Part-Time Supporter

AFFI Chemnitz (Indoor) April 2007

2007-04-08T22:22:00.000+02:00

Hancot plays football. For the first time in 2007.

12 of us from Berlin made our way to Chemnitz for our first tournament. We got there late, met our fellow Berliner Tschaika amigos and the organiser, Walter, got a few beers into us, then set off to the, erm, ‘rustic’ surroundings of the B-Hof (farmyard in German) – for rustic, read no electricity, no heating, no lights, no running water and just an elevated open hole for a toilet. The ammonia smell was overpowering, but drinking by candlelight and getting changed and finding our beds in complete darkness had its certain charm…

The others were wakened early by me on the Friday, leading to much grubling and cursing.

No time for (or place to have) breakfast, so off we went to the ultra-modern sports hall for the tournament.

The caretakers were, shall we say, somewhat over-zealous and over-protective of their hall – numerous warnings followed about no ‘street shoes’ anywhere near the hall, that clothes HAD TO be put in lockers, etc. I’d no hall shoes with me but managed to slip the net with my artificial pitch shoes.

We had apparently been given a good group. We had wanted to enter our team as ‘AFFI Berlin’, but as some of the members had played here before with ‘The Running Assholes’, that’s what they called us. Much to our amusement, they had problems with the name, and hence we ran out for our second match under the introduction of ‘Running Ass’. Onto the matches:

Sofa Kicker: 0-0

We were poor, missing a few gilt-edged chances, myself included, even though I shifted the blame onto Kr. in an after-match interview with Doughnut Boy. Sofa Kickers celebrated in frantic fashion after the game, as if they’d qualified for the World Cup, and we soon found out why: the organiser told us they’d never won a game before. Not good.

Flugrunde: 0-7 (SEVEN)

Oh dear oh dear. Conceding seven goals in 10 minutes is a bit embarrassing by anyone’s standards. I was appalling, two attempted passes across my own goal leading to 2 easy goals. I brought myself off in shame. To be fair, W. told us this team had won an earlier tournament and they ended up runners-up overall after penalties, but even so. Oh yeah, they were far too over-motivated in tackling, fouls etc, contrary to the supposed spirit of the tournament.

____ Bastards 3-2

Finally we scored, and managed to win. I scored two (great goals ;) ) and Hotte won the game with a cool penalty. My goals were controversial for our opponents, but only because they didn’t know the rules: a foul was given if the ball directly crossed the halfway line from a goal-kick, but was allowed to do so if taken from the keeper’s hands from open play. We took advantage of this to score, in ‘route one’ fashion, straight from Hotte’s throws: first one, I controlled it on my chest, turned, and volleyed it past the keeper; second one, I did a deft back-header to direct it past the onrushing keeper. Unfortunately the game was not as friendly as it could and should have been.

This result meant we had qualified for the quarter-finals! But first, a mini-tournament was organised for the 4 teams representing AFFI Berlin and Chemnitz. First up, the Berlin Derby against our friends from Friedrichshain, Tschaika Leningrad:

Tschaika: 2-3

This was my favourite game of the tournament, and the only one we really played that was played in the true spirit of AFFI, not taken too seriously, not over-competitive. Possibly that was due to the fact that we all knew one another and were familiar and supported the concept of fair play and fun enshrined in AFFI, I don’t know. We took an early lead thanks to an own-goal from Chrischi, later to be named Keeper of the Tournament, less I suspect to do with his keeping skills than with the fact it was his birthday! Nikita was filming, but didn’t quite film the goal, though his reaction is funny:

(film to follow)

We then went 2-0 ahead through St., but they fought back and scored three. Another attempted back-flick header from the Hancot only hit the post. See their first goal here and a lovely move by Charles le francais, Ronaldinho-esque, around 1m17 in, complete with me shouting ‘Ronaldinho!’, as well as the Hancot in action, white shorts and red socks, with some nifty moves:

(film to follow)

So we went into the losers’ game:

Affi Chemnitz II: 2-0

We won with a long-range beauty from St., and a goal from Marcel, slotting it home after a mazy run and square pass from the Hancot. I was back in the zone (literally!) They had a few players who were a bit reckless, shall we say, but the mood was generally fair and fun.

So onto the quarter final:

Compact: 1-1 (1-2 after penalties)

This was probably our best performance, an iron defence keeping out a technically superior team. Their attitude was poor, far too aggressive and win-at-all-costs, and the referee didn’t help. Our equaliser was a peach, straight from a corner, a seemingly mathematically-impossible goal from Jonas. We pressed on, it went to 5 minutes extra-time, and I almost scored with a nice over-the-shoulder turn and volley, but it wasn’t to be. Penalties. Hancot, who had caused Tschaika to be knocked out before thanks to missed penalties, refused to take. St. missed, Hotte scored, and Janine missed, and they scored their first two, so we were out. Too bad.

The semis and finals were unpleasant affairs. Bad sportsmanship, aggression, threats and dirty fouls were de rigueur. It left a bad taste in the mouth. The only positive was the refereeing of Hotte.

Overall, I had fun playing, but the only game I enjoyed was the Tschaika one. The organisers, in my opinion, have a bit of work to do. The message and what AFFI is about wasn’t clear enough; stronger action should have been taken against those teams openly threatening and going over the top (The Makkabi semi should have been abandoned, in fact, Makkabi imo should have been thrown out); there were only 3 teams with women players, none of which were from Chemnitz; and it seems what AFFI was all about – fair play, fun football, non-competitive, mixed football, among other things- were neglected, even though I feel that such a tournament is unique in Chemnitz and progressive in this respect. Much more could still be done though. I was disappointed with getting criticised by the organiser for putting up this flag:

It won't be brought next time, but purely from the point of view that it could be perceived as a national flag, not for any other spurious reasons. I won't be at the next tournament in the summer anyway, as I have to go back to London to work. Maybe a good thing.

We headed off into Chemnitz for something to eat, Borek, pizzas, burgers, chips etc, very nice despite Hotte moaning about how small his pizza was!

Karl-Marx-Stadt

The evening had a reading from Gerd from hi new book ‘Football versus Country Music’ and was very entertaining and well-visited, highlights being Matthaeus and his butchering of the English language. We weren’t up for the punk concert, so headed back to the Alternative Youth Centre, where they re-opened the bar for us to allow us to play table football and pool into the wee small hours.

I woke up early again on Saturday, we were then thrown out of the AYC (a great place to stay, comfy, showers, place to chill out etc) and after a short breakfast in a wee café nearby, we headed off home. An interesting few days.

Linfield vs Donegal Celtic 2007

2007-02-25T14:07:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was the first time Linfield played Donegal Celtic at home in a competitive fixture since 1990. At that game, approximately 12,000 were there, it was billed as a Norn Irish 'Rangers vs Celtic', there was major crowd disorder, plastic bullets fired into the Celtic end to restore order, a Linfield fan got onto the pitch and aimed a kick at one of the Celtic players, and it was pretty much a sectarian hate-fest, lots od songs praising terrorist groups and individuals etc etc. It was also damn scary, especially for an 11 year-old kid who was doing ball-boy, to be called back in after 5 minutes, and to have to line up against the wall outside the players' tunnel so as not to be pelted with missiles, while the RUC riot squad filed past, plastic bullet guns in hand.

Shift to 2007. Norn Iron has moved on a lot. Only 3,000 fans there yesterday, Linfield had 4 Catholics in their starting 11, DC fans were welcomed in the Viewing Lounge and have since thanked LFC fans for their efforts on ILF, and there were no major incidents as Linfield, as expected, coasted to a 3-0 victory.

However, fans are still up in arms about yesterday on ILF, 180 posts so far about Linfield 'fans' constantly indulging in sectarian chanting. I listened to the coverage on the radio yesterday, and the usual dirge was clearly audible, 'Billy Boys' including the lovely line 'We're up to our knees in fenian blood' as well as those ecumenical chants 'Stand up if you hate fenians', 'If you hate the fenian b*stards clap your hands', 'Dirty fenian b*stards' etc etc. All this aimed at the largely Republican-leaning DC support, regardless of the fact that Linfield HAD FOUR CATHOLICS IN THE STARTING ELEVEN. The manager, David Jeffrey (DJ), even made an announcement over the tannoy during the first half, appealing for the sectarian songs to stop, which apparently pacified them for 15 minutes, until it all started again. Then Mr. Jeffrey did a very unwise thing. The 'wkd cru' started their song lauding DJ as they always do, and DJ responded foolishly by clapping them to acknowledge their support.

In a way, these incidents show us how far we've come; they also show us (by us, I mean Linfield) just how far we still have to go. The songs would barely have warranted a mention the last time the sides met; now, Linfield are rightly shamed by them, and are making concerted efforts to eradicate these morons who are dragging the name of the club throught the mud again and again. During the summer, the True Blues initiative was established to bring Linfield into line with the UEFA 10-point plan; Of the Linfield committee members, Andy Conn, picked up an award from the 'Football For All' awards at the weekend as "Community Relations FFA Unsung Hero"; he has worked tirelessly on cross-community initiatives to promote the good name of Linfield, including a group of Catholic youths from the Republican Poleglass estate who were guests at the last home game and played mini-football on the pitch at half-time; supporters away at Shelbourne last year managed to shout down and drown out a few idiots who were chanting racist and sectarian bile; but still these 6-matches-a-year merchants, plus a few more regular neanderthals, won't accept that society has moved on and singing anti-Catholic sectarian songs when a large amount of your playing staff is of that persuasion is fu cking stupid.

The Management Committee made a statement following the game:

The Management Committee of Linfield Football Club was extremely disappointed at the sectarian chanting of a small section of the Linfield support at today’s game against Donegal Celtic. We have stated before that this will not be tolerated, and it came from a section which does not normally present itself at the Park.

The majority of the support today from both sides was superb.

However, future matches of this category will be all-ticket with identification required.

But ultimately, there's only so much the club can do. It's widely agreed on ILF that the sectarian chanting is out of order and that it has to end, but no-one is really sure how. There's been a lot of soul-searching and head-scratching, and as far as I can see, the following proposals have been mooted (I have given my opinions on each one here):

The stewards should eject these people

Nice idea in theory, but unworkable. Our stewards are volunteers; most are not the most well-built; their crowd-control training is minimal; throwing offenders out and enforcing bans is unworkable without any legislation or way of keeping the offenders banned, which in turn could lead to repercussions and acts of revenge against the stewards within and without the stadium, most of whom are well-known to all Bluemen; stewards manhandling fans can be done for assault; and quite simply, there are too many sectarian singers and not enough stewards, it would be carnage. At the very least, stewards should be used to check those entering the ground properly for alcohol, bottles etc, and anyone looking the worse for wear in terms of alcohol should simply be refused entry.

Employ outside professional stewards

Unworkable and too expensive for IL clubs. The only possibility in NI is EventSec, and they have already proved themselves to be incompetent on countless occasions (23/04/05, CIS Cup Final 2006, Boxing Day 2006).

Bring in the police

This is a good serious possibility, but again I fear it would be too expensive for the financially-troubled IL

Use CCTV photos to name and shame

This is a possibility. The police had their cameras trained on the Alex Russell stand yesterday. Surely they could have identified who the instigators were and used this as a basis for imposing a ground ban for guilty parties. My fear is that Linfield diehards sitting in that stand could be guilty by association and wrongly accused.

Fan Power

Can be effective, but very dangerous. There were apparently at least 30 people involved in this crap yesterday. It would take a large group of people to challenge them and tell them to shut the hell up. Fan power can manifest itself in different ways, though. The simple way to do it is for a group of engaged fans to sit not too far away from these idiots during 'contentious' games eg DC, Setanta Cup, Cliftonville, Glentoran, and to strike up Linfield songs at full belt EVERY time these 'fans' start their sectarian crap. Every time. Hopefully, the respectable silent majority would join in and drown these kids out, and make them realise that their songs are not helpful and not wanted.

Ultimately, it IS up to the silent majority to make it clear that this is not on, instead of sitting there in embarrassed uncomfortable silence. I know there were a few 'exchanges of opinion' in the South Stand yesterday about the matter. Everyone involved in the club can do more. The club can make a serious concerted effort to weed these boys out, they should know who they are. Fans can present a united front, drown them out (probably the safest and most effective method) or shout them down. This is a Norn Iron societal problem; it's not going to go away, and Linfield just appear to be affected more often because of the size and draw of our support. But this type of 'support' belongs to the past.

Something has to be done. I'm sick, sore and tired of Ueber-Prods using Linfield as a platform to display how much their religion and culture means to them by outdoing each other in expressing their hatred of the 'other side'. I know what my culture is and where I come from; I want to support my team. Singing shit that alienates half the team isn't supporting the team in anyone's book. Just stay away, or cut it out.

just testing...

2007-02-05T22:30:00.000+01:00

ajax rock.

New Banner

2007-02-04T17:11:00.000+01:00

Revealed: the new '1st Berlin LSC' banner!

