Search: ' Christmas'

The SFA are looking at restructuring non-League football. Neil Forsyth reports

As seven non-League clubs take to the field in the Scottish Cup second round on December 9, they will signify more than the ever-lessening gap between the cream of Scottish non-League and the nether regions of the professional ranks. Their appearance and the now annual forays of such outfits to this stage and beyond seem to have finally forced football here to confront its increasingly unjustifiable closed-shop status.

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Glen Wilson reports on how you could have played in the last game at Belle Vue

At the final whistle in Brighton’s last game at the Goldstone Ground, in April 1997, the fans proceeded to do two things: invade the pitch and tear the place apart. Neither through malice nor a penchant for violence, but just simply in an effort to claim something of what they believed was theirs. Fans left clutching pieces of turf, seats or, in one fairly impressive case, the large clock from the ground’s south-east corner. It was, in its emotion and spontaneity, a fitting fans’ farewell.

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Fergie very nearly lost his job before any of his league titles. But as Ashley Shaw informs us, he was saved by the Palace

Let’s hope Sir Alex Ferguson enjoys his 20th anniversary a good deal more than his third. Back in 1989 the knives were out after an horrific start to the season, which included a notorious derby defeat and an early exit to Spurs in the League Cup.

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Jamie Redknapp and Tim Sherwood attempt to please PFA members with a vanity publication, Harry Pearson reports

Many years ago a school friend of mine had trials at Middlesbrough. Chris was at Ayresome Park for a week, training alongside Craig Johnston and Bozo Jankovic. He was offered terms and, incredibly, turned the chance down. “To be honest, I don’t think I could spend every day with people like that,” he said. “I just couldn’t find anything to talk to them about."

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Cameron Carter observes how Mark Lawrenson is slowly veering away from what he's put there to be – a pundit

John Helm must have done something quite bad, but not dreadful, in a previous life. Perhaps he murdered a cow or was a slum landlord with only one slum. Whatever it was, in his current incarnation he has been forced to eternally comment on the UEFA Cup on Five. Because of his lack of options, Helm can’t make like Alan Green if the action’s a bit slow and tell everyone how bored he is; instead he must remain upbeat at his vigil and keep his and everyone else’s spirits up. As Newcastle toiled away against Ventspils of Latvia, many of us were reaching for the off switch and resignedly contemplating housework. Helm sensed this. “It’s an interesting game,” he pleaded, “without goals.” A slight pause. “Eleven minutes to the break,” he went on, in the preoccupied tone of a man who was calculating that in seconds.

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