Brentford vs Wigan Athletic: Freight Rover Trophy Final 1985
Brentford and Wigan Athletic will make trips to Wembley over the next few weeks for differing reasons. Brentford will be playing in the League One play-off final against Yeovil Town, whilst Wigan Athletic will feature in the first FA Cup Final of their history against Manchester City.
Despite these heady days for both clubs it’s not the first time Brentford and Wigan have played at Wembley. They faced one another in the Freight Rover Trophy in 1985. The Freight Rover Trophy was the first ever incarnation of the Associate Members Cup, a trophy for football clubs in the bottom two divisions of the Football League. It would later be known as the Sherpa Vans Trophy, Leyland DAF Cup, Autoglass Trophy, Autowindscreens Shield, LDV Vans Cup and these days goes by the moniker Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. For whatever reason (and I’m yet to think of a good one) I have in my possession a match day programme of the 1985 final between Brentford and Wigan Athletic and therefore thought it might be worth penning a quick summary.
Freight Rover Trophy Final: Wigan Athletic vs Brentford
The two sides had made it to Wembley by winning their regional finals, Brentford beating Newport County 6-0 in the south and Wigan Athletic beating Mansfield on penalties in the north. It’s perhaps interesting to note that both Mansfield and Newport were promoted from the Conference to league football this summer.
One interesting aspect of this competition is that it was the first to be screened on British cable television. It was produced by a company called Screen Sport and from the following youtube clip you can see that they were attempting to be innovative. Slow motion replays of odd incidents are a mainstay of most international tournaments now so Screen Sport appear to have been ahead of the game. Though unsurprisingly Martin Tyler’s post-match interviews of topless Brentford players in the changing rooms has never really caught on. The video is certainly an insight into football as viewed through the lens of a mid 80s armchair fan.
The following video from the semi-final between Brentford and Newport County is worth a quick viewing if only for the post-match interview with four-goal hero Gary Roberts who uses the cliché “I’m obviously happy for the club” before following it with the perhaps too honest “but especially happy for myself”. Keith Cassells also offers his honest (and shirtless) view of Brentford’s trip to Wembley, as a delighted footballer about to experience the pinnacle of his career – a match at Wembley Stadium.
Eagle-eyed viewers will have noticed Colin Addison (later to manage Atlético Madrid) managing Newport County and Tony Pulis (later to manage Stoke City) amongst the County defence.
Both teams featured names that have become familiar to many in football league circles since their retirement. Brentford included Keith Millen, Terry Hurlock, Steve Wignall, Terry Bullivant and Chris Kamara in their squad whilst Wigan had the pre-Wright/Bright rhyming strike duo of Paul Jewell and Mike Newell. Current TV pundits Frank McClintock (Brentford) and Bryan Hamilton (Wigan) managed the sides.
Graham Kelly and his mates from the FA make the draw for an earlier round of the Freight Rover Trophy. These were made inside dealerships across England.
Reading the programme makes you realise that football has always been more than willing to sell its soul, it’s just that only recently that there’s been a buyer with real cash behind it. The schedule of the day has at 2:25pm a “Presentation of Sherpa Minibuses to the club chairmen” and two pages are dedicated to the sponsor of the cup and some of their quotes are golden, this one especially tickled me:
“In reaching the pinnacle of a great Wembley occasion today’s finalists have shown commitment, spirit and determination – qualities that, over the last few years, have given Freight Rover a leading place in today’s commercial vehicles market”
Other sponsors mentioned in the programme include Mitre (who provided their famous Mitre Delta football for the match) and also National Dairy Council, Panini, Shoot Magazine and United Biscuits who all apparently provided items for the family stand (sounds like one hell of a party bag to me).
Wigan Athletic won the final 3-1 and Elton John presented the trophy to the winners.
League One 2012/2013: Players who started the first and last game of the season for their club
The following list shows the players who started the first and last league games for their League clubs in the 2012/2013 season.
- Stevenage (8) – James Dunne, Luke Freeman, Marcus Haber, Darius Charles, Chris Day, Mark Roberts, David Gray and Bondz N’Gala.
