anorak

I've had dealings with Bale in a past life, and this sort of tallies with everything I learned about him back then.

He's the Michael Knighton of Sunday league footy.

yeah! when i can't afford the train fare back home (which is most of the time) i usually go and watch salford city play in the unibond division one north, or the evostik division one north as it's called now. i think i probably went to about 15 matches last season, compared with the 5 or 6 town matches i went to. rubbish. but it is loads of fun! grounds that are nice: chorley's victory park is ace. some nice old stands and a massive club house full of very friendly people. skelmersdale's ground is bobbins and, because there's no train station there, i had to get a train to ormskirk and walk the 4 or 5 miles between the two towns on a windy december evening.

i went about two months without going to a match and then went to an fa cup match away at hyde united. i was sat on my own eating a sausage roll and this burly man in a salford shirt came up to me and went 'i haven't seen you for a while, how have you been?'. i never even stand anywhere near him at matches, yet he'd noticed when i'd been absent for a while. that made me feel a bit special. i usually just get called names when i go to town matches these days. sob.

Youth promotee, from Merseyside originally. He's a big lad (about 6'5") and made a few sub appearances last season. Up until last night he'd not scored a goal for the first team but last night he took them all well with a cool head. Sensibly we've whacked him on a FIVE year contract at the end of last season so hopefully we'll actually get some decent money for a player. Now there's a novelty!

You probably know a mate of mine, he updates Salford City's Twitter and is a Hull City fan too. He started following Salford because of the black and amber colours I think. I went for a pre-season friendly there a year ago and had a lovely evening eating pie and peas.

Aw, that is so nice! The man who recognised you'd been away, I mean, not the Grimbarian street hassle.

I kind of wish I hadn't renewed my season ticket so I could spend my Saturdays watching football that's more affordable and pleasant.

We've all imagined doing it, I'm sure:

Fuck off 'arry.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 870401.stm

Oh, Ivano!

http://www.africanews.com/site/Zambian_ ... ages/33733

Also, this article is still wonderful, mushy stuff.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/bone ... 23732.html

Happy days.

Sam! LOOOOOOOK! It's Town beating West Brom when Ivano scored the winner!



Complete with commentary from Roly 'n' John in their prime!

"I've already said that, John."

Man, how many chances did we fluff before we put 'em away.

I didn't even get to go to that game cos I was working in Andy's Records. My dad took Claudia instead!

COR!

Oh! We were so good then. Dare I say it better than Buckley Mk I? We had more up front, didn't we?

That clip brings tears.

Wonder-goal? 95-96? Favourite old commentator? I just had to post this...

I love that goal. 97mph the strike, according to Sky, and at no point in that move does he have proper control of the ball.

Aah i remember the start of that season - West Ham, Liverpool, Wimbledon, Sheff W, Man U - it seemed like Yeboah was going to score a goal like that every week. Then he got injured and we wasted all our money on Tubby Tommy Brolin and it was all downhill for a couple of years.

I remember being so pleased when we signed Brolin having watched him many times on 'Football Italia" on Channel 4. How wrong I was...

I remember watching that, sat in an otherwise empty bar in Tenerife, having a one man 'let's go f--in' mental' moment. Fantastic strike.

hope this is true

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010 ... n-ali-syed

You seen this, Pete?

Went to see Everton vs Everton at Goodison last night - it was really good fun!

I'd say it was!

I went to, um, Manchester United v League of Ireland XI for the opening of the new Lansdowne Road (corporate name deliberately ignored). Nice stadium, game was all right, no great dramatic tension - United won 7-1 - but plenty of goals I guess.

good evening then?

it was nice to be back at the old lady, and it was also mark halsey's first game back since recovering from throat cancer (is it true, incidentally, that he's an everton supporter?), so he got a very warm reception indeed

very encouraging performance from our boys - Beckford, Bilyaletdinov and Coleman had particularly good games, and Fellaini looked good in his first game since the ankle injury. Everton Chile didn't offer much of a threat admittedly, but they still brought 171 supporters (more than Fulham did last year) who helped provide a great atmosphere.

in fact the crowd was great all night. you usually get a muted atmosphere at these friendlies, but even so there was a great reception from the Goodison crowd. Every substitution, shot and save was enthusiastically applauded by both sets of fans. And the players looked delighted to be there. Lots of fun!

good bunch of lads, the Chileans