• Extra time
    I think about Shankly’s legendary words, which he may not even have said: Some people think football is a matter of life or death. It’s more important than that as I lie on the slab, feeling like a stiff ready to be dissected in a TV police thriller, and hear the orderlies bustling about preparing […]
  • Black and Blue (for Paul Canoville)
    As the boos rang out at the Riverside I remembered my team’s first black player coming on as sub in the 80s, the storm of hate from the Shed. The shock and anguish I felt, wondering if I could continue to follow the Blues. Of course, somehow, I did. Football’s coming home? They’re still out […]
  • Touchline dads
    A winter’s day, a darkening sky. Warned by the ref midway through the first half for over-enthusiastic touchline coaching: I don’t know what you’re on, but I want some of it. Those games meant more to us dads than the boys. We poured our hearts and souls into them. My lad didn’t score that day, […]
  • The Battle of Hastings, as summarised by Roy Keane
    Look at it not so much as a game of two halves – although it was that, too – but the result of fixture congestion. Pure and simple. Two crucial matches, far too close together. A great win up north, despite Tostig’s last-minute transfer to the other side. Then the rush south. Even then, the […]
  • Howay the lad
    It may be just a pre-season friendly, he’s the wrong side of thirty; I still get the same joy watching him play. Diehard tackles, rampaging forward, exhorting teammates, lusting for goals. I’m double his age, not in his league. At half-time he’s subbed for a while. Jack says at thirty-two he’s lost some pace, matters […]