Manchester United Blow It
You can argue, that the referee was wrong, but people do get sent off.
So last night, Manchester United were at fault in not being able to hold on to their lead or at least only ship one goal. Where was the Plan B for what you did if you lost a player? Surely, they should have done better!
last night, Ipswich had two players sent off at Nottingham Forest and then lost one-nil. Here’s the manager; Mick McCarthy’s quote from the BBC report.
They’re brilliant, they’re a great bunch, they really are fabulous. I was really proud of the way they went about their job.
“We were unlucky not to hold out. It’s a deflection that’s cost us – they didn’t look like they were going to get it any other way.
I know the match wasn’t as important, but it would appear the players did what they had to! And only failed by seven minutes!
In the past, I’ve watched some great games both live and on television, when one side has been reduced to ten men and still won or at least gone down with all guns blazing.
How Many Russians Will Fail Dope Tests In Gothenburg?
I’m watching the athletics from Gothenburg at the moment. You do wonder with their record of the previous years, as detailed in this article on the BBC, how many Russians will be caught cheating?
Mick McCarthy’s Communication Skills
Mick McCarthy has a reputation that befits his breeding of a Yorkshireman, with an Irish father, brought up in Barnsley. In fact the quote in my post on the match yesterday is typical McCarthy with quite a few asterisks.
Obviously, he and Roy Keane, would probably not hit it off, if they were the only two in a lifeboat from a sinking ship and they needed to row as a team to safety.
But in Mick McCarthy’s past, he played for Lyon in France.
So which language does he use to speak to Guirane N’Daw. As the player probably learned his English in Birmingham, it could be an interesting conversation.
The Player Who Lost It And The Match
The match at Portman Road looked like it was going to end up as a hard-fought goal-less draw.
It all turns on an incident in the second half, where Wes Morgan, Leicester’s caption got involved in a couple of altercations with Michael Chopra and then Daryl Murphy. He claimed he had been kicked and elbowed, but all the referee did was book him for protesting. he then made a big mistake and Ipswich scored. Here’s Mick McCarthy on the incident from an article in the East Anglian.
Asked about the incidents leading up to the goal, McCarthy said: “I think first and foremost he (Morgan) blocked Chopra by running across the front of him and then there was a tangle of legs. Whether Chops caught him or not I don’t know.
“That upset the apple cart a bit. I think Chops jumped up with his arms a it at a corner kick, but didn’t make any contact (there was also a coming to with Murphy).
“That would be the last of my worries if I was playing against Chops though. I’d be kicking the ***** out of him and be making sure he didn’t put the ball in the net.
“It got a little bit fractious. There were pushes in both boxes, I’m screaming for fouls, he (Nigel Pearson) is screaming for fouls, there are words between us.
“As a centre-half you have to keep your composure – because that’s what people do. As a centre-half I went out with sole intention to upset the two ******* I was up against, or anyone who came anywhere near me.
“I played against Mick Harford and Tony Cunningham. Their intention was smash me across the nose and upset me.
I was close to the incidents and we didn’t notice anything, but then Chopra was being the professional irritant all day, by harrying for everything.
A big factor in the win was McCarthy’s use of substitutes. He took Chopra off after the first incident with Morgan, to avoid further trouble. This substitution got Daryl Murphy on the pitch. I’ve talked to Murphy and he is very much the articulate Irishman, so was he winding up Morgan? At the death, McCarthy put Andy Drury to effectively keep the ball and stop Leicester from equalising.
It was all a bit different to the match at Leicester in November.
C’s Least Favourite Political Theorist
C did Politics at Liverpool University, although because it was such a difficult degree on which to build a career, she later read Law at University College London. Probably having, Robert Kilroy-Silk as your tutor at Liverpool, didn’t help either. The fact, that he chain-smoked Capstan Full Strength in tutorials gave her a life-long aversion to smoking.
Every time, I go to see Ipswich play I am reminded of her least favourite political theorist.
A Reminder Of Marcuse
She found Herbert Marcuse very difficult to comprehend, and she would find the fact his surname was embedded everywhere, a good reason not to go to the football.
It Would Have Been Nice To go To Nottingham On Tuesday
With Ipswich beating Leicester City today, it means that the game at Nottingham on Tuesday might have been worth a trip.
But it is impossible, without an overnight stay in a hotel, as the last train home leaves Nottingham at 21:28. As the football ground is fifteen minutes walk away from the station, you would only get a train home, if you leave at half time.
Now for Ipswich fans, this only happens occasionally, but I wonder how many Nottingham Forest fans live in London and will be cursing the lost day on their season ticket.
