Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
In last month's issue we asked for your views on England's 2006 World Cup Bid and Manchester Utd's exemption from the FA Cup. Roger Titford digests the results
Here are some early views on the burning issues culled from our reader survey in WSC No 150. We looked at the first 500 questionnaires to come in and found plenty of disgruntlement with the FA. No change there, some might say.
Tony Morris gives us a brief history of Tranmere Rovers
1885 Belmont FC change their name to Tranmere Rovers. Fielding players from a Methodist chapel, the righteous Rovers win their first home game 10-0 against Liverpool North End.
Dear WSC
I have no time at all for deposed Rangers vice-chairman Donald Findlay, but Gary Oliver’s article about him (WSC 149) was unfair in two respects. Findlay is Scotland’s pre-eminent defence counsel. He has defended scores of people accused of rape, murder, etc – including many Catholics. To extract from his long career two cases where the victims were Celtic fans is a distortion. And Findlay’s admittedly ill-judged joke that his birthday should have been on July 12th rather than St Patrick’s Day was a mutual one he had with a Catholic friend whose birthday is on the former date. The good news is that Rangers chairman David Murray has, by getting rid of Findlay, again taken strong action against sectarianism.
Ian McLean, Glasgow
It was hasrd to pick a really good team in the basement but, as Nick House reports, it definately wasn't Torquay.
Win, lose or draw, the post-match ritual never changes. The Third Division manager shares his exclusive insights with the local press: “It’s such a tight division this year. Three wins and you’re up near the play-offs. We’re as good as anybody. We’ll be there at the death.” The hack looks unimpressed. “Or thereabouts.”
Having encouraged Man Utd to pull out of the Cup, the FA are only serving to undermine the very competition they created
God knows we’ve seen some nightmarish ideas over the course of the first 150 issues of WSC, but this one is in a class of its own. Of course matches will still be played in something that calls itself the FA Cup, but the Cup as we have known it is surely dead – killed by its own creators.