In other years, the League came first. We’d have the clichés well-rehearsed, as time and time again, we said the League was where we earned our bread, so extra effort was coerced. A long Cup run could well be cursed – our title dreams might end up burst if we strove for the Cup instead. […]

It isn’t easy being old (hair is thinning, hair is greying) My poor brain is growing mould and I’m not sure who we’re playing. But things are really getting bad (getting scary, getting twisted) when you tell me that the Mons game never actually existed. In my mind I see Mons score (with a penno, […]

You’re a ten year old boy with a ten o’clock kick-off, so the alarm gives a six-thirty ring. The list is too long for a young boy to tick off, too much to remember to bring. So she forces herself, half-asleep, from her bed to make sure you have everything and you’re well-fed, though she’d […]

Spain 4 Italy 0 A perfect night for football, free from rain, they came to far-famed Kiev railway station or flew there in their hordes by chartered plane, thousands in a state of high elation, to witness Italy and mighty Spain battling to be top-dog football nation. Spain began with fired imagination and, from the […]

Goodbye to Poland, adios to Ukraine Goodbye to Poland, adios to Ukraine. Although you were tagged by the racism stain, the media searched for examples in vain in a generous, warm population that welcomed the Croat, the Swede and the Dane. Auf wiedersehen Poland, aloha Ukraine. The matches ran smoothly throughout the campaign. Theatrical dives […]