being a man down. Rossiter looked very confident at the back putting in some superb challenges.

 FINAL SCORE:

Leeds Carnegie       0 (0) – (0) 1    Glasshoughton Welfare

                                                            [Damion Liddle 78 minutes]

 Attendance: 69

The official website of Leeds Carnegie FC can be found by clicking the following: http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/leedscarnegie/

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2010/11: FA Cup 4th Round – Where were you in ’85?

The 1984/85 season brought about to Fulham one of those oddities that seem to happen in football. In the League Cup, the men from SW6 who were then in the old Second Division, got drawn against First Division Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough. Despite being a tier lower than their opponents, Fulham weren’t disgraced in a 3-2 loss at the Third Round stage.

Come the New Year and the FA Cup Third Round draw, fate dictated that Fulham and Sheffield Wednesday once again locked horns, although this time the fixture was at Craven Cottage. With Sheffield Wednesday bringing a good away following, a crowd of 11,434 gathered to see if Fulham could gain revenge for the defeat earlier in the season. Just as in October The Owls were victorious 3-2. Ray Houghton scored Fulham’s goals, whilst Mel Sterland and Lee Chapman with two, ensured the South Yorkshire team progressed to the Fourth Round. Wednesday were a robust team back in the eighties and they were certainly too strong physically for Fulham on the day.

Now for most fans, once their team is knocked out of the FA Cup, their interest pretty much ends, possibly until Cup Final day. Yes Fulham were out, but that didn’t mean that was the end of my Cup adventure that year. One of the advantages of living in London at that time was that there were plenty of options in terms of watching other clubs – and I use the term watching as opposed to supporting deliberately.

1984/85 was Wimbledon’s first ever season in the old Second Division and they more than held their own to finish in a respectable 12th position. Having overcome Burnley 3-1 at Plough Lane in the FA Cup Third Round, the Dons got a very tricky tie against one of the teams of the eighties, Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest. At the City Ground the underdogs from South London earned a replay after a 0-0 draw. Back then replays were arranged for the following week, with the game at Plough Lane set for the following Wednesday night. Given that Brian Clough’s team were one of the big attractions then, the replay was made all ticket.

The lure of seeing Old Big ‘Ead (as my nan loved to call the incomparable Mr Clough), in the flesh and a possible Cup upset proved too strong a temptation to resist and so I took my place amongst a bumper crowd to see if the Dons could beat the twice European Champions. On a night of great tension and nervous moments, Wimbledon caused a Cup upset with a Paul Fishenden goal enough to see off Forest. It was an evening when you couldn’t but help get caught up in the emotion of the occasion. That is what the FA Cup can do.

26 years later and what does the Fourth Round hold for the teams. My beloved Fulham have the misfortune to once again draw Tottenham. I say misfortune as Spurs knocked us out after a replay in the Quarter Final last year and in the seven meetings in the competition Fulham have yet to win. Sheffield Wednesday have battled through wins over Southport, Northampton Town and Bristol City to a Fourth Round tie at Hillsborough against Hereford United, in which the Owls will fancy their chances of making progress to the Fifth Round. AFC Wimbledon came through in the First Round after a replay against Ebbsfleet, but fell in the Second Round against Stevenage. Forest overcame Preston at Deepdale in the Third Round and face an interesting game at Premier League West Ham. How times have changed.

Whoever your team enjoy the Fourth Round this weekend and may it provide some more Cup Magic!

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2010/2011: The Goal Celebration – A Different Perspective

Frederic Piquione’s red card for jumping into a heaving mass of West Ham fans deliriously celebrating a second (and potentially winning) goal at Everton on Saturday brought into focus one of the most inane developments in the evolution of modern football: the goal celebration. Yes, we know that various World Cups have seen some bizarre and, admittedly entertaining rituals to commemorate the football hitting the back of the net just moments earlier. The first of these, in my memory, occurred in the 1982 World Cup with Falcao and most memorably Tardelli performing the raised arms, pumping chest, bulging eyes routine whilst running the length of the pitch. These events set the tone for later ‘goal celebs’ which began to permeate the English Leagues. Don’t get me wrong: scoring at the World Cup finals is a matter of emotion. And you would be hard pressed to criticise a player for scoring at the most important tournament in his sport and one that he might never get the chance to revisit. But when you see Didier Drogba going through orgasmic throes having scored at, say, Molineux or Nani behaving as if he had discovered mass production of nuclear fusion when scoring against Wigan, it all looks a little, er well over the top. What happened to the simple handshake? The pat on the back? The running back to the halfway line with your team mates giving you a quick hug and, ah yes, the occasional kiss on the head? All far more civilised, wouldn’t you say? The modern goal celebration says far more about how players think about themselves: the Me, Me, Look at Me, type of narcissism on display is hard to digest sometimes particularly when you think that it really is just a game. And a team game at that.

