Dear WSC
On January 13, Paul Alcock officiated at the Northampton Town v Bury match. During the obligatory photo just prior to kick-off, home mascot Clarence the Dragon made as if to push Alcock à la Di Canio but actually made no contact. Alcock’s reaction was to spit out: “Oh very fucking funny! I haven’t heard that one for at least ten fucking minutes.” This in front of the two young mascots who immediately told their parents as they came off that the referee had sworn at Clarence. Unbelievably, Alcock actually reported the “incident” to the FA with the result that the club has been fined and Clarence handed a severe reprimand and cautioned as to his future conduct. Just what planet does this prissy little pipsqueak come from? Talk about double standards.
Peter Smith, Northampton
Search: ' Christmas'
Stories
When Hereford went down to the Conference, Richard Butler was among their fans who despaired. But now he's starting to enjoy it
An air of cautious optimism prevailed among Hereford United fans prior to our first match in the Football Conference after 25 years of League football. We felt devastated by the events of May 3, 1997, when a 1-1 draw with Brighton on the final day of the season condemned us to the drop.
Despite their confidence earlier this year, frustrated Conference clubs are still waiting for the League to agree more promotion places to the Third Division. Louis Williamson reports
It’s the time of the year when things start to get a little sticky around the action area of the Nationwide League Third Division. Exeter, Carlisle, Torquay and the rest are preparing for the climax of a frantic struggle for survival. If the Conference has its way, though, in future years there will be two or even more League teams giving up their guaranteed place on the pools coupon come the end of the season.
Just what exactly was Middlesbrough's fascination with some bagless vacuum cleaners? Dave Carter blows the story
I blame it all on my friend Mark. He is a guerrilla comper, a professional competition entrant who specialises in winning prizes without purchasing the products the competitions are designed to promote. It is his fault that I arrived at the Riverside Stadium bleary-eyed at 9.45 on the morning of Middlesbrough’s clash with Charlton Athletic, to be photographed standing alongside a purple, top-of-the-range turbo-suction Dyson vacuum cleaner.
In recent decades, few Britons have gone abroad and stayed. Phil Ball profiles John Toshack, the only British coach working at the top level in a major European league
“Whether it’s with a bottle of claret, a good rioja, a glass of raki or a decent port, the attraction’s still the same – come away after 90 minutes with the three points,” said the peripatetic Welshman, John Toshack, in an article penned just before Christmas from St Etienne for El Diario Vasco, the Basque newspaper with whom he had signed a contract at the beginning of the year to write a weekly column. His Bacchanalian references were, of course, a nod to all the countries in which he has managed a football team, although he seems to have had some problem recalling his Welsh spell, unless he was alluding in the opening clause to some new strain of Swansea claret.