Dear WSC
Nice to see Tranmere physio Les Parry get some recognition in WSC 255 (Shot!), although he is no stranger to fame. Not only did he win a competition to find the fastest physio in the country a few years ago (with the final being held before the League Cup final), he is probably the only physio in the country – nay, the world – who has his own chant. The verses are seldom sung these days, as they refer to players such as Andy Thorn who have long retired (a further sign of his longevity), but the chorus, to the tune of I am the Music Man, of “Physi, physi, physio. Physio Les Parry” still rings out when he sprints on to the pitch to repair yet another Tranmere player clattered to the ground by some carthorse of a third-division defender.
John Rooney, Bristol
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Stories
They showed the power of money in football but ultimately tripped up by planning poorly for the future, writes Michael Whalley
As football crash-and-burn stories go, it’s hard to beat the implosion of Colne Dynamoes nearly 20 years ago. In the late 1980s, the Dynamoes – bankrolled by millionaire chairman-manager Graham White – charged through the non-League pyramid on a budget to make some Football League clubs jealous. And then, in August 1990, having been denied promotion to the Conference because their ground wasn’t up to standard, they folded overnight.
Well, OK, it will be 20 years in May since Wimbledon won the FA Cup, but Robert Jeffery and fellow fans are celebrating early as some key artefacts have at last come home, ending their Buckinghamshire exile
As scenes of triumph go, Morden Library in south London does not seem the most likely venue. Wimbledon fans, however, will take any glory they can get their hands on – which is why, one evening in February, former players, local dignitaries and a group of randomly chosen supporters gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Dons’ FA Cup victory over Liverpool and, more significantly, the return of the club’s honours from Milton Keynes.
Dave Kitson’s criticism of the FA Cup made headlines, but Roger Titford believes the striker’s comments were misinterpreted and that what needs to change is how the competition’s prize money is handed out
“We’re not going to win the FA Cup. I don’t give two shits about it to be honest,” said Dave Kitson, ahead of Reading’s third-round tie at Spurs. It is a typically blunt opinion that has divided fans both locally and nationally. Those of us with tickets set off leaden-heartedly for the “small” game – but we can’t say we were not warned. It’s been club policy for three years to focus solely on the league. Yet we got a 2-2 draw, where our regulars lost 6-4 the week before.
A Football History
by Gary James
James Ward, £21.95
Reviewed by Joyce Woolridge
From WSC 258 August 2008
Gary James’s ambitious aim is to tell the history of football in the Manchester area and thereby establish its importance to the city and its environs. The game was banned there 400 years ago because the inhabitants had been “greatly wronged… by a company of lewd and disordered persons… breaking many men’s glass windows at their pleasures and other great enormities”. As James points out, the authorities have not always been sensible of the myriad benefits of what became the region’s favourite pastime. You can hear James’s exasperation as he writes: “It says much about how the early history of football has been viewed in Manchester that the only plaque commemorating the history of [Manchester] City is actually incorrectly positioned.”