Saturday 27 April 2019

And When They Were Down, They Were Down ...

Glenn Murray missed a late chance to all but secure Brighton & Hove Albino's Premier League status as Chris Hughton's side earned a point against this blogger's beloved (though unsellable) Newcastle. For much of the match the Albinos struggled to test a Magpies side that took a first-half lead through Ayoze Pérez's brilliant strike. The home side had not produced an effort on target until the seventy fifth minute when Pascal Groß headed in the equaliser after Murray had nodded Bruno's cross into his path. Hughton - still a very popular figure on Tyneside after his dignified time as manager of United between 2009 and 2010 - had a look of despair on the touchline after Murray's last-gasp miss, but it is debatable whether his side would have deserved to take all three points. Once again they were devoid of invention in attack and broke a club record of eleven hours and thirteen minutes without a goal, which had been held since 1970. At the other end, his defence struggled in the first half against attacking duo Pérez and Salomón Rondón, who combined again for Newcastle's opener. Paul Dummett delivered the ball into the area for the Venezuelan target-man, whose chested knock-down was lashed home by Pérez, his fifth goal in the last three games. The introduction of Solly March in the second half improved Brighton as an attacking force. How Hughton would love to be if Rafa The Gaffer's position. Both managers have spent relatively modest sums in transfer windows, but the Spaniard always seems to get the best out of what has been at his disposal. For a second successive season Benitez's defence and attack have peaked in the second half of the campaign having been as low as eighteenth in the Premiership back in early January. Rondón and Pérez - together with the arrival of record signing Miguel Almirón - have been key to this revival and the duo now combined for seven Premier League goals this season - the most by a Newcastle pair in one season since 1999-2000 when Alan Shearer and Nolberto Solano managed it eight times. And, bar The Seagulls' two second-half chances, The Magpies' defence - currently the seventh tightest in the league - looked untroubled and compact.
Elsewhere, West Hamsters United became the first away team to win at Stottingtot Hotshot's new ground, Cardiff City edged nearer to relegation, while Southampton and Bournemouth shared six goals in a pulsating South coast derby. Michail Antonio's brilliant second-half goal was enough to give the Hamsters what was only their third away win of the season, with Fabian Balbuena clearing Vincent Janssen's header off the line in stoppage time to ensure their three points. Hotshot's boss, Mauricio Pochettino, claimed that his side were suffering from 'stress and fatigue.' Which, if you Google 'lame excuses for hugely under-performing, grossly over-paid prima donnas losing a football match,' you'll find that one pretty near to the top of the list. Already relegated Fulham's Ryan Babel fired in a superb goal from twenty five yards out to condemn Whinging Neil Wazzcock's Cardiff to defeat at Craven Cottage. The result leaves The Bluebirds third bottom with two games left, three points adrift of Brighton and clinging to survival by their fingertips. Wolves stay in seventh place after a two-one win at Watford. Diogo Jota grabbed the winning goal thirteen minutes from time to send Watford down to ninth in the table. Everton lost ground in the race to possibly take a place in the Europa League next season with a goalless draw at home to Crystal Palace. In the Championship, Sheffield United effectively sealed promotion to the Premier League by beating relegated Ipswich at Bramall Lane. Goals from Scott Hogan and Jack O'Connell put The Blades six points clear of third-placed Dirty Leeds. Norwich City also subsequently clinched promotion with a two-one win over Blackburn Vindaloos. At the other end of the table, Rotherham United were relegated from the Championship after West Bromwich Albinos came from behind to beat them at The Hawthorns. Following Millwall's goalless draw with Dirty Stoke in Saturday's early kick-off, Rotherham needed to at least avoid defeat by The Albinos to have any chance of survival. But their two-one defeat means they will join already relegated Ipswich and Notlob Wanderings in League One next season. The top two teams in League One will be promoted to the Championship, with the next four entering the play-offs. Promotion is between Luton Town, Barnsley, Portsmouth and Blunderland who are all assured of at least a play-off place. Two of those teams will join Charlton Not Very Athletic in the play-offs - as will one from Doncaster, Peterborough and Coventry. The bottom four teams will be relegated to League Two. Bradford City were relegated on 19 April after they lost at Coventry and other results went against them later that day. The remaining three places are between seven teams going into the final day of the season. Lincoln City became the first EFL team to be promoted from League Two when they drew with Cheltenham on 13 April and they clinched the title on 22 April. Bury, Mansfield, Milton Keynes and Forest Green are assured of at least a play-off place. All five are still able to claim one of the two remaining automatic promotion spots. Bury will be promoted if they win their game in hand at Tranmere on Tuesday. The bottom two teams will be relegated to the National League. Yeovil Town's relegation was confirmed after a two-two draw at Northampton. They will go down with either Notts County or Macclesfield. Goal difference means County are likely to go down unless they win their final game and Macclesfield lose theirs. Leyton Orient were promoted to League Two from the National League after a goalless draw with Braintree on the final day of the National League season to clinch the title. Six teams - AFC Fylde, Harrogate Town, Wrexham, Eastleigh, Solihull Moors and Salford City now go into a two-tier round of play-offs to decide the second promotion place. Maidstone United, Havant & Waterlooville, Braintree Town and Aldershot Town have been relegated and will be replaced by the champions and play-off winners of the National League North and South divisions. Torquay United clinched the National League South title on 13 April, with Stockport County making sure of the North title this weekend. In the North play-offs, Altrincham, Blyth Spartans, Chorley, Spennymoor Town, Bradford Park Avenue and Brackley Town are involved. The South play-offs involve Bath City, Wealdstone, Woking, Welling United and Chelmsford City.
Notlob Wanderings have been told that they must complete their two remaining Championship fixtures this season by the English Football League Board. The EFL called off Saturday's match with Brentford after Notlob's players said that they would not play for the club again until they received outstanding wages. Notlob have been told to rearrange that game 'at the earliest opportunity.' An EFL statement said the 'ownership difficulties' at the relegated club 'remain a significant concern.' Former Watford owner Laurence Bassini has reportedly agreed a deal to take over the club from Ken Anderson, which remains subject to EFL approval. When it was announced on 17 April, Notlob said 'significant funds' would be made available to pay outstanding wages and a number of long-term creditors. However, a club statement on Saturday said that Anderson is receiving 'independent advice from his professional advisors' regarding the takeover, with claims that Bassini had promised to 'arrange payment for players and coaching staff' and had 'failed to make the funds available.' In his own statement, Anderson claimed that he was giving Bassini 'until close of play on Monday to complete the outstanding matters' and that 'the ball is now firmly in Mister Bassini's court. Unfortunately, we never really know what Mister Bassini's true intentions are,' he added. Before the Brentford postponement, Bassini told Sky Sports News that he would pay the players and had transferred a million knicker to 'settle the bill' so that the game could go ahead, but he 'did not have control' to pay them and he was still awaiting a share certificate from Anderson. The EFL statement added: 'We will look to work with both parties over the next week to bring all outstanding matters to a speedy conclusion. It should be recognised that the resolution is not in our hands but we will assist where possible, with the long-term interests of Bolton Wanderers and its supporters our priority.' Wanderings' players and members of the coaching staff are still awaiting wage payments for March and this month's salaries are due on Tuesday. On Friday, the first-team squad issued a joint statement saying that the financial situation was 'creating mental, emotional and financial burdens for people through no fault of their own.' They added that it was 'placing great strain on ourselves and our families.' The players also apologised to supporters for what 'may be seen as drastic action' but stressed that the decision to go on strike had 'not been taken lightly' and that they had taken the stance 'with deep regret.' In their statement on Saturday morning, the EFL said it was 'satisfied that a team can be selected from the players they have registered and available to them' for their remaining two league fixtures, even if first-team players do not make themselves available for selection. The EFL would have forced Notlob to play Saturday's fixture had their under-eighteen team not been involved in a match on Thursday, bringing concerns about 'potential player welfare issues.' The EFL statement read: 'This same issue will not reoccur as the club is able to plan the players' preparation and recovery time accordingly.' BBC Sport claims the the Professional Footballers' Association believes it is 'up to the EFL' to reach a solution which protects the integrity of the Championship - but that it is 'not keen' on the idea of youth-team players being used en-masse to fulfil Notlob's remaining games.
Montenegro have been ordered to play their next home match behind closed doors following the sick and wicked racist abuse of England players by some of their supporters in a Euro 2020 qualifier in Podgorica in March. England won five-one but the match was overshadowed by racist chanting from some home 'fans' directed at several England players, including Danny Rose. Montenegro will also reportedly have to display a UEFA banner with the wording 'Equal Game' at their next game and have been fined twenty thousand Euros. That fine was for different charges of setting off fireworks, throwing objects, crowd disturbances and blocking stairways. In a statement the Football Association said: 'We hope that their next home match being played behind closed doors sends out a message that racism has no place in football or in wider society.' But, sadly, it probably won't because racist numbskulls generally can't be reasoned with. A pity, dear blog reader, but if history has taught us anything it's that when it comes to rational thought, racist numbskulls are as thick as pig's shite and twice as nasty. Rose later said he 'can't wait to see the back of football' and suggested he was 'frustrated' at the lack of action taken against fans' racism. The left-back said: 'When countries get fined what I probably spend on a night out in London, what do you expect?' Although, if Rose really does spend twenty grand on a night out in London then that, in and of itself, is a pretty shocking indictment of how overpaid many modern footballers are when twenty grand is probably the annual salary of some of the Stottingtot Hotshots fans who watch Rose on a weekly basis. Anyway, that's an entirely separate matter and one that, really, should be left for another day. UEFA's disciplinary committee announced a number of punishments on Friday. They included Slovakia being fined forty three thousand Euros for a number of charges including illicit chants during their Euro 2020 qualifier against Hungary; Hungary themselves given a partial stadium closure for a number of charges including racist behaviour and fined twenty three thousand Euros from the same match; Dynamo Kiev fined sixty thousand Euros (following a Europa League game against Moscow Chelski FC; Fußball-Club Bayern München fined twelve thousand Euros for blocking stairways during a Champions League tie against Liverpool Alabama Yee-Haws; The Republic of Ireland fined ten thousand Euros after some of their fans threw tennis ball onto the pitch during a recent Euro 2020 qualifier against Georgia. Raheem Sterling scored England's fifth goal against Montenegro in the eighty first minute and celebrated by putting his hands to his ears, a gesture he later said was 'a response' to the sick racist abuse, which was also aimed at Callum Hudson-Odoi. In injury time Rose was booked following a strong challenge on Aleksandar Boljevic, with more racist chants aimed at the twenty eight-year-old. Montenegro coach Ljubisa Tumbakovic subsequently claimed that he did not 'hear or notice' any racist abuse - one or two people even believed him - but England manager Gareth Southgate said 'there's no doubt in my mind it happened - it's unacceptable.' The minimum punishment from UEFA for an incident of racism is a partial stadium closure, while a second offence results in one match being played behind closed doors and a fine of fifty thousand Euros. Montenegro's next home match is a qualifier against Kosovo on 7 June.
