Harry Pearson charts the reversal of fortunes for Hamilton Ricard

The second and third things Middlesbrough fans least expected to see this season were resident Scandinavian fop Mikkel Beck winning a 50/50 challenge and Hamilton Ricard heading towards Christmas as one of the Premiership’s top marksmen. The barrel-chested Colombian arriv­ed at the River­side from Dep­ortivo Cali in a £2 million deal dur­ing the second-half of last season after an apparently bitter tug of love between Boro and Sheffield Un­ited over his affections.

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A brief guide to football on the English riviera from Nick House

1927 Torquay take Aberdare’s Football League place following a controversial second ballot. The new boys promptly lose 9-1 at Millwall and finish in the bottom five in all but two of their first seven seasons. Unusually bad results each August suggest the signing of holidaymakers on fortnightly contracts.

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Adam Powley wonders if Tottenham Hostpur could be selling their fans short by not taking up full allocations

It's a conspiracy theorist’s dream – not quite on a par with the Kennedy assassination, but of concern to football fans all the same. Tottenham had been accused of deliberately denying their supporters the chance to buy tickets for away games in order to force them to attend live screenings of the matches at Spurs, a serious accusation which required some clear answers. Getting them, however, proved to be a shade tricky.

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Richard Mason reflects on Fiorentina's explusion from the UEFA Cup and what it means for media objectivity

The exclusion of Fiorentina from the UEFA Cup has naturally provoked a lot of comment in Italy, but one aspect of the affair has been entirely ignored: its implications for media companies such as Sky and Carlton seeking to buy into football clubs.

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Man Utd fans vent their anger at the club's board for considering a potential takeover from Rupert Murdoch and BSkyB, writes Paul Richards

The Theatre of Dreams turned into a waking nightmare for the directors of Man­chester United as they were left squirming in their seats at Old Trafford on November 17th after a two-hour grilling by hundreds of shareholders.

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