Howard Pattison goes in search of football heritage and asks why more blue plaques aren’t awarded to players
In 1999 the writer Hunter Davies asked: “Why are there no blue plaques for footballers?” Over a decade on, they are still so rare that you begin to wonder if those who administer our heritage simply don’t see football as being part of it. Surely Bobby Moore is worthy of a blue plaque?
Al Needham gets nostalgic over a clash of two sides still hoping to return to a time of former glories
I don’t mean to bang on about the past, but this fixture really brings it out in me. Forest v Ipswich was the first game I ever went to, on October 4, 1977. I stood as a nine-year-old in the Trent End with Ian Marriott and his dad, gasping at the sight of the blues and reds merging with the green, floodlit pitch – just like the picture on the Subbuteo box that I’d just got from him in exchange for an Action Man (in one of those undersized tanks, where his arms hung over the side) – my head fizzing as Kenny Burns, Peter Shilton and Viv Anderson ran about in front of me just like they did on the telly.
Roger Titford reports on a year in the Championship in which may not have been vintage, but was notable for Blackpool providing the headlines
The Championship alternates between “strong” and “weak” years depending on which clubs have just been relegated from the Premier League. Next season we can look forward to a weak, and therefore more open, contest with two financial basket cases (Hull and Portsmouth) and Burnley coming down.
The Story of Derby County's Record Breaking 2007-08 Season
by Edgar Smith
Pure Phase, £8.95
Reviewed by Terry Staunton
From WSC 289 March 2011
Early on in a top-flight campaign that would ultimately end in a litany of unwelcome "records", Derby County's website did manage to strike a brief note of positivity. Pride Park was (drum roll) the first UK football ground to install a branch of Starbucks. However, as the back slaps and double-espressos-all-round subsided, it was soon time to wake up and smell the coffee.
Huw Richards sums up the Championship season whilst asking of whether being at the top of the division correlates with playing better football
Do you want your team to play in the Premier League? Well, yes, me too. But this year’s Championship season shows that achieving what we’re told is the Holy Grail – or at least the answer to a £60 million question – can have unwanted side-effects. When your team is newly risen from the lower orders you have certain expectations. Better grounds, bigger crowds and classier football. No doubt about the first two, but hope of number three went largely ungratified.