Paris St-Germain forward Neymar has been banned by UEFA for three European games for insulting match officials on Instagram after the Champions League defeat by The Scum. The Brazilian called referee Damir Skomina's late penalty decision made using the video assistant referee system, 'a disgrace' on social media. Neymar, who was injured, watched The Scum overturn a two-nil first-leg deficit. He will now miss half of next season's Champions League group stage. Neymar said that the penalty, which was scored by Marcus Rashford, 'doesn't exist.' The twenty seven-year-old went on to add: 'It's a disgrace. Four guys who know nothing about football watch a slow-motion replay in front of the television.' The referee reviewed footage of the ball striking the hand of PSG defender Presnel Kimpembe before awarding the visitors an injury-time penalty that gave them a three-one win in the second leg on 6 March, enabling them to progress on the away goals rule. 'What can he do with his hand while his back is turned?' whinged Neymar, who missed both legs with a broken metatarsal. Neymar returned to action after a three-month injury absence as a half-time substitute as PSG celebrated winning Ligue Un by beating Monaco on Sunday.
Police are investigating after a referee was forced to abandon a match in the Republic of Ireland after allegedly being wrestled to the ground. Sunday's game in County Wexford was called off during the second-half with visitors Gorey Celtic winning five-nil at Ballagh United. 'It is alleged that a man in his fifties was assaulted by a player while refereeing a match,' said a police spokesman. Irish referee Daniel Sweeney suffered a broken jaw in a separate attack in November. The latest incident occurred as the sides played in an end-of-season match refereed by Michael Comiskey in division four of the Wexford League. 'A complaint of minor assault was reported to Gardaí following a soccer match at the Ballagh, Enniscorthy,' said a police spokesman. 'The injured party did not require medical attention. Enquires are ongoing.' Wexford Football League Secretary Gertrude Rowlands told BBC Sport: 'We await the referee's report and a full investigation will take place by the WFL.' John Lavery, secretary of Gorey Celtic, said that the player involved was not from his club, while the home side declined to comment further. The Irish Soccer Referees' Society expressed its concern about assaults on officials in November after the attack on Sweeney in a car park following Mullingar Town's match at Horseleap in County Offaly. 'Without referees there is no game. We, as referees, should be viewed as a resource and in turn we should be given the protection and respect we deserve,' said president Paul O'Brien. Three Mullingar players were banned for forty years each by the Combined Counties League over the incident. Another ex-Mullingar player had his lifetime playing ban extended to include all football activities.

Sunday 21 April 2019

Mathematically Safe!

This blogger's beloved (though unsellable) Newcastle United moved ten points clear of the relegation zone and up to twelfth place in the Premier League after an entertaining win over Southampton at St James' Park thanks to Ayoze Pérez's first hat-trick for the club. This blogger was already fairly certain that United were going to have a good day when, on Saturday morning, he spotted a tiding of Magpies (well ... two of them, anyway), looking for worms in the garden of Stately Telly Topping Manor. One for sorrow, two for joy and all that. Liverpool Alabama Yee-Haws subsequent win at Cardiff City on Sunday meant that - with three games remaining - this blogger's bonny Magpies are now mathematically safe. Which was nice. Ralph Hasenhüttl's Saints survived a second-minute appeal for a penalty after Pierre-Emile Højbjerg appeared to handle in the area but, much to Rafa Benítez's chagrin, referee Anthony Taylor, waved away appeals. If Newcastle's manager was mildly irked about that, he must have been downright disgusted, appalled, shocked and stunned when James Ward-Prowse escaped with a yellow card after a horribly cynical and nasty body-check on a rapidly counter-attacking Miguel Almirón. Considering that Ward-Prowse was the only remaining marker between the Paraguayan and Angus Gunn's goal, everyone wearing black and white was convinced it was the denial of a clear-cut goal-scoring opportunity and an automatic red card. Given that the bodycheck was so blatant it was arguably worthy of a dismissal in and of itself and there was a real sense of justice being done when Pérez scored two goals in quick succession to put Th' Toon in charge at the break. However, Southampton have also been playing well and they were transformed after half-time, substitute Mario Lemina coolly slotting on to halve The Magpies' lead. After Ki Sung-yueng hit the post for United and Angus Gunn pulled off an outstanding save from Isaac Hayden - and despite losing Almirón and Fabian Schär to injury - Pérez wrapped up the points for Benitez's side. The victory leaves Newcastle with forty one points from thirty four games. Pérez had scored four in his last seven homes games as well as the winner at Leicester last weekend and he continued his fine run of form with a superbly taken hat-trick. His first was a perfectly placed clipped shot, kissing the inside of the far post after Hayden had won the ball back in midfield. He followed that up two minutes later as his determination to meet Salomón Rondón's low cross ahead of Ryan Bertrand bought him a second goal. He completed his hat-trick with four minutes left, poaching a close range header after Matt Ritchie had bravely dived in to win a Southampton clearance. Pérez now has ten Premier League goals this season, the first Newcastle player to do so since Georginio Wijnaldum in 2016. Pérez's burgeoning confidence crowned a strong performance from Newcastle who, after a tenth place finish last season, are chasing down the top-half of the table once again.
Elsewhere, Sheikh Yer Man City returned to the top of the Premier League table on Saturday while Brighton & Hove Albinos inched further away from the relegation zone. Phil Foden's goal gave City victory over Stottingtot Hotshots in the early kick-off to send Pep Guardiola's side one point clear of title rivals Liverpool Alabama Yee-Haws. Brighton ended a run of four successive defeats with an unsurprisingly unadventurous goalless draw at Wolves. It moved The Seagulls three points above eighteenth-placed Cardiff. Brighton had goalkeeper Mat Ryan - who played an impressive holding role behind the back ten - to thank for a string of fine saves at Molineux, where the draw meant hosts Wolves slipped to ninth place. Aleksandar Mitrović scored from the spot as already relegated Fulham won at Bournemouth - their first away win of a horrible season for The Cottagers - while Gerard Deulofeu netted twice as Watford saw off bottom side Huddersfield. The Terriers' defeat means that they have now lost fourteen home Premier League games this season, a joint record in the competition's history with Blunderland in 2002-03 and 2005-06. Harvey Barnes grabbed a point for Leicester in an entertaining two-two draw at West Hamsters United, after Lucas Perez had put the Hammers in front with ten minutes to go. Michail Antonio had headed in for the hosts in the first half, before Jamie Vardy's neat finish pulled The Foxes level. On Sunday, Everton gave The Scum a pants-down twanking at Goodison Park, a four-nil thrashing which saw in an incandescent, red-faced Gary Neville on Sky Sports using the words 'shameful,' 'rotten,' 'rancid' and 'embarrassing' in the same sentence and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer issuing a grovelling public apology to The Scum's supporters. So, that was funny. Later, Liverpool's two-nil win at Cardiff left Whinging Neil Wazzcock's Bluebirds mired deep in the relegation clarts. Crystal Palace continued their recent fine form with a three-two win up The Arse.
Incidentally, dear blog reader, this blogger - as he has made clear on many previous occasions on this blog - has what he believes to be a good understanding of the way in which the universe laws of karma can have a way of coming back and biting one, hard, on the arse in relation to football. Very much a case in point; at the start of this current season this blogger's beloved Newcastle had an appalling run of results which meant that, after ten games, they were rock bottom of the Premier League with but three points (gained from three goalless draws). The fact that six of those ten games had been against Sheikh Yer Man City, Liverpool Alabama Yee-Haws, Stottingtot Hotshots, The Arse, The Scum and Moscow Chelski FC did not seem to factor into much ill-informed media and Interweb speculation relating to The Magpies' chances of hauling themselves clear of the drop zone. Rafa The Gaffer, at the time, noted that the Premier League is a marathon rather than a sprint but still, in those dark days of late September and early October 2018, one would have been hard-pressed to find many outside of the Greater Tyneside area who didn't have Th' Toon marked down as bankers for the drop. At the same time, this blogger was being bombarded by some, frankly, sneering posts from a - now extremely former - Facebook fiend who wanted to know what Rafa The Gaffer had been playing it at in selling Aleksandar Mitrović to the now former Facebook fiend's own team, Fulham. 'Mitro is our hero,' this individual crowed. 'We can't understand why you let him go.' Six months later and with Fulham about to return to the second tier with but six wins all season and a total of a mere thirty three goals scored (and seventy six conceded) the time is, perhaps, now appropriate to conclude that one man does not make a team. And, that if you're going to have a right sneer about how great your own side are at the expense of someone else, it is probably an idea to wait until towards the end of the season when you're mathematically safe before doing so. The actual reason that Mitrović was sold, of course, at least in part was because he had developed a nasty habit of getting himself suspended - usually for crass and violent off-the-ball incidents - at times when Newcastle could least afford to lose one of the few fit strikers they had available to them. Rafa, to be brutal, seem to feel he could not longer trust Mitrović. Subsequent events suggest he may well have been correct in that assessment.
