Search: 'Neil Harris'

The Lions' share of football glory has been fairly minimal down the  years and pre-season hopes were low, while Carlisle were play-off semi-finalists in May. Yet there has been a reversal of fortunes since August, even if a good run for Kenny Jackett's Millwall has been punctuated with nasty defeats. David Stubbs reports

As I enter The Den, the strains of Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe resound around the stadium from a PA system so tinny they could be better off making their announcements from the one at nearby South Bermondsey station and hoping the wind carries them. The cine-worm of Groundhog Day immediately squirms to mind – that was the song Bill Murray woke up to every morning. This being a cold evening – all gloves, big cups of coffee and visible breath – you half expect Murray and Andie McDowell to come running out of nowhere throwing snowballs at you. 

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Dear WSC
I am glad that Leeds’ 15-point deduction has been upheld, but not because I am “too busy taking pleasure from their fall from grace to give it a moment’s thought” as claimed by Neil Rose in WSC 256. I actually like Leeds, having watched them frequently in the Revie days when they were the object of much opprobrium from the London press despite producing great football, and so I understand why Leeds fans think ­everybody is against them. Yes, the number of points deducted is arbitrary, but I think everyone agrees that it is wrong for a club to climb the table by spending other people’s money and then being allowed to write off their debts yet not suffer in terms of league position. But that is precisely what Ken Bates tried to do. He was ready to put Leeds into administration at any time, but waited until the club were effectively relegated anyway and then did it instantly, knowing that the automatic ten-point deduction would make no difference to their season. It’s not often I hear myself saying this, but I think the League were perfectly right in their reaction. What they in effect said was: “Yes, you get the automatic points deduction but, as it hasn’t made any difference to you, we will take it off you next season as well and we will take another five off you for trying to manipulate the rules.” If Ken had put the club into administration a week earlier than he did, I suspect this wouldn’t have happened. And you are not “better off going into administration in the Premier League (nine points docked) than in the Football League (ten)”. Nine points in a 38-game season means you have to make up the difference at a rate of 0.237 points per game, while ten points in a 46-game season is a comparatively trivial handicap of only 0.217. It would have been nothing to Leeds if Ken Bates hadn’t made it worse by trying to play the rules.
Mick Blakeman, Wolverhampton

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Dear WSC
Why does Andy Gray keep saying “pick the bones out of that”? It’s an expression he’s come to use in every post-match analysis he does on Sky, usually in relation to a slow-motion replay of a goalmouth incident. But it’s become so frequent that it’s almost a verbal tic, as though he doesn’t realise he’s saying it. This suggests a deep-seated trauma. Could it be that he is haunted by an incident when he failed to pick the bones out of a fish, say, and consequently nearly choked while in a packed restaurant? Either that or he’s replying a vivid and unsettling dream. But it could be worse. Imagine the look of alarm on Richard Keys’ face as Andy stares into the middle distance and mutters: “The defence was as exposed as someone standing naked in front of everybody they went to school with, plus their mother and other female members of the family.”
James Potter, via email

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Thursday 1 Emre is accused of having racially abused Ali Bangura of Watford; the Newcastle player was previously charged with insulting Everton’s black players in December. Anton Ferdinand will face trial for alleged assault over an incident at an Essex nightclub last year. Alan Knill is dismissed by Rotherham, who are without a win in 14 games.

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Dear WSC
In Nigel Harris’s excellent Fools Gold (WSC 241), he mentions that South Wales Police officers are approachable and highly regarded. This got me thinking about when Cardiff City were the visitors to Preston a couple of seasons back. As my friends and I were sat drinking in our usual pre-match pub, a jolly officer from the aforementioned constabulary approached us and informed us that they would be letting a group of Cardiff City “fans” into the pub and that we should drink up and leave or they wouldn’t be responsible for the consequences. The SWP officers then proceeded to welcome these fans into the establishment and chuckled along as they went round taunting everyone else in the bar with racist anti-English insults. Though I agree that no set of supporters should ever be banned from seeing their team, Cardiff City’s cause is not helped when the body employed to control their unruly fans’ behaviour is seen very much to encourage what they do. South Wales Police may be “highly regarded”, but not in Preston.
Bobby Dilworth, via email

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