Tackles

An orange ball on a snow-bound pitch. Descriptions of injuries that don't involve the word "metatarsal".

Ipswich in Europe.

Jimmy Hill

Shirts with just a number on the back and a badge on the front

Players intefering with play not being ruled offside

Gadgies strolling round the cinder track selling packets of nuts

Young kids sitting on reinforced concrete barriers

Non-electric scoreboards

Cup rosettes.

Bobble hats and two colour stripey scarves knitted by your mum/gran.

Kids standing on milk crates or being lifted up by the crowd and passed down to the front.

Nutmegs.

Scottish football fans tearing down goal posts at Wembley.

Bayern and Man Utd finishing 12th on the table.

A flashing R in the corner of the TV screen during replays.

Commentary of variable sound quality from matches in Europe.

Welsh clubs winning games in European Competition.

Fans that didn't use their outstretched arms as a hilarious comment on wayward shooting

Kowalski wrote:

QUOTE:
A flashing R in the corner of the TV screen during replays.

Oooh yes. That R was the best. I don't understand why it's no longer used.

QUOTE:
players with socks around their ankles

Fabian Caballero when he played for us.

Alex Rae was a player/manager last season. I think he's still registered as a player, although he hasn't played.

I'm reading Eddie Hapgood's autobiography, written at the end of the second world war. This is a great little piece from the first chapter, an article written by a Kettering paper covering a friendly match between Kettering Town (Hapgood's first club) and Arsenal (Hapgood's club at the time).

"The next time I go to see a match on the Rockingham Road ground at Kettering, I shall insist on being accompanied by Sherlock Holmes, the 'Big Four' from Scotland Yard, and a leading member of the British Magical Society. Though I have no intention of causing any undue alarm in the camp of the faithful followers of the Poppies, I feel it incumbent upon me to warn them, at the close of a thrilling season, that the green patch which covers the playing area conceals a treacherous quicksand, wherein players disappear and are never seen again.

Kettering were entertaining the Arsenal in a friendly fixture, and, with the exception of a goal or two that happened along in the first half, all went well (though I believe the diminutive Mitchell had some difficulty with his shorts - they seemedto fit too tightly around his ankles). It was after the referee blew the whistle for the refreshment interval that the tragedy happened. Two strapping Arsenal players - David Jack and 'Happy' Hapgood - vanished into thin air. Presumably, the quicksands had swallowed them up, not even a tuft of hair could be traced, and the crowd stood aghast when the Arsenal re-started. No David Jack; no Happy-go-Lucky Hapgood.

In their places appeared two substitutes, mysteriously recruited from some sort of Arsenal 'pool' held in reserve (like a battalion in billets) somewhere behind the grandstand. People wondered; they whispered in queer undertones. What happend to Jack? Where was Hapgood?

If there had been anotehr adjournemount before the end of the match, I should not have been surprised to see the Arsenal team re-enter the arena with a brandnew forward line, three halves borrowed from the Scottish League, two backs from West Bromwich, and a goalkeeper on loan from Newcastle United.

I was beginning to wonder wheter the police had authorised the issue of the usual £500 Reward notices, when a powerful voice nearby informed the world that Jack andhis friend had merely dropped out to give two other Arsenal men a chance to kick the ball!"

So, in summary, you don't see fans in total shock or surprise when a substitution is made when there is not an injury present. Subs are seen, not only as a part of the game, but an absolutely integral part today.

....Entertaining, well-written match reports.

Professional footballers with "bandy" legs a bit of a gut and no front teeth, they're such good looking athletes nowadays.

Spot the Ball competitions.

Players wearing lycra cycling shorts under their kit.

Players drinking pints in the Club bar and talking to the fans after the match.

Leicester in the top two divisions ;-)

English managers at the top clubs.

"Players drinking pints in the Club bar and talking to the fans after the match."

Not at your level maybe. But at ours, we can barely get them out on the pitch for the time they spend drinking with the fans.

Might be back in town this Satdee. Few beers?