Association Football in The British Isles

[Chet]

thermo, you can watch sky sports news here

http://www.firstrowsports.eu/

where you can at least getting running updates when games are being played. complete with pundits live around the various grounds. also, that website will give links to any championship games that air on sky.

[Thermofusion]

Good looking out, chet!

[Chet]

i got your back dogg

[Nick Ink]

BBC London should have the West Ham game tonight, think this works for non-UK.... - http://tunein.com/tuner/?StationId=24849&

Nothing on the Blackpool game at the moment, I'm afraid

[Nick Ink]

Barring a very unlikely set of results it's all sorted now:

Reading and Soton up
West Ham, Birmingham, Cardiff and Blackpool for the play-offs
Doncaster, Portsmouth and Coventry down

Middlesborough could still catch one of the play-off teams, but very unlikely, 4 behind with 2 to play

[Chet]

Have you seen much of Southampton, Nick? Jos Hooiveld scored again tonight, and he has scored like half a dozen which is a brilliant return for a center back. Apparently he's having a terrific season all around, which is strange because he came to Celtic and didn't look like a football player at all.

[Nick Ink]

Have you seen much of Southampton, Nick? Jos Hooiveld scored again tonight, and he has scored like half a dozen which is a brilliant return for a center back. Apparently he's having a terrific season all around, which is strange because he came to Celtic and didn't look like a football player at all.

I've only seen bits and pieces and I haven't really noticed him. They deserve to go up though. Apart from a couple of weeks, they've led the division all season, and they've come back strongly when they've been under pressure. Like Norwich before them, it will be back-to-back promotions for Southampton too, which is quite a feat.

Reading are the galling ones. They never look any good when I watch them. They did the double over us, and recently beat Southampton, and in all 3 games they were by far the inferior team. All very annoying. I'm clinging to the possible consolation of seeing them thrashed on a routine basis next term.

[Chet]

so, neil lennon was up for against the SFA today, there was talk about a 17 game ban. one of the incidents being that he supposedly abused the referee in the tunnel at half time during the last game against rangers and he was sent to the stands at the time. lennon vehemently denied this. turns out the officials didn't have their stories straight, and basically they were lying.

this is on top of a 2010 incident, where celtic were awarded a penalty which was immediately rescinded. afterwards it turned out that the referee had conspired with the linesman to lie to neil lennon as to why the decision was made, and the ref forced the linesman to take the blame even though it was purely the refs decision.

this is twice in two year it has been proven that officials have lied in order to negatively affect celtic football club.

would this happen in any other country? uefa need to be investigating this.

[Chet]

like any americans reading this who know nothing of scottish football isn't this fucking nuts?

[Nick Ink]

What's your source on this? The BBC report says he got a 2-match ban for one incident but nothing for the second as he'd already been punished. They also report that he's likely to get a further punishment for confronting the ref at the final whistle when Celtic lost the cup semi the other day. I can't see anything about officials caught lying.

A google news search on Lennon doesn't immediately turn anything up either, although I have found Charlie Mulgrew saying he doesn't think refs have a conspiracy against the club and doesn't agree with the manager's comments.

[Chet]

a guy on twitter actually at the hearing, he was live tweeting as it happened so he was definitely there. the linesman said that lennon swore at the referee 4 times in the tunnel at ibrox. the referee's report said that he didn't. a guy from the SFA took lennon's QC outside to explain to avoid embarrassment.

45 minutes away from the touchline would seem like a insufficient punishment if lennon were to have abused the referee to such an extent, wouldn't you think?

they are a shower of corrupt bastards.

[Nick Ink]

I don't know man. I think you might have green and white hooped spectacles. ;-)

[Chet]

a referee resigned before because he was caught lying to neil lennon.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/9236198.stm

oh and his fellow referee's had the audacity to strike because of the criticism he received.

a linesman has just been exposed as lying in order to try and get neil lennon into trouble.

are you to tell me this isn't at least a little bit shady?

[Chet]

Craig Whyte has been banned from participating in Scottish Football for life. Also, Rangers have been banned from signing players for a year. Happy days. And this is before a verdict has been made on their alleged use of dual contracts.

Other news, I have been reading a bunch of articles about Celtic in the 90s, for what reason only god knows. It was an incredibly painful time to support Celtic, regularly finishing 4th in the league, fielding some players that were legendary in their lack of ability, and being literally an hour away from going to the wall. Though my memories of the time aren't the most lucid - I was only young, though my first time going to watch Celtic was during the 94-95 season which may be the nadir in Celtic's history, glory hunter you can call me not! - but the pain still lingers.

Anyway, just reading about this outrageous incident and it sort of just sums a lot of things up.

Rod [McDonald] (who had already been 'outed' as a Celtic supporter in the press when it was revealed that King Kenny had been his hero as a kid so naturally he preferred Celtic) would go on to book his own place in football history that season when Thistle took on Rangers at Firhill; as the players made their way into the dressing room Rod, as was his wont, crossed himself as he left the pitch. So far so normal, happens in most countries week in week out. However, a hun in the crowd saw this and went mental (so far so normal) complaining to a policeman. And here's where it gets really wacky. The Policeman actually takes this loony seriously and goes to the referee's room with this complaint. The referee then calls McDonald into the dressing room and awards him a yellow card! Not only that but in the second half Rod fouls Gascoigne, gets a second yellow and hence a red, to the confusion of everyone in the crowd (except the Neanderthal who started the whole thing).

