Paul Doyle hails Shelbourne's Champions League exploits

To get an idea of Shelbourne’s standing in Europe until recently, consider the sheer contempt with which Croa­t­ia’s Hajduk Split prepared for their crucial Champions League second-round clash with the League of Ireland winners. Vic­tory would set up a glamour clash with the mighty De­portivo La Coruña and Hajduk were so convinced that honour would be theirs that Shels manager Pat Fenlon claimed his Croatian counterpart simply blank­ed him when the draw was made in Switz­erland and instead went straight up to the Span­ish team’s officials to make arrangements.

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It was the end of football as we knew it. With everything set to change with the introduction of the Premiership the following season, 1991-92 saw us wave goodbye to the days when Division One meant exactly that. Philip Cornwall reports

The long-term significance
Played under the shadow of the FA’s Blueprint for Football that spawned the Premiership, this was the final season that the Football League champions were the champions of England, that Division One was the first division. As it has turned out, it was the last time so far that the champions of England had an English manager. It was also a season of transition: neither of 1991’s top two seriously challenged for the title.

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Dear WSC
I’m sure this is very old hat and we’re just being ignorant, but in a recent pub conversation I asked a Brighton fan which team Charlie Oatway was named after. He had no idea. Oatway does indeed have 11 first names. It’s presumably a 1970s outfit, but we couldn’t get past the goalie, Ant­hony. The rest is Philip David Terry Frank Donald Stanley Gerry Gordon Stephen James Oatway. Can anyone help?
Jeff Moffat, London NW6

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Corruption scandals in the domestic game are overshadowing the national team's fine form, writes Sam Beckwith, our man in a car park with an envelope of cash

Euro 2004 aside, it’s a depressing time to be a Czech football fan. Away from the bright lights and big names of the national team, a year of bribery scandals has offered a shocking glimpse of just how corrupt the domestic game might be, with clubs that don’t bribe officials seemingly the exception rather than the rule.

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Ian Plenderleith embarks on his annual search to unearth that rarest of cyberspace entities – the funny football website. The good news is, he is successful this time. The bad news is, not very often

Some years ago this page printed a very unkind review of a new football “satire” website called Sports Offensive , which res­ponded by publishing an admittedly pertinent parody of the author’s regular online column. Since then, and having added the sub-heading “Big Games – Big Lies”, the site has gone from mindless crudity to witty burlesque, inspired in the main by both the hyperbole and inanity of mainstream sports journalism.

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