Part-Timer On Tour

2006-10-10T02:08:00.000+02:00

Denmark vs Northern Ireland Euro 2008 Qualifier

Copenhagen, Oct 7th, 2006

This fixture just so happened to ‘coincide’ with a trip to Malmoe just across the bridge to visit a friend, so my dad kindly got me a ticket for this game. Let me state in advance that I am no real fan of Northern Ireland (NI), or international football in general, the fact I was born and grew up in Norn Iron, and their status as ‘plucky underdogs’, ie crap, makes them sympathetic in my eyes.

We boarded the train in Malmoe for Copenhagen, and already a guy opposite us asked if we were from NI. Turned out he had fallen for a Swedish girl and had moved to near Malmoe in search of work and to be with the lady, and was off to the game. At the airport, loads more of the ‘Green And White Army’ (GAWA) boarded, but this was nothing compared to the sight that greeted us upon exiting the train and approaching the Town Hall Square. A veritable ‘sea of green’.

We went to pick up my ticket, awaiting me in a local hotel reception, then headed for the more beautiful, touristy parts of the city. Crossing the square we bumped into Bluenose, fellow Blueman and witness of my Irish Cup Final 2006 gurning and drunkness. We arranged to meet up later, he expressed the view that Copenhagen was ugly, (despite only having seen the bit of it from airport to town square…) and we headed on our merry way.

Green shirts and chants everywhere, but all in good spirit. We headed towards the harbour down the main shopping street. It was lovely, nice squares, buildings, a nature photo exhibition, very South Bankesque, picturesque canals, then Christiania, alternative autonomous village, delicious food in qa lush Italian restaurant, blah blah blah

ENOUGH CULTURE. Got back to where the people were gathered, beer in bag, said goodbye to my lovely lady friend, then the drinking and party begun. Except it started to rain. At this stage there was lots of friendly banter going on, bold boasts as to how heavily the opposition were going to get beaten, singing contests, scarves swapped, etc, the usual harmless fun.

At this point I shouls say a word about the ‘Green And White Army’. Ever since the Neil Lennon booing incident and resultant fallout, there have been major moves to eradicate sectarianism, racism from NI matches. With much success, I hasten to add. NI fans were recently presented an award from UEFA for their endeavours, making them the ‘best fans in Europe’. For someone with a Linfield and Rangers background, despite my club’s efforts to get rid of sectarianism, the ultra-PC nature of the NI support somewhat surprised me. To be honest, I don’t know what to make of it all. On the one hand, it is good that every NI citizen can feel they can support the team, and the atmosphere is great; on the other hand, the same 3 songs were sung again and again, the Political Correctness is going too far (no Irish League shirts, flags or badges tolerated, even though these are the lifeblood of the national team) and it all seemed a tiny bit too sanitised and artificial for me.

Eejits doing 'Sit down for the Ulstermen' in the square

Then at 6, the square just cleared.

The NI fans had had permission from the Danish police, especially as they had behaved themselves, to march the 40 minutes or so along the street to the stadium. Shoppers, passers-by and even Danish fans were amazed by this, witness one funny Danish fan and his “Normally we are not walking down the street”

I stayed behind with Bluenose, got another bit of Dutch courage in, and waited for their bus. In the meantime, I seemed to get talking to all the drunk Irish League rockets, a Portadown fan who near fought with me over the assertion that the IL is a bit rubbish nowadays, and some Larne/ lapsed Blueman falling over on the street, most bizarre.

Bus to the ground was a laugh, plenty of waves to the crowds, and singing, though it tended to be those 3 songs again: “Green and White Army”, “We’re Not Brazil, we’re Northern Ireland” and the David Healy “Away in a Manger” classic, which I’ll quote here as it always gets a laugh, it is a bit tedious after the tenth time on a bus though:

“Away in a manger, no crib for a bed
The little lord Jesus laid down his sweet head
The stars in the bright sky, looked down where HEALY! HEALY!HEALY!”

It was a bit of a joke when we got to the ground. Only 2 sets of turnstiles open for 3000+ NI fans, and we queued for a long time in a narrow cramped passageway under the stand for a good 20 minutes. The other disaster was when we got into the stand: the section my ticket was for seemed not to exist, the stewards gave out conflicting instructions, and this eventually led to a free-for-all, people sitting where they wanted. This meant I never did get to meet Colin, the guy I was sposed to be sitting beside who brought me my ticket. We discovered soon after that the away end was a temporary stand on scaffolding. The toilets were pretty old-school as well, one of them saloon bar-esque with the Wild West style doors n all!

As for the match itself: the Germans would say a ‘Zitterpartie’, in Norn Irish, it was a pure backs-to-the-wall performance. I wasn’t expecting anything else. I don’t remember us having one shot on goal all match. The Danes did all the pressing, passed the ball crisply and swiftly, a few shots past the post in the 1st half but nothing really dangerous. The defence was, and continued all match to have a stormer, especially Aaron Hughes (who later cleared one off the line) and Man U reserve Jonny Evans who competed for man of the match.

The second half, despite a bright start, we struggled to get any momentum, and when we brought Lafferty off for the headless chicken Mandy Smith-esque Steve Jones, we had almost no possession. It seemed a matter of time, the Danes were lurking around the box, looking to go to ground at every opportunity, and when the 6 minutes board went up, I had that horrible sinking feeling, just like the Blues vs FC Copenhagen back in ’93 (we’d have played AC Milan in the next round if the ref hadn’t played so long) but we held on gamely, thanks to Maik Taylor’s saves and a bit of luck.

The fans were great, singing all match, though as we were spread out along the touchline I had the feeling that we couldn’t get any big songs coordinated. The last 6 minutes though was one big continous ‘GAWA’ chant, class. Lawrie seemed to really value the fans. Though I was a bit surprised that the players hardly came over to salute the fans, maybe I’ve been spoiled by the personal touch of TeBe.

We’d been mocking the Danish fans all match for being so quiet, in fact they’d resorted to one of my pet hates, the gimpish countdown to the Mexican Wave (I guess the ultimate sign of stadium boredom, playing NI, I’m not surprised). We were singing ‘You’re not very good’ to them at the end, then stopped, and applauded them for being good sports, to which they replied by applauding us back. Everywhere I’ve read online, there’s been only good things to say about the fans, no doubt some drunkness, but not much else. A few Danish fans shook our hands and said well done as we came out of the stadium. It was great.

The bus back to the airport (Bluenose doing me a favour again) was pure singing, people were elated (with a 0-0! But, as one of my favourite sayings goes, it’s all relative… especially as the Republic got spanked 5-2 in Cyprus :D ) and the crowd outside mainly clapped us, a few moons and fingers but we weren’t exactly singing songs of praise! Then I said my farewells and boarded the train back to Sweden.

Knowing Norn Iron, they’ll undo all the good work and lose the supposed ‘easier’ match vs Latvia on Wednesday!

Match report here.

Reaction on Our Wee Country forum

AFFI-Cup 2006

2006-06-26T15:08:00.000+02:00

The 16th AFFI (Antifascist Football Fan Initiative) Cup took place at the weekend. Over 2 days, 32 mixed teams and 9 women's teams played out a tournament in a relaxed, tolerant atmosphere.

It was the first time I could take part, seeing as it always takes place when I'm back working in London, so I was quite excited. I was playing this time for the mighty TeBe Party Army, for only the second time, but I somehow got roped into helping out with setting up and a little with the organisation, not least as one of the teams, the Brandenburg Refugee Initiative (F.I.B.), were almost all from Cameroon and only 1 or 2 spoke German, so I was volunteered as a translator of sorts.

So I was up at 7 and at the Lasker Sports complex with Nikita (whose team played in the woman's tournament on the Sunday, somewhat of a motley crew who ended up winning the 'Golden Pineapple', I'll leave you to work out what place they finished!) at 8.30, where we took an age assembling the gazebos and putting out the tables, benches, and sound equipment. The teams arrived in dribs and drabs, and I was very relieved to see more and more of the Party Army turn up. Doughnut Boy turned up with the FBI boys, went throught the rules with them (eg 2 points for a win, refs only if wanted, any out-of-order comments or abuse meaning expulsion etc) before leaving me with them, as he was off to Leipzig to see Argentina- Mexico, the lucky dog.

The actual football started late, no real surprise there, but the atmosphere throughout was relaxed and chilled, it was great fun chatting with the other teams and having a bit of banter. I'll not go through all the matches in detail, not least cos I was playing, there was so many of them and I can't therefore remember all the details, for most games, I played about half of the 12 minutes, we were in a nice enough group, and were partnered with our friends and therefore rivals, Maccabi Pankow.

Here is how the TeBe PartyArmy fared:

vs Taktiker: 0-0 (an older 'troop' but had obviously played together before, Norbert's great keeping already on display as he earned us a point, i played in midfield-ish)

vs Suedschweden: 1-4 They outplayed us, far too fast, too much skill and great passing for us, this team would later go on to win the tournament. Bart scored a great long-range consolation, and Norbert really kept the score down.

vs FIB: 1-1 A good game against the refugee initiative team, I decided to go up front as we had no outlet or out-and-out striker and so were always on the defensive. From a corner, i took a shot that was hadled on the line, Bierverteiler put it in but the whistle was already blown for a penalty. Bierverteiler missed, putting it straight at the keeper, but I ran in to knock in the rebound. We conceded late on, but a draw was fair.

vs Havana Club: 0-3. An embarrassment. We were crap, 3 stupid individual defensive errors led to 3 goals, and they even played 2 kids against us when they went 2-0 up. Nuff said.

vs Maccabi Pankow: 2-1: A win at last! Against our mates, who had started off really well with 2 wins out of 3. From kick off, I managed to beat a few, get to the right byline, cut the ball back for Christian to run in and finish off. 3 minutes later, I beat a few people and put it in. Substituted myself straight after as I didn't want to do any more, where I was accosted by other mates who were fans of Maccabi. Oops...

vs Athletico Chancentod: 1-1. Bart scored another great long-ranger. I missed a sitter one-on-one to win the game late on after Mirko had played me through. That's all.

vs Volks...FC: 2-1 I started on the bench, Volks started really well, Charles, my man-of-the-tournament (who we tried to poach later on, only to find he was under contract :) ) running rings round us helping them to an early lead. I came on, beat round their defender and slotted past Carsten, someone I'd never scored against. Was very pleased with this :) Norbert kept us in the game again with some great saves. Then, with virtually the last action of the game, a cross was put over from Christian, right towards my head (I'd have missed) only for their defender to head it into his own net. We'd won!

However, this late goal was to prove disadvantageous, in my opinion. It meant we finished 4th, above Volks... FC and so we qualified for 'Division 1' the next day, with all the good teams. We really didn't deserve it, and I knew it would mean we'd get spanked by proper teams, as we weren't very good.

I also played for my 'old' team, Tschaika Leningrad, despite being slagged earlier on in the day by BC for being a traitor and for having lied about my allegiances (I hadn't, he was making it up). Their tune soon changed when they got a few injuries. We lost 1-0 vs Anker Friedrichshain and drew 0-0 vs old friends Mega Hudson, I played ok and was thanked later on by Chrischi...

Didn't watch the Germany game, but knew from the roars and firecrackers that they had scored twice, Maccabbi Pankow mates were so peeved that they all cleared off after the 1st goal. Helped with clearing up, then we headed to Tagaung, my dad's old favourite, for a wee review of how things went and many beers while watching Argentina - Mexico.

Sunday

Up at 7 AGAIN, early set-up again. Knackered. Was really flat from the day before, and tbh, not looking forward to the prospect of playing against proper good teams. The girl's tournament was running too and suddenly the organisers realised they had a bit of a problem with too few pitches and too many fixtures. The original plan was scrapped and a new one devised, this meant however that everything started well late and there was a lot of confusion, eg Maccabi and FIB having to change pitches at least twice, and there being huge gaps between our matches cos of the amount of games being played on our pitch. The temperature was 34 degrees, and on the artificial pitch, it was almost unbearable.

Like I said, I really wasn't motivated on Sunday, was tired, sore, knew we going to lose badly, it was far too hot for me, our star keeper couldn't play, the reserve was too pissed to play, plus I was busy trying to sort out the refugee stuff and helping Nikita out over on the other pitches. I think the other boys were relying on me too much, but I had other things to sort out.

For example, I refereed two games over on the pitches where the girls' tournament was taking place, one girls' game between Liga Monsen II and SC Lurich (0-0) and one between Die Tagung and FIB (0-1), no stress or shit from the players and it was fun to referee, believe it or not. I played one game for Tschaika, another draw 0-0, vs the Zeugen Yeboahs (Yeboah's Witnesses!)

