The Archive

The oldest club in the League have never been in the Premiership and probably never will be, so their last top-flight season is one for Martin Naylor to savour

On hearing the words “Neil” and “Warnock” a de­cent percentage of football fans would grimace and mutter an obscenity. But the current Sheffield United manager is remembered with fondness by Notts County supporters for the back-to-back play-off wins that took us into the top division for what will surely be the last time in our long history.

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Concerned you haven’t been giving your club enough money online? Seems unlikely, but a group of consultants have been telling clubs just that. A jaundiced Ian Plenderleith reviews their review

Do Premiership teams listen to criticism from their fans? Only if the fans picket board meetings and shout loud enough to garner coverage in the national press. Do Premiership teams listen to criticism from fans about the official club website? There’s no empirical proof, but I’d guess the answer is, “Probably not much”. However, if that criticism comes from “an internet consultancy using a holistic approach to add value to a company’s online presence”, it might be a different story.

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Wednesday 1 A David Bellion goal after 18 seconds is enough for Man Utd reserves to beat their counterparts from Arsenal in the Carling Cup. Liverpool also put out a shadow side, but still knock out Spurs on penalties after a 1-1 draw nicked through a Fredi Kanouté handball (“unforgivable” says Martin Jol) four minutes from the end of extra time.X

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Dynamo Kiev were blue, rivals Shakhtar Donetsk orange – simple enough, until recent political upheavals gave colours new meaning, as Dan Brennan explains

Sporting one’s colours is politically loaded business in Ukraine these days. Orange – the traditional colour of Shakhtar Donetsk – is also the colour of Viktor Yushchenko, the pro-Western presidential can­didate, who defied a dodgy first ballot and an alleged attempt to poison him to gain power in December at the second time of asking. Meanwhile, his opponent, current prime minister Viktor Yanukovich – the man endorsed by Moscow and outgoing president Leonid Kuchma – opted for blue, the colour of Dynamo Kiev.

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Dear WSC
Is anyone else irritated by the increasing tendency of radio and TV commentators to refer to a shot hitting “the frame of the goal” or, even worse, “the frame of the goals”? How many sets of goals do they think the attacker is shooting at? Com­mentators should drop these expressions ad return to using post, bar or, where appropriate, the nicely precise “angle of post and bar”.
John Perry, Chelmsford

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