Sports Category
Sports news, commentary and scores with wit and added value. We compare and contrast the best and worst sports reporting in the mainstream press, blogs, TV and online. We love the English Premier League (Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Manchester United and Manchester City) and all things football but we cover cricket, rugby, the Olympics, tennis, golf, F1 and highlights of the sporting year.
Newcastle United fans smash up Wigan Cosmos FC goals and nick match ball (photos)
BAD news from the Wigan Cosmos Football Club. Claims are that “so-called” Newcastle United fans have been behaving badly. The club have issued a statement:
It is with regret that the club has to report on the following disturbances by a section of around 250 – 300 so-called Newcastle United fans during The Cosmos South Lancashire Counties Premier Division Fixture Vs AFC Leigh Centurions on Sunday 17th March at the Scott Lane pitches adjacent to the Wigan Soccerdome which is situated next to the away supporters’ car and coach park in Wigan.
Wigan whatadome?
After about 15 minutes of the game, at approximately 2.15 pm, several coaches arrived at the car park. As the supporters spilled out of the coaches, which were not managed by the club or police officials, they proceeded to watch the game from the touchline. Some fans then chose to run onto the field of play, dropping their pants, causing the game to be stopped. The situation then magnified as a crowd around 250 – 300 Newcastle United fans followed suit.
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Posted: 22nd, March 2013 | In: Sports | Comments (3)
The decline of English centre backs is a myth
IN “Dying breed: The decline of the English centre back is bad news for Hodgson” Martin Keown laments the state of English-born defenders. He illustrates the decline with some examples. He writes in the Daily Mail:
Look at the Under 21 squad of 20 years ago and the likes of Darren Anderton, Andy Cole, Steve McManaman, Rob Jones, Ugo Ehiogu and Lee Clark were all playing regularly for their clubs.
Aside from the former Aston Villa player Ugo Ehiogu, none of the others Keown cites operated in central defence.
That England Under 21 team on 7/9/1993 was (see above): UGO EHIOGU, IAN WALKER, MATT JACKSON, CHRIS SUTTON, GARRY FLITCROFT, NEIL COX, BRYAN SMALL, ANDY COLE, STEVE MCMANAMAN, JAMIE REDKNAPP, DARREN ANDERTON.
The central defenders were:
Ugo Ehiogu played 4 times for Villa in the 1992-1993 season.
Neil Cox: played 14 times for Aston Villa in the 1992-1993 season.
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Posted: 21st, March 2013 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comments (3)
Sports analysis of man who won’t share ice-cream at the Orlando Magic and Indiana Pacers game
BRITISH sporting coverage is lousy compared to what you can see in the States. There’s no forced boys-club bon homie, instead, you get a dizzying amount of statistics for the nerds, and mind-bending irreverence for the casual viewer. Oh, and their sports documentaries (as seen with ESPN’s ’30 for 3o’ series and all those great NFL films) are unparalleled.
Today, we focus on irreverence.
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Joey Barton lookalike comes to blows over the comparison
IT’S the insult that could provoke the Dalai Lama to smash your face in. The Northern Echo reports:
“A fight broke out after a man was told he looked like former Newcastle United footballer Joey Barton, a court heard. Shaun Beckwith, 21, and Maxwell McStravick, 40, both admitted using threatening behaviour after the pair came to blows outside the Tap and Spile pub, Darlington, on March 8. Magistrates hear that the fight started when Beckwith, of Northgate Lane, told McStravick, of Hundens Lane, both Darlington, that he looked like the footballing bad boy while the pair were in the pub.”
Spotter: Pies
Newcastle United’s Massaido Haidara’s leg is matter of national pride
THE FOOTBALL Association will not punish Wigan Athletic’s Callum McManaman (English) for his dreadful tackle on Newcastle United’s Massaido Haidara (French). The FA are spineless. A footballer’s career is a short one. Any severe injury can end it and make playing painful. Haidara is a young man, and we all hope what damage has been caused to his leg is not serious.
It’s a pity that the linesman, Matthew Wilkes, never saw the incident at the time. The FA says that because he didn’t see the obvious foul, it cannot be revisited.
