Stories | When Saturday Comes

Oxford United 2 Rotherham United 1

An important game at the top of League Two, watched by Piers Pennington, sees the homeless side from South Yorkshire lose a fifth consecutive away game, while forward-thinking hosts keep their play-off hopes alive

A few days before the game a familiar name which I couldn’t quite place for the moment popped up in my email inbox; an old friend who hadn’t been in touch for a while I assumed. Ah yes, old Harry Worley, what’s he up to these days I wondered for a second or two before the penny dropped.

Thursday, April 21st, 2011 - The Archive

Hollow victories

While the battle for an Olympic legacy was a fierce one, there don’t seem to have been any real winners. Ian King explains

The decision to grant the post-2012 use of the Olympic Stadium in Stratford to West Ham United gave us, presumably unintentionally, the opportunity to pause for a moment and consider the priorities of English sport at the start of the new century. Over the last few weeks of the bidding process, we saw an unseemly attempt at a land grab between two large sporting institutions, both of whom seemed to cherish one thing above all else, a site in east London with outstanding transport links that was available on the cheap. Money, as ever, trumped all other concerns.

Thursday, April 21st, 2011 - The Archive

Hart and soul

Spurs’ late bid for the Olympic Stadium was a flawed one but it forced Mat Snow to assess what he really feels about the club he supports

When the Spurs board first floated the notion that, rather than expand and upgrade White Hart Lane, the club would move to the Olympic Stadium seven miles away in Stratford, I didn’t take it seriously. Nor did many other Spurs fans I know. We all figured that the board were proposing this Plan B to bluff the local council and other official bodies which were, so we heard, attaching ever more strings and dangling hefty price tags from the necessary permissions to redevelop as the board wanted. But very quickly Plan B turned into a real bid and, right then and there, every single Spurs fan was put on the spot.

Thursday, April 21st, 2011 - The Archive

Earning the stripes

Paul Knott pays tribute to a player who came to symbolise a club, remaining instrumental through an era of unprecendented success

Nine seasons after joining Hull City from Cambridge Utd for exactly one-thousandth of the fee paid by Liverpool for Andy Carroll, Ian Ashbee moved on a free to Preston on January transfer deadline day. During this time he achieved the unique feat of captaining the same club in all four divisions, including the top one for the first time in Hull City’s history.

Thursday, April 21st, 2011 - Book reviews

Honour crimes

After losing Fernando Torres to Chelsea, Liverpool supporter Rob Hughes explains why player disloyalty is not a new phenomenom

The media circus that trailed Fernando Torres’s move to Chelsea once again raised what is fast becoming a dominant issue in today’s game: club loyalty. Liverpool fans’ dismay was complete when, at his first press conference at Stamford Bridge, their departed idol coolly batted away accusations of traitordom and justified his switch of allegiance by declaring that “romance in football has gone”. Yes, he said, he’d had three good seasons at Liverpool but he wanted to play for a team who actually won things. What’s more, he was never a Reds fan (though, in his defence, he was candid enough to admit he’s no Chelsea nut either). Club loyalty counted for nothing when it came to winning trophies.

Thursday, April 21st, 2011 - Book reviews