bradley headstone
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Posted: April 1st 2009
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It’s the international break, England have revealed a new strip that makes them look like a bunch of Rugger-thugs and Northern Ireland have emerged as the most likely Celtic nation to give hope to a long suffering group of fans before inevitably falling before the final hurdle.
For a short period it’s nice to not be staring at Benitez’s potato head or Ferguson’s crimson pallor. Although we did have to deal with the bizarrely faced Harry Redknapp as he publicly fell out with Fabio Capello and Mark Lawrenson attempted to keep Ferguson on a low heat by casually dropping a bit of tittle-tattle into his ‘expert’ analysis during England’s predictable waltz through Slovakia.
Lawrenson decided to make public a rumour that no paper felt confident about publishing, Rooney and The Knight don’t get on…! Now he’s said it all the papers can comment. It’s a nothing story but it serves to highlight the forces that Liverpool have in reserve as the season gets toward its decisive point. It’s actually quite hard to find a TV or radio programme that isn’t packed with Liverpool fans, Lawrenson and Hansen, Phil Thompson and Paul Walsh on Sky, Jamie Redknapp too! Commentators Alan Green and Clive Tyldesly are barely disguised fans, DJ Spooney on 606 and Colin Murray on Fighting Talk. Bear this in mind as you read, watch and listen.
It’s not just the media, The Observer ran a piece highlighting the size of squads and Liverpool can call on 69 players…69! So how come Rafa’s always a couple of players short? 17 of them are on loan at other clubs. Breathtaking in its ridiculousness, if there’s an indication of football distancing itself from reality then this is it. While the internationals are going on the lower leagues are happily chugging away. How many of the teams playing could call on 17 players in the whole of their first team squads, actually how many of them are owned by Liverpool anyway.
We shouldn’t be waiting for an international weekend to focus our attention in the nether reaches of the football leagues, frankly it’s where the real stories are.
Such is the fear of administration, no league is decided early and in League Two, (Division 4 in old money), an administration has already created a fascinating run in. Rotherham and Bournemouth having been docked 17 points at the start of the season and Luton, penalised a whopping 30 points, would have been forgiven for assuming that the two relegation places would be taken by two of them. They still might but what a season from Rotherham, a fantastic performance to be well clear by March. Bournemouth and Luton are still struggling. You have to think that there’s too much for Luton to do, but with both Chester and Grimsby keeping it as interesting as possible, you never know.
After this weekend’s games Bournemouth are 4 points clear of the drop and Luton 11 points away from safety. They are in the middle of a fantastic run mind, one that’s seen them hang on to a glimmer of a hope of survival and a trip to Wembley in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. To achieve salvation they need both Chester and Grimsby to keep coming back to them and while Chester appear to be doomed, Grimsby are starting to find form. It may be too late and no consolation to fans of either Chester or Grimsby, but wouldn’t it be great if all three penalised sides stayed up.
I do agree with imposing penalties on teams that are run badly, but David Conn’s ‘Beautiful Game’ points out the iniquity of the way football clubs look after their own and shit on the rest of us during this process and until the powers that be find away to stop the likes of Ken Bates still owning Leeds after going bust, then I’m happy to have them red-faced and uncomfortable.
At the top of League Two there are heart-warming stories a plenty. Can Andy Scott survive serious illness to lead Brentford to glory? Bury, Gillingham, Shrewsbury and Exeter can all point to some desperate times in their recent pasts. Will Bradford be rewarded for the initiative they show off the pitch? Will Wycombe find reward for the excellence of the football they played at the start of the season? Personally I’m following Rochdale. Is there a less glamorous team in the whole of English Football? They don’t care, they’ve toddled along as they are for just over a hundred years and have barely troubled football’s legion of statisticians. One promotion in 1969 and last year’s near miss at Wembley is all they have to show for those 100 years. They’ve been sat in the top three for a while now, but are starting to wobble.
As May draws ever nearer I will not be listening to the hyperbole of the Premier League, nor the most exciting Championship ever as a dozen clubs try not to get promoted to the elite league. I’m going to be watching for Rochdale and Luton’s results, in amongst all the ‘vital’ fixtures here are games that really do matter.