Anyways this is how we played on the Sunday:

vs Humboldthainis: 0-0. Outplayed, Benjamin, new keeper, made a few great saves from long-rangers, but we could have won it at the end when Bart narrowly put it over after bursting through on the right.

vs Soja Project (hosts): 0-2. We were skinned. They were all about 18, full of skills and tricks, and way too hot for us, we were slow, laboured, empty of ideas and chasing shadows as a result. This match really pissed me off. We were rubbish, and out of our league.. At this point I went off for a while, helped out with buckets of water, sorting food out, etc.

vs Schwarze Lunge: 0-1. Same again, outplayed, though they took it easy on us, Benjamin made a couple of good saves, no real chances up front. Not much fun, and sweltering hot. We'd not enough subs left at this point, so I had to last the whole 10 minutes (!)

As last in our group, the highest place we could finish was 13th. Doughnut Boy and his 2 mates over from England, Dan and Mike, arrived to hopefully see us show some sexy football. But our opponents, Jugendklub Friedrichshain, had already gone, so we won by default. We cheered, but I was disappointed.

vs Antifa Kickers Kreuzberg: 1-0. Our last game, and we played well, against a very fair and nice team. I had a shot blocked, rebound came back to me, laid it off to Bart, who finished again with aplomb. I had a gift of a chance late on, when we broke clear from our own 18, the keeper was miles off his line, and I tried to lob him from about the half way line (of half a pitch), but it skewered wide, Geoff Thomas-style.

So we finished 13th. Out of 32. Not bad, but a little generous on our part. We all headed over to the other pitches to watch the finals of divisions 1 and 2. Volks...FC won division 2, and 17th place, deservedly. In the final of the whole thing, most of us were rooting for The Running Assholes, who helped organise this year's tournament and for whom i've played before. And... they lost in the final. for the third time. On penalties. Again.

I disappeared off for a bit of the prizegiving to see how crappy England were getting on, and returned to find that mighty Norbert had been voted keeper of the tournament. Woo hoo! All of our other players had gone, so I went up to get our 13th place certificate, along with a ball, to warm applause. Here it was announced that any profits made from the pre-party will go to helping with the costs for Rene K.'s trial and campaign, a Berlin friend arrested and thrown in prison for as yet unexplained reasons after the CSD in Warsaw, and to the Antirassisti Mondiali in Italy.

Then I headed back for the rest of the England game, had a few chats with new friends and exchanged contact numbers and emails, said goodbyes, then we headed to Tagung for a deserved drink. then to Baiz for the hilarious Portugal Holland battle, then home to bed.

Today, every part of my body hurts, especially my swollen ankle, twisted blocking a free-kick in the last match yesterday. And my sunburnt (almost-)skinhead. But I had a cracking weekend. Photos hopefully to follow from Nikita and Doughnut Boy.

Many many thanks To Nikita, St., Joe, Rene, Chrischi, and co. for making it such a successful and fun tournament. Bis naechstes Jahr...

There's only one Team in Berlin!

2006-06-08T11:28:00.000+02:00

Last night, there was a 'fan song contest' held in Berlin as part of the cheesy build-up for the WORLD Cup. TeBe decided to enter as a bit of fun and to gain some more sympathy and friends.

In the end, there were only 4 fan groups represented: Hertha BSE, Union Berlin, Togo (!) and TeBe (Bayern Munich and Cologne pulled out at the last minute). A few beers to 'oil the voice' and then we arrived at the Kulturbrauerei to be met by a large group of asthetically unpleasing Hertha fans, who were nonetheless friendly enough despite well outnumbering us. A few more beers were fetched then we entered the cavernous Kesselhaus. Bear in mind at this stage that we were only 7, as someone had falsely informed us that only 5 could sing, when in fact up to 20 were permitted... luckily, we got some back-up later after a demo from Doughnut Boy, Red Devil, 'Nikita' and 'Devil'.

We spent an age deciding on the songs to be sung and the order (such prima donnas :) ) and in the meantime some more beers were drunk, either those smuggled in or tasty Staropramen 'taken' from the VIP room :) We had an impressive line-up of songs, 24 in all, not all of which I knew and I had to spend some time learning 1 or 2 new ones, including one in Hebrew:

Thanks to Ultras71 for the list and the pic (he's the eejit on the video clip with the Holland helmet that he got off ebay!)

Loads of TV and radio crews were present, and interviews were given by our senior representatives (eh Ping Ping Alex?!) but I stayed in the background and kept the banner flying high.

The draw was kind to us. We were due on stage last, time to oil the voices some more and laugh at the others (or shit ourselevs at how we were going to screw up big-style)

Then the fun began. Hertha were up first, and were a bit poo. Too many on stage at once, too many wee girls (nothing against wee girls, but they can't sing football songs, this is a FACT) and too many drunken bums, plus their songs were dull and uninspired.

Then Togo. To be honest, they kicked ass, drums, new songs, dancing, performance-wise, they were the mutt's nuts. HOWEVER, not much in the way of songs, especially not in the way of piss-take songs (their only one was 'South Korea? Out! France? Out! Saudi Arabia? Out! Togo - World Champion!) and imo there should have been a special category for international teams, either way it would have been unfair. But they still rocked the place.

Then a wee DJ break, then Union, our big Eastern rivals. Tbh, I thought they were damn good. They had loads of supporters too, whereas we had, erm, no-one (TeBe doesn't have any fans, after all). Some good anti-Vorwaerts and anti-Dynamo songs, well-sung, they got lots of applause (also from me) after each chant, but imo their songs tending to go on a bit long, and they didn't have enough variety.

Then it was our turn. I thought we were a bit disappointing, possibly cos we were so few, possibly cos the crowd didn't really react much to us or looked non-plussed (we got a few rounds of applause) but we did manage to unite Union and Hertha fans in hatred against us in anti-TeBe songs (lila-weisse! Westberliner Scheisse! which we sang along with to wind them up even more :) ) which I suppose was a success in itself, after all, that's what the piss-take songs were all about... We were led superbly by Ultras 71, a big crazy eejit with a purple wig and Holland helmet (I love you big man ;) )Our repetoire frankly kicked ass, from versions of 'Buffalo TeBe', 'TeBe Party Army', 'God save TeBe' (which I sang for once! All in the cause, but NEVER AGAIN!) versions of the Soviet and Italian national anthems; to a mockery of other fans calling us gay because of our purple colours, with the songs 'lila-weiss ist schwul' (purple-shite is gay) and 'Wir sind TeBe, wir sind TeBo, und wir wollen in euren Po' (We're TeBe, We're TeBo, and we want in your asses!) to the coup de grace, 'Caravan of Love' a la TeBe.

The English moderator guy was a bit of a penis to be honest, he knew his stuff but just talked crap and was a bit peinlich (embarrassing).

We got off stage, got our free beer with our token things, and the wait began. There was a jury of 4 who voted on the whole thing, and they took time to deliberate. Then the comments about each team, which were mostly always complimentary and non-commital, and the results, in order of performance. Iirc, Hertha got 91 (out of 120), Togo 96, Union a bit less, then came our results. The first fu cking judge gave us 11/30, that was it, I thought. Then the others. 29, 29, 30!!! There was a load of celebration, but I was a bit pissed and not too good at the maths, so I stayed seated on the floor and didn't even realise we'd won till I saw all the others storming onto the stage.

So I bounced up and jumped around like a loon. Our prize was 3 little barrels of Becks and and a portable tap-thing. We hoisted them in the air like trophies and sang a few more provocative songs, much to the disgust of most of the other fans, who then left. Others stayed and congratulated us, and interviews were given again.

I was even interviewed, I said sth cheesy and predictable along the lines of:

Interviewer: "So how you going to celebrate then?"
Me: "By drinking every last drop of these barrels now, we have to!"

A video of the event, which is a bit cheesy and hardly features the winners, can be viewed here.

A bit of dancing was done to the Togo beat, then we dropped off the beers at Doughnut Boy's (he better make sure the TeBe fans get to drink it, although the World Cup does begin tomorrow...) and then some more celebratory beers outside the Kastanie with Bronski and Thorsten and co, where I was hassled by some freaky Catholic Jesus freak who called me a fascist because I asked him why he only played me Catholic rebel tunes on the tin whistle he happened to have with him. My repeated question of "I'm an athiest. Are you a Catholic?" soon had the fecker scarpering, though he still managed to give me his card, which is in Mauerpark somewhere!

So TeBe fans managed to follow the players in representing the club prestigiously and winning the trophy. I think some of the players should have been there to support US for once!

"EVERY WOMAN, EVERY MAN, JOIN THE CARAVAN OF LOVE, TEBE, TEBE TEBE!"

Berlin Cup Final 2006

2006-05-27T10:38:00.000+02:00

TeBe 2 - 1 Hertha II (aet)

What a day. What a night. Words won't do it justice, but I'll try my best. (Sorry, the photos aren't great, but my camera is technically broke.)

We met, as is tradition, in Mauerpark, next to the ground, at 4.30, I was the first one there *embarrassed* but I've the excuse that I live close by. TBH, the whole day I wasn't nervous at all, I don't know whether it was because a) I felt a bit detached from it all having missed all of the previous rounds and having only seen TeBe 4 times this season, or b) Hertha II are a league above us, a good Regionalliga team, and so I thought we had absolutely NO chance. Doughnut Boy was so nervous, lack of sleep and the lot :)

More familiar faces arrived in dribs and drabs, until at 5pm, as announced, the beer and some of the more important people involved with TeBe arrived. The club donated 5 crates of Berliner Pilsner beer to the fans to say thanks for their support this season, and this beer was gratefully accpeted :) A few of us went off and had a kickaround to try to chase away the nerves, until the arrival of some Hertha fans in the park made us more alert and we got stuck into the beer again with the others. What pleased me was the amount of non-TeBe supporting friends who were there, Simon, Nick, St. and Joe among others.

We headed to the ground earlyish, as one or two didn't have tickets and there was a huge queue. And then we got into the ground. The atmosphere was electric already, and the 'ultras', despite much cynicism from the old fart brigade, had done a great job with 'TEBE' in huge letters, loads of cardboard cups, shedloads of purple/white confetti and balloons, etc (nb a similar cynicism was noted at the Linfield Irish Cup final, and again that proved to be a great success. Hats off to LWOB, Bart etc, you did a good job)

The pre-match atmosphere builds, lots of familiar faces

The first surprise was that our star striker and top scorer of the last 2 seasons, Micha Fuss, was on the bench. We seemed to line up with quite a defensive formation imo, although given the respective leagues of the two teams, that was understandable.

As for the match itself, my recollection differs from most other fans. I thought we were largely outplayed, esp in the 2nd half. The teams really did cancel each other out, but in the 2nd half, Hertha had much better chances, the ball just flying past the far post on a number of occasions, Hertha's passing being much more fluent and their midfield more dominant. Our big defender-turned-striker, Vuckovic (think a better-looking Peter Crouch with more skill), seemed to spend more time in our box defending corners etc than in theirs, plus he also seemed to keep trying to do too much with the ball, to beat one man too many,and I was getting very annoyed with his reluctance to pass the fecking ball, much to the amusement of the German speakers around me, laughing at this crazy Irish guy swearing away in English :)

On the terraces, though, TeBe very much had the upper hand, singing almost non-stop, prompted by the huge purple-wig-wearing Ultras71 and various Babelsberg sympathisers. I felt though that not as much singing was done as last year, maybe cos we didn't get 'Lila-weisse Allez' going for half an hour non-stop :) I actually paced myself this tme, so no sore heads, and especially no crying :) It helped that I drank no beer at all DURING the match, seeing as the queue was a mile long and people had to queue for THIRTY FECKIN MINUTES for a beer. So I gave it a miss. Hertha's support seemed to made up of the old men that always go to watch the amateurs, plus a gaggle of dodgy-looking youngsters and skinheads.

The official crowd given was 1600, not a lot, but we made much more noise than you would believe 1000-odd could make. Our number was swelled in part by fans inspired by flyers (over 2000!) posted by Ultras71 and Mr. Bungle in the surrounding houses the day before. A big hats off to the 2 gentlemen for this.

Anyway, back to the game. Extra time was inevitable despite Hertha's superiority. Here we go again, I thought. I thought wrong. Hertha scored midway through the first period of extra time through their 1,96m striker Samba; our defence had held out heroically till then, thanks in no small part to the immense Schalle, but it was on the cards. At this point, I thought that was it. We had created NO chances of note, they were fitter, and the rest of the half was played out tamely. I was a bit gutted, but kind of resigned to it: we WERE the big outsiders, after all. A lot of glum faces were on show, BUT the singing and encouragement continued. A sign for me of the resignation was us throwing the rest of our confetti when we were still 1-0 down, we didn't really expect to use it again.

My feeling of despair was increased in second period of extra time, when, from a corner, Thompson leapt up, only to head the ball straight at the goalkeeper. That was our last chance gone. But no. Another free-kick (I think), up pops Kadow, IT'S IN! 1-1! Cue wild celebrations, I think I hugged some random Babelsberg guy beside me, then looked for Doughnut Boy and the regulars.

So, penalties again. I'd have happily settled for that. After all, we have Timo Hampf, football God, scorer and saver extraordinaire. But I underestimated the resilience of this team. Last minute, we get a free-kick out near the left hand touchline. Fuss sends in a big high loopy curly one. It's looking good, Hertha defenders don't attack it, the keeper looks as if he thinks it's going out, Lemcke attacks it like a man possessed, sticks out a foot and the ball is in the net. CUE ECSTASY.

