Dale Hurman explains why things aren't running smoothly at Wycombe

Two matches at Chesterfield in three years il­lus­trate the change experienced by Wycombe Wanderers fans. On April 8, 2000, a 2-1 away win at Saltergate secured our Second Division status for another year and all but condemned the Spireites to relegation. It was a relaxed time to be a Wanderers fan. Within a year, we were taking 19,500 supporters to Villa Park for the FA Cup semi-final with Liverpool. Of course, most went back to whatever had prevented them coming to watch Wycombe before but some stayed. Lawrie Sanchez’s defiant post-match speech to the gathered press harnessed growing expectations. We had also made in the region of £1 million from the cup run. Pro­motion to the First Division was the new goal.

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Phil Town explores the stadiums being built in Portugal for Euro 2004

Benfiquistas said a fond farewell in March to their Catedral. The last ever game at Benfica’s once magnificent Luz Stadium was a damp squib of a 1-0 win over modest Santa Clara of the Azores, and that with a penalty. For months, though, the Luz had also been a sorry sight, a quarter of it removed to make way for the mag­nificent new Luz nudging its way in from next door where it is currently undergoing con­struction.

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Ian Plenderleith looks at the wobble of football websites

There was more worrying financial news for Football League clubs in March when its internet partner Premium TV (PTV) announced another wave of redundancies and sent its CEO home on “gardening leave”. Yet the com­pany claims that it is not on the verge of collapsing, despite the lay-offs, the huge debts at its parent company, NTL, and the fact that it has already once had to renegotiate its contract with the FL.

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Nathan Lee Davies explains why Inverness Caledonian Thistle revel in cup glory and league success

Celtic supporters will never forget February 8, 2000 when Inverness Caledonian Thistle won 3-1 at Parkhead in the third round of the Scottish Cup – a result that cost manager John Barnes his job. However, they could be for­given for thinking their team only had to turn up at Caledonian Stadium to progress to the last four of this year’s competition given that, three days earlier, they had comfortably dis­patched Liverpool from the UEFA Cup at An­field. There was little in the first half to suggest a shock was in the offing, but shortly before half time ICT striker Dennis Wyness struck and his side were 45 minutes away from re­peating their feat.

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Should international friendlies be cast on to the football scrapheap?

The new England shirts, launched at the end of March, have “anatomically eng­ineered moisture management pan­elling”, which is another way of saying lots of small holes, ideal no doubt for play­ing in hot weather. Whether England will need to use them in a certain international tournament next summer is, of course, far from certain. However, a qual­i­fication failure by England wouldn’t dis­please the clubs employing three of the four players, Michael Owen, David Beck­ham and Rio Ferdinand, who mod­elled the new strip.

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