As for Monsieur Piquionne and the legion of media men who saw fit to criticise the rules that led to his dismissal, one thing seems to have slipped their minds: the players know or should know exactly what the rules are. These rules were enacted to ensure everything stays in perspective. A little more of that and we could actually concentrate on less theatrics and more football…..

 

Suhail Akhtar

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2010/11: Nat Lofthouse – True Football Giant

It’s a curious thing that the football greats of the post-war era seemingly get labeled with the sobriquet, “giants”. Leeds United of course had the legendary John Charles who at Juventus, was so revered by the fans that they called him Il Buon Gigante – the gentle giant. This weekend Nat Lofthouse ex-Bolton Wanderers and England passed away, a player the BBC described as, one of the post-war giants of football.

Players such as Tom Finney, Tommy Lawton, Stanley Matthews, Billy Wright, Wilf Mannion, and Stan Mortensen, all finished playing before I was watching football, but I know their names and recognise their place in the football history of this country. Their playing days, like John Charles and Nat Lofthouse belong to a game, era and society that are very different to that now.

Unlike many of the players today, Nat Lofthouse was a one-club man, making more than 450 appearances for Bolton Wanderers, earning 33 caps for England. Lofthouse was Bolton born and bred and was signed as a 14-year-old schoolboy by Charles Foweraker (Bolton manager from 1919-1944). Lofthouse played during the Second World War and also worked as a Bevin Boy coal miner, and eventually turned professional in 1946. The money players received back then will be seen as comical by today’s standards. £10 was the fee Lofthouse received when he signed-on, but he reflected,  ”…I know £10 doesn’t seem much these days, but it was four times more than my Dad was getting per week as a coal bagger for the Co-Op…”. It’s an interesting point, as it illustrates that even back then payments in football out-stripped that of the ordinary working man. Lofthouse made his debut in a wartime 5–1 win against Bury on 22 March 1941 and scored two goals. However, it was then more than five years until he made his League debut for the Trotters against Chelsea on 31 August 1946, when he scored twice in a 4–3 defeat. Lofthouse retired in 1960 having scored 255 goals for the club.

During his club career, Lofthouse played in two FA Cup Finals, both of which have gone down in the annals of Wembley Stadium, but with different outcomes for the Bolton player. He scored a goal, but was on the losing side, in the famous 1953 FA Cup Final which became known as, The Matthews Final having previously scored in each round. That was the only blemish on a season when Lofthouse topped the First Division scoring charts with 30 goals and won Footballer of the Year. Five years later, Lofthouse captained Bolton against Manchester United. Wanderers won the game 2–0 with Lofthouse scoring both goals. However, the second was highly controversial and remains a talking point to this day. Lofthouse went into a challenge with the United keeper Harry Gregg knocking him unconscious as he barged Gregg into the net to score. Looking at the footage in this era, it seems inconceivable that shoulder charging was a legitimate part of the game, especially since nowadays goalkeepers are offered more protection than most endangered species.

As an international Lofthouse had a brilliant scoring record, with 30 goals from his 33 appearances. His England debut was on 22 November 1950 and he scored both goals in a 2–2 draw against Yugoslavia in the game at Highbury. Perhaps his most famous international game came on 25 May 1952. The England forward earned the title Lion of Vienna after scoring his second goal in England’s 3–2 victory over Austria. In the act of scoring and running from the half-way line, he was elbowed in the face, tackled from behind and finally brought down by the goalkeeper. He played in the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland scoring three goals. Lofthouse made his final England appearance, against Wales, at the age of 33 on 26 November 1958. During the eight years of his international career, England played approximately 70 fixtures. In the eight years between 2002 and 2010, England played nearly double this amount of games. That says all sorts about the modern era which has seen an increased number of games in Qualification for World Cups and that World Cup tournaments in terms of team participation has increased, allied with the introduction of the European Championships and the increase in friendlies. However, it is interesting to consider how many goals Lofthouse may have scored if he had the number of games available to the modern day international.

