The Football League has returned, and that means that, during the week, so did the Lower League Week.
On Wednesday, for Born Offside, I wrote about the Coventry fiasco; the media’s lazy reporting of the Coventry fiasco; a Crawley fan being banned for being mean to Ian Holloway; Northampton beginning pre-season with a bonfire; the opening weekend’s matches; and an Accrington employee being naughty and breaking some betting laws.
This was on the first page of searches for ‘betting’ and I’m too lazy to look further.
There was also some lovely sarcasm from Torquay United, and Notts County tempting fate.
On Friday BornOffside published my latest Lower League Week.
It begins with a summary of the events in the League One and Two playoff semi-finals, which were pretty dramatic.
I also covered the smaller, end of season stories.
Bury fan favourite Efe Sodje is in conflict with manager Kevin Blackwell, refusing to sign a new contract unless he leaves. Steve Fletcher has finally retired at the age of 40, not because decades of centre-forwarding have taken their toll on his body, but simply because he’s pretty far down the pecking order now.
Steve Fletcher: Retiree
Coventry were locked out of their stadium again after continuing to refuse to pay the rent (what are they like!) and Martin Ling, who’d been on sick leave, has been replaced as Torquay manager by Alan Knill.
Having narrowly survived relegation, Dagenham caretaker manager Wayne Burnett has been appointed as permanent manager, while Brian Flynn has decided against continuing as Doncaster boss despite their last minute title win.
And Luke McCormick has returned to Plymouth, the club that terminated his contract after he was convicted of causing the death of two young boys. Yeah, it’s not all sweetness and light.
I do have a bad habit of neglecting this blog from time to time…
During the week, the latest Lower League Week was published at Bornoffside.net.
Portsmouth were taken over by their fans, but, along with Bury and Hartlepool, were relegated from League One with two games to play. Yeovil vs Oldham saw father and son managers on the touchline; Torquay’s new chairman is a lottery winner, and the country’s highest positioned female chairman; Danny Wilson was sacked by Sheffield United; and Coventry have outdone themselves in their battle over the Ricoh Arena.
I’ve been intending to link from here to everything I write elsewhere, but occasionally I have a massive memory lapse. So, seven days later, here is a short post linking to last week’s Lower League Week.
League Two’s bottom teams were fighting fiercely to break away from the relegation zone, while League One’s top sides seem intent on falling away from the top.
Mark Robins walked away from Coventry, Graham Westley was sacked by Preston, and Notts County spent about two minutes in court as a result of HMRC proceedings.
Hartlepool’s draw with Portsmouth made it seem that relegation had became a formality for both, and Torquay have been without manager Martin Ling because of a ‘mystery illness’.
Looking back at the dates of recent posts, I’ve been neglecting the blog in the past few weeks, and, like the alcoholic father I am in this metaphor*, I intend to overcompensate dramatically in a way that embarasses everyone.
So, in the next few days I intend to polish off a few things I’ve been working on, and get them up either here on the blog or elsewhere (and remember to link to them this time).
So in the next few days there should be a follow up to my earlier Life’s Too Short article in a shameless attempt to cash in on the show’s American debut. I intend to write reviews of the books I’ve read since my last review was posted, and more.
That is, if my day job of rocket scientist/rockstar doesn’t get in the way.
Hard at work
Since my last post here at the blog, I’ve written two entries for Born Offside. The first of the two, filed on the 15th, went into depth on the lovely cuddly Steve Evans, while covering Torquay’s remarkable winning streak, Kettering not being able to afford to pay police for their matches, and more.
Despite his crimes, this is the closest he gets to a prison these days
Then, last week, I covered the reasons for Stevenage’s rise and congratulated them on holding Tottenham to a draw, the reasons why Lee Clark’s sacking at Huddersfield was reasonable, and once again giving Darlington sympathetic press.
Really, as a Hartlepool fan, I hope they sort their finances out so that I don’t have to be sympathetic to them so often.
Being an indisciplined and irregular writer has many interesting consequences, for the writer, employer, and reader. For instance, there’s the curiosity as to whether a planned feature will appear, wonder over how long a character will remain on a cliffhanger, and the legal mystery of what happens to expenses if that lazy so and so doesn’t finish off the work for once, grrr.
You can just tell he’s disappointed with me
One of the positive consequences for the reader is that, at times, several features appear all at once.
Yesterday (okay, technically this morning you damn pedants) I mentioned I’ve started writing for Born Offside.
Well, you lucky lucky people, the second edition is now online.
Try not to get too excited.
The hope is that, when the feature gets settled in, it’ll start appearing early in the week, so you may even be able to read a third edition within a few days.
SciFiFootball 