- Carlisle United (7) – Liam Noble, Brad Potts, Lee Miller, James Trevor Berrett, Danny Livesey, Matthew James Robson and Paul Thirlwell.
- Crawley Town (7) – Nicky Adams, Josh Simpson, Billy Clarke, Matthew Sadler, Paul Jones, Dannie Bulman and Mark Connolly.
- Hartlepool United (7) – Andy Monkhouse, Jonathan Franks, Simon Walton, Sam Collins, Scott Flinders, Neil Jeffrey Austin and Peter Hartley.
- Leyton Orient (7) – Dean Cox, Lloyd James, Kevin Lisbie, Jimmy Dean Smith, Gary Sawyer, Jamie Jones and Nathan Clarke.
- Tranmere Rovers (7) – Jean-Louis Akpro, Andy Robinson, Liam Palmer, Danny Holmes, Zoumana Bakayogo, Ash Taylor and Ben Gibson.
- Brentford (6) – Harlee Dean, Clayton Donaldson, Shaleum Logan, Simon Moore, Toumani Diagouraga and Jonathan Douglas.
- Doncaster Rovers (6) – Chris Brown, David Cotterill, Robert Jones, Paul Quinn, Jamie Paul McCombe and Tommy Spurr.
- Notts County (6) – Alan Judge, Jeff Hughes, Yoann Arquin, Gary Liddle, Bartosz Bialkowski and Dean Leacock.
- Preston North End (6) – Nicky Wroe, Keith Keane, Jack King, John Mousinho, Paul Huntington and David Buchanan.
- Yeovil Town (6) – James Hayter, Edward Upson, Marek Stech, Luke Ayling, Sam Foley and Dominic Blizzard.
- AFC Bournemouth (5) – Charlie Daniels, Marc Pugh, Shaun MacDonald, Tommy Elphick and Simon Francis.
- MK Dons* (5) – Antony Kay, Dean Peter Bowditch, Daniel Powell, Luke Chadwick and Darren Potter.
- Scunthorpe United (5) – Jimmy Ryan, Mark Duffy, Sam Slocombe, David Mirfin and Tom Newey.
- Walsall (5) – Adam Craig Chambers, Jamie Paterson, William Grigg, Nicky Featherstone and Dean Holden.
- Crewe Alexandra (4) – Byron Moore, Max Clayton, Ajay Leitch-Smith and Harry Davis.
- Sheffield United (4) – Harry Maguire, Kevin McDonald, Michael Doyle and Neill Collins.
- Swindon Town (4) – Raffaele De Vita, Alan McCormack, Wesley Foderingham and Joe Devera.
- Colchester United (3) – Magnus Okuonghae, Marcus Bean and Brian Wilson.
- Coventry City (3) – Adam Barton, John Fleck and Richard Wood.
- Oldham Athletic (3) – Lee Croft, Christian Alexis Montaño Castillo and Jean-Yves Mvoto.
- Bury (2) – Mark Hughes and David Worrall.
- Shrewsbury Town (2) – Luke Summerfield and Chris Weale.
- Portsmouth (0)
Not one player who started Portsmouth’s first game of the season also started the last game of the league season. This perhaps demonstrates what a turbulent season the club has had. The club didn’t even have the same manager for their first and last games of the season.
Being a Football Manager in 2013
The subject of managerial changes has arisen a few times this season. Generally these changes have been presented in a negative light by the media and fans. Often as “good men” are fired from positions in which they appeared to be safe. Both Nigel Adkins and Brian McDermott steered their respective clubs to excellent promotions in 2011/2012 and were then fired before they’d had the chance to complete a Premier League season many thought they had earned the right to see out. Even if it meant taking the club back down from whence they came.
What’s perhaps most interesting about these sackings is that if McDermott or Adkins had failed to guide their sides to promotion last season they’d more than likely still be in a job at their clubs, bobbing away in the choppy, murky waters of the unpredictable Championship. The evidence suggests that one of the worse things you can do (if you want to stay at a club long term) is to get yourself promoted to the Premier League.
