The Great British Derby

With the North London Derby fast approaching, I will (as usual) want Tottenham to win.  I can't think of one occasion when I have wanted Arsenal to beat Spurs. They are not my team, but when it comes to a derby match a part of my brain has decided that I have to have a favourite side. I just can't enjoy watching a derby unless I am in some small way attached to one of the teams.

 I think this probably stems from the fact that watching my own teams local gathering is always painful, gut wrenching agony. As soon as the full time whistle goes, and the immediate jubilation or despair has disappeared, I tend to think 'Thank God it's 6 months until we face that bunch again'.  So I want Spurs to win to give the game meaning and enjoyment, but safe in the knowledge that if Arsenal win I don't have to suffer the pain!

I then got to thinking about every derby. It turns out I am always the same. I want one team to win. I can't think of one major British derby where I don't always want the same team to win, unless it directly benefits my own team obviously!

So here's my derby list, (in no particular order) and where known my reasons for favourtism, this is usually due to one player or specific event. Think about it yourself, it's quite revealing! Capitals are the team I favour. Where I say underdog, it is not meant as offensive. It's just a fact from when I was young, it might not be true now!!!! Obviously it's not an exhaustive list. Some teams, like Millwall, would consider that they have 3 or 4 derby games, so I've just picked one, and I really can't be bothered to go through all of the random inter city rivalries just to explain why I want Swindon to beat Oxford, Cowdenbeath to despatch East Fife or Grimsby to do Lincoln!

1. Arsenal v SPURS.      Reason - Glenn Hoddle, Chris Waddle and Clive Allen
2. MAN CITY v Man Utd          City being the perennial underdog (Obviously not now!)
3. EVERTON v Liverpool           Graeme Sharp,  Anfield 1984
4. Chelsea v FULHAM                Chelsea losing to Fulham is always funny! 
5.  BLACKBURN v Burnley       Irrational favourtism to Blackburn.
6. Newcastle v SUNDERLAND    Underdog
7. Bristol City v BRISTOL ROVERS   Rovers have generally been mucked about over the years.
8. NORWICH v Ipswich        Norwich had Trevor Putney and Dale Gordon
9. CARDIFF v Swansea        I have lived near Cardiff and watched them.
10. Forest v NOTTS COUNTY                  Huge underdog
11. Aston Villa v BIRMINGHAM CITY     Villa just annoy me. Sorry.
12. WBA v Wolves                             That WBA shirt with the no smoking sign on it.
13. CELTIC v Rangers                 Rangers were winning everything at the time.
14. DUNDEE v Dundee Utd        Bobby Geddes
15. SHEFF UTD v Sheff Weds    Deane and Agana
16. Hearts v HIBS
17. Exeter v PLYMOUTH           Dave Smith
18. MILLWALL  v West Ham    Sheringham, Cascarino and Stevens
19. BLACKPOOL v Preston
20. PORT VALE v Stoke            Underdog
21. Colchester v SOUTHEND     I go and watch Southend, they are close to my inlaws! 
22. EAST STIRLINGSHIRE v Stenhousemuir    East Stirling are always crap.
23. PORTSMOUTH v The unmentionable sons of the devil...................                           

I shed no tears for Crawley Town..

The glory of the FA Cup. The plucky underdog knocking out the pampered big boys. Sutton United, Yeovil Town and Hereford United. Roy Essandoh, Jim Montgomery and 'Smith must score.'  I love all of this. I love the FA Cup with a passion. So why then was I so desperate for Premier League Stoke City to stuff League Two Crawley Town?

Stoke City mean nothing to me. I don't support them, but I don't hate them. I rarely want them to win, but I don't think I've ever passionately wanted them to lose a game. I respect them as a well run club, with good players and a good manager. Despite all of that, if they had been playing Swindon, Southend or Torquay I would not have wanted Stoke to win. When Jon Walters put 10 man Stoke ahead I cheered out load. Peter Crouch's second was met with a clenched fist waved in celebration. When the full time whistle blew I decided to have a think about why I have this intense dislike of Crawley Town.

