General football thread

seagull · All-time great

General football thread

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Hats off to Brora who beat Hearts in the Scottish Cup, one of the biggest upsets ever?!

indiana · Tennis legend

JonH comes home wrote:
Hats off to Brora who beat Hearts in the Scottish Cup, one of the biggest upsets ever?!

Up there with Berwick Rangers beating Rangers in 1967. And the best non league win I can recall.

That said, Hearts may be leading the Scottish Championship but their play has been rather dire lately and Brora are about the best non league team. But historically Hearts are one of the top 4 or 5 clubs in Scotland and the 3rd best supported. And they have contested the last 2 cup finals, losing the delayed 2019/20 final to Celtic on penalties in December.

The Highland League has been shut down and Brora had 5 training sessions and one friendly as prep.

My best mate is a big Hearts fan, there has been text banter tonight! ( though to be fair he had a bad feeling beforehand ).

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 24th of March 2021 06:09:30 PM

paulisi · Tennis legend

Big shout out to Dion Charles who has been called up to the Northern Ireland squad for the first time.
Dion is banging in the goals for Accrington, having signed from Southport.
Southport have a large sell on clause and we know there are a lot of championship clubs looking at him.
A good international week, could bump up his asking price..

indiana · Tennis legend

I see Fulham's Mitrovic has found some goal scoring form for Serbia in the last week. Scored in all 3 matches with 5 in total of Serbia's 7.

Strikes me as very much a confidence player so could be helpful in Fulham's run in.

Anyway he's my hero since he missed that decisive shoot-out penalty in the Euros play-off final vs Scotland.

Though, hey Ace, Ryan Fraser scored a nice one for Scotland in Israel.

Ace Ventura · Hall of fame

I liked Mitrovic when he was here. He would usually put a shift in, but at the same time, could always be a liability, and was often a red card waiting to happen, which is probably why he didn't get as much opportunities as he could / should have. Fulham do seem to still have an issue putting the ball in the net, so yes, if this gives him the confidence, and he looks good in training when back in the country, could be a useful player for them.

Speaking of Newcastle, the local newspaper The Evening Chronicle ran a poll of over 14,000 fans yesterday, and 95% wanted Bruce out, but he has seemingly survived crisis meeting talks, so looks like he'll be here until at least the end of the season, whatever happens in the coming weeks.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Brucie is extremely fortunate that games go ahead without fans, if things were different I could see a run on the sale of cabbages.

https://t.co/Z0A0lbSZAt

On a different front all sorts of financial shenanigans going on in the National League, the first 20 minutes of the above podcast is worth a listen, indeed an excellent throughout but fairly niche podcast

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Wednesday 31st of March 2021 02:48:21 AM

Ace Ventura · Hall of fame

Villa Villa Villa

Villa Villa Villa

twitter.com/winonfooty/status/1274718070221803520

Ace Ventura · Hall of fame

Huge goal! The above Twitter link applies again.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

A remarkable likeness and all for freedom of expression, if only Gazza had celebrated with dance he would be in a much better place.

It was Thomas Der hammer Hittzspergers birthday last week, he is one of the few openly gay ex footballers and came out very shortly after retiring, a fantastic role model and very popular with the fans as a player. Really grounded, tales of him and his mates stopping to give a fan a push because of his car breaking down in pouring rain and discussing stocks and shares with Mervyn King; ex head of Bank of England, Villa & Worcestershire County cricket Club superfan and product of Wolverhampton Grammar School, a bizarre institution that had an amazing reputation for championing football when all the other Midlands grammars (apart from Handsworth) and public schools obsessed about Rugby. I can remember an Oxbridge Football game in the 80s having I think it was 10 Wolverhampton GS players playing across the two sides!

I digress but although the toxicity masculinity of football is such that we are still decades away from having an openly gay premier league player, it would be such a breath of fresh air. Hitz celebrated his 30 yd thunderbolts with a clenched fist in front of the Holte with a clenched fist and I wouldnt want to stereotype anyone just but I feel a perfect pirouette as a goal celebration at Hamlet would be roundly applauded particularly if we were playing Billericay or Woking in whose away fans it would likely generate apoplexy.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Villa deservedly beaten today... Great goal from Trent Alexander-Arnold

Ace Ventura · Hall of fame

Getting tight at the top of League 1. Sunderland were possibly in the best position this morning, but they lost at home, and Peterborough and Hull both won 3-0 away, so it has changed a fair bit. Still in their hands as they still have to go to Hull, but it should be an exciting end to the season. If Newcastle drop then I hope they stay in that league another season, if we stay up, then I don't mind so much.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Saturday 10th of April 2021 04:08:10 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

Heck, even Newcastle have got Brucey dancing now.

Saint-Maximin comes on and within 7 minutes dummies to set up Murphy for 1-1 and then runs from inside his own half, selling dummies as he goes, and scores for 1-2.

The substituted Joelinton explains on the bench that he had been just about to do that.

FT: Burnley 1 Newcastle 2

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Reckon thats Newcastle safe myself ! Maybe not mathematically but realistically dont see Fulham making the ground up. Or West Brom.

Ace Ventura · Hall of fame

ASM will be getting his dream move to Wolves next season, went to bed with a 'BULL 9' shirt apparently. wink

Massive win, and massive couple of matches generally with Newcastle picking up 4 points, and Fulham nothing from theirs, despite leading Villa with about 11 mins to go, and then losing the other night with one of the last kicks of the game in more 'winnable' matches. Didn't see that coming today after 60 mins, but obviously a game changer coming on, and a very solid keeper at the other end.

Still don't like the fact we have to play Fulham on the final day, but beat Sheff U at home (not a given, but you'd hope...), and nick a point or two from the other 5 (tough) fixtures, and it will be quite tough for Fulham to get the 7 or 8 points they would need from their 5 matches, to keep themselves within 3 points, before the potential big one on the final day, which they would very likely have to win now.

A big kick in the you know what's for WBA, if they were having even a bit of hope following their shock win the other day.