This doesn’t mean that we should feel too sorry for the likes of Nigel Adkins or Brian McDermott. Their successes in guiding middle sized teams like Reading and Southampton into the top flight will be admired by many second flight clubs. Not only will they be rewarded with eye watering pay-offs from their respective clubs, but they’ll also have the pick of the bigger Championship jobs once trigger-happy chairmen see their Premier League ambitions slip away. Indeed, Adkins has already taken over at Reading, a club who are all but certain to be playing Championship football next season.
Another aspect to the subject of managerial appointments and sackings is the opinion of the club’s supporters. In simplistic terms there are two different types of managers – motivators and thinkers. If a club is experiencing a bad set of results then the argument against the motivator is that he is a tactically inept ranter and raver, whilst the criticism of the thinker is that he lacks the passion to inspire the team to victory. If the thinker is sacked then a motivator should be appointed to gee up an ailing set of players, if the motivator is sacked then a thinker should replace him to impart some tactical nous on to the squad. Obviously it’s normally a little more complex than that.
There’s also the demand from fans for an in-vogue appointment of a “young and hungry” manager to take the reigns at their club. The advantage for any young manager in the job market is that it’s likely that they won’t have been at any club long enough to have experienced any significant failures n their career to date (see Paolo di Canio). A manager with three or four jobs behind him is likely to have a few skeletons in his closet. But in general managers are rarely allowed to learn from their mistakes,
Many supporters will point at the success of Swansea City’s managerial model that values the importance of a style of play over the appointment of a manager as a blueprint to copy for their club. (Note: fans will never want to copy Stoke City despite the club being one of the true success stories of promoted clubs). Whilst thinking long-term is a laudable aim is it really that easy to do? When things are going well (as they have undoubtedly done at Swansea over the past few years) it’s easy to continue this process. But what happens when things turn sour? If a club decides to play an attractive short passing game and the club is rock bottom at Christmas having picked up only a handful of wins, what next? Will they stick to their principles? Or will they crack and appoint a financially imprudent Harry Redknapp to buy their way out of trouble or rent-a-quote man-motivator Neil Warnock as coach? It will be fascinating to see how Swansea City deal with a prolonged period of poor results. The Roman Empire (just like Charlton Athletic’s top flight stay) didn’t last forever.
An unfortunate truth of Premier League football is that there are 6-8 clubs every season that have such a high budget that the rest are always going to find it difficult to compete. This leaves 12-14 clubs simply attempting to avoid the drop. One major issue appears to be that fans demand progression from their club. Each season must see an improvement on the last and if that’s not achieved then the manager is taking the club backwards. The difficulty for managers that it’s impossible for every single club in the Football League to improve their placing season after season. The unfortunate truth is that if all 92 managers of all 92 football league clubs made exactly the right tactical and transfer decisions for a whole season, the same number of clubs would still be promoted and relegated. That’s just the way it is.
Loan players at Championship clubs
The vast majority of clubs in the Championship supplement their squads with players on loan from the Premier League or further afield. In fact, many clubs depend on taking a few players on loan at the start of every season and often pay substantial loan fees in order to do so. It’s a fact of life in the Championship.
However, Watford have taken this to another level this season by taking a dozen or so players on loan from various clubs in Italy and Spain. Whilst this is within Football League rules it has infuriated many including rent-a-quote Ian Holloway and rent-a-rant Adrian Durham.
The percentages above represent the total number of minutes all players have played for each club divided by the number of minutes played by loan players for the club.
It’s perhaps unsurprising to see Watford out on top after their well reported deals. They’re followed by Ipswich Town who have had a turbulent season, recently bringing in Mick McCarthy to steady their sinking tractor. Hull City’s Egyptian experiment sees them also feature in the upper echelons of the chart.
Whilst Hull City and Watford are undoubtedly having great seasons with much of their squad made up of loan players, it doesn’t always lead to success. Cardiff City have fielded the lowest amount of loan players during games this season yet the Dragons currently lead the division.
Welsh League Division Three: Llantwit Major 2 Risca United 2
On Saturday I travelled to south Wales. Whilst there I took a trip down memory lane to a place where I had played football many times in my youth, to the evocatively named Windmill Lane, home of Welsh League Division Three outfit Llantwit Major FC.
