Tag: Swindon Town

FootballOpinion

I Sort of Remembered to Leave a Link This Time…

David Stringer

Yesterday there I wrote a new edition of the Lower League Week for Born Offside.

Swindon’s new owners have pissed of Paolo di Canio, Bournemouth are doing quite well, the Dalai Llama has declared his support for a League Two side, Hartlepool United won (remarkable in itself) with the goals scored by Hartley and Poole, Dickov and Curle were sacked by Oldham and Notts County, while Graham Westley praised himself in the Daily Mail, in the week his Preston side set a new club record for home games without victory.

You can read all of that in The Lower League Week – Things Fall Apart

FootballOpinion

Things I Forgot to Link To

David Stringer

You know how sometimes you plan to do something, keep intending to go back to it in just a few hours, regret not doing it yesterday, and then intend to do that thing in just a few hours for a second day in a row? Then a third?
Yeah, I meant to link to my Lower League Fortnight column when it went live last Thursday. I make it a principle of sorts to make sure everything I write is linked to from here, so I’m catching up, even if it is out of date.

Last Thursday’s Lower League Week (written before the frantic last two days of the transfer window) covered Swindon’s new owners, Bournemouth’s impressive form, Sheffield United hitting a rough patch, Zoko being a bit daft for Notts County, Keith Hill’s return to Rochdale, and a banana.

You can read all of that by clicking on The Lower League Fortnight – Of Money and Managers.

Speaking of things I haven’t linked to, a couple of weeks ago there was a bit of a furore over the ballboy in the Swansea – Chelsea match. At BornOffside we wrote some quick reactions, myself included.

These can be reading by clicking through to BornOffside Reacts…

And… that’s me pretty much up to date for today!

FootballOpinion

Milk!

David Stringer

A new edition of The Lower League Week has just gone up at BornOffside.net.

In it, I cover Tranmere starting to struggle, Sheffield United hitting form, Paolo di Canio whinging, Chesterfield take two months to appoint a manager, Scunthorpe taking less than a day, own goals, a red card, dangerous milk, and a really quite horrific injury.

Den ern, den ern, DER DER DER!

Click here for The Lower League Week – Starting to get Serious

FootballOpinion

Billionaire Owners are Passe, Knights Are Cool Now

David Stringer

The latest Lower League Week is now up at Born Offside.
Port Vale and Portsmouth are both on the verge of takeovers, and I’ve been slightly mystified by reports that Portsmouth manager Michael Appleton is the favourite for the Burnley vacancy.
Swindon have replaced their chairman (with a knight who was ambassador to Afghanistan – pretty imperial), Oxford insist on being inconsistent, Hartlepool have parted ways with manager Neale Cooper, and York’s Matty Blair managed to get himself injured by a training ground mannequin.

In his defence, these guys can be absolute thugs

All that and more can be found in The Lower League Week: Owners and Managers

FootballOpinion

How Bloody Cool is Edgar Davids?

David Stringer

Seriously. I mean, just take a look at how cool and laid back he looks, even when he’s not leading European teams to continental glory:

I think I may have a man-crush on him.

There is a sort of reason for the above. Davids has just been named as the Joint Head Coach of Barnet, currently sitting 92nd in the English league structure, whcih I’ve written about for BornOffside in the Lower League Fortnight.

I’ve also covered Peter Ridsdale’s tax dodging, Bournemouth’s surprise managerial appointment, Portsmouth’s secret boardroom history, more accusations of racism (yey, navel gazing!) London Orient, transfer embargoes, and Tranmere’s confusingly good start to the season.

Come this way to read The Manager in the Coloured Glasses

FootballOpinion

Matches against Portsmouth and Brazil

David Stringer

A little late, as this post went up on Born Offside on Thursday night.

This week’s Lower League Week focuses on Port Vale, whose financial woes have deepened, with prospective owner Keith Ryder no longer returning the administrator’s calls.

No matter how long they waited, the call just wouldn’t come.

Harry Redknapp returned to football with Bournemouth, di Canio refused to stop talking, Preston have put together a decent run of results, an Oldham player made his international debut against Brazil, and Martin Allen took Gillingham to Barnet, who decided against appointing him manager in May.

Click here for the column in which I ask Where in the World is Keith Ryder?

FootballOpinion

Another Week in the Lower Leagues

David Stringer

This is a few days out of date now, but just putting up a really brief blog to say that my latest Lower League Week is up at Born Offside.
transfer news, Paolo di Canio declaring zero tolerance on players making mistakes, some thoughts on the impact of financial fair play, Sheffield United renaming a stand after Jessica Ennis, Chesterfield sacking their manager, and Oldham’s chairman going off on a bit of a rant.
Oh, and Scunthorpe’s manager was almost killed by a squirrel.

I can’t confirm if this was the squirrel, but from the way he’s rubbing his hands together, he’s clearly evil.

You can read about all this at The Lower League Week – The Angry Italian Man Edition

FootballOpinion

And So, The End is Nigh

David Stringer

The English season has finally came to a close, with the playoffs finals of League One and Two coming last weekend.
There’s also been serious economic troubles for Kettering Town and Darlington, in both cases the culmination of a series of struggles both on the pitch and the ledger book.
In addition, for reasons that are beyond me, a number of goalkeepers have moved club, including two former England internationals.

I’m also going to try something a little different with this link – I’m going to tease the start of the article here at the blog, so readers have the ability to read before clicking over to Born Offside, just to see if that has any effect on clicks.
Basically, I’m treating you as my guinea pigs.

Do you think they're used for science because they seem really curious?
Do you think they’re used for science because they seem really curious?

You can read The Lower League Week – Dramatic Endings here.

 

 

 

Kettering Town Rolls Downward

It was starting to look like Kettering would, relatively speaking, be alright. Although relegated from the Conference, new owner George Rolls has already poured some of his money into paying off the club’s debts.

However, Kettering still have debts of £1.2m, and the Conference authorities demand all the debts of teams in their leagues (Blue Square Premier, North and South) are repaid in full. By reaching an agreement to pay creditors 10p in the pound, Kettering have guaranteed that they’ll be relegated an additional division.

There is an unusual complication to Rolls’ ownership. When in charge of Weymouth…

Continue reading…

FootballOpinion

The Later Lower League Week

David Stringer

While the English football season is over for most teams, there are still the matter of the playoffs, an FA Trophy final, economic troubles, Paolo di Canio possibly doing a racism, and several teams putting in early preparations for next season.

The penultimate Lower League Week went up at Born Offside yesterday.

Comedy, FootballOpinion, Review

Things What I Have Wrote

David Stringer

I’m now catching upon links to my articles elsewhere.

I’ve reviewed Paul Watson’s Up Pohnpei for BornOffside. He was a freelance football journalist, working for Football Italia amongst others, when he decided to apply for the manager’s position at the small Micronesian nation of Pohnpei, where the organisation was roughly at Sunday League level.
It’s a really interesting story, and you can read my review of his Micronesian adventure here.

Due to commitments elsewhere, I missed a week of The Lower League Week on BornOffside. Instead, last week I submitted a double dose, The Lower League Fortnight.
The Lower League Fortnight – The Up and Down Edition

I also wrote for The Leaky Wiki about Robin Gibb’s recovery from illness, and the potential it provides for puns:
Robin Gibb Staying Alive

I’ve fell behind with my blogging in recent weeks, but I intend to blog more regularly in the coming weeks – this should keep you going for now.