As West Ham were cruising to an emphatic 4-1 victory over Leicester they indulged themselves in one of those prolonged sessions of keep ball, with each successive pass greeted by the joyous olés of the home crowd. There were only two minutes remaining and it looked as though this could go on until the finalContinue reading “The 300 Club Part Two: Noble by name, nobleman by nature”
Author Archives: richardfoster60
Crystal Palace 2 Man City 136
When Michael Olise’s perfectly struck shot cannoned off the far post into Millwall’s net in 46th minute it not only sparked Palace’s recovery from a goal down but also it broke the Eagles’ Cup drought, which stretched back to March 2019. And so this painful count of City goals that they have racked up inContinue reading “Crystal Palace 2 Man City 136”
The 300 Club – current players who have made 300 appearances for one club Part One
Nearly all the attention was focused on a player who was not going to play. Even the BBC got wrapped up in the “Will he? Won’t he?” saga, with 5 Live’s football correspondent John Murray commentating on which Tottenham players he could spot as they trooped off the team bus and made their way aroundContinue reading “The 300 Club – current players who have made 300 appearances for one club Part One”
The best Premier League Debuts
As Brentford ready themselves for their Premier League debut against Arsenal, here is a quick dip into my book, “Premier League Nuggets” to look at the most impressive performances by five clubs in their opening Premier League matches. Starting with the opening day of the inaugural season when Arsenal were also involved, taking on NorwichContinue reading “The best Premier League Debuts”
Euros 2020: Best tournament for 50 years.
Italy started and ended this tournament on a high. The Azzurri lit the blue touch paper 0n 11th June in Rome when they eased past Turkey with effortless elan and exactly one month later they slowly but surely wrested the initiative back from England after conceding the earliest goal in a European Championship Final. NobodyContinue reading “Euros 2020: Best tournament for 50 years.”
How Gareth Southgate’s qualities have restored pride
Where to start? After 55 years England have made it to a Final. I was alive when we last did it but have a very sketchy recollection of watching the game at home with my parents and elder brother on our black-and-white television. My abiding memory was going to see the official FIFA film “Goal!”,Continue reading “How Gareth Southgate’s qualities have restored pride”
The Euros Last 16 – a fantastic feast of fulminating football.
At its very best football can be so enthralling and intoxicating to watch that it is actually exhausting. The perfect mixture for a match involves moments of high quality, high drama and even the odd bit of misfortune to provide a dose of reality amongst the dream sequence. There also needs to be a degreeContinue reading “The Euros Last 16 – a fantastic feast of fulminating football.”
Euros 2020 – Group F’s fantastic finish, Ronaldo’s record and a gaggle of own goals .
As final rounds of games go the fluctuations of Group F on Wednesday night provided a classic of the genre. At the start, only France were guaranteed to move on to the last 16 while the other three teams were in with a chance of qualifying. Hungary were discounted as no-hopers by the cognoscenti, beatingContinue reading “Euros 2020 – Group F’s fantastic finish, Ronaldo’s record and a gaggle of own goals .”
Palace go global as they join multi-club partnership
Lost amidst the first week of the European Championship and the announcement of next season’s Premier League fixtures it would have been easy to miss the news that Crystal Palace had joined the Global Football Alliance. Described as a strategic partnership between clubs operating in different countries Palace became the sixteenth member of a networkContinue reading “Palace go global as they join multi-club partnership”
First European Championships Finals match in 1960 set a record that has never been beaten
The opening matches of major tournaments are traditionally cagey affairs with neither side willing to risk too much so early on and consequently entertainment is often sacrificed for the sake of a solid, if unspectacular start. For example, in the last four European Championships there have been nine goals scored in total in those quartetContinue reading “First European Championships Finals match in 1960 set a record that has never been beaten”
The Football Mine 