Dear WSC
Speaking of bleeping out certain phrases from football commentary and punditry (WSC 225), my pet peeve is “The shot beat the keeper but went wide”. It only beats the keeper if it goes past him and into the goal (or goes past him and is cleared off the line by a team-mate, or goes past him and sticks in the mud and stops, as in a Danny Baker football video). The keeper is only beaten when the ball goes past him within the area of the goal he is there to defend, otherwise any shot that ends up on the roof of the stand or hits the corner flag could be said to have beaten the keeper. Bah!
Phil Brown, Romford
Search: ' Danny Baker'
Stories
Charles Morris interviews John Bowler, chairman of the club which, in these uncertain times, many see as an example to the rest, Crewe Alexandra
Nine years ago Crewe Alexandra lost a Third Division play-off final at Wembley on penalties to York City. Today, Crewe are enjoying their fifth consecutive season in the First Division, while York flounder near the bottom of the Third, having only just been saved from bankruptcy and oblivion. The contrasting fortunes of these two small clubs could not be more marked, and fans of York, Bury, Swindon and other clubs now fearing for their futures must wonder what particular magic Crewe worked that escaped their own directors.
Radio 5 Live gives football fans the chance to air their views on their post-match show 6.06 but are such shows just outlets for inane opinion?
Yes ~
You end up feeling sorry for the presenter. By the end of every football phone-in, I just want to hold the hand of the caged beast, as he has had a combination of heavy fatalism and non-punchlined anecdote poured into his ear for hour after hour.
Wednesday 1 Man Utd beat Bordeaux 2-0. “You’ve got to win your home games,” advises Sir Alex. Mark Bosnich, dropped after his leaden-footed display against Wimbledon the previous Saturday, is said to be “fuming”, the poppet.
Stephen Wagg examines the press coverage lavished on Stan Collymore's latest indiscretion
“Sounds like a nice bloke,” I said innocently to my mate as we drove out of Watford on February 12. We were listening to Stan Collymore tell Radio 5 about the welcome he’d had at Leicester City and of his pleasant surprise at being able to get through 90 minutes of Premiership football after nearly a year away. But it seems I was wrong. The following day in the Observer, former Crystal Palace manager Alan Smith, now apparently a consultant psychiatrist, pondered whether Collymore was “an ultra-sensitive soul” or “simply mad”.