At this stage, I have to admit, I fell over the first 2 rows of seats, backwards. Luckily, noone saw me, as everyone was too busy going nuts to care or notice. I got up and proceeded to look out every TeBe fan that I know, to hug them. Especially Matze, as it was his last game before he moves away, and Endi, as he's been through a lot lately, and Doughnut Boy, for the same reasons and cos he's invested a lot in the team this year. Read these 3 blogs for match reports, they're well worth a look.

The end was incredible. Loads of people piled down to the front, Fuss and ALL the players ran straight over to Block E to celebrate, and the noise was incredible. At the very end, I just picked up a big white flag and waved it again and again, I couldn't sing much by this stage due to sore heads, and I'm not one for standing by the fence and high-fiving with the players. Everyone was just delirious with joy. You could see how much the fans meant to the players, and how much they were enjoying it. This cracking video captures a little of what it was like.

After the match, we alighted to our usual 'Spaeti' (late-night offie) nearby to try to wind down a little and come to terms with what had happened. By this stage it was pissing it down, but no-one cared. Doughnut Boy was very quiet. He'd cried after the winner, and seemed emotionally drained. It made me laugh. I wasn't quite as bad, for me, Irish Cup Final day, May 6th, had been my personal footballing zenith.

After a beer and a chat with those I hadn't had a chance to see during the game, a 'Spontandemo' was held by 30-odd fans, with the banner we made last week, all the way to the Fraanz club, where the club were holding a night for players and fans. I didn't go, partly due to my prejudices against the club, partly cos I wanted to go to table tennis in the Kastanie. I regret not even going for a wee bit, as it was free in. But Felix, Doughnut as others celebrated until it was light :)

For me, the absolute highlight was seeing so many TeBe regulars together again, along with a lot of occasionals and newbies, everyone absolutley delighted.

TEBE PARTY ARMY!

The End

2006-04-12T15:01:00.000+02:00

I think i'll let this blog lie for a while, even though I'll be in a position to comment on Blues matches as of this Saturday. I'm too lazy, it hasn't turned out the way I envisaged, and it's best if I'm in a place for a long time before I try to do it properly.

For the record:

Linfield lost the all-Ireland Cup semi last night 1-0 at home to Drogheda. By all accounts it was deserved. What could have been a truly great season has now been tarnished, after losing our unbeaten domestic and league record 3-1 at home to Distillery on Saturday. I'm gutted. Oh well, still have the Irish Cup final to look forward to, a 60-year hoodoo to bury, and a monk's outfit to wear!

Gillingham have saved themselves! With a series of great victories over superior opposition. I'm amazed.

TeBe went on a run of 10 wins in a row, stopped at the weekend by a draw. However, they are safely in mid-table, and in the Berlin cup final again. I won't see them now till September at the earliest, I fear.

Adios.

1.FC Union 0 - 1 TeBe

2006-03-30T12:07:00.000+02:00

Paul-Rusch-Pokal, quarter final

So TeBe move into the Berlin Cup semis with a great away win at moneybags Union. 250-odd TeBe fans apparently made a great noise, the winner came in the second half from - who else? - Micha FussFussFuss. The team are on a great run at the moment, I think that's 8 wins in a row. Typical TeBe, either very very good or awful.

A great match report (in German) and photos can be found on stadionbesuch.de.

Derry City 0 - 0 Linfield

2006-03-28T16:39:00.000+02:00

Thompo yet again.

Group 2

Team P W D L GD PTS
Shelbourne 5 2 2 1 +4 8
Linfield 5 1 4 0 +2 7
Derry City 5 1 3 1 +2 6
Glentoran 5 1 1 3 -8 4

So we lose the lead of the group, Shelbourne having tanked the Glens 3-0 at the Oval, and apparently we were a bit lucky, but I was pleased when my dad phoned me to tell me the result, even if I couldn't get back to sleep after that, I'd have taken a draw before the game. Air McNair will hopefully have a wee summary to follow but some points:

+ we're still unbeaten in all-Ireland competition this season!
+ another clean sheet away from home
+ the fans, despite a 1.5 hour round trip on the way home across the border, got home safe and sound
+ a win vs. the Glens in our last match will see us through to the semis, probably as group winners as I fancy Derry to get something from Shelbourne. That would mean a home draw vs. Drogheda United, tough but not as tough as a prospective away match vs. Eircom League Champions Cork City...

- We've only scored 2 goals in 5 matches now
- Team knackered

Nearly there...

Ireland quakes in Linfield's wake

2006-03-24T14:16:00.000+01:00

Cracking article on UEFA.com about Linfield being unbeaten in 47 domestic games this season, and being the first Champions in European leagues this season. More recognition...

Shelbourne 0 Linfield 0

2006-03-22T09:30:00.000+01:00

Travelling Bluemen (cheers Thompo)

Setanta Cup Matchday 4

This competition is hotting up, with the Blues in the driving seat. A backs to the wall performance after a ridiculous sending-off for Maccers for daring to shout at a player who tried to assault him leaves us top of the group:

Team P W D L GD PTS
Linfield 4 1 3 0 +2 6
Derry City 4 1 2 1 +1 5
Shelbourne 4 1 2 1 +1 5
Glentoran 4 1 1 2 -4 4

4 points from our last 2 games, Derry (a) and Glentoran (h) would see us through, probably as group winners.

Champions!

2006-03-21T15:03:00.000+01:00

Many thanks to Thompo yet again

First in Europe!

Linfield clinched their 46th league title on Saturday with still 6 (SIX) games to go in the league campaign. This went a long way to making up to last season's last-gasp league disappointment.

This team now has the chance to make themselves legends. A win in a possible Irish Cup Final vs Glentoran (who we haven't beaten i nthe final since the 1940s) would secure a domestic clean sweep, not done since the legendary Seven trophy-winning Linfield team of 1961/62.

But the way to REALLY make themselves legends would be to win the all-Ireland Setanta Cup too, making it 5 trophies for the season and Linfield to be true Kings of Ireland.

** UPDATE: Linfield drew 0-0 last night in Dublin with Shelbourne, Maccers was sent off AGAIN for apparently growling at a player who had just tried to remove his kidney with his studs. A good reult, seeing as the Glens beat Derry surprisingly 1-0. We're in the driving seat, and as the fans were singing all last night:

"WE ARE INVINCIBLE!"

Nearly there...

2006-03-17T16:08:00.000+01:00

If Linfield beat Armagh City away tomorrow, they will win their 46th Irish League title. And can concentrate on the Setanta Cup and doing the Clean Sweep. Here's the table:

Carnegie Irish Premier Division Table

		P	GD	PTS
1	Linfield	23	62	63
2	Glentoran	24	20	47
3	Portadown	23	20	44
4	Dungannon Swifts	23	14	38
5	Ballymena	23	-2	37
6	Cliftonville	23	2	34
7	Newry	24	5	33
8	Limavady	23	-5	30
9	Armagh City	23	-13	29
10	Loughgall	23	-2	28
11	Coleraine	23	-13	28
12	Lisburn Distillery	23	-2	27
13	Glenavon	23	-19	25
14	Institute	23	-16	21
15	Larne	23	-19	20
16	Ards	23	-32	10

Fix

2006-03-07T16:50:00.000+01:00

I was informed by my dad on Saturday that Linfield, having progressed to the Irish Cup semi-final, drew Bangor, the weakest team in the hat, avoiding big rivals Glentoran at the same time. I was delighted with this; I want us to beat them in the final and exorcise a 60-year Irish Cup final hoodoo we have. The draw:
Larne vs Glentoran
Bangor vs Linfield

Only on Monday when I went on Irish League Forums did I realise how badly rigged this 'draw' was. To wit:

1. The balls were transparent, and contained in a feckin glass fruit bowl.
2. No stirring of the balls was conducted on TV before the first 2 balls were drawn (only before the final two!) Glentoran fans watching the room on CCTV before the draw went live on air confirmed that no stirring was done at all beforehand.
3. Adam Coates, radio presenter, told everyone beforehand that the practice draw had yielded Larne vs Glentoran and Bangor vs Linfield. Surprise surprise!!
4. The presenter called out Larne as ball 1, when on the screen it said Glentoran. It turned out that the names in the bowl had no numbers anyway...
5. Allegedly sponsors had said beforehand that they wanted a Linfield - Glentoran final.

Fixed draws are nothing new. That it was done so amateurishly and brazenly live on air - only in Northern Ireland.
I have the download here, but unfortunately you have to be a member of ILF and for that amig@s, you have to pay 10 English pounds. I'll see what I can do later about getting it onto another file, it really is ridiculous.

TeBe 3 Hansa II 1

2006-03-07T16:43:00.000+01:00

Fuss slots home the third

So at last, my first 'real' game since September. The pitch was white with green markings; don't think i've seen that since the 'white ball' Glens-Blues game back in 1995.

To be honest, I don't have too much to report from the game, seeing as I was too busy chatting and catching up with people to pay too much attention to the action. In the first half, TeBe displayed some crisp neat passing, remarkable given the surface, most of their good stuff going through Fuss (finally no high balls pumped forward to him) and Micha was sharp as a tack. I like his combination with my new cult favourite big Vuckovic. TeBe went in at the break deservedly 3-1 ahead.

A big thanks to Mr. Bungle, stadium DJ, for playing my request Teenage KICKS by the Undertones, and for Felix for providing the record.

The second half was pretty poor, but not surprising given the surface. The fans however were in fine fettle, belting out a host of old favourites, and 'Caravan of Love' was given another airing, though it still requires some learning by the newer fans. Again, Mr. Bungle, star that he is, played the 'proper' version after the match.

After, we managed to slip into the press conference, where free beer and food awaited. Raickovic the trainer truly is a man of few quiet words; the Hansa trainer was magnanimous in his praise. After, some chats ensued, first with my new english-speaking mate 'Thompo' and then Micha, hounded all night by the Fortuna Stalker.

All in all, I thought TeBe looked good, no way will we go down now, so it's a case of Aufbauarbeit now till the end of the season, let the team get to know each other, then really go for it next season when hopefully Babelsberg will be in a league above and FC Union will be bankrupt.

Hertha BSE 2 - 1. FC Koeln 4

2006-03-06T15:09:00.000+01:00

Was at this game in the away block with a few TeBe mates on Saturday cos one of them is from Cologne and a big fan. Was the first time I'd been in the Olympiastadion in 6 years and was well impressed with the place, the roof keeps it warmer and adds to the atmosphere.

- Great 2nd half, Hertha were all over them in the 1st half
- 2nd goal was a fantastic volley
- Hertha suck and i take it their trainer has been sacked?
- Fan protest outside the ground afterwards, they want the manager Hoeness and not the Trainer Goetz sacked
- Good atmosphere in the Cologne block, was impressed
- 12 Euros, half as cheap as I paid 2 weeks earlier to get into Doncaster-Gills

Some photos:

Long-Overdue Update

2006-02-28T13:33:00.000+01:00

Sorry, I've been really crap recently with this site.

Linfield

Still walking the league, 18 points clear, even though they've apparently been playing poorly, not least due to the manager refusing to rotate the team, meaning that some players have played 43 times already. The players apparently look dead on their feet, highlighted by a jaded display vs Derry City in our first competitive fixture in 35 years in the Setanta Cup, which ended 1-1. An illustration:

Games as Sub Goals

Peter Thompson	F	43		38
Noel Bailie (Capt.)	D	42		2
Alan Mannus	GK	43
Michael Gault	M	43	5	4
Oran Kearney	M	42	2	14
William Murphy	D	42		5
Aidan O'Kane	M	40	21	4
Glenn Ferguson	F	40	2	38
Jim Ervin	D	40	1
Pat McShane	D	39		2
Chris Kingsberry	M	33	17	6
Paul McAreavey	M	34	5	8
Tim Mouncey	M	29	3	6
Mark Picking	M	22	17	3
Davy Larmour	F	23	18	5

DJ heeded the calls on ILF for rotation, rested some players on Saturday, and... we only drew 2-2, fringe players not taking their chance. Some players seem to be on their way out or past it (Larmour, Picking, Special Teams Boy O'Kane).

We play Glentoran tonight in the next Setanta group match without 38-goal Peter Thompson and Jim Ervin, away on international duty.

Oh, and Maccers has managed to get sent off twice in a month and will miss most of the remaining league and cup campaign.

Maccers again. This time no red though, vs Derry. Thanks to South Stand Says (ie Thompo)

Gillingham

We are going down. I see no alternative. I was over in Leeds visiting a friend last weekend, and went along to the Gills Doncaster match (photos to follow). We were dire. 5 shots off-target, 3 closer to the corner flag, injuries (Jarvis, Mulligan) stupid suspnesions (Byfield) and players that just aren't good enough (Black, Shields). No fight, no tactics, no midfield enforcer. How we miss Smithy. We're doomed.

