It was hasrd to pick a really good team in the basement but, as Nick House reports, it definately wasn't Torquay.
Win, lose or draw, the post-match ritual never changes. The Third Division manager shares his exclusive insights with the local press: “It’s such a tight division this year. Three wins and you’re up near the play-offs. We’re as good as anybody. We’ll be there at the death.” The hack looks unimpressed. “Or thereabouts.”
Dear WSC
I have no time at all for deposed Rangers vice-chairman Donald Findlay, but Gary Oliver’s article about him (WSC 149) was unfair in two respects. Findlay is Scotland’s pre-eminent defence counsel. He has defended scores of people accused of rape, murder, etc – including many Catholics. To extract from his long career two cases where the victims were Celtic fans is a distortion. And Findlay’s admittedly ill-judged joke that his birthday should have been on July 12th rather than St Patrick’s Day was a mutual one he had with a Catholic friend whose birthday is on the former date. The good news is that Rangers chairman David Murray has, by getting rid of Findlay, again taken strong action against sectarianism.
Ian McLean, Glasgow
Jamie Rainbow points us in the direction of Hartlepool and Southend unofficial sites, bemoans the lack of an FA website and reveals a fan's obsession with mini kits
Manchester United are not the only side who can lay claim to a worldwide support. Hartlepool may not have plans to open a megastore in Singapore, but they do have a couple of Swedish-based fans who have set up a website in honour of the club. And, once the initial language difficulties have been overcome, very good it is too. You’ll find an interesting history of the town with a refreshingly honest appraisal of the football team. “Hartlepool has an appallingly bad football team which consistently struggles towards the bottom of the English football league,” admits the site. There are a few historical snippets along with a comprehensive news section featuring daily updates on all the club-related gossip.
John Secker bids a fond farewell to Walsall's balti pies and Macclesfield's tented village
This was the season when Little and Large came into the division from opposite directions, played each other, then departed in the direction from which they had come. Two years ago Manchester City and Macclesfield Town were three divisions and a world apart, now they were starting on level terms.
Cris Freddi tracks down the players and teams fated to misfortune, in the latest part of his series on the dark side of 20th century football
Imagine it. It’s 1951. Australia lose to a touring English FA XI in Sydney and you’re the keeper who lets in the 17 goals. Naturally you don’t win another cap, but you can live with that; your worst bit of bad luck arrived at birth, when you discovered you had parents who thought they had a sense of humour. Their surname’s Conquest and they christen you Norman. Thanks a bloody bunch. They presumably get together with the parents of Norman Rule, who follows you into the Oz team.