Tuesday 2 An exciting night for several teenagers at Highbury, where 16-year-old Francesc Fabregas is among the scorers in Arsenal reserves’ 5-1 Carling Cup thrashing of Wolves. Two James Beattie goals, one a last-minute penalty, settle the first Hampshire derby for eight years. Joe Cole is banned for two games for his spat when West Ham played at Bolton last April. Ken Bates is steaming: “Those responsible for keeping him waiting seven months should have their wages withdrawn for three months, or be sacked.”
Ian Plenderleith has a look at football in Lincolnshire in the light of a new book
The 2002-03 season was unusually eventful for Lincolnshire football. Grimsby were relegated from Division One, both Lincoln and Scunthorpe made the Division Three play-offs and League newcomers Boston struggled through their first year after having four points docked for financial irregularities, ultimately securing their status shortly before the season’s end.
This is the time of year when the newspapers are filled with hopes for the coming year, with pleas for respect for referees, less diving and world peace. All very laudable but, really, we can’t be doing with any of it. There is only one thing we’ll ask for – that this year’s FA Cup isn’t won by one of the top three, or Liverpool. We’re even prepared to tolerate one of the curses of the modern age, tracking camera shots of whooping fans in jester hats and curly wigs, provided they are celebrating a victory for an underdog.
Alun Rogers on promotion, Cup upsets and having big red neighbours
Are home crowds as big as they could get?
Attendances have long been a sore point. It can’t help having Manchester and Liverpool a leisurely 45 minutes away, but the town and outlying population have been expanding at an incredible rate over the past ten years. The inhabitants display a keen affection for Poundland-style shops; it might just be a cheapskate attitude that afflicts attendances.
Dear WSC
I enjoyed Roger Titford’s nostalgic piece about half-time scoreboards (WSC 202). Many people will remember Huddersfield Town’s big scorebox at the old Leeds Road ground. It was manned from within and, although it couldn’t boast Fulham-style coloured lights, it was still a complicated business to fathom its information. Scores were displayed in three groups (A, B & C) of eight and unless you watched it constantly, you couldn’t be sure whether the scores shown were from Group A or Group B. I missed many a goal and other dramatic incidents early in second halves through over-attentiveness to my programme to see how (for example) Plymouth and Blackburn were getting on. It was usually 0-0.
Stuart Barker, Carlisle