TeBe

No game since Dec 4th due to the winter Break and adverse weather conditions since January. Didn´t stop a "game" taking place on Friday though ;) See TeBe Party Army for full report and pics. Was at a friendly match on Saturday vs. Magdeburg, where we lost 2-0. I can't take German friendly games seriously though, as they play them on ASTROTURF.

Pete Stays!

2006-02-01T17:31:00.000+01:00

Thompo scores again

So despite last-minute speculation that an improved bid from QPR was in the offing (the original bid of 50k now, 50k at the end of the season plus another 100k in the unlikely event of QPR going up having been turned down) or even a bid from Luton, nothing happened and Pistol Pete is staying. Good. he scored our winner on Saturday vs. Cliftonville (or Cornerbhoys FC, as they're affectionately known on ILF by some Bluemen) has scored 33 times this season, and he really does have a chance of winning everything.

He still would like a crack at the big time:

Thompson still hopes for transfer

But not yet. Plus the non-move is right for Linfield, 100k for an international striker who's only 21 and is banging in the goals is nowhere near enough.

Elsewhere, TeBe still haven't played in over a month and a half now due to a combination of a Winter Break and the adverse freezing weather conditions in Berlin. Check out Doughnut Boy's fine TeBe blog for an update on the friendlies (played on astroturf!).

Linfield 1 Glentoran 0

2006-01-25T10:47:00.000+01:00

CAS Semi-final, scorer Spike.

Apparently this was as convincing a one-nil as you will ever see. Here are various quotes from linfieldfc.com and ILF, match report from Full-Timer to follow:

The scoreline might only read one nil to Linfield, but it was all one way traffic on the night. Had it not been for Morris in the Glentoran goal, the Blues could easily have had seven or eight tonight.

Shooty-in practice. Could easily have been double figures.

In all my years following the Blues this was the most one sided 1-0 game I have EVER seen.

The most one sided 1-0 i have ever seen in my life. If it wasnt for Morris we could have had more than in the CIS game and boxing day put together.

That's three out of three, with at least three to go. The (whisper it) clean sweep is still on...

Coleraine 0 Linfield 1

2006-01-24T17:11:00.000+01:00

Thanks as always to Thompo for the pic

Crisis! Only 3 goals in two league games for the Blues! Still, another 3 points gained over 2nd place, the Glens, who are having a season horribilis, losing 1-0 at home to Limavady and leaving us SEVENTEEN points clear! We've only dropped 2 points all season in the league. Match report from the lately-absent Full-Time Supporter:

It was a pretty dreadful affair to watch, The pitch was terrible, a ploughed field doesn't do it justice, with players losing their footing constantly. A battling performance in which Michael Gault was in his element putting in a man of the match performance although Jim Ervin wasnt far behind in those stakes. A bit of a controversial penalty given by a Scottish referee, Some part of an exchange program, and the sad fact is we think our referees are bad, well he was as bad as I have seen all season. Davy O'Hare nearly kept out fergusons spot kick but I suppose we were due a bit of luck in the penalty stakes. Oran Kearney hit the bar late on while Kyle McVey missed a free header from around 6 yards which could have tied the game up. Apart from that nothing else of interest.

One other small point of note, DJ must be the only person in the country who would put Mark Picking on the right wing every week, he offers absolutely nothing and has had numerous opportunities over the years. Chris Kingsberry, is the future although to continually put him on the bench could lead to him not being around for too long, the choice must surely be Kingsberry or Mouncey if he is fit.

Next up, Glentoran on Tuesday in the County Antrim Shield semi-final. A win would leave Roy Coyle in big diffs...

The Sands Siro, One Step Closer

2006-01-23T12:28:00.000+01:00

Latest picture of the design of the new National Stadium

So the IFA have voted in favour of supporting the government's new planned International Stadium at the Long Kesh site (I am now ceasing to call it 'The Maze').

On the one hand, they say they are only voting 'in principle', and are keeping all options open.

On the other hand, it's going to be very hard for the IFA to back out of this now.

Before I start, let me make one thing clear. I am approaching this issue from the point of view of an Northern Irish football fan. I am not a fan of the Northern Ireland international team (except when they beat England or the Republic, and that's just for selfish personal reasons :) ) The fact that I am a Linfield fan matters not a jot, our contract with the IFA to stage international matches (years remaining: ca 90) means Linfield are in a win-win situation. However we need a competent, financially-sound governing body and a competitive, financially-sound league to survive. I want to see a strong Irish League.

I acknowledge the need for a new national sports stadium in Northern Ireland, accessible for all (although I don't buy the old argument about Windsor Park and its 'sectarian' setting).

BUT this Long Kesh stadium idea is all wrong. There are a number of reasons why it is a bad idea for Northern Irish football, but the most disastrous reason for the IFA is that THE NUMBERS DON'T ADD UP.

Under the existing deal, the IFA have to pay 500k a year, plus 20% of all ticket sales to the stadium promoters. How will the IFA raise this? They pay nowhere near this amount of money to Linfield for use of Windsor Park, and as I have said before, projected revenue is a joke (7,000 fans paying 12 quid a pop for the County Antrim Shield final? This is pie-in-the-sky). Agreeing to this is like turkeys voting for Christmas.

Other reasons why this stadium is a bad joke:

SIZE. Let me repeat this: FORTY-TWO THOUSAND IS AT LEAST 17000 TOO MANY.

In terms of international football, people keep harking on about the England game and the potential for 2012 Olympic matches and UEFA Cup finals, as well as major concerts.

How often are these events going to take place? Surely we should be tailoring a stadium to our everyday needs and not to once-in-a-generation events, if we are to avoid a huge white elephant?

Norn Iron will never get 42,000 crowds again. They get a good side once in a generation (1958, 1982-86, ???) and even then crowds will never be that big. Two examples:

1999 vs France (then World Champions) crowd 9,000
1998 vs Germany crowd 10,000

If we can't attract big crowds for this type of opposition, what sort of crowds are we realistically going to attract for the likes of Estonia, Finland, Romania etc?

In terms of local football, pro-LK (Long Kesh) fans say that the design of the stadium will mean fans can sit in the lower tier without the resultant loss of atmosphere. So a) we won't see the 17,000 empty seats above us and b) we're gonna get 25,000 for local Cup finals. Be real. The 2001 IC final (Linfield - Glentoran, the biggest in 16 years) attracted 14,000 fans. That is the MAXIMUM possible. Imagine how embarrassing a 7,000 crowd for a Larne - Ballymena cup final in a 42,000 capacity stadium will look, and feel.

LOCATION. Lots of pro-LK, non-Belfast fans have been turning the location of the new stadium into a Belfast vs rest of NI debate. I don't live in Belfast anymore, so I don't care. I just think putting a national stadium in the middle of nowhere is illogical. The whole argument about the Long Kesh site being more accessible to more residents of NI is a red herring. The majority of NI football fans and IL fans reside in the Greater Belfast area. The difference is a maximum 15 minutes, and this will be negated by the effect of 15000+ fans trying to exit a stadium onto the same road. No fan will spend a day in a glorified industrial estate, so any sense of belonging or atmosphere will be lost. In any case, bars in stadium complexes must remain closed on the day of international matches, so fans will have to congregate in Belfast and travel there. What major international stadium can you name me that is located outside of a city, in the open countryside?

Let's be clear about this, this decision to locate the stadium WAS made for political reasons, no matter what government spin-doctors and gullible local media try to tell us. The British government are trying to do something positive with the old Long Kesh site to try to paint a shiny happy people scenario of good coming out of evil. Under the Freedom of Information Act, various Northern Ireland supporters have tried to obtain information pertaining to the Long Kesh proposals. After a delay, they discovered that certain information (including the Business Case for the Maze/ Long Kesh) had been withheld as this was likely to lead to one or more of the 3 sporting bodies withdrawing from the project (football?).

So exactly who IS driving the agenda on the Long Kesh project? If the business case is so robust, why is it shrouded in such secrecy? What is there to hide?

The last thing that greatly angers is the gun-to-the-head approach of the government: "It's Long Kesh or nothing. There is no alternative." Yet apparently there is. But the government will not give them enough time/ consideration. The fobbing off of the Titanic Quarter site is a case in point. The Titanic Quarter refutes the claim of the government that it withdrew from the running.

I am approaching this from a purely practical point of view. What are we going to do with the stadium on the 330+ days it will not be in use during the year? How will it pay for itself? As the Amalgamation of NI supporters says, let the agenda for football be set by football and not by others. This stadium would be a disaster for Northern Irish football. Both Gaelic and Rugby have fallback options. We don't.

Scally by name

2006-01-16T11:41:00.000+01:00

...Scally by nature

It has been pointed out by some that this blog is a little Linfield-heavy. So I thought I'd write something about Gillingham's dodgy chairman, as recent allegations and alleged non-dealings concerning him have left me very sceptical about the man.

Let me assert this first and foremost: Scally has been a godsend for Gillingham FC. He took over the club when it was in dire straits, sorted the finances out (for a while) made (past tense) correct managerial appointments in Tony Pulis, Hess and Stan Ternent and of course presided over the most successful period in Gillingham's history, their first ever spell in the second tier of English football, 5 seasons there. He also built the ground up, making the Rainham End all-seater and modernising the Brian Moore stand. He has done wonders for the Gills.

BUT... serious questions have been asked about him now for at least 2 seasons. The collapse of ITV digital hit all non-Premiership clubs hard, but seemingly ours harder than most and Scally is still using it as an excuse for all our woes. He is beating back the Bank of Scotland from the door, and apparently we are 9 million in debt. Now it is true that Gillingham did not enjoy the increase in attendances and revenue it should have expected after 35,000+ were there to see them twice at Wembley, but it seems Scally has not maximised revenue potentials. He proposed a hike in season ticket prices last season for this one despite not knowing at that stage what division we were going to be in! After relegation, there was much discontent expressed and prices were dropped accordingly. But prices are still among the highest in the division, and yet our status doen't reflect this.

Smithy

Now, various rumours and allegations of broken promises and unprofessional behaviour are coming to the fore. Let's start with Paul Smith. Gills legend, and club Player of the Year 4 seasons in a row, last year he was offered a new contract for this one: which featured a SEVENTY percent drop in wages. For a captain who was still putting the shift in, this was too much, and he duly left. Things weren't working out for him at Wallsall, so the Gills took him back on loan (Wallsall continued to pay his wages). I'll let gillsconnect.com take the story from there:

Since returning to Priestfield from the Bescott Stadium in October Walsall have been paying the wages of the midfielder.

Smith says he cancelled the remaining 18 months of his Walsall contract on the understanding that Gillingham would honour the terms from January 1st, but now appears to be without a contract and a club from December 31st.

In a statement issued by his agent, Andrew Mills, Smith said:

"It has recently been reported in the press that I have made myself unavailable for team selection over the Christmas period. This is the unfortunate result of my current contract dispute with Gillingham Chairman Paul Scally following the club's complete U-turn on the agreement surrounding my initial return to Gillingham from Walsall."

He continued: "One of the conditions in order for Walsall to allow me to return to Gillingham on loan (whilst Walsall also continued to pay my wages!) was that I cancelled the remaining 18 months of my contract with them leaving me effectively out of work from January.

"Following assurances from Gillingham Chairman Paul Scally that Gills would take over my contract from January 1st and honour it's terms I signed both the loan and Walsall contract cancellation forms.

"Since returning for the Blackpool game I have been given several assurances that the permanent contract was imminent and although advised not to play until I was in receipt of the permanent contract I decided to give the Chairman the benefit of doubt, in the belief that he would not renege on such promises which had such serious ramifications for both myself and my family.

"During my recent meetings with the Chairman these conversations have been called into doubt but I am 100% clear about the terms of my return. To now be told that 1/ The Chairman was not aware I had cancelled my Walsall contract and 2/ That due to the club banking requirements the club are not allowed to commit any further finances to playing staff is an extreme disappointment to say the least."

He added: "Due to the situation I now find myself with no contract or income from 31 December which not only has serious ramifications for me on a personal level but also my family. At no time throughout my career have I ever felt as let down as I now feel by the club that has remained close to my heart over the last 8 years.

"I was genuinely delighted to return to Gillingham but now find myself bitterly disappointed that it looks like I've played my last game in a Gills shirt, with this in mind I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the fans that have made me feel so welcome on both my return and my previous time at the club."

Scally's response?

Despite Paul's comments Gills chairman Paul Scally claims he was unaware until three weeks ago that Smith had cancelled his contract with Walsall.

Talking to the Medway Messenger he said: "I didn't know until three weeks ago that he'd cancelled his Walsall contract and as far as I was concerned, it was a loan deal with a view to extending it on January 1 and that was the situation at the time of signing.

"At no time did I know, realise or suggest that he had cancelled his contract with Walsall. With the financial situation and the change in management it was decided that we couldn't offer him a new contract. It just wasn't possible."

