Saturday 1 “We will make sure it is exciting until the end of the title race,” says Arsène, as Arsenal scrape a 2-1 win over Fulham with a Robert Pires goal in the last minute. Man Utd are six points behind in second after winning 2-0 at Southampton. “We are capable of getting out of our mess,” says Gary Megson as West Brom move off the bottom after a 2-1 win at Man City. Sunderland score three goals in eight first-half minutes, but all are for Charlton, who win 3-1. “I have never been in or watched a game like it,” sighs Howard, whose team now prop up the table. Bolton put a four-point gap between themselves and the bottom three after beating Birmingham 4-2. Peter Ridsdale is barracked by Leeds fans during their 2-0 defeat at Everton but there are cheers for El Tel, who doesn’t know whether he is staying or going: “I don’t see my position clearly at the moment.” In the First, Sheffield Utd’s chances of catching Portsmouth and Leicester subside with a 1-0 defeat at Millwall, while their rivals both win. Brighton, with 43-year-old debutant Dave Beasant in goal, stay bottom with a 1-0 defeat at Walsall. Wigan are held to a goalless draw at home by bottom-place Cheltenham but still lead the Second by eight points. Boston slip back into the drop zone in the Third after conceding two goals in injury time to lose 2-1 at Bournemouth.
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Stories
A former Leeds chairman, an FA Cup run, a mass walkout; football is the talk of the tea shops. Mark Douglas puts down his scone to tell the Harrogate story
When the time comes to draw up a list of history’s most defiant gestures, it is fair to say the mass walkout of Paul Marshall and his Harrogate Railway first-team squad in February 2003 won’t be muscling out Nikita Khruschev’s shoe-banging rage at the UN in the Cold War’s frostiest days. Given that the repentant players were back at the club’s Station View ground within a few days, it probably ranks with John Gummer feeding his daughter a beef burger. Nevertheless, Marshall’s anger, provoked by the offer of a “disrespectful” £200 bonus for the team’s stellar efforts in their historic FA Cup second-round defeat to Bristol City, does at least draw attention to the crossroads which Harrogate’s football clubs are at. After decades of struggle, Railway and higher-placed rivals Harrogate Town find themselves with the finance and impetus to make a mark on the football world, but a strong conservative streak threatens to undermine the recent success and banish them to football’s backwaters.
Previously best known for providing comedian Eric Bartholomew's stage name, the seaside resort could soon have a Football League team. Geoff Walters reports
Until 1995 my experience of watching Morecambe had been restricted to the Northern Premier League. Memories are of high-scoring games in dilapidated grounds featuring players who would have looked more at home on Blackpool beach, and the peculiar habit Morecambe had of scoring every time I decided to move to another position in the ground.
Amid heated debates (no, really) over restructuring non–league football, John Carter explains why Ryman Isthmian clubs are stuck in the middle of a biscuit
Isthmian League fans reckon Claremont Road’s climate has more in common with the Yukon than Cricklewood. But bone-chilling temperatures alone don’t explain why only 243 fans turned up for the mid-December clash between long-time rivals Hendon and Enfield. Yes, there were special circumstances: most of Enfield’s fans have “done a Wimbledon”, deserting to breakaway new boys Enfield Town; the club’s travelling support now typically consists of three men sharing a cup of Bovril. Nevertheless, many of the terrace foot-stampers that afternoon remember times when the fixture could be expected to draw ten times the paying customers it does today.
Wednesday 1 Arsenal stay five points clear but only after a nervous last few minutes in which Chelsea score twice before losing 3-2. “I like to win games like that when you’re tired,” says Arsène, making an excuse even though he doesn’t need to. “It was like watching the tide coming in,” says Howard Wilkinson as Man Utd score two late goals to beat Sunderland 2-1 having trailed for 75 minutes. Liverpool drop down to seventh after a tenth winless match, a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle, but Gérard sticks his chin out, sort of: “I don’t want to commit suicide before the end of the season.” Several fixtures are postponed due to bad weather, and one, Reading v Leicester, is called off at half-time due to a waterlogged pitch.