Over in the Daily Telegraph the foul has become a matter of national pride. Henry Winter writes:
“Note to the Football Association: lying in a hospital bed is a young French lad, who came to this country because he lives for football, because he heard England was the land of opportunity and fair play.”
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How to drug test child athletes
THE Daily Record reports that 10-year-olds keen to jon athletics clubs are being dope tested. Oh, for that Olympics Legacy. And moroever:
The kids can be made to give urine samples in front of adult observers at junior events… If asked to give a sample at a competition, a child is taken to a testing station where they have to urinate in a flask in front of a UK Anti-Doping official. The child can have a representative with them. A second official is also present.
Sounds like Jimmy Savile’s Marthonettes will run again.
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Twitter ‘troll’ apologises to boxer on live TV… and he shouldn’t have
REMEMBER when people knew what the word ‘troll’ meant? Those were glorious days and trolling was an artform, where people could peevishly derail arguments with bizarre logic and playing Devil’s advocate. However, like the dickhead in the schoolyard who has learned a new word, the media are now applying ‘troll’ to people who act like arseholes.
See, when someone just shouts abusively at someone or starts a campaign against a dead person on Facebook, they’re not trolling, they’re being either stupid for reaction or plain nasty. Trolling, by and large, is winding people up.
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Pope Francis hates Liverpool
CAN Pope Francis affect Southampton v Liverpool in the Premier League? Barry Glendinning writes The Observer:
“At the end of a week in which a new pope was elected, it seemed fitting the Saints should prevail in this contest against a woeful Liverpool side that were far from infallible. Goals from Morgan Schneiderlin, Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez won the match and moved Southampton above Sunderland in the Premier League table, three points nearer safety. For a beatifically happy St Mary’s congregation, this was the stuff of miracles.”
Amen.
Paul Merson remembers playing for Arsenal with Reading’s Eamonn Dolan: no, that was his brother Pat
PAUL Merson, the former Arsenal striker, wants to tell Daily Star readers about Eamonn Dolan, the new caretaker boss at Reading.
READING will have an old friend of mine in charge at Old Trafford today – and if he wins, they should give him the job permanently. I grew up with Eamonn Dolan at Arsenal. We used to play in the youth team together and he was always staying round my parents’ house at weekends.
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Greek footballer Giorgos Katidis says he had no idea he was giving a Nazi salute
GREEK footballer Giorgos Katidis, who plays for AEK Athens, says he never gave a Nazi salute during his side’s 2-1 Greek Super League victory over Veria.
The Greek football federation disagreed. They called it an insult to “all the victims of Nazi bestiality”.
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Posted: 18th, March 2013 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
When Zara Phillips met an ‘unnamed overzealous’ guard at the Cheltenham Festival
HOW the media works: the paper have been at the Cheltenham Festival. If Pippa Middleton is not in the stalls, the journalists turn their eyes to any other female Royal. They spot Zara Phillips.
The Telegraph’s Andrew Hough reports:
She may be the Queen’s grand-daughter but that did not stop security guards at Cheltenham Festival from blocking Zara Phillips access to the parade ring.
The Daily Mail’s Ruth Styles and Louise Eccles report:
She might be the Queen’s granddaughter, but that does not always guarantee the royal treatment. Zara Phillips was blocked from leaving the parade ring at Cheltenham yesterday by a security guard.
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Posted: 16th, March 2013 | In: Royal Family, Sports | Comment
The Sun cites Hillsborough as evidence for a free and fair Press (irony overload)
IN “If MPs seize the presses it is YOU who will lose out” Trevor Kavanagh, the Sun’s Associate Editor, writes in support of a “truly free Press” that “protects the interests of all parties”. He’s right. A free press comes with no “buts…”. We should not have an elite telling us what and what is not in the public interest, checking journalists’ work before it goes to print.
Investigative journalism would die if all Leveson’s proposals are implemented.
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Posted: 15th, March 2013 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Pick Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand for England because he pushes striker’s over
IAN Wright still writes for the Sun. He wants to talk about Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand. Over pages 50 and 51, Wright supports Rio for England. Good. Ferdinand is a great player. If he’s good enough to play for United against Real Madrid, he ‘s good enough for England. But what can England expect from Wrighty’s England stopper?