Unless some kind of deal between Scally and Smith can be agreed the four time player of the year looks set to start 2006 looking for a new club. Should it come to that I'm sure all Gills fans will join us in wishing Paul all the best and thanking him for what he has done for Gillingham Football Club.

Hmm. I see no reason why Smithy would lie. Obviously he's kicking himself now for not having something down on paper, but it seems Scally has pulled a flanker. Not the way to treat one of the club's best-ever players. Luckily Swindon Town offered him a contract.

Football Genius

Next up, Gills legend Adrian Pennock 'Football Genius', who has his own fan club: www.apfc.co.uk Typical song? 'He only scores own goals'! Another Wembley hero,he skippered the team on that famous day. He alleges Scally promised him a testimonial to make up for an early contract termination. He is still waiting:

"Former Gills defender Adrian Pennock has instructed solicitors to sue Gillingham FC for up to £100,000 because he has never had a testimonial he claims he was promised. Pennock's solicitors sent a letter to the club saying they will sue for breach of contract unless he receives compensation.

Adie, who was skipper in Gillingham's 3-2 victory over Wigan Athletic in the Division Two play-off final of 2000, was forced to retire just over three years ago because of injury and is now boss of Welling in the Nationwide Conference League South.

On his retirement, he claims he reached agreement with Gills chairman Paul Scally that his remaining contract for the season would be bought out on the basis he received a smaller lump sum plus a testimonial dinner and a testimonial match.

Despite apparent attempts to arrange the match with the club there is no sign of the testimonial happening some three years after he departed.

Pennock, who made 199 appearances in 7 seasons for the club, remains a fans favourite and told Meridian Tonight: "I gave everything for this football club and it is a shame it has come down this road. It's nothing to do with the fans and obviously all to do with the football club.

"It's been a long time, nearly three years, I've been through operation after operation but there have been some great times, I still love this football club and I still want the club to do really well but it's all about me and the biggest thing is my family. I'm not a David Beckham of the world and the money the testimonial would have recouped is massively important for me."

Talking to the press association Adrian echoed the comments above saying: "The fans will understand it grieves me to have to take action against my old club. They will appreciate this is purely out of frustration and the unwillingness of Mr Scally to fulfil the agreement he reached with me and the club's obligation.

"I served the club willingly over the years. Unfortunately, injury meant I could no longer play for the club I loved. It upsets me it has come to this. Over the ensuing two years I have been put off again and again by Mr Scally.

"Now we are not even speaking and I have taken that to mean the club does not intend to fulfil its agreement."

Scally's response?

Upon hearing the comments above chairman Paul Scally issued the following statement to Meridian Tonight: "I am absolutely astonished at Mr Pennock's comments. It's not the responsibility of the club or the chairman to organise a testimonial It's his own responsibility and he has done nothing to organise it."

Adrian described Mr Scally`s statement as unbelievable and was flabbergasted, while his solicitor David Green said the statement was "naive and ridiculous".

This is a story which looks set to continue over the coming weeks, with the early reaction on the GillsConnect message board calling for the club chairman to give Adrian the testimonial he so rightly deserves."

Again, something's not quite right here. And I believe it IS Gillingham FC's obligation to arrange this, and thus Mr Scally as chairman is responsible.

Hess

Lastly, Scally has moved forward Andy Hessenthaler's testimonial to 'the next 3 or 4 weeks'. Why Scally has brought forward Andy Hessenthalers promised testimonial match to the next three or four weeks is a mystery. It was originally scheduled for later in the season but speculation may now point to Hessy receiving his nestegg as part of a pay-off before the January transfer window closes.

Scally's comment:

"In an interview with Chris Britcher, Sports Editor for the Kent on Sunday, Scally said "I have never had a cross word with Hess in the ten years I have known him. Any suggestions we have had some falling out is nonsense. I can see a role for him at the Club and so can the manager- but perhaps not as a regular player".

Although it is no secret that Gills legend Andy Hessenthaler doesn't fit into boss Ronnie Jepsons future plans, he still has around 18 months of his contract to run and after the recent shenanigans concerning close pal Paul Smith he won't leave Priestfield until he is good and ready. The acrimonious legal wrangling relating to Adrian Pennocks testimonial match will also remind Hessy the need to have everything in writing, preferably in tablets of stone!

Too true!

Hessy has been linked with a number of vacant managers jobs in the past, including Watford and Millwall from the Football League plus plenty in Nationwide Conference. There are quite a few clubs on the Non-League circuit that would relish the opportunity of having him in a player/managers role as his fitness levels are much higher than some players more than ten years his junior."

This seems to be par for the course now with Scally. Rumours abound. Lots of money seems to have gona 'astray'. How anyone would want to play for Gillingham given the broken promises and aura of mistrust is beyond me. Thing is, there is no millionaire Abramovich to save the Gills so we'll have to make do with Scally. But his financial record in the last 3 years is abominable.

+++ STOP PRESS +++

The end of an era as Mr Gillingham departs

By Keith PestellDate: 14/1/2006

Andy Hessenthaler has agreed a settlement on his contract and left Priestfield on Saturday evening. The decision means the former player-manager, who made 360 appearances for the club scoring 28 goals, brings to an end an era at Priestfield saying farewell after nine and a half years.

Hessenthaler, who will always be a legend at Gillingham, broke the news following Saturday's 3-0 victory over Swindon Town at Priestfield. He played a key role in Gillingham's rise through the Football League and leaves supporters and players with many happy memories.

Signed by Tony Pulis from Watford for a then record fee of £235,000 in August 1996, Hess went onto make a huge impact at Priestfield being voted Player of the Year in 1997 and 2000.

Andy (back, centre) celebrates an FA Cup giant killing over Sheffield Wednesday in January 2000
He always give 110 per-cent on the pitch with many football pundits calling him "Mr Gillingham" and "Pocket Dynamo" to name a few. He was the heart of the Gillingham side which not only got promoted to the Championship but went to Wembley twice and pulled off several FA Cup giant killings.

Appointed player-manager following the departure of Peter Taylor in 1999 Hessenthaler also masterminded Gillingham's highest ever league finish, 11th in Division One (now the Championship) in the 2002/2003 season.
Poor performances and a relegation battle during the 2004/2005 season saw Andy step aside as player-manager in November 2004 allowing Stan Ternent and Ronnie Jepson to take charge. He spent the remainder of the season on loan at Hull City, but returned to Priestfield to make 21 appearances this season - his last coming in Gillingham's 3-2 FA Cup first round defeat at Burscough.

Former Gills players Iffy Onuora and Paul Smith both praised Andy Hessenthaler, with Hessie telling the Gills official website:

"It is a sad day but a great day, especially as we have just won 3-0. It's pretty sad as I have been here for a long time but we have come to an agreement and it is time for me to move on.
"I have had some fantastic times here and I just felt that it is time for me to move on to a new challenge. It was nice to see the boys go out there and get a great win. I have nothing lined up but am not going to retire from playing as I feel I can still do a job until the end of the season for somebody. The legs are still going. I have been out injured and am just getting back to fitness.

"Hopefully, I can get a club and have a run out until the end of the season. I would like to get back into coaching or managing and that is where I see my future. I wish Gillingham and the gaffer all the best for the future and am sure the club can go onto better things in the future."

He added: "I leave this club on great terms and I have had some fantastic times. There is hopefully a testimonial in the next few weeks and I will be able to pull the Gillingham shirt on one more time.

"The highlight of my time at the club has got to be the promotion against Wigan at Wembley. After the previous year against Man City, and the way we got beat, which everyone knows, to get promotion was fantastic."Also becoming the manager of the football club was fantastic. I have had some great times and I will never forget this club, as it is close to my heart."

Chairman Paul Scally was also quick to praise Hess adding: "It's a mutual agreement, but a day tinged with some sadness as Andy has been a tremendous servant for the club

"Andy will always be a part of this football club and will always be welcomed back. We wish him well for the future and in whatever his career path takes him.

"I would like to say on behalf of all Gillingham supporters, the staff, the management, the players and myself, since Andy Hessenthaler walked into this club nearly ten years ago at the sprightly age of 30, he has given absolutely 110 per cent for this football club; and in his five years as manager, he gave everything to the cause."He will always be a legend at this football club."

Du du du du, Peter Thompson!

2006-01-16T11:34:00.000+01:00

Thanks yet again to linfieldfc.com and Thompo for the pic

Linfield 5 Armagh City 0 Irish Cup 5th round

Pflichtsieg. Peter Thompson scored 3, to push him ahead of Glenn Ferguson in their own personal shootout for the Irish League golden boot.

During the week, Linfield received a number of bids for Peter Thompson from upcoming ambitious Scottish club Gretna. The first bid, 50,000 plus incentves, was described as 'derisory' by manager David Jeffrey. The second, 100k was rejected too, and when they again apparently offered 150k +incentives, Peter Thompson said he was staying put until the end of the season.

Good. I would rather he went after we have at least won the league. The way we are playing at the moment, and the lack of quality of the league in general, mean we have a real chance, given a wee bit of luck, of winning EVERYTHING. A chance to make some more history. We need Thompo. Ideally I would like to see him at Windsor for the next 10 years, becoming a club legend and emulating Martin McGaughey.

BUT... he really does have the talent to go all the way. He has pace to burn, can turn players easily (witness Philip Simpson of the Glens getting smoked on numerous occasions on Boxing Day) and has great balance. His awareness is getting better all the time. If he put on a wee bit of weight without losing the pace, he'd be brilliant. If someone comes in for him who are worthy of signing him, and IF they offer a deal that is suitable to Linfield FC, then we shouldn't stand in his way. IMO, realistically, this is 150k +incentives (international appearances and goals) for us, and at least SPL or English League One for him. Actually, now I think about it, Gillingham badly need a striker. If only they weren't 9 million in debt *sobs*...

Linfield 2 Institute 0

2006-01-10T12:08:00.000+01:00

Crap, non-descript match, only 2 things worth noting:

1. Maccers scored a great free-kick then ran over to DJ and did this stupid impression of someone skiing. This was in reference to something posted on Irish League Forums during the week which showed an old video clip of our manager from the late 80s doing some male modelling and striking the gayest pose ever with a couple of ski-poles :)

Superstar Fergie scored his 200th goal for Linfield and the 450th of his career. Chapeau...

(Cheers to linfieldfc.com/ Thompo for all pics)

New Signings

2006-01-03T18:12:00.000+01:00

Avun Jephcott and Tim McCann 2 (cheers to linfieldfc.com)

Well, we've got our back-up left-back and one of the strikers that we so need, and it's a little bit of umm, a little bit of aah.

Tim McCann '2' (there was another more famous before him, both at Glentoran incidentally) is a decent left-back who the Glentoran fans seem to rate. He wasn't offered a contract by Coyle at the end of last season, went to Sligo Rovers and left them once their season ended. I remember him scoring one of the goals when the Glens duffed us in the Irish Cup last season. If you'd asked me six months ago, I'd gladly have taken him as our no. 1 left-back, but Pat McShane has been revitalised this year so he will be good back-up.

Avun Jephcott is more of an unknown quantity. He spent 4 years at Coventry City, and has been at Ards since the start of the season, scoring only 3 times. Ards fans seem to question his commitment and work-rate, though he is said to be very skilful. He has only been signed till the end of the season, and unless Thompson moves up in the world or Fergie gets injured, Avun has no chance of a look-in against 2 strikers who are playing out of their skins at the moment.

DJ says that's it for the transfer window signings, and I'm a bit disappointed. There are two top-drawer strikers available in Gary Hamilton and Kevin McHugh. Both would have significantly strengthened our team. I only hope DJ's got a trick up his sleeve and is going to bring one of them in at the end of the season when Peter Thompson is likely to move across the water. But I doubt it.

...On the other hand, DJ's summer signings were spot-on (admittedly, we have been lucky with (lack of) injuries). Oran Kearney, despite not being a left-winger and a propensity to waste chances and give the ball away cheaply, is a fine athletic midfielder, and Chris Kingsberry has skill and pace to burn. Maybe it is time to trust the DJ, after the Andy Crawford and Fitzroy fiascos though, I'll wait and see.

Glenavon 0 Linfield 5

2006-01-03T18:04:00.001+01:00

AMAZING.

No, not the extent of the result, but the fact that we scored TWO penalties!!!!

We are so good this season that this result has come to be expected.

Spike scored FOUR of them, to take his season's total to 30, one ahead of Thompo. Not bad for a 36 year-old.

Satan's Disciples from the East dropped 2 more points to trail us now by FIFTEEN points! Only a matter of time now...

Goals can be downloaded and watched via Mediaplayer here (cheers to mitchell_ali).

Ea-sy! Ea-sy!

2005-12-30T17:16:00.000+01:00

Ea-sy! Ea-sy!

Glentoran 1 Linfield 4

Delighted on the one hand, but as the eternal perfectionist, disappointed we didn't win by more.

This was my first game in months, and my mates were fearful that i would be a 'scud'. Never have I been so confident or optimistic going into a 'Big One' game, and this worried me, as cockiness can often be your downfall, but this time it proved to be well-placed as we tore our nearest rivals apart.

