Monday 1 “It would be really embarrassing for us to lose it now,” frets Sir Alex as Man Utd’s lead widens to 11 points after their 3-1 win over West Ham, while Arsenal lose 1-0 at Charlton. Quite a day for goalkeeping mistakes, with pride of place going to David James, whose mishit clearance goes straight to Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink for the only goal of the game at Stamford Bridge. “I gather it was pretty horrific,” says an unsighted John Gregory. Nicky Weaver is beaten from very long range for Coventry’s equaliser against Man City and Tim Flowers lets a shot through his legs during Leicester’s 2-1 home defeat by Bradford. A rare defeat for Fulham – 2-0 at Stockport – allows Bolton, who win by the same score at Preston, to get to within seven points of the top of the First. Cardiff move into the promotion places in the Third with a 6-1 win over second-bottom Exeter, who will be glancing over their shoulders at Carlisle, six points behind but now with three games in hand.
The Archive
Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Is football a law unto itself? The normal freedom of movement laws don't appear to be used in football
Is football a law unto itself? Perhaps the realisation is dawning that whatever practices have gone on in the past, it will be increasingly difficult for football clubs and associations to operate as if the law and normal rules of behaviour did not apply to them.
The signs are good for Japan's chances at the World Cup, but less so for anyone who might want to go and watch any of the matches. Justin McCurry reports on the co-hosts' preparations
For all their supposed organisational acumen, Japan’s football authorities seem to stumble whenever tickets enter the equation. Three years ago, thousands of Japanese fans who had booked on package tours to France 98 turned up at Tokyo’s Narita airport to find their tickets had failed to materialise. Just last month, refunds were being offered to 62,000 people who had bought tickets for a combined Korea-Japan v World All-Stars match on January 3 after stars such as Zinedine Zidane and Paolo Maldini withdrew because of changes to the Serie A schedule.
Ian Plenderleith looks at a few fan sites
There are a handful of good reasons for visiting another club’s independent website, such as checking for neanderthal-free pubs, or the hosts’ opinion of the 34-year-old, injury-prone defender who is about to sign a two-year contract with your own already struggling team. The other main factor likely to send non-partisan visitors to alien cyber-territory is humour. Not witless abuse of the team from the next town along, but something with the spark to earmark a webzine from the endless screenfuls of hackneyed bile hashed up in the name of rivalry.
Dear WSC
Matt Nation’s defence of the long ball game (Myths, WSC 167) was a welcome read for someone like me who went to Wimbledon regularly in the Eighties and saw contempt spat at the club from all directions for the no frills style of play that apparently invalidated everything we had achieved. Long ball football, admittedly, can be boring, but only if it doesn’t work. And for Wimbledon in the Eighties it did work – like a dream. In fact the Dons were the League’s top scorers in each of their first two seasons of hoofing it (1982-83 and 1983-84) with 96 and 97 League goals respectively, topping the hundred mark in all competitions.We were also, not surprisingly, promoted in both as well (as champions with 98 points in the former) and again in 1985-86. By September 1986 – less than four years after losing 4-2 at home to Halifax in a Fourth Division match – we were top of the whole League (albeit only for 11 days). In all the excitement I don’t think I even noticed that we were a “boring long ball side” until the media and our disgruntled victims started bleating about it.
Brian Matthews, Sutton