As the grim spectacle unfolded in San Marino last month - a performance so utterly awful that even the captain Andy Robertson described it as 'rock bottom' - the Scotland fans, already bruised and battered from the calamity in Kazakhstan a few days earlier, started to crank up their anger, from good old fashioned booing to something more vitriolic. They went after the board of the Scottish FA, demanding, rather optimistically, that they all be fired. Mainly, though, their thunder was reserved for Alex McLeish, the beleaguered manager at the heart of another horror-show. 'You're getting sacked in the morning!' the fans hollered. In fact, it took a further twenty eight days before McLeish ultimately left his position. After twelve games in fourteen months featuring forty nine different players and an incalculable amount of negative comment, McLeish this week ifnally lost his job. At some point, soon, some of the same people who tried to appoint Michael O'Neill, whom they reportedly couldn't afford, before turning frantically to Walter Smith, whose patience they exhausted and who then gave the job to McLeish, will appoint a ninth Scotland manager of the millennium. It's fair to say that supporter faith in their judgment headed South a long time ago. Currently, it's residing somewhere in Antarctica. Poor performances did for McLeish, but there was more to it than that, more than mere losses which chipped away at his credibility. Controversial formations, mass player defections, odd pre and post-match comments - it all unravelled quickly. The be fair McLeish needed to be remarkable to win over the doubters from day one, the fans who never wanted him in the first place because he walked out on the Scotland job previously, because his recent track record in club management was poor, because he was seen as an unambitious and uninspired choice by a board - Alan McRae, the president, in particular - who seemed to be putting the appointment of an old pal ahead of the national interest. McLeish did not deserve to be left dangling in uncertainty for the past month - Scottish FA prevarication did him no favours - but there could only have been one sensible conclusion to this who fiasco. The last shred of faith in his ability to take the team forward - and to take advantage of the red carpet to Euro 2020 that is the Nations League - had run out. It was an unhappy fourteen months, pockmarked by bitterness, rancour and suspicion. Before his first game, at home to Costa Rica, McLeish said that he wanted his team to play with the kind of swagger they had in his first incarnation as Scotland manager. They were booed off after a one-nil defeat. In fairness to McLeish, he was never slow in giving players a chance, partly because he had no choice given all the call-offs he experienced. In that Costa Rica game, he gave debuts to Scott McKenna and Scott McTominay. Getting the Manchester United player on board might yet be seen as McLeish's biggest legacy. He won his second game, against Hungary, but then the grim decision-making of his employers conspired against him. An end-of-season trek to Peru and Mexico was needed like a firm kick to the knackers. Key players withdrew in rapid order. Against Peru, McLeish gave debuts to seven players - Lewis Stevenson, Lewis Morgan, Chris Cadden and Dylan McGeouch among them. They lost two-nil to a team readying itself for the World Cup. It finished one-nil against Mexico - another side finishing preparations for the party in Russia. Given the ridiculously trying circumstances, the results were actually quite credible, but they were damaging at the same time. Those two defeats added to the greyness around the Scotland squad. What McLeish could have done with next was a gimme, a handy friendly to boost the morale, not just of his players but of the support. He desperately needed to win them over. What he got was a game against Belgium - the third-best side in the world at the time - and a thumping four-nil loss at Hampden. Four defeats in five games and just one goal scored. Only twenty thousand punters turned up to watch. As was to be so often the case, McLeish didn't exactly help himself before that Belgium game when he said his team were 'good enough to go toe-to-toe' with Eden Hazard and co. Nobody believed him when he said it. It made him look silly when the World Cup semi-finalists, unsurprisingly, took his team to the cleaners whilst barely getting out of first gear. Only then - in September 2018 - did McLeish get his first competitive game, a Nations League tie at home to Albania which Scotland won two-nil. It was a decent performance albeit against a desperately poor side. Perhaps the most revealing thing that night, though, was the size of the crowd - fewer than eighteen thousand. 'I'm building a wall, not papering cracks,' McLeish said. Saying that was all very well so long as people can see the blocks being put in place. A month later, they collapsed to a two-one loss in Israel, a nation with a world ranking that was fifty five places below Scotland. McLeish lost John Souttar to a red card after an hour, but they were in all sorts of trouble even before he exited. The scoreline did not flatter Israel who had only on win in their previous ten games. The only teams they had beaten in their own stadium in four years were Liechtenstein and Andorra. Scotland, frankly, made them look like France. By now the ire of the fans was being directed at the Scottish FA as much as it was at McLeish. They flew the team to Israel the day before the game, then experienced a delayed flight which saw McLeish having to hold a training session at 10.30pm local time. The logistics off the field were almost as wretched as the performances on it. McLeish was getting pelted with flak for persisting with his three-five-two formation, a square-pegs-in-round-holes set-up which made the team looked utterly perplexed as to what they were supposed to be doing. In the aftermath of the Israel loss, a BBC Scotland poll asked if the defeat was the biggest embarrassment in the history of the national team - thirty eight per cent of responders said that it was. Those grey clouds had turned black when Portugal turned up in Glasgow and strolled to a three-one win with what was, effectively, a B-team. It was a sixth defeat in eight games for McLeish in front of a half-empty Hampden. Once more, McLeish was left defending the players who had cried off. Robert Snodgrass, Matt Ritchie, James McArthur and Tom Cairney - one hundred and twenty four appearances between them in the English Premier League this season - disappeared off the Scotland radar. If they did not want to play, why? If they did want to play, then where were they? There was brief respite when Scotland, inspired by James Forrest, won four-nil in Albania before beating Israel three-two at Hampden to top their Nations League group. Even then, though, it was not straightforward. Scotland played pretty well but, in the dying minutes, Allan McGregor had to make a magnificent save from a Tomer Hemed volley to secure the victory. Had Hemed scored, Scotland would have been out of the Nations League and the cries for McLeish to be out of his job would have been deafening. It was only postponing the inevitable. Scotland went to Kazakhstan without some important players, most notably Kieran Tierney, Robertson and Ryan Fraser. It was a footballing Armageddon. Kazakhstan were ranked one hundred and seventeenth in the FIFA rankings, but they were two-nil ahead inside ten minutes and added a third later. Once again a new historic low had been reached. McLeish incredulously claimed that Scotland had 'started the game brightly,' a jaw-dropping suggestion given that his team were two-down so early on. It was another bewildering comment in a long line of them. It provoked anger but then, anger gave way to indifference and apathy. The fans had simply had enough. San Marino was the point of no return, a hopelessly laboured win against the worst team in international football. It was a nervous and timid performance, another day that screamed of the need for a new direction. Now, it is over for McLeish, but having seen him as the solution when so many things told you he wasn't, there will be anxiety about who these people at Hampden come up with next.
Fleetwood Town manager - and arch nutter - Joey Barton says that he 'emphatically denies' allegations he assaulted Barnsley boss Daniel Stendel. Police are currently investigating an alleged tunnel altercation after Barnsley's League One win at Oakwell last Saturday. A man was subsequently arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence and racially aggravated assault. He was released on bail. Police did not name the individual involved and, frankly, most people were completely in the dark as this person's identity. Barnsley later complained to the Football Association and English Football League about the alleged incident. After the game, Barnsley player Cauley Woodrow claimed on Twitter that Stendel had been 'physically assaulted' and left with 'blood pouring from his face.' Woodrow later deleted the tweet. In a statement issued on Thursday, Barton said: 'With regards to the alleged incident on Saturday following our game against Barnsley, I emphatically deny the allegations made.' He said it would be 'inappropriate' to make any further comment at this time. The arrested man attended a police station on Wednesday and has been bailed until May. South Yorkshire Police have appealed for any witnesses with footage of the incident to come forward. They said: 'Officers investigating the incident would be keen to speak to anyone who may have caught the incident on camera or who may have mobile phone footage immediately before or after the incident occurred. We would ask members of the media and the public to refrain from speculation in relation to this incident, as it could potentially harm the investigation.'