The town has never been known for its footballing prowess and only reached the heady heights of Welsh League football for the first time when they were promoted last season. They are however riding high in the division and are well in the promotion race, though the title appears beyond them due to the outstanding form of Cardiff Met University (whose origins belong in the famous Inter Cardiff who late in the 20th Century played against Celtic in the UEFA Cup).
However, the club’s one shining star is former player Arron Davies who has forged a career for himself in league football with sides like Southampton, Yeovil and Nottingham Forest. He’s currently at Exeter City and a couple of his shirts are proudly on show in the club house.
Llantwit Major club house
The game between “The Major” and “Cuckoos” was an exciting one and ended in what I would consider a fair 2-2 draw. The first half saw Risca United take an early lead before Llantwit equalised with a fortuitous own goal from an unfortunate Risca defender who looped header over his own keeper’s head. The Major started the second half the better of the two sides after changing from an unorthodox 3-5-2 to a more familiar 4-4-2. They also seemed to be coping with the windy conditions better than their opponents (after experiencing the conditions on Saturday it’s no surprise a windmill was built there) and unsurprisingly took the lead with around 20 minutes remaining.
Despite Major appearing to have the upper hand, Risca United battled their way back into the game and deservedly equalised from the spot. The referee, who had delightfully opted to control the match with his own brand of sarcasm and wit rather than aggressive authority, brought the afternoon’s entertainment to a close. Final score: 2-2. All in all it was a “terrific advert” for the Welsh League Division Three between two sides who are well within a shout of promotion this season (Llantwit are in 4th, Risca 6th).
Windmill Lane, home of Llantwit Major FC
You get the impression that Llantwit Major will have the steel to see them through to a top three finish and promotion to the heady heights of Welsh League Division Two. At this point three more promotions would take them into the Welsh Premier Division and who knows, a pop at the Champions League. Forget Stoke on a Tuesday night, Llantwit Major on a windy afternoon will be a difficult task for most teams travelling to the seaside town.
African footballers in the Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1, Serie A and the Bundesliga.
With the Africa Cup of Nations a fading memory and the European leagues back in full swing I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the Africans represented in five of Europe’s top leagues: Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga.
Despite their non qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations 2013, Senegal have the most players playing in the five European leagues mentioned in the introduction. 32 Senegalese players play in these leagues. Twenty-nine different nationalities are represented in these leagues from Morocco to Mauritania.
With much of Africa being Francophone and many French born players opting to play for the countries in the Maghreb it’s unsurprisng that Ligue 1 features so many African footballers.
Number of African players used so far in the 2012/2013 league season.
French teams dominate the list. Every single one of Ligue 1′s twenty sides have fielded an African footballer during the current 2012/2013 season. However, it’s Rennes who are the club who have used the most African players. They’ve used an impressive eleven different African players so far this season. Brilliantly this is enough to field a whole first XI of African players:
Possible Rennes first XI
Coleraine team photo
There are many things you expect to find on the shelves of charity shops in Berkshire. A postcard depicting a mid 70s Coleraine side is perhaps not one of them. However, I stumbled across this beauty over the weekend. (I should add that I did pass up the opportunity to purchase England’s World Cup 82 theme: This Time (we’ll do it right!))
Interestingly this team photo wasn’t taken in their native Northern Ireland. The team picture was taken at Feyenoord’s De Kuip stadium before Coleraine’s 7-0 defeat in the European Cup first round of 1974/1975. They also lost to the Dutch club at home (a 1-4 defeat). Neither result should be seen as too humiliating considering many of the Feyenoord squad were involved with the Netherlands 74 World Cup side. It remains the Northern Irish side’s only sojourn into Europe’s premier cup competition, their other campaigns being in the Fairs Cup, Cup Winners Cup and UEFA Cup.
Feyenoord went on to beat Olympiakos in the 2nd round before being knocked out to Barcelona in the next round.
Nationality of players in the Premier League and Football League
The nationality of players within the Premier League and Football League is a subject I regularly return to. It’s not because I’m a believer that foreign players are a blight on our national sport, but because I find the exotic nature of the nationalities represented an interesting discussion point. If you believe that the English national side suffers due to the number of foreign players in its league you should probably look closer to home for the players who are blocking the way of Englishmen as it’s Irishmen, Scotsmen and Welshmen who make up the vast majority of “foreign” players on English clubs’ books.
