Dear WSC
Where would you say are the game’s real hotbeds? Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham? Wrong! Try Ipswich, Norwich, Gloucester and Wolverhampton, some of the places where there is still enough interest to make it worthwhile printing a Saturday night sports paper. We all know that new technology makes information much more easily accessible, but at least in those places the traditional method of getting the latest football news will still be available. Those towns I have named who still have Saturday “Pinks” (or whatever) have papers owned by local companies, whereas the papers in Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham are owned by the Trinity Mirror group. It seems therefore that while local companies can still find a way to serve their community, Trinity Mirror can’t be bothered. In view of their hostility to football fans and their contempt for the needs of their regional customers, I suggest that we all boycott all Trinity Mirror papers until such time as they either reinstate the Pinks or sell their local interests to local people.
Mick Blakeman, Wolverhampton
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Stories
Thirty years ago a west London club very nearly won the title – and it would have been a popular success, too. Graham Dunbar recalls QPR's finest 42 games
It is April 17, 2006, Easter Monday, and Queens Park Rangers lose 3-2 at Norwich in the definitive meaningless and mediocre end-of-season game. Two teams playing second-rate, second-tier football in what could be the worst five-goal affair anyone has seen; a match with no significance beyond reminding both clubs that the Premiership is a distant dream.
The greatest non-League FA Cup run of the past 100 years could have been even better. Ken Sproat remembers when a floppy corner flag robbed Blyth of more glory
When you support a non-League team it can feel enough, and be a matter of quiet pride, that the club is known and respected in its own town. This has largely been the case in the Northumberland port of Blyth for generations, but in 1978 the town’s team transcended their apparent lot completely. Blyth Spartans became one of the most famous teams in the entire football-speaking world.
Dear WSC
Dave Boyle’s article Count Me Out (WSC 207) prompted me to finally come clean about my rather bizarre obsession with shirt numbers. While players wearing 77 seems rather farcical, what gets my goat are squad numbers that bear no relation to the owner’s position. Why does Markus Babbel wear No 11 even though he’s a defender? What is Liverpool striker Milan Baros doing wearing No 5? Even during a game of Championship Manager I can’t get away from it: the other day I discovered that Barcelona had signed Alessandro Nesta and given him No 1. Unbelievable. But what I really need to get off my chest is a somewhat strange habit of mine. For some reason I can’t walk past a replica shirt-wearer in the high street without running round to see whether they have a name and number on the back. I’ve been doing this for quite a while now, so you can imagine my delight when my wife picked up the habit too. We now have a rudimentary scoring system, whereby teams receive one point for a fan wearing a “plain” shirt and two for someone with a named and numbered-up top. I was hoping that someone might come forward and reassure me that I’m not the only one out there looking at supporters’ backs, but I’ll understand if you all want to remain anonymous about it.
Joe Newman, Brighton
Bury are dropping through the leagues and fast. Chris Bainbridge explains why his club are struggling so badly, and how the somehow managed to avoid relegation to the Conference this term
Bury have had a dramatic decline in the past three years or so. What are the main reasons for this?
Money, money and money – a lack of it. Bury’s surge to Division One was bankrolled by millionaire stockbroker Hugh Eaves, but then he got caught up in a scandal. We were forced to sell a raft of good players (such as Dean Kiely, Paul Butler and David Johnson) just to keep going. Two relegations and a spell in administration later, we’re now well on the way to rebuilding ourselves as a community-based club through the “Forever Bury” supporters’ trust. But we now know through bitter experience the dangers of relying on one person. Chelsea beware…