[Nick Ink]

All that religious bollocks is just bollocks though.

[Chet]

A person getting offended at another person blessing themselves is bollocks. It's a gesture that is made by sports people all over the world, only in Scotland would it lead to a sports person getting punished.

This kind of thing did not die in the 90s either

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/celtic_player_s_sign_of_cross_caution_will_make_scotland_a_laughing_stock_1_1414336

Numerous Rangers players have been told to stop blessing themselves after complaints by their own fans. During a friendly at Linfield, Shota Arveladze was booed roundly by all sides of the ground after blessing himself.

Yes, it is "bollocks" and it is a distinctly Rangers problem.

One of the many reasons i'd be happy to see the club die 

[Thermofusion]

Wow, the playoff portion of the Championship League table ended up rather tight, huh? Nick Ink, you're the expert here, how will the Tangerines match up with Birmingham City?

[Nick Ink]

Wow, the playoff portion of the Championship League table ended up rather tight, huh? Nick Ink, you're the expert here, how will the Tangerines match up with Birmingham City?

Indeed. The semi-finals are played over two legs, so that usually means the better team progresses. The final, on the other hand, is a one-off match and a bit more of a lottery, as the saying goes.

As far as head-to-heads go, Blackpool lost 3-0 at Birmingham in December with both their captain and, unusually, their manager getting sent off in the process! Birmingham were in 12th place after that result, and Chris Hughton, one of football's nicest characters and a manager building a quick reputation (most people were bemused by his sacking at Newcastle last year), has done a really good job getting them up into the play-offs. The home game was a 2-2 draw, with 12 foot tall Serbian, Zigic getting a last-minute equaliser for Birmingham. So, I suppose the Blues might just have the upper hand, psychologically at least.

Blackpool look a bit fragile at the back (as per yesterday's 2-2 with Millwall) but are unbeaten in their last 6, with 3 wins and 3 draws. Birmingham though are unbeaten in 9, even if 4 of the last 5 were draws. All in all, impossible to pick a winner! 

[Good Intentions]

I caught up with Match of the Day, and bloody hell, Wigan v Newcastle! Well worth watching.

[Nick Ink]

I caught up with Match of the Day, and bloody hell, Wigan v Newcastle! Well worth watching.

Wigan have been astonishing lately, beating Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and now Newcastle, as well as being robbed of a win against Chelsea by terrible refereeing decisions. And yet even after all that, they're still not safe.

[Thermofusion]

Last October, after my Blackpool team were whooped 3-1 by Burnley at Turf Moor, I went to a Halloween party at my local pub dressed as Freddy Krueger. Nothing unusual about that, apart from the fact that Pendle Inn is full of Clarets fans.

Let’s just say that I was in an ugly mood – and it had nothing to do with wearing a mask of the monster from A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Last week, 24 pub regulars were my guests at Bloomfield Road as we beat Burnley 4-0 to clinch our Championship play-offs place. I’d like to think I was a good host because there was absolutely no gloating from me. Just the warm satisfaction that, with a game of the season remaining, we had clinched our place in the play-offs.

This week I have been feeling like another film character – the young boy in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Charlie came from a poor family but was lucky enough to win a golden ticket that got him into Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

Like Charlie, I haven’t had much money to spend. But despite spending very little, we have got our golden ticket for the end-of-season lottery. We lost so many top players last summer that I worried what would happen to this club.

First, there was relegation and then there was an exodus of players. If you had told me then that we would reach the play-off I’d have thought you were barking mad.

Back in 2010 there was nothing negative about the club and we came from nowhere to reach the Premier League.

This time, I’ve had to rebuild the team after the extreme disappointment of relegation. We’ve completed one part of our mission – now comes the hardest part.

But if you go out there and enjoy yourself, all the hope and expectation looks after itself.

You should bask in these situations.

If Chelsea can beat Barcelona despite being 2-0 down and down to 10 men, then anything can happen in football.

[Nick Ink]

I don't want to tempt the punishment of hubris, but I would be very happy for a West Ham V Blackpool final. They only seem to play one way and their attacking style leaves them a bit open at the back. The results this season are also encouraging:

15/10/11 West Ham 4 - 0 Blackpool
21/02/12 Blackpool 1 - 4 West Ham

[Thermofusion]

Yeah I followed that February game by live blog and it was enthralling even via text!  An amazing victory for your boys, playing with ten for most of the game and with a midfielder keeping goal. I'd definitely be worried about a West Ham v. Blackpool final.

[Good Intentions]

I caught up with Match of the Day, and bloody hell, Wigan v Newcastle! Well worth watching.

Wigan have been astonishing lately, beating Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and now Newcastle, as well as being robbed of a win against Chelsea by terrible refereeing decisions. And yet even after all that, they're still not safe.

Losing 8 in a row (as they did both sides of October last year) will do that to you. But Newcastle have been a standout side lately, which helped them not a bit. Wigan looked even better than they did in those other huge victories. The finishing for the goals are second to none, the Toon had no idea how to respond.

[Chet]

Yesterday was a good day.



We totally dominated them in a way i've not seen since Martin O'Neill's time. On and off the pitch as well, the crowd were amazing and unfurled a massive banner depicting the four horsemen of the apocalypse as neil lennon, hector the taxman, craig whyte and the grim reaper.