Finally I saw what all the fuss was about. Our first half performance was simply top-class. We came out all guns blazing, forced a save out of their keeper within 2 minutes, a couple of corners, and opened the scoring on 4 minutes from Winkie Murphy (who was immense yesterday, one losing one header all day and out-muscling the awful reject Morgan) after a great cross from a short corner (incidentally, our HUNDREDTH goal of the season, a European record, and the 1000th under the stewardship of FDJ). After that, we just took them apart with simple pass and move, Oran Kearney almost chipped Morris after running 40 yards, and Ferguson incredibly missed an open goal from the rebound, then he went close with another header. But we weren't to be denied. 2 rapid-fire goals just after the half-hour, the first turned in by Ferguson after great work and a super left-footed (!) cross from Michael Gault, then a header from Pistol Pete after an overhead knock-on from Ferguson again. Thompson tortured the Glens defence with his pace and sharpness. The Glens had no answer, their only chance falling to Sissy Morgan after our injured keeper couldn't kick the ball, but Sissy hit it straight it at the shaken Mannus.

3-0 at half time, game over, and the gates at the home end had to be opened to let all the Glenmen OUT! A surprising number did stay till the bitter end, to be fair. Cue songs of 'Ea-sy!' complete with wrestling/ Soccer AM style clapping, and many choruses of 'Jingle Bells' from the gloating Bluemen, waving in delight to all the planes passing overhead upon take-off from the nearby City Airport.

5 minutes into the second half, we scored the goal of the game, and a goal that, had it been scored by Shearer or Henry in the Premiership, would have been played over and over on TV. Good football in midfield releases Kearney down the left. He seems to have hit his cross too far, evading the crowd of players standing in anticipation around the penalty spot. From nowhere, Spike Ferguson appears round the back, shapes perfectly and cracks it on the volley back into the far corner of the net. Totally unstoppable, and the cue for scenes of disbelief and delight among the Bluemen. Plenty of licks of 'Cheer Up Roy Coyle', 'We Love You Linfield' and continual chants of 'Ea-sy! ea-sy!' ensue.

And then, in my opinion, we took our foot off the gas a bit, and i'm a bit gutted by that. We even missed ANOTHER penalty (our EIGHTH miss in 12 attempts), Fergie's penalty for his hat-trick being saved by Morris. Fegir then put a couple of headers wide that he would normally have buried. We seemed to stop competing for every ball, the Glens had more space, and scored a consolation on 86 minutes, cheered ironically by Bluemen and Glenmen who decided they'd chant 'easy' :) I was so pissed off with this, for the simple reason that I have never seen Linfield beat Glentoran by 4 clear goals, and this is as good a chance as we're likely to get. But still, spending the night in an East Belfast pub among miserable Glenmen cheered me no end :)

MOTM: Probably Fergie, though Winkie in defence was immense, Gaulty was everywhere, and Jim Ervin at right-back was brilliant in defence and attack, and the lifelong Bluemen certainly lapped up the celebrations afterwards!

Never have I seen us so comprehensively dominate them. That's 3 spankings in a row we've given them now since the horror of that 2-3 title loss game last season: 4-2 in the Setanta, 3-0 in the CIS final, and now 4-1 in the league. Happy days.

I can't believe Roy Coyle played 4-3-3, we have 4 big midfielders who overpowered a 4-man Glentoran midfield in the CIS final, so Coyle takes one out? It made it even easier for us.

The win puts us 10 points clear, and it'll take a miracle for us to lose the league now. I truly believe we have an historic opportunity to do a clean sweep this season, given the poor quality of the league and the ineptitude of our biggest rivals. Who knows, with a bit of luck.

And the Boxing Day unbeaten run continues, 17 years and counting...

Setanta All-Ireland Cup 2006

2005-12-14T18:30:00.000+01:00

Did I tell you we are reigning Champions of Ireland?

Group A

Linfield (holders)
Shelbourne
Glentoran
Derry City

I'm none too happy with this draw. It's probably the toughest draw we could have got (despite the fact that Cork City won the Eircom League). Setanta will be delighted with it, as it's the one that guarantees the highest ratings. Originally I thought that the old 'heated balls' would come into play to keep Linfield and Derry City apart after the events of February [link to jh], but as it turns out, my faith in the randomness of draws has either been restored, or this group was put together deliberately. It's a cracking draw football-wise and Setanta will no doubt be delighted with it, but we will have to do very well to progress from the group. Ah well as the old saying goes, if you want to win something you have to beat the best. But I remain disappointed. Why?

1. Shelbourne: they may have had a disappointing sesaon, triggered off in no small part by our convincing defeat of them back in May, but the had a strong last third of the season and Pat Fenlon will no doubt have them back stronger than ever again next season. Let's not forget Shels are full-time and took the Glens apart (2-1 and 4-1) in July in the Champions League qualifiers.

2. Glentoran: Our 3-0 win over them at the weekend would make you think I'd be delighted to play them. But no. This will now mean we will play Glentoran at least 6 times this season (2 league, 1 CIS cup, 1 CA Shield, 2 Setanta) with probably a seventh in the Irish Cup. Familiarity not only breeds contempt, but it breeds a certain boredom and takes the crunch out of encounters. Considering we played them 7 times last season too, a little break would have been welcome.

3. Derry City: I am still amazed we were drawn together. I thought it was a cert we would be kept apart, after what happened to our supporters coming out of the Brandywell after the friendly there back in February. Put simply, security arrangements INVOLVING THE PSNI are going to have to be put in place very soon, or a) the games will be for home supporters only, or b) Linfield refuse to fulifll the fixture if the safety of their supporters cannot be guaranteed. We cannot run the risk of being sitting ducks for a mob of republican hood scumbags outside the ground again, policed by no-one except ex-Provos. I've heard it mentioned that there may be another way for Linfield fans to enter the ground. All I want is that the safety of visiting fans is secure.

This will really test the credentials of a future all-Ireland league. Derry City are seriously handicapped by the location of their ground, and the seemingly no-go area status for the police in that part of the Bogside. Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited by the games with Derry, it will be our first competitive fixtures in 34 years. Some are even speculating that these two were paired together on purpose to 'test the waters', so to speak. The problem is that there is going to be a media frenzy in the build-up to the game (it doesn't help that we play at the Brandywell in our penultimate group game, with no doubt a load at stake) which will no doubt attract hangers-on of all hues. Linfield now have a travelcard scheme in place for contentious away matches, and I have no doubt that genuine Derry fans will behave impeccably. But it's getting in and out that will be our problem and if that cannot be guaranteed or should the same scenes happen again, I fear for Irish League football. Fingers crossed...

Carlsberg don't do weeks...

2005-12-14T17:52:00.000+01:00

For you 'farriners': What's Loughgall famous for?

To paraphrase the famous TV spot slightly. Linfield scraped a 2-1 win away to Loughgall last night, Thompson and that man Ferguson again being the heroes. To use a cheesy cliche, truly a sign of Champions, getting results even when you play badly :)

Bu the icing on the cake was Glentoran's 2-1 home defeat against Ballymena, just days after our duffing of them. So much for the 'big reaction'. So now we are 5 points clear at the top, and the Glens now have their 2 biggest games of the season lined up, Portadown away, a place they haven't won at for years, and Linfield at home on Boxing Day, a fixture they haven't come out on top in in 17 years! The results of these two matches will define the Irish League season.

The Glentoran fans are not a happy bunch, and it in part shows the fickleness of football fans. 8 months ago, when their Linfield reject M*rgan scored a last-gasp goal against us to more or less secure the title, they were in ecstasy. Now, 5 point behind us, some want Coyle out. Let's put things in perspective. Glentoran have lost 1 league match this season. In fact, they have only dropped 7 points in 12 games. Coyle is one of their most successful ever managers. They still have a chance to put things right. I would wager their points total is on a par with last season, it's just that Linfield have raised the bar this season.

On the other hand, by all accounts they are playing diabolically and grinding out results. This season, we are witnessing possibly one of the weakest Irish Leagues in history. Coyle has fallen out with some of his top players. He failed to strengthen sufficiently during the summer. The parallels with Linfield last season are startling. We lost a league game to Ballymena at home. We lost the CIS cup final to the Gurns. We were playing crap and still grounding out results. OUr manager's position was being questioned by fans. I look forward to them being as successful as us in the league last season ;)

The Glenmen shouldn't be surprised. I haven't witnessed them retain a league title in my lifetime. It is a Linfield speciality to piss on their parade after a league win and reimpose themselves yet again.

Roll on Boxing Day, I'll be there...

League Cup Winners 2005/06

2005-12-12T11:46:00.000+01:00

League Cup Winners 2005/06

Hat-Trick Hero Spike (Thanks to South Stand Says Gallery again for the great pics)

And live TV humiliators of Glentoran once again. THREE - NIL! Finally the spanking I was yearning for. AND we missed a penalty (again!) and hit the bar! As Full-Time Supporter said in his text, EASY EASY!

MOTM was astonishingly Glenn Ferguson, with a magnificent hat-trick. I say astonishingly as his recent record against the Glens is less than impressive: 1 goal previously in 25 games! He was the subject of much debate on I.L.F. during the week, most of it negative. That should have silenced a few, but it is about time he did that, it almost makes up for previous failures.

I didn't find out the result till 9pm, Full-Time Supporter had deleted my number, which I was unaware of, I had been waiting for a text since full-time, and so I thought no news was bad news. I didn't want to contact him as I had friends staying and knew that if I found out for sure that we had lost to the Scumdogs from the East, that i'd be fu cked off all night, but eventually couldn't wait any more. Boy, was I a happy bunny. Those fu ckers luckily beat us in the final last year, and we have been long overdue a proper spanking of them. Now lads, a similar result in the Boxing Day fixture (we're unbeaten in Boxing Day matches in 17 years) would make my Christmas.

The Linfield bandwagon goes rolling on...

TeBe won 2-1 in the Berlin Cup to march on. Report as always from Doughnut Boy here.

And Gillingham won THREE - NIL too! "Ronnie Jepson, he's keeping us up!"

What a weekend! I love this game sometimes.

Vive le Maccers

2005-12-08T12:51:00.000+01:00

Player of the Month (Thanks to South Stand Says (Thompo?) for the pic)

So Maccers has finally got the recognition he deserves, being voted Harp Football Writers Player of the Month for November. Well done big man. I always knew Maccers would come good. Had an argument about him with a mate in Belfast last Christmas who said that if Maccers was rejected by Portadown, then he wasn't good enough for us. I reckoned it was due to fitness and injury problems, and thought he would shine. Plus, Ronnie has been known to make big mistakes. This is one of them.

I wrote it before on my other blog, but it's worth mentioning again.

"This guy is my favourite player. He may be overweight, a bit slow and he struggles to last 60 minutes of a match (bit like me, some people might say, and they'd be right, maybe that's why I like him :) ). But he's currently the only midfielder at the club who can put the foot on the ball, look at what options are available and pick a Blue shirt out with a pass. He has a footballer's brain, an absolute boon when those those around him are powerhouse headless chickens. Our team is much more balanced when he's on the pitch. Plus he gets stuck in too. Vive le Maccers, as our French chooms don't say.

Best moment: some might choose any of the 3 goals he scored vs. the Gurns last season, especially the 20-yard cracker at the Oval on THAT day, but my favourite is a goal he scored up at Coleraine last season. He played a lovely one-two with Spike, a little feint took him round the keeper before he slotted it in from a tight angle, right in front of us. Lovely.

Worst moment: getting sent off vs. the Gurns in an Irish Cup game after headbutting an (admittedly hateful) opponent THREE minutes into the game. Many think esteemed leader DJ wound him up too much in the dressing room before the game. It dropped us right in the shit, but he was close to tears upon leaving the pitch."

Blue is the Colour

2005-12-05T17:01:00.000+01:00

The White Vieira

The mighty Linfield go marching on. We won 6-0 on Friday night away to Distillery, and even missed a penalty, the bazillionth in a row since the end of the season (our penalty record must be one of the worst in the world this season, I kid you not). Michael Gault (!),aka 'The White Vieira', not known for his goalscoring prowess and someone who has been a bit too keen on the WKDs this season, scored a hat-trick. Apparently we are playing some delightful stuff. But this result shows once again just how poor the league has become this season. Apparently Glentoran are playing abysmally but are still unbeaten domestically (as are we) and are only 2 points behind us in the league.
Anyway, something's got to give on Saturday, in the final of the CIS League Cup, live on BBC1 NI. The season really starts here. It is about time we gave the Glens another beating, but to use a old cheesy cliche, 'current form goes out the window in Blues-Glens matches'. I have a bad feeling, I hope this is a good omen, we played this lot last season in the final too and that time, i felt confident despite our injuries, and we lost. Time to establish supremacy over Satan's Disciples from the East.