Millions of punters are reportedly using 'easy-to-guess passwords' on sensitive accounts, a study has suggested. The analysis by the UK's National Cyber Security Centre found '123456' was the most widely-used password on breached accounts. The study helped to uncover the 'gaps in cyber-knowledge' which could leave people 'in danger of being exploited.' The NCSC said that people should string three random but memorable words together to use as a strong password. Much as this blogger does with 'moist', 'lugubrious' and 'floccinaucinihilipilification'. Oh ... did Keith Telly Topping just say that out loud? Forget those three words, dear blog reader. Please. For its first cyber-survey, the NCSC analysed public databases of breached accounts to see which words, phrases and strings people used. Top of the list was '123456', appearing in more than twenty three million passwords. The second-most popular string, '123456789', was not much harder to crack, while others in the top five included 'qwerty', 'password' and '1111111'. The most common name to be used in passwords was 'Ashley', followed by 'Michael', 'Daniel', 'Jessica' and 'Charlie'. When it comes to Premier League football teams in guessable passwords, 'Liverpool Alabama Yee-Haws' are champions and 'Moscow Chelski FC' second. 'Blink-182' topped the charts of music acts. People who use well-known words or names for a password put themselves people at risk of being hacked, said Doctor Ian Levy, technical director of the NCSC. Whose own password, if you're wondering, is 'iknowwhatimtalkingabout01'. Probably. 'Nobody should protect sensitive data with something that can be guessed, like their first name, local football team or favourite band,' he said. The NCSC study also asked people about their security habits and fears. It found that forty two per cent of respondents 'expected to lose money' to online fraud and only fifteen per cent said they felt confident that they knew enough to protect themselves online. It found that 'fewer than half' of those questioned used a separate, hard-to-guess password for their main e-mail account. Security 'expert' Troy Hunt, who maintains a database of hacked account data, said that picking a good password was the 'single biggest control' people had over their online security. 'We typically haven't done a very good job of that either as individuals or as the organisations asking us to register with them,' he said. Letting people know which passwords were widely used should drive users to make better choices, he claimed. The survey was published ahead of the NCSC's Cyber UK conference that will be held in Glasgow from 24 to 25 April.

Saturday 13 April 2019

Ivor, The Engine

Rafa The Gaffer Benitez has urged Keith Telly Topping's beloved, though unsellable, Newcastle to be 'more competitive' in the summer transfer market after they took a big step towards retaining their Premier League status with victory at Leicester City on Friday evening. Ayoze Pérez scored his first away league goal of the season with a glancing header as The Magpies recovered from back-to-back defeats to move ten points clear of the relegation zone. Newcastle spent just over twenty million knicker last summer - plus a further twenty million notes in January, albeit, om one player - and manager Benitez, whose contract is set to expire at the end of the season, says they can 'compete' with teams in the top half of the league by 'doing the right things. You can do everything right with your tactics, but the other team has one player that can make the difference,' Benitez, whose side have moved up to thirteenth place, told Sky Sports. 'You'd have to pay thirty million pounds to buy a Leicester player.' The Foxes started confidently, having won their previous four matches under Brendan Rodgers, but they struggled to play through their disciplined visitors. Salomón Rondón almost handed the visitors a spectacular lead when he struck the crossbar with a powerful free-kick from thirty five yards. Newcastle remained resolute and were rewarded when Pérez scored with over half-an-hour played. The Spaniard rose well inside The Foxes' box to meet Matt Ritchie's pinpoint cross and nod the ball over Kasper Schmeichel. A narrow miss by Miguel Almirón on the hour after a fabulous solo run by Fabian Schär then heralded City's best period of the game. The Magpies sat deep, allowing Leicester possession in the midfield but making it tough for them to play between the lines. When Jamie Vardy's chance eventually came in the final ten minutes - as Youri Tielemans slid him through on goal - he appeared to rush his effort and lifted the ball high over the crossbar. Rodgers' first home defeat as Leicester boss saw his side remain in seventh, though eighth-placed Wolves are level on points with two games in hand. Leicester dominated the ball with more than seventy per cent possession but Newcastle restricted them to a mere five shots on target in the entire match. Martin Dúbravka saved well after a solo run by Harvey Barnes and a right-footed strike by Ben Chilwell as Leicester tried to force the initiative early on, but it was the visitors who posed the greater threat on the counter attack - and Rondón's fifteenth-minute free-kick almost brought spectacular reward. Benitez' side were rigid in their shape and targeted Leicester midfielder Wilfred Ndidi, who lost the ball nine times in the first-half, before springing clear in attack. Ritchie whipped in two testing crosses with his excellent left foot before Newcastle took the lead, as Leicester failed to heed the warning. The visitors pinched the ball deep in the Leicester half once more before Ritchie delivered an accurate cross for Pérez to convert for his seventh Premier League goal of the season - securing Newcastle's third win on the road. Over three thousand travelling Toonies made a Hell of a racket all night, with the players and manager saluting their contribution at full time. It was Newcastle's first back-to-back league wins on visits to Leicester in the top flight since September 1959 under then manager Charlie Mitten.
Cardiff City's relegation fears increased with a controversial two-nil defeat by relegation rivals Burnley on Saturday, while Southampton also took a big step towards safety. Burnley beat The Bluebirds with two goals from Chris Wood but at one-nil Cardiff were awarded a penalty for handball, only for referee Mike Dean to reverse his decision. Which, as you'd except, left Cardiff manager Neil Wazzcock with a face like a smacked arse. So, no change there, then. Cardiff remain eighteenth after the defeat but the three points for Burnley took them up to fourteenth, eleven points clear of their opponents. Southampton beat Wolves three-one at St Mary's Stadium with two goals from Nathan Redmond and one from Shane Long to move eight points ahead of Cardiff in sixteenth. Brighton & Hove Albinos are now seventeenth, five points clear of safety, after they were thrashed five-nil at home by Bournemouth. Albinos next game is against Cardiff on Tuesday in what could be the very definition of a 'six-pointer'. Lucas Moura scored a hat-trick for Stottingtot Hotshots in the Saturday lunchtime kick-off as his side beat already relegated Huddersfield Town four-nil. Elsewhere, Fulham, whose relegation is also already confirmed, won for the first time since January by beating Everton two-nil at Craven Cottage.
Police are reportedly investigating an incident in the tunnel after Barnsley's League One match against Fleetwood at Oakwell. Barnsley striker Cauley Woodrow tweeted that Fleetwood manager - and arch nutter - Joey Barton 'confronted' Tykes boss Daniel Stendel. And blood was, allegedly, spilled. Woodrow tweeted that Stendel had been left with some claret 'pouring from his face' before deleting the post soon afterwards. Sky Sports News subsequently showed footage of Barton attempting to leave the ground in a car - at speed - but being stopped from doing so by The Fuzz. A South Yorkshire Police spokesman confirmed: 'We are aware of something that has taken place in the tunnel after the game and we are investigating.' Barnsley said they were 'assisting the police with its enquiries.' BBC Radio Lancashire reports that Fleetwood have 'declined to comment' on the incident and no member of coaching or playing staff from either side was made available for a post-match interview. Barnsley had earlier moved back into the automatic promotion places in League One with four-two victory over ten-man Fleetwood who had Harry Souttar sent off for elbowing Cameron McGeehan in the mush during an aerial challenge. Barnsley leap-frogged Blunderland after The Mackem Filth were beaten by Coventry City in a nine-goal thriller at The Stadium of Plight. Luton Town remain at the top of the League One table despite their first loss in twenty eight games, a three-one defeat at fifth placed Charlton Not Very Athletic.
One of Luton, Barnsley, Blunderland, Portsmouth or Charlton will be replacing Ipswich Town in The Championship next season as The Tractor Boys became the first team to be relegated in the Football League this season after they drew with Birmingham City. The hosts went into the game knowing that anything less than a win would see their seventeen-year stay in the second tier come to an end, but they fell behind after just seven minutes when Lukas Jutkiewicz hammered home from close range. Gwion Edwards levelled for Ipswich straight after the break before Alan Judge hit the post for the home side. Judge's effort was as close to a winner as Paul Lambert's side came, as their relegation to League One was confirmed with four games of the season to go. It has been a dire campaign for the Suffolk side, who sacked boss Paul Hurst after just one league win from his fourteen games in charge. Replacement Lambert has been unable to turn the club's fortunes around and admitted before Saturday's game that relegation to the third tier, for the first time since 1957, had been hanging over the club's head 'for months.' The thoughts of former boss, Mick McCarthy, who left the club at the end of last season after Ipswich fans protested that, basically, they hated him and everything he stood for are not known at this time. But, they probably include the word 'bastards'.
League Two leaders Lincoln City became the first club to win promotion in the Football League this season after drawing with Cheltenham Town. The Imps, who have not played in the third tier of English football since 1999, now need just three points from their remaining four games to secure the title. Shay McCartan gave the hosts the lead with a powerful shot that beat Robins goalkeeper Scott Flinders at his near post. George Lloyd headed in a Chris Hussey cross to level for the visitors, but Mansfield's draw at Northampton and MK Dons' defeat at Tranmere meant that a point was enough for Lincoln to clinch one of the promotion places. Boss Danny Cowley has now guided the Sincil Bank side to two promotions in his three seasons at the club, as well as winning the Checkatrade Trophy at Wembley last season.
Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa has been banned for eight games after being found guilty of abusing a referee. The former Moscow Chelski FC player was sent off by official Jesus Gil Manzano during Atletico's two-nil loss to Barcelona in La Liga. Manzano said in his match report that the Spanish international had 'insulted his mother,' a claim which Costa denied. The Spanish Football Federation did not buy his denial, however and the ban rules him out of Atletico's remaining La Liga fixtures this season. It will also extend one game into next season. Costa, who can appeal against the ban, received a four game suspension for insults to the referee and a further four for grabbing the official's arm. 'I asked the referee and he told me Costa said something to him,' Atletico manager Diego Simeone said after the game. 'Other players have said things and not been sent off but that does not justify what Costa did.'
