soon to be notsoplainmoor.
Welcome to the Sunday edition of Sniffer Nose, a punchier version of your favourite occasional column.
Do it on the big stage.
So one week on and the Beckford fan club are purring again. I’ll try to be charitable, it was up to Beckford to recover from his stupidity and giving a team assisting performance on top of his 1.5 goals is what was needed (although I do tire of the way the occasional non selfish Beckford performance gets treated like the second coming of Christ). However still some to do: let’s see him perform against a PL side and in front of the national stage, call it a goodbye present to the fans by scoring at Old Trafford.
Getting desperate.
A sure sign of the desperation at Anfield was the behaviour of Benetiz and Reina in ensuring the Wolves went down to 10 (more of in next segment). Why the Spanish goalkeeper felt the other 10 Liverpool players weren’t gobbie enough heavens knows. Add in the deluded garbage the manager spouts that equates home wins against Wigan and Wolves as the equivalent of winning the title and once gain all your thought turn to wondering when we can lose this lunatic from the English game. The facts remain that anything other than a victory at Villa Park means Liverpool should be more concerned about being overtaken by Fulham than chasing for 4th.
Unfair treatment.
Wolves have a case of the Ward sending off, not about the mistaken identity (or more like sheer incompetence) by Marriner, but the fact the referee felt the need to pull out a card anyway. You see if that had being Steven Gerrard we know he would have left his card in his pocket, like he did on 3 occasions when the No1 scouse giet made some blatant wild tackles. Ward on the other hand who isn’t given the same leeway made two non descript tackles and is off. There is no place in this country for refereeing based on who the tackler is, and it’s about time the managers of the other clubs made that clear.
Over Keane.
Another classic example of bizarre refereeing came at Selhurst Park. Before Taylor interfered the game was even, after Ipswich Town lost a ten match unbeaten run. Even Warnock said it was a bad decision, although he failed to criticise his players for running in like cretins after the tackle (which looked not even a yellow). I’ll tell you how bad it is, I agree with Roy Keane when he said: “I’m still amazed when people seem to enjoy seeing players get sent off. Some players get involved when they should have nothing to do with it. Other players, other managers, trying to get players sent off. It’s ridiculous. That’s the horrible side of football”.
Take control.
Preston North End lost their Boxing Day game due to “safety reasons”, let’s examine this a little further. The pitch was fit, the stands were safe, the roads in Preston open, so what was the problem. Apparently it was the pavements that weren’t safe, now maybe I’m being reckless here but why was that allowed to disrupt a professional sports event? Do the Police think people can’t take into account the conditions around a football ground as they approach it? How many accidents in a crowd of 10k would accrue, 5, 10? Get a grip someone and take controol of some common sense.
Have you thought of chemicals?
Sometimes however players do remind you how stupid they can be. Already down to 10 men against Swindon Town, already booked, Charlton striker Deon Burton goes and does a Maradona by punching the ball whilst going up with the Swindon goalie; utter idiocy. Sometimes you wonder whether the only way to stop this generation of mindless footballers is to have them injected once a week with something to stimulate their dead brains. Hit him Mr Parkinson where even a man of limited intelligence will feel it, in the wallet.
Dying on its knees.
Occasional you come across a team that in terms of ownership, of club and ground, is more complex than even Leeds United. Add in a run of results on the pitch so dire that its frightening and that’s where Stockport County reside. Protest marches notwithstanding it looks like the end of a professional league club in that part of Cheshire is imminent. If the Leeds home game tomorrow is off that will potentially be the end having had no home league game since December 12th whilst cash-flow is tight. Sometimes it’s just right not to call from afar why these things happen and instead hope that Stockport make it to season end and can rebuild from whichever division they are in.
Planning for demotion.
Question for any Cheltenham Town fans out there, are the club planning for the Conference? I ask this because recent events seem to suggest so. The appointment of a Conference manager, following the debacle that saw Martin Allen removed for being innocent, suggests the board have resigned themselves to relegation and are planning for a new part-time future. I realise that arousing the locals of that gentile town to care for the club is hard but please whilst Grimsby Town are in the condition they are in at least show some fight!
In praise of bouncing back.
If Cheltenham need a model for planning for relegation followed by promotion they need look no further than Torquay United (and as posh towns the analogy works there also). Paul Buckle has done a grand job rebuilding from relegation and despite some early season struggles the club is now established in L2 and in the third round of the FA cup with a chance of a shock against Brighton. Fair play to him and the rest of the set-up there, good to see what can be done with good planning.
Get down the bookies.
What do the following have in common? Wolves, Blackburn Rovers, Everton, Stoke City, Portsmouth, Hull City, Bolton Wanderers?. Answer; Manchester City’s next 7 league opponents. Now I tell you this from where I’m sitting that’s 19-21 points in the bag for Mancini. Given that City start the new year 10 points, with a game in hand, behind Chelsea, that they have the best loss record in this season wide open PL title chase (where it seems no-one really wants to win it), a little punt on them winning it, at something like 40-1 now, well worth it. What that set of fixtures also does is silence the xenophobic element in the press who think a tactical lightweight like Mark Hughes can be equated with Mancini’s quality.
