Chris Taylor explains that while FC United of Manchester’s FA Cup exploits are exciting, news of a new ground is the best thing to happen to the club this season
My dad used to point at stars and tell me that they could have expired thousands of years ago, and yet we can still see them because of how far away they are. I can now tell him that the away end of the Withdean Stadium is so far away from the pitch, you see events roughly 70 minutes after the rest of the ground.
Our web awards focus on the best footballing blogs, fanzines and websites. Ian Plenderleith gives his view on why each is worthy the accolade
It’s that time of year when we finally say something nice about what’s on the internet, and the 2010 Web Awards focus on what may be considered classic fanzine virtues – independence, originality, wit and selfless involvement in a game that seems intent on distancing itself from a fanbase whose cash it wants and needs, but which in many corners still stubbornly refuses to sink into the passive role of slavish devotee. Our by-no-means comprehensive selection of sites, some of them consistent enough to be held over from last year’s awards, reflects the necessity of a watchful ethical eye, the redemption of satire and an increasing awareness of the need to analyse the game’s business side. The web may be clogged with bothersome ads, unhinged anger and celebrities masquerading as columnists, but there’s resistance too. Support your team, but support too the many voices of sanity who still care that teetering crises contrast daily with high-spend lunacy.
This month, Ian Plenderleath takes a look at a football website written exclusively by women
Everyone knows, as the American philosopher Elbert Hubbard once said, that “gossip is vice enjoyed vicariously”. Bearing that in mind, the best way to approach a football site like Kickette, where “multi-millionaire football star shenanigans, exclusive WAG gossip and snarky fashion analysis are the reason we exist”, is just to enjoy its self-knowing appreciation of the contours of semi-clad footballers’ torsos, bitchery about the excessive make-up of footballers’ wives and up-to-speed information on the latest bordello sightings. Because you really need to see those pics of Carlos Vela and his international team-mates hanging loose with blonde transvestite ladies of the Mexican night.
Simon Hart discusses the history behind 2010's most unique pre-season friendly: Everton v Everton
Forget the money-spinning Emirates Cup, it was Goodison Park that hosted the summer’s most meaningful pre-season friendly, Everton v Everton, as the Merseyside club faced their Chilean namesakes for the first time on August 4. The unique occasion drew a 25,934 crowd – more than the annual pre-season fundraiser for the club’s former players’ foundation usually attracts. Those present witnessed some wonderful quirks, not least the sight of the Park End scoreboard reading Everton 0, Everton 0, at least until the home team’s two unanswered second-half goals.
My autobiography
by David Weir
Hodder & Stoughton, £20.00
Reviewed by Craig McCracken
From WSC 303 May 2012
David Weir's autobiography Extra Time is well timed, coinciding as it does with the apparent winding down of his playing career at the ripe old age of 41. Weir is a player who feels as if he belongs in an older, simpler era of the game – a proud professional more interested in captaining club and country than money and material possessions.