Wombling free................?

This weekend sees the return of the FA Cup and while it may have lost some of it's magic it still has the ability to throw up the odd decent fixture.
Arguably the tie of this round is MK Dons vs AFC Wimbledon, I say AFC but that particular moniker seems to been dropped since they emerged into the football league proper though and there's no chance of getting the two teams confused.
As grudge matches go, it may not have the tradition of Celtic/Rangers, City/United or Arsenal/Spurs but a lot of footballing water has passed under the bridge and who'd have thought that a fan run team would ever get the chance to take on the exact same side that brought about their very meaning and existence? But as we all know Wimbledon have had their fair share of fairytales....

Back in the day Wimbledon may have had their fair share of critics, with the whole 'Crazy Gang' mentality, long ball game, and slightly heavy handed antics on the pitch but ultimately they were what grass roots old school football was all about.
Rising from the fourth to the first division in only four seasons (they were non league five seasons before that) and famously beating 'the culture club' of the Mighty Reds to win the FA Cup in 1988, they must have done something right, as players picked up for next to nothing went on to big money transfers and international honours.

Is there a hint of irony from those wanting to see Wimbledon get one over the MK Dons? Did those same people look down on the club during it's original rise and glory days of the late Eighties/early Nineties? Maybe, but the MK Dons - although a perfectly well run club with decent management and players came to represent the all that was going wrong about the game, with the possibilities of more American style franchised clubs feared to be on the horizon, once again grass roots old school football was proved to be the way forward.

So those who remember that David versus Goliath encounter in the FA Cup Final of '88 will be relishing this Sunday's game. But for the Wombles a victory if it comes may prove a hollow one, many fans are boycotting the game and still see MK's refusal to drop The Dons from their name as the ultimate betrayal.

The Weekender

With The Midweeker upping the ante last week in the prediction stakes our sheepskin clad weekend pundit has been putting in some extra training in a bid to claw back a bit dignity in the scorecast race!

And what a weekend it promises to be, a Super Sunday in all but name Andy Carroll will be looking to be the talk of The Toon again and get one over Alan Pardew while with Mancini's loyalty questioned he'll be wanting some bouncebackability against a Tottenham team who actually played 442 (our favourite formation) for a change this week!
Our man predicts the winning start to continue for Ollie @ The Palace and elsewhere Fleetwood go there own way from strength to strength in League Two.......

 

Remember, remember............

We're @ that time of year when the clocks go back and Winter draws on, footballing wise the trusty yellow ball is bought out to play and on the terraces as layers are piled on, autumnal fashion of a different kind can be seen as facial hair starts sprouting out like the first snowdrops of the season. But it's not just the women donning their winter coats, the men are joining in, as with recent years we see the start of Movember.......

Up and down the country top lip caterpillars can be spotted along with handlebar and porn star alike, but whereas it's now become a seasonal thing once upon a time in Football the moustache really was where it's at and so we pay tribute to those hirsute heroes of years gone by.

In the 50's a finely waxed moustache was the sign of a gentleman and back in the day football was a game for gents, everyone had a jolly good time on the pitch and smoked a packet of fags together afterwards in the communal baths.

The 60's & 70's were a hairier time both on and off the pitch, with free love in the air on the terraces tussled tressed hooligans ruled. Within the game itself moustaches had reached their prime and up and down the country hair was protruding from top lips at an alarming rate.

The ultimate team of 'taches surely was Liverpool of the 70's and 80's, a whole starting eleven could have been made up of mustachioed men alone, with the likes of Grobbelaar, Lawrenson, Rush and Aldridge all in favour of the lady tickler.

Throughout the seventies - the heyday of the nose neighbour - any form of facial hair (on a man at least) was seen as a sign of virility and in that glam rock era the hard men of football wore their 'taches with pride..........before a different kind of pride made them slightly less masculine. 

But you'd hardly want to point this out the Greame Souness

Souness - Hard

Though the moustache faded (or was it bleached) from the English game as the years went on, in some of those more liberal countries it gained a new lease of life, Ruud Gullitt setting off his porn star 'tache with a matching set of dreadlocks, while in Germany Ruddi Voller favoured the even more hardcore perm/tache combo. Elsewhere in the darkened corners of Eastern Europe we could still marvel at a lovely handlebar tash whenever the English clubs travelled abroad and with World Cups every four years those South Americans could always be relied on for a hirsute fix.

Nowadays the moustache is almost extinct with of late only Gary Neville @ Man Utd giving it a go, although even the scourge of football grounds and England Squads alike couldn't quite pull it off without resorting to a goatee to back it up.

Which leaves just everyone's favourite bad boy Joey Barton as the last recognised purveyor of facial fungus in football but even then he shaved it off after The Toon won a game.........let's just hope that when Movember rolls around and the bum fluff reappears some footballers man up and keep their 'tashs firmly placed on their top lips for seasons to come.

A Movember Masterpiece

20 Things I Hate About You.........

So with The Premiership twenty seasons old this week, we @ It's a Football Thing thought we'd take a look @ twenty reasons to hate top tier in England.........hold on to your hats here we go!
(In no particular order)

1 - The Untouchable - Sir Alex Ferguson
Can this man do anything wrong? Flashing back to when he jumped wildly in the air against Sheffield Wednesday, when United won their first Premier League title, to almost retiring a few years back! This ageing Scotsman just keeps getting better and better!