A Fulham fan - albeit, one living in California rather than South London - is suing a state agency after he was banned from having the letters 'COYW' on a personalised car number plate, as they feared the slogan 'Come on you whites' had 'racist connotations.' Which, in some circumstances it could have but, in this particular case, it very definitely does not. University professor Jonathan Kotler that said he was 'shocked' and 'stunned' at the decision. Launching his legal case, he claimed the decision by the California Department of Motor Vehicles 'violated his right to freedom of speech.' And, his right to support a football club based eight thousand miles away from his gaff. Obviously. 'It's just a shirt colour,' he said. 'The people at the DMV are either extra thick or very PC.' Professor Kotler applied for a plate that would read 'COY-W' - an abbreviation of the slogan commonly used by relegation-bound Fulham football fans - and a hashtag seen every weekend on many Twitter posts about the club. The seventy three-year-old, who was born in New Jersey and now lives in Calabasas, has been a fan of Fulham FC for 'decades,' after watching a match 'by happenchance' during a visit to London. He claimed that he was, originally, a fan of both The Scum and Fulham, but chose his current allegiance in 2006 when both teams were in the Premier League. That, obviously, won't be a problem for the professor next season when Fulham won't be in the Premier League. So, he can go back to being a Red as well if he wants. Particularly as, given that he lives in California, that makes him virtually a local boy compared to the majority of The Scum's worldwide support. Professor Kotler, who teaches media law at the University of Southern California, put in his application for the number plate last year and had to include the reasons for his choice of letters, but it was turned down. The Department of Motor Vehicles said the 'COYW' slogan 'could be considered hostile, insulting, or racially degrading,' according to the US federal legal case. 'I sent them tons of material,' Professor Kotler whinged to the BBC. 'Press releases, stories from the British media, letters from the chairman who uses "come on you whites." I pointed out that many clubs in Britain are known by their colour - the Blues, the Clarets. Nobody thought the Liverpool Reds were Communists.' Well, as far as we know, anyway. He added: 'Even when I did it, it was the furthest thing from my mind that anyone would object to it. I was shocked, absolutely.' He said the club's owner, Shahid Khan, 'uses the phrase all the time. Half of the team are non-white. And it's just a shirt colour. It's got nothing to do with anything other than that. I decided this is crazy, this is enough. I can take it up to a point but this became personal.' Professor Kotler said that he travels to watch Fulham play in Britain on average around eight to ten times a season, often taking the eleven-hour flight on a Thursday and returning back in the US by Tuesday ready to teach his students. In his legal complaint, he is asking the court to declare the DMV's criteria for personalised licence plates 'unconstitutional.' He claims he has been deprived of his right to freedom of speech. The Department of Motor Vehicles says that it does not comment on pending legal cases. Particularly indefensible ones such as this. Licence plates in California will be refused if they carry any configuration deemed 'offensive to good taste and decency.' Albeit, 'deemed' by whom and usual what criteria, the DMV don't say. These 'deemed offensive' items include: sexual connotations, or terms of lust or depravity; vulgar terms, terms of contempt, prejudice or hostility, insulting or degrading terms and racially or ethnically degrading terms; swear words or terms considered profane, obscene or repulsive; configurations with a negative connotation to a specific group; configurations misrepresenting a law enforcement entity and foreign or slang words, or phonetic spellings or mirror images of words falling into the above categories. The number 'sixty nine' is reserved for cars made in 1969.
How many people can say they got their first international call-up at the age of forty nine? And of those - if there are any - how many can say they were spotted while playing a match on billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson's Caribbean holiday island of Mosquito? Martin Smith, a plumber from Ipswich, would seem to be the only one. After playing in that charity game, he was thrust into the British Virgin Islands squad for their CONCACAF Nations League qualifiers against Bonaire and the Turks & Caicos Islands last month in Anguilla. Selected as reserve goalkeeper in those games he is yet to win a cap, but if he did it would make him the second-oldest international player in the world. 'I enjoyed playing but hadn't played for fifteen or twenty years,' Smith told BBC Sport. 'There were players there that played for the BVI national team and a week before this first game in Anguilla I had a call from the head coach. One of the English-based goalkeepers that flies in to play for the BVI had broken his shoulder and he asked if I would be interested in being back-up goalkeeper and maybe do a bit of coaching. It took me all of about twelve seconds to say yes,' added Smith, who played at a decent standard of non-league football in his native Suffolk. The British Virgin Islands is a British Overseas Territory, so people living there are classed as British citizens and anyone with a British passport is eligible to play for them - provided they meet residency requirements. Life away from the UK has always appealed to Smith - he worked as a holiday rep in places such as Tenerife and Majorca and did ski seasons in France and the USA. He moved to the Bahamas to work with his cousin five years ago, before getting a job a couple of years later as the plumbing supervisor on Branson's exclusive island. 'I'm still pinching myself now that I was involved with an international football squad,' he says. 'The week in Anguilla was an eye-opener. We were getting police escorts to the games, we had stands full of people and I had friends back in the UK who were watching it being live streamed. It was quite bizarre when we played the Turks and Caicos because we sung our national anthem, 'God Save The Queen', then they sung theirs and it was 'God Save The Queen' as well!' Though, probably not The Sex Pistols' version, one suspects. George Weah's final appearance for Liberia, against Nigeria last September, aged fifty one years and three hundred and forty five days, beat the previous record for the oldest international player held by Greece's Yorghos Koudas, who was forty eight when he played his last game in 1995. Smith said that his first day's training with the BVI squad was 'an eye-opener' as he chased men more than two decades his junior along the Caribbean sands. 'They say goalkeepers don't have to be fit and that was a lucky thing because after I tried to keep up with these guys on the beach for the first day, the next day was quite a painful twenty four hours for me,' he said. But that has not stopped Smith eyeing up a chance to stay involved in some capacity when they face Bonaire and the Bahamas in Group C of the third tier of the CONCACAF Nations League starting in September. 'They're very winnable games,' he says. 'If the other young goalkeeper's shoulder is repaired, I'll be seeing if they wouldn't mind me still being the international goalkeeper coach and be back-up.'
Guadalajara under-seventeen player Diego Campillo scored one of the luckiest penalties you will ever see during a shootout against Lobos BUAP in Mexico on Saturday. 'Incredible!'
Mind you, this isn't the first such occurrence. Take this similar 'look out, it's behind you' moment from 2017 when Bangkok Sports Club beat Satri Angthong twenty-nineteen in a dramatic penalty shootout which ended thus.
And then, of course, there was this one. What about that, Kammy?
Just one day after the news of the death of Liverpool legend Tommy Smith was announced, former England international Ivor Broadis has also died, aged ninety six. Ivor won fourteen caps for his country and scored twice in three appearances in the 1954 World Cup. Christened Ivan, the Londoner first made his name during the war guesting for Spurs, Millwall and Carlisle while a serving officer in the RAF. During his post-war club career, Ivor played as an inside-forward for Carlisle United (in two spells), Blunderland, Manchester City, this blogger's beloved Newcastle United and Queen Of The South. In a Twitter tribute, Carlisle described him as 'a true gentleman, a fantastic athlete and sportsman and a top quality journalist' whilst Newcastle also paid Ivor a moving online tribute. Posted to RAF Crosby-on-Eden after the war, Ivor signed for Carlisle in 1946. Although he was only twenty three years old, he was offered the player-manager's job and remains the youngest man to have held such a position in Football League history. He subsequently sold himself to Blunderland for eighteen thousand pounds, arguing that the sale was in the best interests of the club. Ivor worked as a football reporter in the city following his retirement and was England's oldest surviving international footballer. He lived with his family in the village of Linstock, near Carlisle. Last year he was made a freeman of the city. As well as his sporting achievements, Ivor was also recognised for his five hundred flying hours during the war. He helped return hundreds of troops home to Britain in his role as a navigator.
Mike Ashley's Sports Direct has whinged that the takeover of Debenhams by its lenders as part of an administration process is 'nothing short of a national scandal.' A bit like Ashley's own zero-hour contract malarkey at Sports Direct or, indeed, his outrageous mismanagement of this blogger's beloved (though unsellable) Newcastle United. The store chain rejected two last-ditch takeover offers from Sports Direct. Under Tuesday's deal, all stores will remain open for the time being, although some have been earmarked for closure. Ashley whinged that politicians and regulators had been 'as effective as a chocolate teapot.' Or, as effective as Steve McClaren was when Ashey appointed him at this blogger's beloved (though unsellable) Newcastle United. Point very much taken, sir. He also called for the administration process to be 'reversed.' Which, it won't be. Debenhams is the biggest department store chain in the UK with one hundred and sixty six stores. It employs about twenty five thousand people. Its lenders are made up of High Street banks and US hedge funds. Ashley whinged that reversing the administration process would mean 'a full, better and appropriate solvent solution can be found.' He added: 'This solution would include allowing myself and appropriate senior Sports Direct management access to detailed information to save the business for all stakeholders. The board of Debenhams and its advisers have sought to stifle and exclude us from their so-called process and have undermined and blocked our various offers of assistance as they carried out their underhand plan to steal from shareholders.' Sports Direct said that it had 'formally registered' its interest in buying Debenhams from its new owners. However, Chris Wootton, Sports Direct's deputy chief financial officer told the BBC he believed Debenhams lenders 'may already have a plan' in place: 'It's a case of the deal being done with a third party that keeps us locked out of it.' Oh, the tragedy. He said the firm was 'considering legal action' against Debenhams' board over shareholders' losses. Debenhams has passed through a pre-pack administration process. This lets a company sell itself, or its assets, as a going concern, without affecting the operation of the business. The lenders now take control of the business and will look to sell it on, while shareholders lose their investments. It means that Ashley's near-thirty per cent stake in the company, which cost about one hundred and fifty million notes to build up, is wiped out. On Monday, Debenhams rejected a one hundred and fifty million knicker rescue offer from Sports Direct, which was increased to two hundred million quid in the early hours of Tuesday. The higher offer was rejected because Ashley wanted to be chief executive. All Debenhams' stores will initially continue to trade, although about fifty branches had already been earmarked for closure in the future. Its lenders include Barclays and Bank of Ireland, as well as Silver Point and GoldenTree. As well as the planned closures, it has also been renegotiating rents with landlords to tackle its funding problems. It has not released a list of which shops may be shut. In February, it was revealed that the closure of twenty stores could be brought forward if the retailer took out a company voluntary arrangement, a form of insolvency that can enable firms to seek rent cuts and close unwanted stores. The company explained that its restructuring plans would continue and that, if approved, they would 'result in a significant overall reduction in the group's rent burden and underpin a sustainable future.' The stores will continue to trade as normal and administrators have confirmed to the BBC that customers will be able to spend any gift cards that they already have. Debenhams chairman Terry Duddy said: 'We remain focused on protecting as many stores and jobs as possible, consistent with establishing a sustainable store portfolio in line with our previous guidance. In the meantime, our customers, colleagues, pension holders, suppliers and landlords can be reassured that Debenhams will now be able to move forward on a stable footing.' A spokesman for the company's pension schemes said the schemes had been transferred to the newly incorporated company. 'Members can therefore be reassured that the schemes are carrying on as usual.' One major sticking point was that Ashley wanted to become chief executive. The hostilities became ever more acrimonious. At one point, he suggested two board members take lie detector tests. The lenders were also - rightly - suspicious of Ashley's intentions. 'If we give him the keys to the castle, he might change the locks,' one person allegedly 'familiar with the situation' allegedly snitched to the BBC. The new owners are already looking for a buyer, willing to take on the huge debts and liabilities of this household name. Debenhams has been struggling for a while and issued three profit warnings in 2018. It also has a debt pile of six hundred and twenty two million knicker. Last year, it reported a record pre-tax loss of four hundred and ninety one million quid. It later reported that its sales had 'fallen sharply' over Christmas. The scale and high cost of running stores as well as the investments needed to run a company in the modern retailing environment also put the company under financial pressure.