- 53/92 clubs have fielded Welshmen in the league this season.
- 64/92 clubs have fielded Scotsmen in the league this season.
- 69/92 clubs have fielded Irishmen in the league this season.
- 39/92 clubs have fielded Northern Irishmen in the league this season.
There are only three clubs who have not fielded Irishmen, Scotsmen, Welshmen or Northern Irishmen this season in the Premier League or Football League. These three clubs are Chelsea, Manchester City and (perhaps surprisingly) Hartlepool United. The north-eastern club are an interesting case when it comes to player nationality as they are the only club of the 92 who have fielded only Englishmen this season. Twenty-two Englishmen to be exact. And coincidentally the same number as would be required to play a game of cricket on a village green on a balmy summer’s afternoon.
Despite Hartlepool United’s commitment to the English cause, it’s Wimbledon who can claim to have fielded the most Englishmen during the current 2012/2013 season. A total of thirty different English players have pulled on the blue of Wimbledon in an attempt to help the London club retain their Football League status so far this season. Though it’s perhaps worth mentioning that this statistic doesn’t tell the whole story, as few clubs have fielded as many players as Wimbledon (38).
In stark contrast to their north-eastern, all-English neighbours Hartlepool (whose residents once hanged a monkey on suspicion that he were a French spy), Newcastle United have fielded eight different Frenchmen in league fixtures this season. No other club in the Premier League or Football League has fielded as many of the same non-English nationality as that. Blackpool come close having fielded seven Scotsmen in their Championship campaign so far, whilst Coventry City (6 Irish), Arsenal (5 French), Blackburn (5 Portuguese), Brighton (5 Spaniards), Crystal Palace (5 Welshmen) and Oldham Athletic (4 Australians) all provide interesting clusters of nationalities.
When it comes to clubs who have fielded very few English players it’s Wigan Athletic of the Premier League who take this title by some distance. During their current league season they have been represented by only three Englishmen with Wigan boss Martinez seemingly preferring players from hisanophone countries such as Honduras (2), Chile (2), Argentina (2), Paraguay (1) and Spain (4). During the current season the Latics have fielded and incredible fifteen different nationalities. However, they are not the most eclectic and international group of players in the Premier League.
The most nationalities fielded by any club of the 92 is Martin Jol’s Fulham. They have fielded players from eighteen different countries during the current 2012/2013 Premier League season (England, Switzerland, Norway, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Australia, Germany, Mali, Greece, Bulgaria, Colombia, Turkey, Croatia, Sweden, Iran, Costa Rica, Belgium and Holland). Clubs outside the top flight who have used a lot of different nationalities include Watford (who have bulked up their squad with loanees from Spain and Italy) and Blackburn Rovers (who are currently battling to recover from a dreadful chicken induced Premier League coma), both sides have fielded players of thirteen different nationalities in league fixtures so far this season.
The impact of British Isles players on the 92 Premier League and Football League clubs is pretty evident when trawling through the statistics. Of the 92 there are twelve clubs who have fielded at least one player from England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland this season. Those clubs are Wycombe Wanderers, Rotherham, Southend United, Barnsley, Bristol Rovers, Crewe Alexandra, Middlesbrough, Nottingham Forest, Doncaster Rovers, Aston Villa, Hull City and West Brom.
Ninety-eight different nationalities have been represented so far this season, they are:
Africa: Algeria, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo, Congo DR, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Asia/Oceania: Australia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Korea Republic, New Zealand, Oman, Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Europe: Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Macedonia FYR, Montenegro, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Wales.
North America/Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bermuda, Canada, Costa Rica, Curaçao, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Montserrat, Trinidad and Tobago and United States.
South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.
D5 Creation
Posted by: | on April 10, 2013
Margaret Thatcher and the curse of the Norwegian commentator
Only 32 short years after this was recorded, everyone mentioned in this famous commentary has now passed away.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/PqZTP8-8wIs
Any excuse to post that short video…
Posted in International | 2 Comments »
Tags: Commentary, England, Margaret Thatcher, Norway