I don't dislike the supporters. I don't think there are enough of them to dislike. If you don't come from Crawley you won't support them, so it's not like there are thousands of glory fans. I don't dislike the players, from what I've seen they are a decent team for League Two. I don't even dislike the fact that they seemingly have a huge stash of cash to be able to spend on players. That's football, and there are a few non league clubs with plenty of cash. I still wanted Fleetwood to beat Blackpool.

Steve Evans - Corrupt

I do dislike the fact that they have a classless, arrogant criminal as their manager. As long as Steve Evans is manager of Crawley, I will despise them and cheer whoever they are playing. The man should not be allowed anywhere near a football club, professional or otherwise, yet he is allowed to spout his opinions on TV and Radio and we are meant to be happy for 'plucky Crawley'. Last season, because of this man, I sunk to the lowest depths it is possible to go to. For 90 minutes I became a fan of Manchester United..


For anyone who doesn't know the background to the case, Whilst at Boston, Evans was convicted of tax evasion, and the FA found him guilty of contract irregularities whereby players salaries were not correctly declared to the FA. He was banned from football for 20 months... To the disgust of Boston fans he ended up back at the club and managed to get himself escorted out of Blundell Park at half time of a match against Grimsby for foul and abusive language. It is hard to imagine what he must have said to get kicked out of the ground by the police. Due to the fact that Evans was convicted, there are plenty of details all over the internet if you want to look into it further.

Somehow he maintained his job and saw Boston lose a last day of the season decider at Wrexham. Evans immediately stated his commitment to the club, publicly stating that he would stay at Boston. Two weeks later though he resigned and went to Crawley, where the attraction of the endless supply of money tempted him. Within a season he had picked up a 10 game ban for poor touchline behavior.

Even in the last week he has shown himself to be completely incapable of behaving like a respectable human being. He called Stoke's squad 'Championship players' and then when Rory Delap made what was at worst a yellow card tackle, he remonstrated like a mad hippopotamus on the touchline to such an extent that it must have taken all of Tony Pulis' self control not to walk over there and hit him.

That's why I wanted Stoke to win. Money can buy you good players, it can build you a nice stadium and it can get you into the football league. What it can't do is buy you class. I'm off to listen to some Tom Jones.  

The Farce of France!

Various reasons have meant that I haven't updated my blog in the last few weeks, but rest assured, some things have still been annoying me.

1. The Farce of France

Rugby is my favourite sport. I love  all sports. I am a huge fan of football and cricket, but rugby has always been my first love. Due to my job, I can't really blog too much about rugby, but the behavior of certain individuals in the postponed France v Ireland match drove me mad.

Pearson - Scapegoat

For those who missed it, the game got called off about 10 minutes before the scheduled kick off time (9pm GMT) due to parts of the pitch being frozen. The blame for this was then passed squarely onto referee Dave Pearson by the French Federation. The referee is responsible for one thing and one thing only when doing a pitch inspection and that is the safety of the players. Nothing else should come into consideration. Pearson correctly said that if the safety of the players couldn't be guaranteed then the game can not take place. That is just the referee doing his job correctly. Of course it is a disappointment for the fans present, particularly those travelling from far away, but the referee should not be blamed. I would imagine that if he was allowed, he would have called the game off about 6 hours earlier.



The FFR on the other hand have made themselves look ridiculous. Straight away after the game the passed the blame onto Pearson. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt Dave Pearson scheduled the game for a late evening kick off. I don't think Dave Pearson looked at the long term weather forecast and decided not to move the kick off time forward. I'm pretty sure Dave Pearson wasn't responsible for the Stade De France not having undersoil heating.

In a couple of weeks the game will be replayed. None of the players will be missing through serious injury. That is thanks to the correct call being made. The bigwigs in the FFR should think about how they have acted from the comfort of their luxury seats.