It is said that there is no substitute for experience at international level, but Bulgaria maybe about to disprove the adage, as Mark McQuinn explains

Remember Bryan Robson’s last days as a player for Middlesbrough? The crunching tackles replaced by crude, late hacks, the muscular leaps to win headers against taller players replaced by crafty nudges in the back before jumping. Well multiply that by five, and you’ve got the backbone of the team that Bulgaria are likely to field during the World Cup finals.

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Cris Freddi continues his series building up to the World Cup finals with a look at Scotland's record in the tournament

Sorry, there’s no getting away from it. Scotland’s record in the World Cup finals is dead poor, we all know that. Only four wins in 20 matches, two of them against Zaire and New Zealand. But the most humiliating thing is that nothing better has ever been expected of them. Except once, and that ended in the biggest let-down of all. Despite regular wins over England, they haven’t been a world force for 60 years.

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Three blood-curdling stories, one from the present day, two from the past, of the players who fell foul of their own supporters. Jonathan Barnes, Phil Ball and Al Needham explain

James Scowcroft, Ipswich Town
As Ipswich Town took the lead in their home fixture with bottom-of-the-table Reading in March, the celebrations of a certain section of the 19,000 Portman Road crowd were, to say the least, half-hearted. The displeasure of the fans is at the identity of the scorer – the man in the No 10 shirt. Rarely has a player been able to divide a set of fans as drastically as James Scowcroft.

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His club Scarborough are doing well but as Mark Staniforth explains, getting to the play-offs in the Third Division is no great achievement

In my darkest moments – either a 4-0 defeat at Rochdale or an argument with a girlfriend brought about by a 4-0 defeat at Rochdale – I often wonder  what is the purpose of a Third Division football club.  It is no longer to act as a feeder club to any of the Premiership sides; they just go abroad or buy the boys when they’re six years old anyway.

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David Harrison offers views on the current state of play in the Second Division from which his club Watford have just made their escape

Before considering playing styles, and the overall Division Two experience, it is perhaps worth spending a moment on the most fundamental element of the lot: the playing surface.

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