Premier League Nuggets

As the thirtieth Premier League season is over, it is high time for some Nuggets, all 30 of them firstly club-by-club, and then some generic ones.  1. Starting with Arsenal who lost more games (13) than Brighton (11) & Palace (12) but won more (22) than Chelsea (21). 2. Next up it’s Aston Villa –Continue reading “Premier League Nuggets”

Grenfell Athletic: How a football club brought hope to a devastated community.

Images c/o Sebastian Barros Instagram @sebbarros The Middlesex County Football League is one of the fifty leagues operating at Step 11 in the pyramid of English football with almost 1,000 clubs represented. Every Sunday morning,  hundreds of matches dotted around the country are contested but there is one club, that stands out from the crowd.Continue reading “Grenfell Athletic: How a football club brought hope to a devastated community.”

Team of the Eighties-Part Two

Part Two of an exclusive interview with Al Ryan, writer and director, providing an insight  into the production of “Team of the Eighties” documentary [Part One https://bit.ly/3k9lV7Q%5D At the time Ryan pitched the concept he was working at the club developing Palace TV. “Steve Parish phoned me up one morning asking if we had someContinue reading “Team of the Eighties-Part Two”

Queens Park Book Festival with Pat Nevin and Ricky Hill

At last weekend’s Queens Park Book Festival I had the pleasure of hosting a football panel with Pat Nevin and Ricky Hill, who both had books published earlier this year. A common theme that unites the two former internationals is that, for different reasons, both were considered as outsiders within the football world, for exampleContinue reading “Queens Park Book Festival with Pat Nevin and Ricky Hill”

Own Goals Part Three: Richard Dunne the undisputed OG king

This is the third part of the series on own goals and the focus is very much on the doyen of OG, but before honing in on the master of the art, we start with the first outfield player to get in on the act, Manchester City’s Garry Flitcroft.  Just a week after Mark Crossley’sContinue reading “Own Goals Part Three: Richard Dunne the undisputed OG king”

Own Goals Part Two – Double Trouble

When the ball cannoned off Craig Dawson past Lukasz Fabianski during West Ham’s helter-skelter draw with Arsenal last weekend it was the centre back’s second own goal in consecutive matches. It was also the second that West Ham conceded in this game as Tomas Soucek had inadvertently deflected Alexandre Lacazette’s shot into his own netContinue reading “Own Goals Part Two – Double Trouble”

London Calling: Palace’s curious derby habit

Most fans have a sneaking suspicion that fate conspires against their club now and again. In extreme circumstances this feeling develops into rapidly escalating levels of paranoia reaching a consensus that firstly, the whole world is against you and secondly and more worryingly that there is very little that can be done about it. ForContinue reading “London Calling: Palace’s curious derby habit”

Half-term report: No fans, plenty of pens and tightest of title races

At this stage last season Liverpool were already thirteen points ahead of their nearest rivals, Leicester City. While the second half of the season was not exactly a walk in the (Stanley) park, there was the sense of an orderly procession towards their first league championship for thirty years and that elusive Premier League title.Continue reading “Half-term report: No fans, plenty of pens and tightest of title races”

Football’s Endgame: How clubs now face a grim fight for survival this winter

In my first blog post in late August I wrote about how eerie and soulless football was without fans after being among forty-odd people watching QPR play Sheffield Wednesday: “The likelihood is that this will be the way matches are going to be played out for the foreseeable future. Josh Scott, QPR’s Operations Manager, toldContinue reading “Football’s Endgame: How clubs now face a grim fight for survival this winter”