Angry fans
We'll be debating the thespian merites of The Damned United; Duffer's fitness, if that's not a contradiction in terms; the importance of this Wednesday's match in Bari; England's dodgy new strip; Liverpool's enormous squad; remembering the best end-of-season game ever; and asking whether the Stand Up Sit Down campaign really is a good idea in the light of the Ivorian soccer tragedy.
The Letter of the Week goes to Anthony O’Leary, Dublin. Get in touch with your postal address and our magnificent prize will be winging its way to you post haste.
BEEN TO see The Damned United this weekend. Where did they get that actor from to play Billy Bremner? Good voice work, but looks like he plays for an over-40s pub side which only selects overweight midgets. And was it part of the legal settlement with the publishers that Johnny Giles had to be played by someone without the faintest resemblance to him? All in all though, it’s hard to feel the remotest bit of sympathy for Leeds in their current plight after watching that.
The scenes showing Dirty Leeds were good though, and a far cry from the football depicted in Escape to Victory and When Saturday Comes. A lot’s been said about Michael Sheen’s performance but I thought Dublin’s Colm Meaney stole the film as Don Revie. Perhaps that was the Don’s final revenge on his tormentor?
SO Duffer couldn’t be fit for the Bulgaria and Italy matches, but may be able to turn out for Newcastle next weekend against Chelsea. That’s what I call an unhappy coincidence.
You’re talking trap, O’Tony. Injury niggles come and go; this injury just wasn’t as bad as they first suspected.
HOW frustrating that Irish performance was. To be within a gasp of getting three points and then watch them slip away was awful. But in a couple of months’ time — whatever the result against Italy tomorrow — we might look back on this game as the one that got us to South Africa. At least we’re not Wales, watched by only 22,000 supporters, and dominated by a 38-year-old Jari Litmanen.
PEOPLE moan about Trap’s “safety first” policy but I don’t see that he has much choice. No Damien Duff (Stephen Hunt is a poor replacement); no Stephen Reid, and Stephen Ireland unavailable. What’s he to do? It’s his job to get us to South Africa, and if he has to be pragmatic to do that then it’s just fine by me. We’ve always been better in tournament play than we have been in qualifiers.
Dropping points at home isn’t necessarily the best way to secure a passage to the World Cup but it still looks like advantage Ireland, just. One thing’s for sure . . . there’s not much room left for error now. Getting something out of the Bari trip would be a big step on the road to Africa.
LOTS of people will be thinking about Hillsborough over the next month, but as a football supporter I prefer to remember something that happened six weeks later to rescue the game from the doldrums. That was the match at Anfield when Michael Thomas scored the vital second goal in the last minute in a match that no one expected Arsenal to win. There has never been a more dramatic end to a season. They even made a film about it. It was watched live on free TV. The following season saw the arrival of the subscription-based BSB, now known as Sky, which changed football forever. So when people remember the dark days of football in three weeks time, they should also remember how the sport responded.
Letter of the week Anthony, not only for reminding us how much everything has changed but also making us recall one of the great end-of-season occasions which was also George Graham’s greatest moment . . . picking a sweeper in a match he had to win by two clear goals. We could do with another finish like that. Let’s hope it’s this season.
LIVERPOOL need a squad of 62 because of the amount of rotation that Rafa likes to practice.
SO what if Liverpool have got a squad of 62 professionals? Just what has this to do with UEFA? It’s none of their business. They can only field 11 at one time, and you can only have a Champions League squad of 25. Platini, Blatter and that lot need to concentrate on improving the flow of the game, not making trivial, point-scoring, observations about things that have nothing to do with them.
Limerick Red, by email
And a large squad size, 47 in this case, was one of the issues that led to disenchantment with Roy Keane’s reign at Sunderland. Point is that clubs that are challenging on four or five fronts can do what they want in terms of their overall squad and many of the lower league clubs do benefit from the loan system that operates with such frequency in England.
ENGLAND fans once again boo Frank Lampard despite his willingness to sacrifice his natural game to help his country, and the fact that he scored one goal and made another. They’re the worst “supporters” in the world, no argument.
You’ll find no arguments here on that score Dennis. However, it doesn’t seem to bother Lampard that much so let’s spend no more time worrying about it.
BAD news lads. I think Capello has got England playing like a bit of a team. He’s even managing to find a shape that gets the best out of Gerrard and Rooney. You just know we’re going to have to knock them out in the quarter-finals in South Africa to stop them.
Nothing like a bit of forward planning Daniel. Ireland v England in Soweto next summer. Now that could be an interesting cultural exchange.
SURELY the best tribute that Liverpool can pay to those that died at Hillsborough will be to reclaim the league title that we last won in April, 1990. Keep the faith.
Now’s as good a time as any. Should be a great finale to the season. Let’s hope Gerrard and Torres stay fit
I SUPPOSE there was the risk that things were going to get lively when Poland were drawn to play in Belfast. Poland had been involved in crowd trouble at Manchester and they have strong support which doesn’t have that far to travel. But only four people were charged after the match. Some of the Press coverage which followed this weekend was exaggerated.
Yes, Polish supporters are developing a certain, shall we say, reputation in these matters. But things could have been far worse. See below.
THE stampede which killed 22 people at the game between the Ivory Coast and Malawi was eerily reminiscent of those we witnessed in European football during the 1980s — too many people, some without tickets, attempting to get into one section of an ageing ground; police over-reaction; the use of tear-gas and the collapse of a crumbling wall. There has been a lot of debate about the introduction of all-seater stadia in the Premier League but what cannot be argued with is that football grounds are immeasurably safer since that took place. The “Stand Up” campaigners who want to see the reintroduction of “safe” terracing in the top two English divisions also has to answer the point that there has been no repetition of the problems experienced at Hillsborough, or Heysel, since compulsory seating was introduced.
I’m personally unconvinced by the “Stand Up Sit Down” campaign having witnessed a couple of incidents when people have tumbled down the terraces having been the worst for wear, and then celebrating a goal a little too enthusiastically. In the Premier League I can’t see it being adopted. It’s interesting to note that in the Champions League there is a far higher incidence of standing, perhaps due to the large numbers of away supporters who now travel to the ties.