2 - Going Down - Diving
Simulation if you like, back in the day you actually had to be touched before hitting the deck and even if you were namby pamby enough to go down you'd get straight back up again for a bit of vengeance!

3 - Shit Kits
I remember not so long ago, when a kit would last a few seasons! Now it's all change every year! The problem is, a lot of the kit manufactures are running out of ideas, and the kits are looking shitter and shitter! Take the Kappa skin tight kits, not the best fit for pub crawling wanderers like ourselves! Now add to that a random colour!.. well infact they come in every bloody colour under the rainbow! From Newcastles orange and yellow sherbert mix, to Spurs Brown disaster and United's famous Grey mess!

4. Shake on it! - The Pre-Match Handshake
I walk into work in the morning and the first thing I do is shake my fellow workers hands..... no I put the kettle on and have a cuppa! Why on earth do we insist on the players shaking hands before the game?  I wanna see 11 grown men play a fair, full on contact game of football, then congratulate each other after the game with a proper handshake and a pint! The handshake before a game means nothing! They all end up trying to get each other sent off!

5 - The Men in Black - Officials
No longer in black, in fact every colour but! In a premier league we surely deserve premier referees and 'assistants'. But week in week out they get it wrong, whether they run the line or blow the whistle when are we going to get professional match officials??

6 - Off or On - The Offside Rule
Just get it sorted! All this second phase bollocks!

7 - Can I Kick It? - Multi coloured boots
Once upon a time, boots were black. Then they were white, now they are every colour of the rainbow, some players have been known to wear one of each colour!
It's another example where advertising and fashion have now taken hold of the modern game.

8 - All Weather - Games being called off
Oh no there's a bit of snow! With all this health and safety bullshit meaning more and more games are getting called off, whats the point of the orange/yellow ball anymore? Fans love a snow ball fight on the way to a game!

9 - Show Us Yer Tackle - Football is a contact sport
Along with diving, the major evil of the today's game. Football is in danger of turning into a non contact sport! Whatever happened to the sliding tackle? Obviously we don't want decapitation, but if you get the ball - One footed? Two footed - does it matter??

10 - Ronaldo
I could write 20 bloody points on this knobhead! The face, the diving, the step over, the cheating, the tan, the fact that he got Rooney sent off during the 2004 Euros, and then to top it all off demanding a move away from United to play for Real as he claimed La Liga is far superior than the English game....

11 - Take your seats - Modern Grounds
As teams look to make more dosh, the first thing they look at doing is tearing down their historic ground, and then creating a swimming pool like arena, an arena with no atmosphere, no identity, no sound! Just look @ the Emirates

12 - Bloody Foreigners! - The Rise of the Footballing Import
Now we're not talking about all foreigners, after all where would we be without Klinsmann, Bergkamp or little Frankie Zola. But then opened the floodgates, with every Thom, Rickard or Henry coming over here doing our jobs and stealing our women! The latest fashion accessory it seemed was a foreigner in your side and who could forget Brolin, Boogers & Veron!?!

13 - The Big Four - Over emphasis on the top teams
Every weekend, it's the big four this, the big four that! Who's says their the big four? Only Sky and what do they know? Do we really need it forced down our throats all the time? And don't get us started on them manipulating the fixtures to give us "Showdown Sunday" or " Armageddon Tuesday"

14 - Sweet FA - The Demise of The FA Cup
With the rise of The Premiership we've seen the fall of the FA Cup, with Man U bowing out completely one year for the World Club Championship. Do we need to remind you that this years final kicks off @ 5:15??

15 - Are We The Champions - The Rise of The Champions League
The Champions league, a league for winners! Why not give 2 places to the league (1st & 2nd) and then the FA Cup & Carling Cup winners should be given the other 2 places! Because @ the moment finishing 3rd or 4th means more than winning a cup!

16 - Club v Country - The Downfall of England
One of the fall outs from over emphasis on winning the Premiership & The Champions League is players taking a sickie when the International call comes. Not only that, but with the influx of players from abroad how are the youngsters expected to come through the ranks? Joe Hart England's Number One great 'keeper that he is, is really unopposed, where are our young goalies??

17. - Because I'm worth it...... - Adverts
It's all about how much players can make it a short amount of time, from Pepsi max to Pringles, to phones or even airlines! Grow some balls lads! Advertisement has gone mental! Shame no ones done an advert advertising diving hey!

18 - All Change - Player Loyalty
One team players how many in The Premiership Years have there been? Matt Le Tiss? Ledders @ Spurs? Donkey Adams @ Arsenal. There are a few others, but we are talking only a handful. With the promise of a fast buck players, with the help (or hindrance) of their agents will jump ship @ the drop of a hat! And it's not just the players...........

19 - Leeds
The last winners of the old first division, and the real first financial disaster in the Premiership, In the late 90's early 2000's Leeds had it all, England internationals, a great ground, history, a strong fan base, Champions League football and then over night it went all tits up! Placing their bets on Champions League qualification, Leeds over spent and we all know what happened next..... After too many years out of the top flight it would be fitting if our old pal Neil Warnock could guide them back to the Premiership next season!

20 - The Prawn Sandwich Brigade - The rise of the corporate fan
Back in the day it was a pie and a Bovril on the terrace. Now, it's a fiver for a warmed up burger and two quid for a KitKat! True fans are being priced out of the game in favour for big businesses 'entertaining' clients in boxes............where's the fun in that??