Tuesday 2 April 2019

Down Town

Huddersfield Town equalled the record for the earliest relegation in a Premier League season as second-half goals from Luka Milivojevic and Patrick van Aanholt earned Crystal Palace all three points at Selhurst Park on Saturday. The Terriers' defeat, combined with victories for Burnley and Southampton, confirmed the visitors' demotion back to The Championship after two seasons. Huddersfield, who have propped up the table since December, join Derby County and Ipswich Town as the only teams in Premier League history to be relegated with six or more games left to play. Fulham, who were beaten two-nil by Sheikh Yer Man City, their eighth consecutive Premier League defeat looked likely to join then - something which was subsequently confirmed by their four-one hiding at Watford on Wednesday. Some woeful defending from Fulham - who have now conceded seventy six goals, the worst record in the top flight - contributed to both goals against Sheikh Yer Man City, with Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Joe Bryan both guilty of gifting the ball to City near their own goal. The Cottagers remained second bottom, sixteen points from safety with six games remaining. On Sunday, Moscow Chelski FC staged a remarkable late recovery to snatch a controversial two-one victory at relegation-threatened Cardiff City and ease the intensifying pressure on beleaguered boss Maurizio Sarri. The result was a major blow to Cardiff's bid for Premier League survival, leaving them on twenty eight points, five points adrift of safety although they did, at that time, have a game in hand over Burnley. A series of highly contentious decisions by referee Craig Pawson late on left Cardiff's manager, Neil Wazzock, purple-faced with impotent rage and looking for all the world like someone who'd just down a pint of curdled milk. Which, to be fair, was geet funny to watch. Burnley, Southampton and Brighton & Hove Albinos all have thirty three points although Brighton had two games in hand over Burnley and one over the other teams in the relegation battle, including this blogger's beloved, though still unsellable Magpies whose defeat to The Arse on Monday means they remain on thirty five points and still in danger of getting sucked into the relegation dogfight.
The subsequent midweek games had a significant effect on both the top and bottom of the Premier League; in addition to the long-expected confirmation of Fulham's relegation on Tuesday, the following day saw further defeats for Cardiff City, Crystal Palace and Brighton & Hove Albinos at Sheikh Yer Man City, Stottingtot Hotshots and Moscow Chelsi FC respectively. Thus, leaving the bottom of the table looking like this.
So, anyway, back to Neil Wazzock who had a right stroppy lip-on after Moscow Chelski FC's come-from-behind theft of the game at Cardiff. Ordinarily, one would have felt a great deal of sympathy for a manager in such a situation but then, this is Neil Wazzock we're talking about. Wazzock criticised referees' boss Mike Riley, saying that officiating standards 'have gone backwards' under his watch and that Riley 'struggles to understand the game.' Wazzock 'expects to be contacted' by the Football Association over comments made following Sunday's defeat. Wazzock labelled Premier League officials as 'the worst in the world' and targeted Riley, who is head of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited. Wazzock, who has escaped any charge for a stand-off with Craig Pawson at the final whistle, said: 'I'm sure they'll ask for my observations and I'll send them. I'd imagine people in the FA feel sorry for me if I'm honest. I don't think Mike Riley and myself are close Christmas card list-wise. When I see people like Paul Durkin, Graham Poll and Mark Clattenburg - who were top referees and know the game as well as the laws - I think it's criminal they're not involved. Mark Halsey, he knew how to handle players and he could give major advice to some of these referees. I always thought Mike Riley was a manufactured referee from day one when he refereed a game at Hartlepool against me. I don't think he's changed since then. He's been manufactured, almost like a robot. He knows everything about the rules but I feel these people struggle to understand the game and the human element.' Wazzock suggested that Premier League referee Michael Oliver's approach to the job was a better one to follow. 'Referees should be looking at the way Michael Oliver referees because he doesn't do everything by the book,' Wazzock added. 'That's why he's going to be one of the best in the world. [With] some of the younger ones the personality comes before the refereeing. Lot of referees are like Mike Riley, that's why we have gone backwards a bit and it's disappointing because there are enough ex-referees who can give education and knowledge to make our referees the best.' Wazzock says his players were left 'broken-hearted' by the weekend loss. 'You just have to get on with it and get onto the next one,' Wazzock said. 'You realise not many more things could go against us, apart from an earthquake or something. It was only a game of football, I'm sure a lot of the country would be happy, especially the teams around us. It shows how fine a balance football is.'
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says that he will ask referees to 'be brave' and stop matches where there is racial abuse from fans. Moscow Chelski FC and England winger Callum Hudson-Odoi was subjected to sick racist abuse in games against Dynamo Kiev and Montenegro last month. 'The moment a match is stopped, or it's not played, I think that ninety per cent of normal people in the stadium would kick the asses of those idiots,' said Ceferin. 'It's 2019, it's not one hundred years ago.' Sheikh Yer Man City and England forward Raheem Sterling suffered alleged racist abuse from Moscow Chelski FC fans in a Premier League game at Torpedo Stamford Bridge in December, while a study published in November found that half of football supporters in the UK have witnessed racism while watching matches. Sterling has called on football's authorities to 'take a proper stance' and 'crack down' on racist abuse. Moscow Chelski FC boss Maurizio Sarri, Liverpool Alabama Yee-Haws's Jurgen Klopp and Stottingtot Hotshot's Mauricio Pochettino are among the managers to say they would be prepared to take their players off the pitch to combat racist chanting. 'We will speak to the referees again and tell them to be confident, not to be afraid to act,' said Ceferin, the head of European football's governing body. 'This is a huge problem. Not just the Balkans, all Eastern Europe. There's not much immigration there because everybody wanted to go to Western Europe because of economic reasons, jobs, a better life. So it takes some time. But of course you see Italy, one of the biggest problems with racism, sexism and homophobia. You have England, where you have problems. It's a problem of intolerant people, not a problem of nations.' Anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out said last week that 'it's time for UEFA to take strong, decisive action - fines won't do,' adding: 'Extended stadium bans or tournament expulsion are what's needed.' Ceferin does not believe that UEFA's punishments need to be tougher. 'I don't see any tougher sanction than forbidding the fans, matches played in front of empty stadiums, which has happened in Croatia a few times and the money sanctions,' he said. 'If it's chronic, we could throw out a club team or a national team from a competition. Everything is possible. But that is a last resort.' Football Association chairman Greg Clarke says it must take 'a default position' of believing those reporting racism or discrimination. 'One of the first rules is to listen to the person who has been affected and believe them,' said Clarke at the UEFA Equal Game conference at Wembley where Ceferin was also speaking. 'I worry that there is an undue burden on the player to report incidents themselves. I would like to see a review of on-field incidents too. I understand completely that when two people are involved in an exchange it is often the word of one person against another. But actually that's not the case any more. The grounds that competitions are played in are full of cameras, recording every angle. We should go that extra mile. We owe it to our players.' Clarke believes it is 'time to examine' UEFA's three-step process for halting matches. 'The protocol asks the referee to stop the match if "racist behaviour is of a strong magnitude and intensity." I don't now think that is good enough and we should take this opportunity to revisit these thresholds,' said Clarke. 'There should be no judgement call on whether something is of a strong magnitude. Racism is racism.'
Northumbria Police are reportedly investigating an alleged incident involving England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. Video published on social media appears to show the Everton player 'involved in a fracas' on a Wearside street. 'At 12:19am, police received a report of a disturbance involving a large group of individuals on Tunstall Road, Sunderland,' a spokesperson said. 'Enquiries are ongoing to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident and locate those involved.' They added: 'Nobody is believed to have been seriously injured and no arrests have been made.' Everton had earlier confirmed that they are also investigating the incident. The FA is aware of the incident but it is seen as a club matter. 'The club has been made aware of an alleged incident involving one of our players and we are looking into the matter,' Everton said. Pickford played on Saturday as The Toffees beat West Hamsters United two-nil at The London Stadium. He became the most expensive British goalkeeper in history after Everton paid twenty five million smackers to sign him from Blunderland in June 2017.
