Taking Your Anger Out On Wikipedia
Last night as Manchester United threw their match away, I had an eye on the Wikipedia entry for the referee; Cüneyt Çakır.
Aspersions were being cast by the irate and removed by the moderators.
It’s all calmed down now!
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.
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!
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.
A Trip To Huddersfield
Yesterday, I took the train to Huddersfield to see the two Towns share a goal-less draw.
I went via Manchester Piccadilly, as I wanted to have a decent lunch in Carluccio’s at the station, where I know the wi-fi is also excellent, as it incidentally was on Virgin’s trains and in their First Class lounge at Euston. The same can’t be said for their food and drink offering on the trains at the weekend.
It was very cold outside and as I passed through Highbury and Islington station to get to Euston, it was actually trying to snow.
It may seem strange to get to Huddersfield via Manchester, but then there are four trains about every hour on that route. They are new trains, but are only three coaches and often are completely full with standing everywhere. It was a classic case of the Treasury deciding how many coaches should have been bought for the Trans Pennine route and then dividing it by three to fit their budget. It’s a pleasant enough half-hour route though through the Pennines as this picture shows.
Manchester To Huddersfield
Although, the cleaner at Piccadilly was a bit slapdash.
Slapdash Cleaning At Piccadilly
I feel right to blame the cleaner, as he actually came into the carriage whilst I was waiting to sit down.
I should point out that these Trans Pennine trains, illustrate some of what is wrong with the layout of Piccadilly station, which was probably designed by a Scouser with a bizarre sense of humour, to get at their rival city. These trains turn up at all sorts of places in the station and are often the second or even the third train on the platform, counting from the concourse. I think it was the third yesterday. It must be a nightmare for staff to get passengers on the right train. But I’ve changed trains at Piccadlly so many times now, that I know the traps the station sets for you. Hopefully things will get better with the Northern Hub works. But this won’t be fully implemented until 2018.
At present. there are two solutions for passengers to avoid the problems; allow plenty of time and have drink or a meal in the station or take another route. For Huddersfield yesterday, I could have gone via Leeds, but that would have meant a walk up the hill in the cold to get a meal, as Leeds station doesn’t have a restaurant only snack bars.
The journey on to Huddersfield was enlivened with one of those bizarre incidents that seem to happen to me. A screw fell out of the bottom of my camera onto the floor. In crawling around the floor looking for it, I was assisted by a retired lady doctor from Hull, who like me had gone to Liverpool University. We must have looked an odd pair. I’ve now got the problem of finding a screw for the camera. Or should that be an independent camera shop?
Huddersfield station is not your ordinary drab station, as the picture shows.
Huddersfield Railway Station
It is a Grade 1 listed building and actually contains two pubs. Pevsner described it as one of the best early railway stations in England. The statue by the way is Harold Wilson. The football ground is a twenty-minute walk downhill from the station and despite Huddersfield Town not being on television very often, the ground is well-known to viewers because of Rugby League.
John Smith’s Stadium
The John Smith’s Stadium was one of the first modern grounds to be built in recent years. As the picture shows, the view is good and I’d rate it one of the best seats for visiting supporters along with Barnsley, Burnley or Wolverhampton. You would never describe it as pokey or restricted like Charlton or QPR, although the stewards were complaining of the cold. So that must have been bad!
A steward incidentally told me that Ipswich had attracted a thousand fans. This must be quite a lot considering the distance from Suffolk and the weather. But on the other hand Ipswich, Suffolk and the football club must have one of the largest diaspora of any part of the UK.
The Football Fan In A Hijab
The BBC web site has this article, which talks about fifteen-year-old Amina Qureshi supporting Bradford in a hijab.
I actually don’t think this is as rare as the article makes out. When I saw Ipswich win at Bolton, I came across a small group of Asian girls supporting, some of whom were similarly attired.
I seem to remember too, a young girl in a hijab, with her father, who was wearing fairly traditional clothes for a Muslim man at Leyton Orient, which has more than a few Muslim supporters.
The Anonymous Widower 