“Rio earned the last of his 81 caps against Switzerland in June 2011 and, over the course of time, has lost some of his pace. But as he has continued to show, the guy has not lost his quality. As he illustrated with his shoving of Fernando Torres in Sunday’s FA Cup tie with Chelsea, he still has some fire in his belly.”
Great. Rio’s the man for the big occassion becsue he pushed over a Spanish striker facing the other way. How will that ever fail..?
Liverpool season tickets for 2013-14 are good value at twice the price (just add Rafa)
YOU need to buy success in the Premier League. And Liverpool FC are coming for your money. Next year’s season tickets at Anfield are up to 9% on this year.
Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre, says the Reds have only hiked up the prices after “careful consideration”.
A season ticket to Anfield will set you back between £710 and £850.
Next season, the cheapest season ticket at Everton will be £427.
A season ticket at Arsenal costs £1,955. And the Gunners only spend massively on players when those pricey tickets come up for renewal.
But is the Liverpool ticket worth the extra?
Under Rafael Benitez, they finished 3rd, 4th and 2nd in the Premier League. In 2009, they came second on 86 points. In many seasons, that would have won the title. And then bad management stuck the boot in.
Benitez never got the one of two top players that could have made Liverpool champions. And then he left. And so did the number of goals Liverpool scored.
2008/09 – goals scored in the Premier League: 77
2009/10: 61
2010/11: 59
2011/12: 47
And this season someone in the brains trust that runs Liverpool sent Any Carroll – all £35million of him – out on loan. And, no, Brendan Rodgers, the new manager was given no replacement until the mid-season transfer window.
This lunacy came after other recent boardroom-level disasters, such as: Tom Hicks and George Gillett’s obvious failings as owners; Damien Comolli working as Director of Football Strategy and undermining the decent Roy Hodgson by signing players seemingly on a whim; Hodgson getting sacked and being replaced by caretaker manager Kenny Dalglish; Fernando Torres heading to Chelsea in the middle of the season; the £50m earned from Torres being invested in Luis Suarez (£25m and excellent) and Andy Carroll (£35m and why?).
A lack of foresight and confusion about finances and what playing style Liverpool should employ have undone the club’s ambitions. The fans have suffered from trouble at the top.
But signs are that corner has been turned. The Reds have scored 56 goals so far this season. The new owners have deep pockets, and appear to be opting to ape Arsenal, Everton and Manchester United, and build prudentially. Comolli has gone.
And the fans – Liverpool’s huge fanbase – are being asked to play their part. If Twitter is a guide, Liverpool are the country’s third most talked about club. (Manchester United have no official twitter feed, and would surely be in the top two). At the time of writing, the 10 Premier League clubs with the most Twitter followers are:
1. Arsenal – 2,182,542
2. Chelsea – 1,863,546
3. Liverpool – 1,523,120
4. Manchester City – 726,760
5. Tottenham Hotspur – 378,599
6. Newcastle United – 193,167
7. Everton – 157,628
8. West Ham – 144,078
9. Aston Villa – 132,135
10. Fulham – 107,171
On Facebook, the clubs with most “Likes’ are:
1. Manchester United – 31,644,369
2. Chelsea – 15,820,837
3. Arsenal – 13,153,197
4. Liverpool – 11,505,126
5. Manchester City – 4,769,690
6. Tottenham Hotspur – 1,638,918
7. Aston Villa – 1,002,120
8. Newcastle United – 362,357
9. Everton – 304,064
10. West Ham – 304,026
Liverpool have spent big. The team is under-performing. If they can get consistency in the boardroom, they can get it on the pitch. Signs are that they can. Now pay up…
PS – Do you Liverpool fans want Benitez back? Come on, you must do…
Oscar Pistorius turns to prayer and suicide
OSCAR Pistorius is contemplating suicide. He is a “broken man”. He is “on the verge of suicide”. So says Mike Azzie in a BBC TV show. Mr Azzie has known the athlete who shot and killed his lover Reeva Steenkamp since childhood.