A Sheikh Yer Man City fan has been forced to resign from his new police job due to 'embarrassment' after he ran onto the pitch at an FA Cup match. Harry Eccles pleaded extremely guilty to going onto the playing area during the Swansea versus Sheikh Yer Man City game at Swansea's Liberty Stadium on 16 March. He was given an eighteen-month conditional discharge at Swansea Magistrates' Court. Three other fans were given football banning orders. The court was shown footage of Eccles, a police room operator, running onto the pitch after City striker Sergio Aguero celebrated his goal in the eighty eighth minute. Lee Davies, defending, claimed that Eccles was guilty of 'over-exuberance' and added that he had to resign from his new job with North Wales Police due to 'embarrassment.' And, committing a crime, obviously. Superintendent Steve Jones, from South Wales Police, said: 'I hope they serve as a stark reminder to anyone attending a football match in South Wales with the intention of committing offences that this behaviour will be dealt with robustly.' A fifteen-year-old from Bury and a sixteen-year-old from Swansea were also arrested for pitch encroachment during the match and have received youth cautions.
The pilot of the plane which crashed into the English Channel with Emiliano Sala on-board, was not qualified to fly at night, BBC Wales has reported. David Ibbotson is 'thought' to have been colour-blind and his licence restricted him to flying in daytime hours only. Sala died when the plane carrying him from Nantes to Cardiff crashed late on 21 January. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch said that licensing 'continues to be a focus' of its current investigations into the causes of the crash. Regulatory authorities have confirmed that Ibbotson, from Crowle in North Lincolnshire, did not hold a 'night rating' on his UK private pilot's licence. His UK licence was mirrored by a US pilot's licence - enabling him to fly the US-registered Piper Malibu in Europe. The public record of his Federal Aviation Administration licence states Ibbotson 'must have available glasses for near vision' and that 'all limitations and restrictions on the United Kingdom pilot licence apply.' Alleged 'sources' have allegedly told BBC Wales that Ibbotson's licence restricted him to 'flights by day only.' An alleged 'aviation source' allegedly told BBC Wales that the ability to be able to 'differentiate between green and red lights' is 'key' to flying in the dark. 'Anything that's on the UK licence applies to the US licence as well, so he couldn't do anything more than the UK licence allows. Flying outside the restrictions of your licence is illegal and that's likely to affect the insurance cover for the flight.' European aviation rules define night as 'the time from half-an-hour after sunset until half-an-hour before sunrise.' Flight plans seen by BBC Wales indicate the flight scheduled to take Sala for his first training session with Cardiff City had been due to leave Nantes airport at 9am local time on 21 January. But, the flight was postponed until 7pm, at the request of Sala, to allow him to spend the day saying goodbye to his former Nantes teammates. By the time that Ibbotson taxied a Piper Malibu plane on to the runway ready for take-off shortly after 7pm, it would have been around an hour and ten minutes after sunset. Speculation about the legality of the flight has so far centred around the question of whether it complied with restrictions concerning private pilots flying passengers in Europe in a US-registered aircraft. As a private pilot, Ibbotson was not allowed to carry passengers 'for remuneration or financial reward.' A preliminary report from the AIIB, released in February, stated that he could only fly passengers 'on a cost-share basis.' As the aircraft was US-registered, pilot and passenger must have 'a common purpose' for making the journey and the pilot 'must dictate when a flight leaves.' The report adds that the flight 'must not be made for the purpose of merely transporting the passenger.' In an interview in February, the football agent Willie McKay, who commissioned the flight, told the BBC that he and his family had paid for the flight. He was not involved, he said, in selecting the plane or the pilot and it was not a cost-share arrangement. The plane disappeared off radar North of Guernsey in the Channel Islands just after 8pm. Sala's body was recovered from the wreckage of the plane in early February but Ibbotson's body has not been found. The European Aviation Safety Agency states that to obtain a night rating, a pilot must undergo five hours of theory and five hours of flight training. In their preliminary report, the AAIB said that because Ibbotson's pilot licence and log book had been lost in the crash, it had 'not yet been able to establish what ratings he held' or how many hours he had flown recently - although it was known he had completed approximately three thousand seven hundred flying hours. Investigators would normally look to establish how many hours a pilot had flown in the last twenty eight and ninety days before a crash. The AAIB is expected to publish its full report into the tragedy early in 2020.
Portsmouth beat Blunderland on penalties to win The Checkatrade Trophy following a compelling two-two draw in front of a competition-record crowd of eighty five thousand punters at Wembley. Blunderland midfielder Lee Cattermole was the only player not to convert from twelve yards in the shootout as Craig MacGillivray saved to his left. The game finished one-one after ninety minutes as Nathan Thompson's header cancelled out an Aiden McGeady free-kick. Jamal Lowe's exquisite lob over Jon McLaughlin looked to have won it late in extra-time for Pompey, only for McGeady to pounce again in the one hundred and nineteenth minute to take the game to a penalty shoot-out. Oli Hawkins struck the decisive spot-kick as Portsmouth won five-four on penalties. Cattermole, the sole surviving Blunderland player from the club's previous Wembley appearance in the 2014 League Cup final, was the only player not to score from the spot, allowing Hawkins to net the decider.
Casper the snake is looking for a new home with the news that Queens Park Strangers have extremely sacked Steve McClaren - and his infamous hair island - following a run of but one win in fifteen Championship games. The fifty seven-year-old, who was (disastrously) England coach between August 2006 and November 2007, was appointed at Loftus Road in May 2018. Strangers have won just once in the league since 26 December and are currently seventeenth in the table, eight points above the relegation zone. McClaren's assistant John Eustace has been placed in interim charge while the club search for a new boss. 'Making a decision such as this is never easy, particularly when you are talking about someone as professional and dedicated as Steve,' chief executive Lee Hoos said in a statement on the club website. 'It is well documented that we are in a period of transition as we work hard to make the club financially stable. As we look to the future, and taking recent results into account, we feel now is the right time to re-evaluate where we are.' McClaren, who won sixteen of his forty six games in charge of The R's, had been working under financial restrictions at Loftus Road following the club's forty two million knicker settlement with the English Football League last summer for breaches of Financial Fair Play regulations during the 2013-14 season. The club only made two permanent signings last summer, bringing in defender Toni Leistner and veteran full-back Angel Rangel on free transfers, before signing thee players on season-long loan deals. The R's began the Championship season with four consecutive defeats - including a thigh-slappingly hilarious seven-one loss to West Bromwich Albinos but - despite appearing to be McClaren's latest 'infiltrate, destroy and exit' job - recovered during the autumn and, after beating Ipswich Town on Boxing Day, were two points off the play-off places. McClaren guided Queen's Park Strangers to the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time since 1997, but ultimately paid the price for their poor league form in 2019, with a seven-match losing streak in January and February seeing The Hoops slide down the table. 'I would like to thank our fans for their patience and unwavering support during what has been a very difficult run of results, at a time when the club faces well-documented challenges,' Strangers chairman Amit Bhatia said. 'We must now work towards ending this season positively and building for the future.' The club's director of football, Les Ferdinand, added: 'Steve has worked incredibly hard during his time with us but as we start to make plans for next year we feel this change is necessary now, rather than wait until the end of the season, or risk having to make such a decision early in the new campaign.' McClaren's departure from Loftus Road adds yet another disappointing chapter to his mostly very disappointing managerial career, which has seen him take charge of five English clubs and two other sides in Europe. He won the League Cup in 2003-04 with Middlesbrough, who he then led to the UEFA Cup final in 2006, before leaving Teesside that summer to take charge of the national team. However, his spell with England only lasted eighteen games and he left the role after England failed to qualify for Euro 2008 following a calamitous three-two defeat by Croatia at Wembley. He rebuilt his career in the Netherlands, guiding Twente to the Eredivisie title in 2009-10 and then became the first Englishman to manage in Germany's Bundesliga in 2010 - but was very sacked by Wolfsburg in February 2011 with the club one point above the relegation zone. A short stint in charge of Nottingham Forest followed - he resigned after one hundred and twelve days after three wins in thirteen games - before he returned to Twente for a second time in 2012. He then had two spells in charge of Derby County, either side of a truly disastrous spell mismanaging this blogger's beloved (though unsellable) Newcastle United, guiding Th' Toon to the brink of relegation with the sort of rank incompetence which, frankly, had to be seen to be believed. McClaren lost a Championship play-off final with The Rams in 2014 and won just six of twenty eight Premier League games in charge of The Magpies during 2015-16. His second spell at Derby lasted a mere five months and came to an end in March 2017, with the club ten points adrift of the play-off places in the second tier.
One person who, seemingly, was neither surprised or, indeed, overly upset by McClaren's sacking was his predecessor at Loftus Road, Ian Holloway who sneered that he has 'no sympathy' for McClaren. 'He took my job,' Holloway whinged on talkSPORT. 'I still had another year left at the club. I'm still being paid by them now. [McClaren] was talking to the chairman while I was in the job saying what he'd do. He hasn't been able to do that. What goes around comes around. He had my babies and took my kids,' Holloway added. 'It means the world to me. I felt I was in the best position to do that job. The owners made their choice and that’s football at the end of the day. Would I go back? It depends who calls me. Les [Ferdinand] didn't want me to go.'
