Lokomotive Leipzig used to play in European finals; now they are dominating the equivalent of a pub league. Julius Bergmann reports on a remarkable renaissance
When at the beginning of October FC Lokomotive Leipzig overcame Eintracht Grossdeuben reserves at the city’s new Central Stadium, it wasn’t just the world record crowd for an 11th division match of 12,421 that made the game special; it was also the simple fact that Lok were playing.
The newly relegated Minstermen are struggling to acclimatise – not just to Conference football, but to the diabolical weather: it's grim up north London, as Taylor Parkes reports
Barnet might be seen as a London club, but apart from the red double-deckers that roll past the ground, there’s nothing metropolitan about the place. Where London fades into Hertfordshire, it’s an odd mix of capital and Home County, Burberry and grime. And High Barnet station isn’t just called that for a laugh – perched way above London, it’s the first place round here to know when it’s raining, and my God is it raining. The wide open space between the station and the ground has become a car wash; the usually pleasant walk downhill is like strolling through a phalanx of water cannons. There’s a bussed-in party of kids with free seats at Underhill today, but they’re at the south end of the ground, in the tiny, uncovered stand. They cower beneath parental umbrellas. Settling into my unfamiliar place in the grandstand (not really very grand, but impressively dry), I watch these kids’ love of football begin to be literally washed away. This is a day that could test your patience with life, never mind semi-professional football. By a quarter to five, I’m just hoping to God they haven’t been bussed in from York. Me, I have a wonderful afternoon.
Few World Cup qualifiers can have been more politically charged than October's visit of Serbia & Montenegro to Bosnia-Herzegovina, as Djordje Nikolic reports
Nine years have passed since the end of the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Apparently it’s not long enough to hold a football game against the former compatriots, now neighbours, Serbia & Montenegro under normal conditions.
Once upon a time, Manchester City fans sang that every run that Kinky made was blinding but, as Dan Brennan reports, the Georgian now just heads for dead ends
When Gio Kinkladze rejected Derby County’s offer of a new contract and a 50 per cent wage cut in the summer of 2003, there was little doubt in his mind that a return to the Premiership was just around the corner. What followed instead was an increasingly forlorn and humiliating attempt to secure employment in Britain and abroad. Plagued by injury and fitness problems at Derby, he only showed glimpses of the skills that had made him the darling of the Kippax at Manchester City, but he was only 30 and still possessed the dancing feet and quick brain to compensate for any decline in speed and increased girth.
Today Cambridge United would need a mad tycoon to get into the Premiership, but John Morgan remembers when a tactical eccentric almost managed the impossible
First Division tables from the 1970s and 80s now look like relics from a bygone era. They are filled with unfamiliar and unexpected names: Bristol City, Brighton, Notts County, Swansea, Carlisle and Wimbledon. Clubs who had chanced upon the talent of an exceptional manager or group of players were able to suddenly spring to the top from the depths of mediocrity. Even the most desperately unsuccessful lower-division teams could take solace in the dream that one day they might reach the same heights.