Azzie was sharing his insight on the BBC three show Oscar Pistorius: What Really Happened?
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POV footage of a bad fall whilst ice climbing
EVER fallen down a wall of ice-covered rock? Don’t knock it. It’s a hobby:
Posted: 11th, March 2013 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
The Sun says it saved Paul Gascoigne’s life – what utter bollocks
IT’S day 2 of the Sun’s look at Paul Gascoigne, the alcoholic former England footballer whose life was saved by medics in America. Today, the Sun leads with news that Gazza was saved by a plea from Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager for whom the footballer never played.
Ferguson added his thoughts and good wishes on a DVD sent to Gascoigne. Others on the video include: Lord Alan Sugar, Paul Merson, David Moyes, David Ginola, Walter Smith, Bill Kenwright, Chris Evans, Wayne Rooney and Roy Hodgson, the current England manager. Oh, and Gascoigne’s mother, who “sobbed as she begged him to survive”, his dad, his sisters and his nephews. Says Gazza: “That DVD helped save my life.”
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Marten the Marten enlivens the Thun v Zurich football match (video)
IF Switzerland were outside your bedroom window, would you bother to open the curtains and take a look? Stripped of the mountains and the streams, the Switzerland created by man is a place with all the charm of a sparkling clean porcelaine-white bidet. (They say the Nazis never invaded because there weren’t enough door mats to get the mud off their boots; and they were a bit too liberal for the locals.) But the country dipped in anti-septic cream has a new star: Martern The Marten.
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When wasted Paul Gascoigne ended up on the wrong plane to southern Mexico
PAUL Gascoigne could have died. The former Newcastle, Spurs, Lazio, Rangers and Everton player whose alcoholism very nearly killed him. He tells the Sun:
“Three doctors didn’t think I would make it… It has got to inspire me to never let this happen again. I’ve come through that – death. I was dead…I thought I was on my way out. I looked like a corpse. I was a total wreck.”
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Spurs’ Gareth Bale teaches Liverpool’s dumb foreigner Luis Suarez the Great British dive
WHEN Tottenham Hotspur’s star Gareth Bale earned a yellow card for a dive against Inter Milan, he protested his innocence. He is no Luis Suarez. The Liverpool striker admitted that he had dived to win a penalty at Stoke.
The dye was cast. Luis Suarez is a cheat. He’s such a massive cheat that the Sun called him “Armstrong MKII”. Not in reference to gravity-defying Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, rather Lance Armstrong, that cheat of cheats.
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Posted: 9th, March 2013 | In: Sports | Comments (7)
England cricket fan not killed when ball hits his head
HARD cheese on Alex Dettman, 30, who was smacked on the head by a cricket ball. Dettman was ‘watching’ New Zealand take on England at University Oval in Dunedin when he was hit by the ball struck by Kiwi batsman Hamish Rutherford.
Says Dettman, who hails from York, England:
”I blew my nose, looked up and went `Uh-oh’.”
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Not a brown noser: Spurs star Gareth Bale named daughter after Alveley Village Band
TOTTENHAM Hotspur hotshot Gareth Bale has a daughter. He named her Alba Violet Bale. That’s AVB for short, like the Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas.
Can it be that other initials are acronyms, coded tributes to others? Let’s investigate by looking at the ultimate footballing baby-name generator, David Beckham:
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Man United fan calls 999 after Nani sending-off (Arsenal fans might laugh)
MANCHESTER United fans are a special breed aren’t they? 99% of them are glory hunters who claim not to be glory hunters through some spurious reason or other like, “my dad grew up in Greater Manchester”. Funny how these people don’t support Stockport or Rochdale.
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Joe Cole tells Liverpool fans what they already know: you’re not that big
HOW football reporting works, with West Ham’s Joe Cole:
This is what Cole said when he joined Liverpool:
“I could have stayed at Chelsea because the fans loved me and I won things, but I wanted to challenge myself and when I knew Liverpool were interested it was a no-brainer because they are the biggest club in the country.”
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Posted: 6th, March 2013 | In: Sports | Comments (12)
