In a game between fellow Championship strugglers, Simon Hart watches the away side continue their poor travelling form, while a debut for the home manager and a hard-fought win sees optimism bloom in Yorkshire
“Normally you’d get 18 to 19,000 here for a Peterborough game but we’re expecting 24 today – a couple of wins on the bounce, a new manager, there’s a feelgood effect.”
Dear WSC
The mention of the “ironic greeting” at Albion Rovers’ Cliftonhill Stadium – “Welcome to the San Siro” – reminded me of the time I popped in to see Wee Rovers, the club that supplied the Boro with Bernie Slaven, one freezing December day. We arrived at quarter to three and took our places in the only stand just in front of the PA man, who was greeting individual arrivals by name. “Hello Mr MacPherson, nice to see ye. How’s the family?” Later, as he spotted a group of Dumbarton supporters: “Hello there! You’ll find we’re a very friendly crowd here. If you could just turn to the left and shake hands with the person next to ye.” How very different from the life of our own dear Premier League.
Bob Kerr, Middlesbrough
No other coach has won as many Serie A titles as Giovanni Trapattoni – and that includes England’s coach. Paul Doyle looks at the reaction to the appointment of the Republic of Ireland’s new boss
And so, with the appointment of Giovanni Trapattoni to replace Steve Staunton, the Republic of Ireland team prepare to leap from one extreme to the other: from the era of the bungling novice to the reign of the revered veteran.
A Life in Football
by Egon Theiner & Elisabeth Schlammerl
Liberties Press, £10.99
Reviewed by Jonathan O'Brien
From WSC 259 September 2008
Giovanni Trapattoni couldn’t have enjoyed a smoother entrance to the Republic of Ireland job. An initial whirlwind of adulatory obeisance was followed by two inept friendly performances that helpfully dampened down expectations, though Trap was wily enough not to lose either game.
The Biography
by Joel Miller
John Blake, £17.99
Reviewed by Paul Doyle
From WSC 247 September 2007
Good things about this book include: the high standard of spelling; functionally correct grammar; and the fact that if you dropped it from a great height on to the head of the person who recommended it to you, it would do serious damage. Beyond that, the highest praise you could give it is that it reads like an extended Wikipedia entry, a broadly efficient collation of information already in the public domain. If you think that makes it worth almost 18 of your English pounds, then you presumably pay for WSC with wheelbarrows of gold. Well done.