Search: ' Port Vale'

Steve Gibson first got involved at Middlesbrough to save the club from extinction in 1986. Jon Lymer looks back at the  lowest point in Boro's history

The bond between Middlesbrough’s chairman, Steve Gibson, and the club’s supporters is uncommon in both its intensity and its longevity. This is because when the club was at its lowest ebb, Gibson acted as any of us would have done, rescuing the club from a seemingly impossible position and sticking valiantly to the task of rebuilding and transforming it.

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  Neil White on the pros and cons of UEFA's plans for football's future pitches

When an irate Gerry Collins launched into a vitriolic rant at a post-match press conference last week, it had nothing to do with his Partick Thistle side’s insipid performance in their defeat by Dunfermline. Collins’ ire was dir­ected exclusively at Dunfermline Athletic’s new artificial pitch – UEFA’s view of football’s future.

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In the dizzy heights of the Premier League when emotions run high things can get out of hand

Millions of neutrals will have watched the recent Manchester United ver­sus Arsenal match and greatly enjoyed its conclusion – even people who dislike the Premiership for what it represents will have been entertained. They may have been surprised, therefore, to learn that civilisation itself was undermined by what followed a late penalty miss. Sky, of course, were shock­ed by the hounding of Ruud van Nistelrooy and made sure we saw why, repeatedly, from every angle. Revulsion swept through the media – phone-ins were jammed, the tabloids brought out extra large point sizes for their head­lines and the letters pages were full of tearful letters from parents about how their poor children were shocked by what they saw (while they were outside, argu­ing over who was going to play Mar­tin Keown in their reconstruction).

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Tom Davies examines the day to day struggle for survival of three clubs in the lower leagues

The wheels have well and truly come off at Barry Town. Mounting debts have caught up with the seven-times League of Wales champions, forcing the club into administration and the team to the bottom of the Welsh Premier table. The crisis came to a head shortly after shy and retiring John Fashanu quit in August. As reported in WSC 192, Fashanu took over at the end of last year with talk of using the club as a gateway to European foot­ball for African players for whom he acted as agent. But none of this came to pass and fans now see his tenure as just a publicity stunt.

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Monday 1 On transfer deadline day, Chelsea finally snap up Claude Makelele from Real Madrid for, ooh, £80 million or so. Everton fans might be pleased by the arrival of James McFadden from Motherwell, but possibly less excited by that of Kevin Kilbane and the return on loan of Franny Jeffers. Among other loan deals, Marcus Bent leaves impoverished Ipswich for Leicester and Portsmouth take Jason Roberts from West Brom.

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