Typical Glentoran b*llshit in the lead-up to the final. Here's their boss and his thoughts on the final, bear in mind that Glentoran are only 2 points behind us in the league:

Glentoran boss Roy Coyle admits that Linfield will be huge favourites going into Satuday's CIS Insurance League Cup final at Windsor Park.
"From a bookmaker's point of view, the Blues will be clear favourites to win the cup," Coyle told the News Letter.

"Indeed they will be huge favourites considering the number of goals they are scoring and the fact that they will have home advantage.

"But I have a lot of faith in my guys. Don't forget we are also unbeaten."

Coyle said that people imagined that there must be a crisis at the Oval this season the way things have been going.

"Far from it," said Coyle. "We are nicely placed, two points off the pace in the Championship.

Penis. Must have been on the vodka again.

As for TeBe, 3 wins in a row now after an impressive 4-1 win over a fading Yesilyurt, with Micha Fuss Fuss Fuss back to the form of old, scoring all four goals. I am now confident of survival going into the second half of the season. Our trainer question has yet to be decided, but surely Raicko, if he wishes to continue, will be given the job on a permanent basis given the upturn in fortunes since his arrival. Maybe get someone with more experience in as his assistant during the winter break and get the Maschkes the hell out.

And the Gills had a good weekend too. They didn't have a match, so they didn't lose, ergo it was a good weekend :)

Armchair Supporter

2005-12-05T16:52:00.000+01:00

An occasional column dedicated to the matches I watch on TV

Clumsy Carew

I watched Olympique Lyon defeat Paris Saint Germain 2-0 early on Staurday evening. Lyon were in control more or less from start to finish, Fred scoring after 5 minutes and Carew scoring just before the end. It wasn't a great match, and to be honest not many Lyon matches are, but I tell you what, they are a great side who have a good chance of going all the way in the Champions League this season. They work so hard for each other, their pressing game when they are not in possession of the ball is incredible, they are so solid, with possibly the best goalkeeper in Europe (Coupet) at the moment, and they have players capable of creating something out of nothing. Step forward Juninho, Tiago and... Carew. Carew is such a clumsy player at times, witness his almost falling over the ball on Staurday, but he has scored in almost every match, witness his recovery from the near-stumble and his unstoppable shot seconds later.

PSG were toothless, Tobias' favourite Rothen was ineffective, and one of my favourites (from Championship Manager!), Pauleta, didn't get a sniff.

Lyon are 11 points clear and as dominant here as Chelsea are in England. Boring!

Ronnie Golden Balls

2005-11-29T17:11:00.000+01:00

My hero

Ronaldinho was awarded the 50th Ballon d'Or last night in Paris as the best player in Europe in 2005. Frank Lampard was second and Stevie G third.

Now while I love Ronaldinho and think he is a hero, I don't think he really desreved it this year. If anything, I think he was head and shoulders above anyone else on the planet in 2004, even if he won nothing that season. One only has to look at Barca's record in the first half of 2004 and how many of those games Ronnie won on his own, to see how good he was. I know he won La Liga and the Confederations Cup in '05, but I just felt his influence was less. I would have given it to Lampard. The amount of goals he scores for a midfielder, and his general all-round contribution, is phenomenal.

Anyhow, well done little Ronaldo :)

Blue is the colour...

2005-11-29T16:59:00.000+01:00

Pistol Pete (Thanks once again to Thompo for the pic)

And then there were two. What a result for the Blues, blasting away the title challenge of third-placed Portadown 4-0, with 2 more goals for Pistol Pete, who surely will be snapped up by a cross-channel club in the January transfer window. If we'd have had this victory last season instead of an over-cautious 0-0 draw three games from the end of the season, we'd have won the league. But the Glens are hot on our tails after winning 3-0. Next up for the Blues? League Cup Final on Saturday. The opponents? Glentoran, who else? (stop press: just been movd to Saturday week as George Best's funeral is on Saturday)

As for the others, Gillingham were roundly spanked 5-0, a result that scares me, we don't cave in like that too often. A new manager had better be installed quicksmart.

TeBe, who visited the world-famous Torgelow in Vorpommern, pulled off a 2-1 win but are still deep in relegation trouble. Good report and pics again from the TeBe Party Army Boy.

By the way, excuse the messiness of the site at times, with random tables and stuff, trying to sort it out and make it snazzy and informative but as a html novice, still haven't got the hang of it. Give me time...

Blue is the colour...

2005-11-21T12:05:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Thompo for the pic

A pretty good weekend for my teams. Linfield had their 5-0 'Pflichtsieg' (expected victory, Andy boy?) over Armagh with a hat-trick from past-it fatboy Ferguson ;), the Gills managed a rare win over Hartlepool (Neale Cooper's two former clubs, incidentally) and TeBe... Won NINE - nil!! OK, the first XI of our opponents were missing due to complicated backroom turmoil, and we beat the first XI 4-0 last season, but a win's a win when you're at the bottom. Good report from AndyBoy here .

In other news, Rangers got hammered 3-0 by Celtic to leave them 15 points behind in the SPL and to leave Alex McLeish's days truly numbered. His tropy haul is impressive, but 2 wins in 12 ain't good enough for Rangers, and you're measured by your record compared to Celtic. What a turnaround. At the beginning of August, after Celtic's embarrassment in the CL and defeat to Rangers, everyone wanted Strachan out. Patience here paid off. In Rangers' case however, patience has been displayed for months as the crap performances accumulated (my bro can vouch for one, having been at the 1-1 home draw with Inverness...) and with a manager who performed wonders at Hearts before his chairman started meddling in team affairs waiting in the wings, again it's time for a change I think.

Armchair Supporter

2005-11-21T12:00:00.000+01:00

My hero

I watched Real Madrid vs Barcelona on Saturday night in the one bar in Moutiers that's open with my 'neutral' Spanish flatmate. (By the way, Canal+ showed the game in full, but an hour later than the actual kick-off, a most curious set-up, the game actually having been over for an hour but you're still there following the action as if it were live).

What a game. What a player. What a team. Plenty of chances, a high tempo, incredible technique, [in cliche mode] football truly was the winner *grins*.

Ronaldinho was magnificent, I thought he looked disinterested in the first half, but the two goals he scored were sublime. How exactly do you stop him? You can't stand up to him or he's past you in a shot. But he's so fast too and if you commit yourself to a tackle, he's away in the other direction.

What impressed me most was the Real fans applauding Ronaldinho after his second goal. I've only ever seen this before once, when Ronaldo took Man Utd apart at Old Trafford one night. Truly fair play *lump in throat appears*. Though one suspects they wouldn't have reacted in the same way if Eto'o had scored two such goals.

Next up is Lille vs Benfica on Wednesday in the Champions League...

Cooper Resigns!

2005-11-16T09:37:00.000+01:00

Gone (from gillsconnect.com)

Good going, 2 out of the 3 managers of my teams have quit so far this season, and the one i really want rid of is as safe as houses! (only half kidding...)

Anyway, the story can be found here :

Neale Cooper has resigned as manager of Gillingham just five months after filling the Priestfield hot seat. Cooper, whose family still live in Inverness, won 7 games during his 22 game stint at Priestfield, but was forced to deal with an injury nightmare and sign players with virtually no budget.
Recent defeats against Walsall and non-league Burscough in the FA Cup may have forced Cooper to resign, with the former manager stating unacceptable recent results made his mind up to resign out of respect for the club.

Can't say I'm surprised (my ST-holder mate Neil said the same thing). Fair enough, he had little or no money to play with, and had his best striker sold on the eve of the season, but results have been appalling, and sometimes a change is necessary.

It begs the age-old question: whose fault is it, the manager's or the players'? I'm afraid I feel it's the manager's here, despite Scally and some players saying the players didn't do the biz.

Even with the trimmed-down squad, we should still have enough quality to be comfortable in this league. Playing 4-5-1 at home in your first match on the opening day of the season sets your stall out for what is to come. Leaving your best most creative player on the bench when you aren't scoring goals doesn't help. And signing lots of dodgy questionable lower league Scotsmen in the hope of unearthing the next Andy Thompson is a desperate tactic. Results have been a disgrace. A manager lives or dies by them.

Good luck in the future Neale.

Thompson for Ulster!

2005-11-16T09:11:00.000+01:00

The boy done good. He came on in the 75th minute, apparently showed some nice touches, didn't look out of place and did more than players like Andy Smith and Steve Jones have ever done for Norn Iron.

Here's what the Beeb
(the nationwide version!) had to say about it:

The Belfast fans were also able to celebrate the appearance of Irish League star Peter Thompson.
The Linfield striker, with 18 goals this season, came on as a substitute for James Quinn with 14 minutes left.

Well done Pistol Pete!

Lila-Weisse Allez...

2005-11-14T18:01:00.000+01:00

Oddset-Cup 3rd Round

TeBe 3 - 0 Tuerkiyemspor

(Fuß, Lemcke, Weidner)

OK, so it was only a Berlin Cup match, and we only beat probably our kindest 'rival' in the whole league, but at last we win again and hopefully gain a much-needed morale boost going into the last league games before the winter break, starting with Anker Wismar on Friday.

Report and some nice photos of the Mommse here from the Party Army Reporter.

Gills Doomed?

2005-11-14T17:51:00.000+01:00

Scally by name...

My disastrous comment of a week back is beginning to look optimistic. Here is a taster of what Paul Scally, dodgy Gills chairman, said here on gills connect:

Mr Scally said this is going to be a make or break week for Gillingham Football Club. The majority of fans may have forgotten the ITV Digital collapse, but clubs like mine are still feeling the full devastating effects of it.

This is not looking good. I hark you back to something said on Jim Hancot's blog in May:

The Gills are now in danger of falling apart altogether, we're still heavily in debt after ITV digital collapsing a few years ago. The good players will probably leave or be sold, the squad will decrease, Stan Ternent probably won't stay on and the future looks bleak.

Oh dear.

Thompo for Ulster!

2005-11-14T12:35:00.000+01:00

Thompo, King of Ireland

Linfield's star striker, Peter Thompson, is likely to make his debut for Northern Ireland during the game with Portugal on Wednesday night.

It is a fitting reward for a player who has banged in 18 goals so far this season, including 3 hat-tricks in a row. The only problem is, the mainland vultures are circling, and he'll probably leave during the January transfer window, leaving us desperately short of cover up front.

Here is the story from the Beeb:

Linfield's Peter Thompson is ready to take the huge step from part-time Irish League football to playing for Northern Ireland against Portugal.

NI manager Lawrie Sanchez has hinted that the 20-year-old postman from east Belfast will play some part in the Windsor Park friendly on Tuesday.

Well done Thompo. More on him later.

Armchair Supporter

2005-11-14T11:54:00.000+01:00

An occasional column dedicated to those games I watch on TV.

Owen heads the winner

I was in Chambery at the weekend staying with English and Scottish mates. We got watching the second half of the Argentina - England game. What a match. What a finish. I thought England had played average up till that point, lots of stray passes, no movement, bereft of ideas, the only real spark coming as usual from Rooney. But then Crouch came on and ruffled a few feathers, and up popped Owen with 2 great headers. England shouldn't get carried away, the old faults are still there, and I think without Rooney, they're average. But it'll boost their confidence.

Nice kits

France 0 Germany 0

Terrible match, and *whisper it* I thought the Germans played well. France were poor, again, without ZZ, they have no variety and nothing to offer. Germany were competitive, committed, the usual teutonic qualities. Ballack's still a cnut though.

Part-Time Supporter Take 2

2005-11-10T17:48:00.000+01:00

Here we go again... blogspot.com has more features and is more flexible than myblog.com, so I'm moving...

Well, I've decided that as football is pretty much a large part of my life (even though I'm crap at it) and that a lot of my blog was being taken up by it and that politics and football don't REALLY mix, that I'd create my own football blog, dedicated mainly to Linfield FC, the real love of my life, but also to TeBe Berlin and Gillingham (and any other teams in places I've lived, eg Barcelona and Lyon).

By its very nature, this blog will be composed to a large extent of secondary sources or information gleamed from people ' at the coal face' and as such I'll be grateful to my trusty reporters witnessing all the tensions, the pain and the glory as they happen, but on the occasions I'm actually IN Belfast, Berlin or Medway, I'll give my own version of events.

Being a exiled fan, by choice or due to other commitments, is a totally different experience: waiting for the Saturday evening phonecall that could make or break your night; seeing that Aiden O'Kane scored again and drawing the conclusion that he can't be THAT bad even though your mates tell you he was the usual lapper for the rest of the game, shirked out of tackles and touched the ball 6 times; seeing your team has won 4-0 but yet hearing they played shit, and somehow failing to reconcile the two; listening to the game on the radio via the internet and the strange umbilical experience that this provides (from the high of winning the league vs the Glens in 03/04 (while in Barcelona), to the low of losing it the following year to a last-second goal from a striker we released at the beginning of the season (while in Berlin), being a fan in exile evokes a feeling of helplessness yet comfort at the same time: you can't verbally will your team on, yet you don't have to be there to witness another god-awful performance. It doesn't make you any less of a supporter though, just a different kind of one.