Notlob Wanderings' next two Championship home games - against Ipswich Town and The Middlesbrough Smog Monsters - are 'in doubt' after the club were issued with an order preventing fans from entering the ground. The area's Safety Advisory Group met on Tuesday and said it 'was not prepared to put the public at risk.' Notlob players went on strike on Monday after staff were not paid on time for the second month in a row. The EFL said that they 'hoped' the fixtures would take place as planned. One option could be to play the matches behind closed doors. 'We will work with the club and offer them any practical assistance that is available to us in an attempt to find a successful and timely resolution to the issue,' an EFL statement said. Notlob, who are up for sale and battling relegation, said that they would be 'unable to meet the obligations' of their safety certificate until after Wednesday's High Court appearance over unpaid debts. Staff will not be paid their March wages until Wednesday at the earliest, with owner Ken Anderson claiming that talks 'are ongoing' with potential buyers. SAG members agreed it 'would be a challenging timeframe' to put an 'adequate operation in place to protect the safety of spectators' for the games against Ipswich on Saturday and The Boro next Tuesday. 'We recognise that Bolton Wanderers is at the heart of our community and this is a deeply regrettable situation,' a spokesperson for SAG said. 'We have done everything we can over recent weeks to support the club at this difficult time. Every effort has been made to give the club enough time to put adequate match day operation standards in place, but regrettably the law gives us no alternative but to issue a prohibition notice. Safety and security remain our primary concern and while we recognise that spectators may be disappointed, we are not prepared to put the public at risk.' It is the second time in as many months the SAG has highlighted 'concerns' over safety at the University of Notlob stadium, with the game against Millwall on 9 March eventually given the green light to go ahead three days before. Notlob's squad are refusing to train until at least Wednesday in support of other staff who are still waiting for their March salaries, while payments were also late in February. Earlier on Tuesday, Anderson said that he had 'accepted an offer' for Wanderings that was less than what he paid for the club. 'I sincerely apologise to everyone, unreservedly, for this and would again request their continued patience during these difficult times,' Anderson said. 'Fortunately, [club staff] did not choose to go on strike and their loyalty to the club cannot be questioned, unlike the players' decision which, unfortunately, has a negative rather than a positive logic behind it. I am not quite sure what the players think striking will achieve.' Getting paid? Just a wild stab in the dark, obviously.
Gatesheed have been kicked out of their ground because of money owed to the local council, but have now 'agreed in principle' to a takeover deal by the former Rochdale chairman Chris Dunphy. They will be allowed to play this season's remaining home games at the International Stadium, but cannot train there and have vacated their offices. That will remain the case until the club and council reach a settlement. Current owner, Doctor Ranjan Varghese put Gatesheed up for sale in early March. 'This action follows a protracted period of negotiation with the current owner to settle outstanding debt,' said a Gatesheed Council spokesperson. 'To be clear, the issue is with the company, not the club. Gateshead Council is a long-time supporter of the club and it remains our wish that Gateshead FC has a long and prosperous future, preferably with the stadium as its home.' Gatesheed's players and staff have not been paid this month, but the club hopes to rectify that by next week. Varghese only took over The Tynesiders in July, but financial issues have seen the club operate under a transfer embargo for a large part of his tenure. It is unclear how soon the takeover deal will be completed. 'We're not there yet and [the takeover deal] is only in principle, but there is enormous potential in the club and the town,' said Dunphy. 'One thing we're looking forward to is working with the people up here. A football club is about the supporters, not the person who owns it.'
A burglar who broke into an FA Cup-winning footballer's home has been extremely jailed for five years. Luke Stuttard stole a car and jewellery from former Ipswich Town player Mick Lambert in January. He was jailed at Ipswich Crown Court after admitting one count of burglary. Twelve other burglaries were 'taken into consideration.' Lambert initially thought his 1978 FA Cup winner's medal had been stolen, but he later found it under his bed. The defender, now aged sixty eight, came on as a substitute for Roger Osborne, who scored the only goal in the victory over The Arse. Stuttard was arrested following a burglary in the town on 13 January when a patio door was smashed and key stolen from inside. After being charged, he was interviewed by police and admitted twelve other offences, including the burglary at Lambert's house. Stuttard's bad and naughty crimes took place between 3 January and 23 January and resulted in sixty grand's worth of items being stolen and fourteen thousand smackers of damage. One of these was at Lambert's home in Ipswich on 18 January, when a Ford Fiesta, a TV and jewellery was stolen. The day before Stuttard had broken into a house in Belstead and stolen jewellery and a Mercedes E220. Detective Constable Duncan Etchells said: 'Hopefully the sentence given in this case will provide some peace of mind to Stuttard's victims and also act as a deterrent to other would-be burglars.'
Bert Trautmann was born in Germany but he went on to have one of the least likely careers in British football. The former prisoner of war from Bremen became one of the most acclaimed goalkeepers of his generation, playing eventually for Manchester City. Now the film The Keeper tells his story to a new generation. David Kross is twenty eight. As a teenager in Germany, his first big film was Knallhart. Then in 2008 his role in The Reader, opposite Kate Winslet, brought international fame. But, as a child, what he really wanted to be was a professional footballer. 'I always loved the game,' he says. 'From five years old until I was fifteen, I was totally sure I'd be a footballer. It was the same with most of my friends but for me, it didn't work out. So I became an actor.' In The Keeper, hehas been called upon to revive his skills on the pitch. It's the true story of Bernd Trautmann, born in 1923, who was in the Luftwaffe in World War Two. In 1944, Trautmann was captured by British troops and ultimately sent to a prisoner of war camp near Wigan. Somewhere along the way, the name Bernd became Bert. His talent as a goalkeeper registered and he ended up playing for local side St Helens Town in the Lancashire Combination League. In 1949 he moved to Manchester City as a professional and stayed until 1964, turning out for the club more than five hundred times. He died in 2013. The film is a German-British co-production and in Germany it's called Trautmann. But director Marcus Rosenmüller admits that few Germans under sixty five would know who the central character is. 'But, that's not a big problem because the story really has to work as a love story and a family drama. It's not just a sports bio-pic, although of course the football scenes have to be convincing.' A lot of the hard work of giving the story emotional depth rests with Freya Mavor, who made her name playing Mini McGuinness in the final series of Skins on E4. She plays Trautmann's first wife, Margaret. Mavor can't claim to compete with her co-star's passion for football but says: 'I've lived quite a lot in France, so when France won the World Cup last summer, I did go a bit mad.' From the ages of nine to thirteen Mavor lived in La Rochelle on France's Atlantic coast; at nineteen she moved to Paris. Her fluency in the language means that she has been in several French films. 'I've always loved French cinema and I was obsessed with not sounding like a tourist. So it's brilliant to be accepted as an honorary French person in film.' But was it hard to produce a convincing accent for post-war industrial Lancashire? 'The big test was to sound authentic for people in St Helens and Manchester now,' Mavor says. 'But, I also wanted to understand the society which Margaret came from historically. There's a fascinating book by Norman Longmate called How We Lived Then. It was a huge help in understanding what the war was like for most people.' Kross confesses that, though much of the film is set there, he never actually went to St Helens. 'A lot of The Keeper was filmed in Northern Ireland and our football ground was in Belfast. But that's how films work. Later, when you see me at Wembley with Man City, that's mainly CGI: we were actually filming at Augsburg in Bavaria.' It was in the 1956 FA Cup final, when Manchester City were playing Birmingham City, that Trautmann took on legendary status. Fifteen minutes from the end, with city leading three-one, Trautmann dived at an incoming cross and was knocked out in a collision with Birmingham's Peter Murphy in which he was hit in the neck by Murphy's right knee. No substitutes were permitted in those days, so Trautmann, dazed and unsteady on his feet, carried on. For the remaining minutes he defended his net, making a crucial interception to deny Murphy once more. Trautmann admitted later that he had spent the last part of the match 'in a kind of fog.' His neck continued to cause him pain, and Prince Philip commented on its crooked state as he gave Trautmann his winner's medal. Trautmann attended that evening's post-match banquet despite being unable to move his head and went to bed expecting the injury to heal with rest. As the pain did not recede, the following day he went to St George's Hospital, where he was told he merely had a crick in his neck which would soon go away. Three days later, he got a second opinion from a doctor at Manchester Royal Infirmary. An X-ray revealed he had dislocated five vertebrae, the second of which was cracked in two. The third vertebra had wedged against the second, preventing further damage which could, potentially, have cost Trautmann his life. The film starts with a short, but powerful section, in which we see Trautmann fighting in World War Two where he won an Iron Cross fighting on the Eastern Front. Kross says that those scenes were essential. 'We have to understand the times he grew up in and the criminal regime which dominated Germany. Bert was part of the Hitler Youth and he went through a sort of brainwashing. He absolutely wanted to be a soldier. But there are interviews Bert did near the end of his life in which he talks about seeing civilians shot in Ukraine and how that changed him.' Kross says The Keeper is, basically, about a man 'seeking a new home. I think that's the emotional centre and that's what I needed to get right as an actor.' In the last part of his life, Trautmann lived in Spain and it was there that director Rosenmüller went to talk to him, several years before filming began. 'We spent a week talking to him and as I sat there, I wondered why no one had filmed his story already. There is such drama in how Margaret accepts him and then how his teammates accept him and then England accepts this man they thought was a Nazi.' Rosenmüller always knew there would be a German release for the film but he resisted the temptation to reshoot Kross's scenes in German. 'Visually the German and English versions are ninety eight per cent the same and David was in the odd position of dubbing himself into his own language. Almost all the German is spoken early on and in fact that helps the drama - the audience sees that Bert is lost in a world he doesn't understand.' Kross comes from Schleswig-Holstein, near the Danish border, but he now lives in Berlin. For a year he was at drama school in London but he has worked in German and English-language films. So where does he now see the centre of his acting career? 'I would love to do more British-German co-productions. But that doesn't really happen much: it has to be a story which will interest both audiences and the film industry doesn't very often come up with these stories.' Mavor, meanwhile, has been filming a four-part fantasy in French called Il était une seconde fois for Netflix.