After retiring, Lofthouse continued his links with his home-town club. He became the assistant trainer at Burnden Park in 1961 and was then appointed chief coach at the club in 1967. Between 1968 – 1970, Lofthouse spent a brief time as caretaker manager of the club before taking the job full-time. After the brief management stint he became Bolton’s chief scout and later administrative manager. In 1978, he became the club’s executive manager and became president in 1986. Nat Lofthouse’s connection with the club in so many capacities over 50 years is an incredible feat. One that would be seemingly impossible to replicate in the modern era.

In closing, I’d like to let the words of the Bolton great speak for themselves, “…the game’s changed out of all recognition to my day…the strips changed, the ball’s changed and the money has changed…but I still believe footballers take great pride in the game. I don’t know about me but people like Matthews and Finney would be seen as very good players, I’ve no doubt about that…”

Spoken like a true football giant.

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2010/11: Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup 2011

Whilst here in England the weekend has been dominated by the FA Cup including Leeds brave effort at the Emirates, the return of Dalglish to manage Liverpool and Cup shocks from the likes of Stevenage, Notts County, Southampton, Torquay United and Burton Albion – an international tournament kicked off on Friday. Neither BBC Sport or Sky Sports included the fixtures or results on their football website pages.

The tournament in question is the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup. It is for the international teams who are part of the AFC, with the winners qualifying for the FIFA Conferations Cup. Whilst the Cup of African Nations (CAN) has gained greater coverage over the years in Europe, the Asian Cup is seemingly off the radar. It is not as if the Asian Cup is a newly created competition. It was first held in 1956 hosted by Hong Kong. Four teams entered (South Korea, Israel and South Vietnam joined hosts Hong Kong) and South Korea emerged winners from the round robin tournament.

The Asian Cup was held every four years from 1956 until 2004, with the events in 1960, 1964 and 1968 being four team round robin events. In 1972 in Thailand the competition changed to a six team event with Group Stages and then Semi-Final and Final. Eights years later in Kuwait the tournament expanded to 10 teams, but was overshadowed by the Iraqi invasion of Iran. Given this background it was a real achievement that Iran even completed the tournament, finishing 3rd. The ten team structure changed again when in 1992 in Japan it was reduced to eight. It changed once more in 1996 when 12 teams competed in the UAE and the format remained this way in 2000 for the event in Lebanon. However by 2004 the tournament grew again with 16 teams playing in China.

With the Summer Olympic Games and the European Football Championship scheduled in the same year as the Asian Cup, the AFC decided to move the tournament to avoid these other events. As a result the 2008 event was brought forward to 2007. Incredibly given the war torn situation in their country, Iraq emerged as winners. It was the first time Australia took part in the event after their move to the AFC.

The most successful teams are Saudi Arabia (winners in 1984, 1988 and 1996), Iran (1968, 1972 and 1976) and Japan (1992, 2000 and 2004) with three wins. South Korea won in 1956 and 1960, with Israel, Kuwait and Iraq having won in 1964, 1980 and 2007 respectively. Israel were expelled from the AFC in the 1970’s before becoming members of UEFA.

The current tournament – the 15th, takes place in Qatar between 7th and 29th January. So given the recent furore about its award of the 2022 World Cup, greater coverage here in England might have been expected of the event. 16 teams are in Qatar. Six teams did not have to take part in the qualifiers. These were: Qatar as hosts, AFC Asian Cup 2007 winners Iraq, runners-up Saudi Arabia and third-place finishers South Korea, with India and DPR Korea qualifying by virtue of winning the second-tier AFC national team competition, the AFC Challenge Cup, in 2008 and 2010 respectively. The 10 qualifiers are: Japan, Australia, Iran, Uzbekistan, China, UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria and Kuwait.

In terms of tickets prices, Group games have a top price of 100 Qatar Riyals [QAR] (approx £18) and the cheapest at 15 QAR (approx £2.60). For the Final the top ticket is 150 QAR (aprrox £27) and the cheapest 20 QAR (approx £3.50). Given that Qatar has one of the lowest unemployment rates (0.5% at 2009) and good average wages, these are cheap ticket prices and as a result virtually all games are sold out.