Gareth Bale, Cliff Jones and Taffy O’Callaghan
Tottenham Hotspur have a tradition of Welsh players, who were fast and skilful.
The one, I’ve seen most was Cliff Jones, who was an integral part of the Spurs double side and a few years afterwards. On form he could be brilliant and he could tear defences apart with his speed, in a manner not unlike that of Gareth Bale. What is often forgotten about Cliff Jones, is that on the death of John White and the retirement of Danny Blanchflower, he played much more as a midfield playmaker, rather than an outright winger. In some ways, isn’t this how another Welsh footballer;Ryan Giggs’s career has progressed at Manchester United?
I’ve put Taffy O’Callaghan in this post, as my father felt he was an amazing footballer from before the Second World War. He was supposed to be fast and my father told me that the team of those days was nicknamed the ‘greyhounds’, which is confirmed in Wikipedia. My father always said, he’d never seen anybody hit a football so hard. And they weren’t the lightweight balls of today!
We all know that Gareth Bale is good, but I won’t compare him directly, with his two predecessors. Although, it is informative to read Cliff Jones thoughts on Gareth Bale in this report on the BBC. In the article Cliff Jones doesn’t say that Real Madrid and others courted him continuously in the 1960s, but he stayed at Tottenham.
Perhaps being Welsh, he preferred the green grass at home?
There is also this article on Gareth Bale in the Guardian, which has this priceless quote from Blanchflower about yet another Welsh football legend; John Charles.
Everything he does is automatic. When he moves into position for a goal chance it is instinctive. Watch me and you’ll see I am seconds late, but all my thinking has to be done in my head. My feet do not do my thinking for me as they do for him.
The article says this could be applied to Gareth Bale. But then Blanchflower knew his football, both on and off the field. He was a unique talent himself!
Sheffield Put The Don Valley Stadium Out Of Its Misery
The news yesterday that Sheffield City Council is to close the Don Valley Stadium Is something that should have happened years ago.
Although it is a fine stadium it is costly to run and out of scale with all of the other athletics venues in the UK, with the exception of the Olympic Stadium in London. Even Crystal Palace is smaller with a capacity of 16,000 as against the 25,000 of the Don Valley Stadium.
It is not just my view that this will be best for Sheffield and athletics, despite what some vested interests are saying. Respected BBC athletics commentator Mike Costello has said, that it the right decision as Sheffield has a superb indoor training centre in the English Institute of Sport and the council will be providing an alternative outdoor track. Probably, the whole of the UK needs more decent indoor 200 metre tracks and training centres, with some more well-maintained simple outdoor stadia, where everybody can get a taste for athletics on a proper track.
It was probably a massive mistake on the part of Sheffield to bid for the 1991 World Student Games. It doesn’t seem to have left the city with the sort of legacy that Manchester got from the 2002 Commonwealth Games, with a large stadium and a velodrome. The only legacy would appear to be the world-class Ponds Force pools.
Incidentally, does anybody have any memories of those World Student Games in 1991. I can certainly remember the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
How Not To Interview Mo Farah
This article from the Sun, talks about and shows one of worst interviews I’ve ever seen.
It does show what a mild-mannered guy, Mo Farah must be! I wouldn’t have kept so calm!
How Long Can Spurs Keep Gareth Bale?
It’s some years since I’ve seen a more outstanding British footballer, as Gareth Bale. Last night, he helped to bring Spurs a victory at West Ham, and even stored the winning goal. The match and Bale’s influence on it is reported here on the BBC.
But then how long can the real money-bags clubs of the world, let this situation continue, before they make the player and Spurs an offer they can’t refuse?
I doubt, he’ll be playing for the club next year! But it will be the biggest transfer fee of recent times.
So just how good is Bale?
Although, I have a history of being a Spurs supporter until the 1970s and saw the great double side, I’m much more of an Ipswich supporter these days, as I have lived in the county for forty years.
But now, as I have Sky through my BT broadband, I generally make sure, that I see Spurs if I can. Partly because of my history, but also to see what sort of fireworks Bale will produce.
He has certainly delivered in recent weeks.
No other footballer has had such an effect on me. Let’s hope that kids these days, want to be the next Gareth Bale, as his style of play is very exciting.
He seems to combine the skill and thinking of a Blanchflower or a Beckham, with the speed of Cliff Jones and the power and ball skills of a Gascoigne or Puskas.
Let’s hope he behaves off the field like Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton, Trevor Brooking or Gary Lineker.
The Anonymous Widower 