18 March ~ "This swift business / I must uneasy make, least too light winning / Make the prize light." You won't hear fans of Newport County quoting Shakespeare too often. But as their club raced to the Blue Square South title – with almost seven weeks of the season still to play – Prospero's aside from The Tempest seemed rather apposite. While the bookies had paid out on the club's title bets as early as February, the scenes of emotion among the 4,221 who celebrated Monday's title-clinching win over Havant & Waterlooville suggested that County fans have learned to take nothing for granted.

18 March ~ With the words "You know when people stop laughing at your jokes it's time to leave," Gary Johnson today left Bristol City. In WSC 173 (July 01) Daunis Auers explained what went wrong during Johnson's time as Latvia coach

Gerijs Dzonsons (or Gary Johnson as the English spelling would have it) bounced into Latvian football at the tail end of yet another doomed campaign for the national side, a respectable but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to qualify for Euro 2000. Read the full article

18 March ~ It was with images of a playground ritual fresh in my mind that I made my way to the newsagent one lunchtime recently. The words "Got. Got. Need. Got. Got. Need," rang in my ears. The joy of swapping the utterly psychotic-looking Trifon Ivanov for dapper Jorge Campos during USA 94, replaced by the exchange of Toni Polster for José Luis Chilavert, four years later. Imagine my horror then when I ripped open the packaging of the Panini World Cup 2010 sticker album to find what amounted to little more than a colourful ring binder.

The new WSC is out now, available from all good newsagents or dispatched on the day of order from the WSC shop. Including:
How Chester's demise is an indictment of the football authorities.
Media reaction to the Ashley Cole and John Terry sagas.
The folly of Champions League play-offs, and why they failed in the Netherlands.
Why it's never boring at Brunton Park.
The last 1930 World Cup survivor turns 100, and other international centurions.
How to create a football news story out of nothing.
East Africans denied a chance in the UK by mad administrators and nonsensical immigration law.

17 March ~ Having held a grim-faced silenzio stampa (press silence) for the past week, Jose Mourinho's relationship with the Italian media had reached a new low on the eve of Inter's Champions League return leg against Chelsea. A touchline ban, a pitiful display against Catania and ongoing grief with Mario Balotelli had formed a simmering backdrop to the game, with the Nerazzurri lumbered with the added burden of being Italy's sole survivors in the competition.