Six games have been played so far. In Group A, hosts Qatar lost 2-0 to Uzbekistan and China beat Kuwait by the same score. Group B saw Japan held 1-1 all by Jordan and Syria caused a shock be defeating much fancied Saudi Arabia 2-1. This result has caused the first major story of the competition as the Saudis sacked manager Jose Peseiro after this defeat. Australia got their Group C campaign off to a winning start with a 4-0 victory over India including a brace for Tim Cahill and one from the new face of Nintendo, Harry Kewell. In the same group, South Korea have also started the tournament with a win as two goals from Ja-Cheol Koo saw them overcome Bahrain 2-1.

The impact on Premier League teams is not as great as that during the CAN, but surely this is not the reason for the lack of coverage of the Asian Cup? Those playing out in Qatar from the Premier League are as follows: Tim Cahill (Everton – Australia), Park Ji-Sung (Manchester United – South Korea), Mark Schwarzer (Fulham – Australia), Lee Chung-Yong (Bolton Wanderers – South Korea), Brett Emerton (Blackburn Rovers – Australia), David Carney (Blackpool – Australia) and Brad Jones (Liverpool – Australia). The Aussies also include Championship players, with Leeds own Neil Kilkenny and Middlesbrough’s Scott McDonald in Qatar.

In terms of FIFA rankings (as at December 2010), the 16 teams competing rank as follows: Australia (26), Japan (29), South Korea (40), Iran (66), Saudi Arabia (81), China (87), Bahrain (93), Iraq (101), Kuwait (102), Jordan (104), UAE (105), Syria (107), Korea DPR (108), Uzbekistan (109), Qatar (114) India (142). Agreed not the strongest line-up in the World, but is this a reason to ignore it?

Football the global game? Certainly not in England if the lack of coverage is anything to go by.

 

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Plain Strains and Auto-biographies (Act I)

Reading football biographies or autobiographies is fine as long as you don’t expect them to tell the whole truth about anyone. By their very nature, they have got to be selective. A biography is about a footballer so can never fully penetrate inside the subject’s thoughts. An autobiography is worse for the very reason that it can. In what kind of scrambled mess are your thoughts on a daily basis? So an autobiography is, at best, a selective look at things and, annoyingly, as most of them are ghosted, they’re still biographies after all. Because most top footballers do whatever great things they do by instinct and are pretty uneducated geezers, publishing houses daren’t let them loose on a keyboard as an actual autobiography would be something like Billy Casper’s ideal day from ‘Kes’, phonetic spelling, jumbled sentences and all.

There is also the problem that a biography is about a footballer’s whole life and most people are only really interested in the great matches bit. Who’s bothered if the hero scraped his BMW in a Tesco car park, except in a cruel way? I have a friend who has bought a house once owned by a famous footballer. He thinks it’s great until he has to visit the bog. Then his identification with the hero is all too real and somewhat depressing.

The reader’s age is very important too, especially if reading about a current footballer – which is most likely. Want to read about an ex-footballer? Sorry says the librarian, that book has been moved to the History Section. (This would include people like Brian Robson and Gary Lineker.) When you are young enough for it to still make a difference, you read about a famous footballer to find out two things;

1) How they did all those bits of amazing skill (so that you can copy them and become great too.)

2) How they are great people, having great lives, (so that you can be like them in that, too).

Added to this, it is only fair to point out, is the hope that you can copy them and be like them even as far as having to go out with all those beautiful women who know nothing about football but plenty about money, camera shots, fast cars and fame. Occupational hazard innit? Comes with the territory, Bruv.

More mature readers – and I class myself in this category, agewise at least – tend be a little more bitter and twisted, reading to find out two things:

1) How they did all those bits of amazing skill (and why you were unable to copy them and become great too.)

2) How they are not really great people, having great lives, (so that you can also feel better about missing out on all that.)

Added to this, it is only fair to point out, is the hope that since you weren’t able to copy them and be like them even as far as having to go out with all those beautiful women who know nothing about football but plenty about money, camera shots, fast cars and fame, you hope they have had to spend long, unpleasant hours afterwards in various clinics as a consequence. Then you can tut-tut about the wasted lives of such former greats as Jimmy Greaves, George Best and Paul John Gascoigne.

