John Secker reflects on Blackpool’s inability to escape the lower divisions since the trauma of a fluke relegation in 1978

In the good old days of the Sixties and before, Blackpool were one of the teams who could lay claim to a First Division place pretty well permanently. Along with teams like Preston, Burnley and Bolton, they were part of a Lancashire tradition of strong town teams that went back to Victorian times. Even in the Seventies Blackpool were a strong Second Division side, just missing out on promotion in 1974 and featuring on Goal of the Season in 1975 (Mickey Walsh against Sunderland).

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Preston were the first League champions in 1889 and still a force in the Fifties but, as Dave Russell describes, they have struggled to live up to their history ever since

Preston North End have entered the new century in good shape, with a squad that finally looks good enough to end two decades in the League’s lower divisions. The name of manager David Moyes now invariably features in any press speculation about Premiership vacancies and under chairman Bryan Gray, Deepdale has been partially but dramatically redeveloped.

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Ian Plenderleith discovers a global online community of football fans

If you’ve got a Norwegian footballer at your club (and let’s face it, who hasn’t?), you may need to check what they are saying on the Sportsprofiler site, which houses home pages for nearly 40 of the country’s top players.

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Day eight of the WSC advent calendar and we have Jesus for you. Former Atlético Madrid president Jesús Gil, that is. In issue 157, March 2000, Phil Ball reported on how the club had been thrown into disarray by the arrest of their controversial ex-president on charges of embezzlement

So this time it really does look like curtains for the most famous man in Spain, the man who once dec­lared that if they sent him to prison he would buy the building from the town council.

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Time for a chat with Mark E Smith of The Fall, whose football experiences include encounters with a goalkeeping plumber and a controversial match against the Icicle Works

You grew up in Salford, which is more United than City. Is there a reason why you’re a City fan?
Not really, just to be contrary I suppose. Also you want to support the opposite team to your dad and my dad had been a United fan. Back in the 1950s he’d to go to away games on his bike – he’d cycle to places like Leicester. But I converted him to City. I had another United connection, though. I applied for a clerical job at the Edwards family’s meat factory after I left school. It was £9 a week. It might even have been Martin Edwards who did the interview. He said “Well the meat wagons come in, just sit there, fill in these forms and file them.” I said, “When would the job start?” and he said “You’ve started” and he left me in the office.

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