I think I have to blame Roy of the Rovers for much of this. Ok, ok, he wasn’t actually real, but he was almost real and became the model against whom every footie hero had to be measured. If not quite Art mirroring life, it was Art mirroring a kids’ comic. Roy Race was…

 

Graeme Garvey

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FA Cup 2010/11: Three – It’s the Magic Number

The great thing about January in the football calendar is the FA Cup 3rd Round. Some teams never make it this far and their fans are left to dream about what might have been. For those that have battled through the early rounds the adventure can take a further twist with a tie against a “big” club in the 3rd Round. Clubs coming into the Cup at this stage can view the competition as a distraction from their dismal League campaign or from the goal of attaining promotion. However you view it, like the Grand National, the FA Cup 3rd Round captures the attention of the nation.

Whether your club has won the Cup or not, fans have their own special memories. Fulham have never won the FA Cup, although did reach the Final in 1975 losing 2-0 to West Ham. Whilst the run to the Final had some highlights in a record breaking 11 game journey to The Twin Towers, my most memorable games don’t come from that season and may in fact seem strange choices. What makes them stick in the mind is that they both occur in a period of change and very much have a sense of foreboding, although for different reasons and in different circumstances.

The early 70’s in Britain was a time of economic strife and especially of rising inflation. One of the government’s methods of dealing with this was to cap pay rises. This measure caused unrest amongst trade unions in that wages were struggling to keep pace with spiralling prices. By mid 1973, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) had encouraged their members to work to rule, which resulted in coal stocks slowly diminishing. This, combined with the effects of the 1973 Oil Crisis, drove up the price of coal. The Tory government under Edward Heath entered into negotiations with the NUM, but were unable to strike a deal. Therefore in order to reduce electricity consumption, and so conserve coal stocks, a series of measures were announced on 13th December 1973 by the government, including the “Three-Day Work Order”, more commonly known as the Three-Day Week, which came into force at midnight on 31st December 1973. What it meant was that commercial use of electricity was limited to three consecutive days each week. In January 1974 as an eleven year old I was too young to understand any of this. In fact nights sat without power listening to the radio and playing family games by candlelight were more of an adventure than a hindrance. Although I’m sure my parents didn’t quite see it in the same way.

Just five days into the Three day Week, it was FA Cup 3rd Round day. Fulham drew then fellow Second Division rivals Preston. Incredibly given the situation in the country, football continued pretty much unaffected. There were some knock-on effects though. Fulham like other clubs had hired generators to aid their electrical supply and I clearly remember seeing and hearing the machinery situated at the back of the Cottage. Games were also brought forward to 2pm so that less time was required for putting on floodlights. Programmes too were affected, with a four page black and white edition on sale. Nearly 7,000 turned out that day and the Fulham faithful were rewarded with a 1-0 win and progress into the 4th Round and a home tie with First Division Leicester City later that month.

By 1986 Fulham had dropped into the old Third Division and there was an air of crisis around the club. The promising side that missed out on promotion to the First Division, losing 1–0 to Derby away on the last day of the 1982/83 season, had gradually been sold off as the club had debts to pay. By now I was in my early twenties and knew it was a club in turmoil. Not only was the team struggling on the pitch, crowds dropped lower and lower and the ground showed serious signs of neglect. Therefore the FA Cup 1st Round in November 1986 came as a blessed relief from the doom and gloom of life in Division Three and crisis off the pitch. After a draw at Edgar Street a 4-0 win in front of just 3,562 at the Cottage over the Bulls saw Fulham progress to Round Two. By the time Newport County visited London in December 1986 for the 2nd Round fixture, the club was in dire straits. However, a 2-0 win over the Welshmen was secured and a glamour tie was hoped for in the next Round. Lady Luck had a chuckle as she sent Swindon Town to Fulham in January 1987 for the 3rd Round game and the visitors went away with 1-0 win. By this time with the club “gagged” as part of a property development deal to build on the ground, rumours about the future of the club became wilder. The reality was that in 1987 the club was perilously close to going out of business. However, this didn’t come to pass or thankfully did the ill-advised merger attempt with QPR.

Whilst today the club is not facing the crisis of that 1986/87 season, in 2011 all is not well at the Cottage as the team start the New Year hovering around the Premier League relegation zone. Thank goodness for the FA Cup 3rd Round….Bugger! Peterborough United at home – could be a banana skin! Whatever you team, try and enjoy this weekend…

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