Huddersfield Town - Record Breakers

I've been hanging back from writing about this season's progress because I've been waiting for one of two things to happen: either we lose or we beat Nottingham Forest's record run of 42 games undefeated in the league. Well, I'm happy to announce we beat the record. Once more, Huddersfield Town make history. On Saturday we played Notts County at the Galpharm Stadium and beat them 2-1 (should have been 2-0 but we got sloppy in the dying seconds of added time). That win took us to an amazing tally of 43 games without a loss. Yes, a lot of those games were draws (18 to Forest's 21) and yes, we have actually lost some matches since the run began. As Peterborough United supporters were quick to point out on Twitter, we lost to them in the Play-Off Finals in May and we've been knocked out of all cup competitions this season. The fact is cup matches and play -offs don't count. End of.

I'm glad I was at the match. It will go down as one of my treasured memories of following Huddersfield. I'm not as good as my husband is at instant recall. He can spout facts and figues, names and numbers, at the drop of a hat. I'm pretty rubbish at knowing who was manager in 1989 or whatever but I know I'll remember Saturday. Despite manager Lee Clark had told everyone to focus on getting the three points and not to be distracted I couldn't help it. I was distracted.

I was especially distracted in the first half when we played muted football. Town allowing themselves to be pinned back by County, whose game plan seemed to be to hold up play as often as possible by barging and shoving. Forward Alan Lee was on the receiving end of these needling challenges time and time again but it was Lee who came away with a yellow card in the first half.

Luckily County's spoiler tactics didn't work in the second half. As so often happens, Town emerged from the tunnel ready to rock. Who else but Jordan Rhodes, now a full International player for Scotland and much scouted, scored within 2 minutes. As the Yorkshire Post put it, the goal was '... a classic example of the centre-forward's craft. He started the move straight from the kick-off by setting Jack Hunt on his way down the right. Hunt played a one-two with Scott Arfield while Rhodes zipped into the box from deep to be ready to head in the defender's pinpoint cross at the far post.'

More drama followed when Alan Lee, reacting to being fouled again (by Sam Soje this time) got a second yellow for retailating. Town were down to ten men but you couldn't tell. Captain Reliable Peter Clarke marshalled his defence and regrouped. When Rhodes' second went in on 65 we knew the day, the three points and the record, were ours.

The winning run could well end now. League One is tight at the top and we meet Charlton, the league leaders, a week today.  Staying second isn't going to be easy but I sincerely hope Town can keep the momentum going and gain automatic promotion this season. They deserve it. They are playing neat, passing football and have enough strength and talent to justify a place in the Championship.

Current Standings:

Charlton                    43

Huddersfield Town    38

Sheffield Wednesday 36

MK Dons                 33

Sheffield Utd            32

A big Derby match – Keith Mansfield

Scouring the sports pages of newspapers, my eyes are often drawn to an article I then discover is nothing to do with my team. The adjective that describes Derby will turn out to be to ‘local’ rather than ‘mighty’. I suspect it means my club nominally has more mentions in more papers around the world than any other.

Last weekend saw several Derbies. In Glasgow the ‘Old Firm’ did battle for the first time this season, Rangers coming out on top in a six-goal thriller. Derby matches are rarely so free-scoring – in London’s East End where I live, Millwall and West Ham drew blanks in their first head-to-head for a while. And in my East Midlands home town, Steve McClaren’s Nottingham Forest entertained Nigel Clough’s Derby County.

In my part of the world the term ‘local Derby’ is presumed to originate from the ancient ‘football’ matches held either between different parishes of the city (apparently All Saints and St Peter) or perhaps between towns in the county. Back as far as the twelfth century in Ashbourne there are records of hundreds-a-side games with one set of locals trying to kick/throw/carry a ball into the goal belonging to the other half of the town. Others say the term somehow originates from the Derby horse race, but that’s named after the Earl of Derby who’s named after the city so I think we can safely claim the etymology.

Tom writes about the dirty Leeds

Curiously, growing up in Nottingham and first going to football in 1970 (age four or five!), I wasn’t aware Derby actually had our own local rivals. At the time our big rivals were (so I was taught) Tom Palmer’s Leeds (or Damned) United. It was only when Notts Forest appointed Brian Clough that the rivalry (for me at least) began. Forest have a penchant for picking ex-Derby people to run their club, hence today it’s ex-England brolly-bearing Steve McClaren (a Derby midfielder and highly successful first-team coach) who was immediately preceded by the country’s prickliest manager, Billy Davies.

Some football commentators who don’t know better believe certain Derbies are bigger than others. That’s nonsense. Try telling the people of East Anglia that the Ipswich vs Norwich match isn’t as hotly contested as Arsenal vs Spurs or the good folk of Burnley and Preston that their northwest Derby is less important than a game between the two halves of Manchester.

Nowadays Derby and Nottingham are separated by the Brian Clough Way (formerly the A52) and every time the sides meet the contest the Brian Clough Trophy. In the very first minute of Saturday’s game, Forest striker Ishmael Miller seized on a ball in a crowded six-yard area to poke it past Derby and England goalkeeper Frankie Fielding. The shot was cleared but the players collided and referee Scott Mathieson Pointed to the penalty spot. There was absolutely nothing Fielding could do to get out of the way so it seemed harsh to say the least.

I’m sure the great Clough would have been far from happy with what happened next, as three Forest players immediately surrounded Mathieson, hounding him around the penalty area and clamouring for a red card. The intimidation worked. The penalty was scored and after a minute we were 1-0 down, our best player (from the current England squad) of the pitch and having to play the entire match with ten men!

That’s what I call a test of character. Last year I’d watched from the City Ground’s Bridgford End as the black and white half of the East Midlands was humiliated – at this point it was hard to envisage anything other than the same thing happening again, but this season’s Derby are proving to be made of sterner stuff.

We controlled the game - not as flamboyantly as with eleven players, but comfortably keeping the opposition at arm’s length. Some claimed our equalizer was controversial. With the Rams surging forward a Forest player went down (by himself and in full sight of the referee) behind the play, back in the Derby half. The ref waved play on. Had the roles been reversed the Nottingham faithful would have been incensed to see their team waste a scoring opportunity and kick the ball out, but the partisan nature of football meant a chorus of boos rang round the stadium. Happily the Derby players were not to be diverted and Jamie Ward scored a magnificent goal.

Young Jeff Hendrick

One of the special things about this season is the number of youth team players breaking through into the Rams first team. As a supporter you feel a special bond with players who’ve grown up locally and who, in this mercenary era, might just still feel something of the sense of loyalty and passion for the club that you do. An example is teenage midfielder Jeff Hendrick. With an our gone he somehow contrived a miss worthy of Torres, heading wide of an open goal from two yards out and with no one anywhere close. You had to wonder if it was going to be our day and if this might be a turning point. It was, but only that it drove Derby to redouble their efforts and take the game by the scruff of the neck.

Having missed his sitter, Hendrick didn’t hide and, ten minutes later, rifled home a shot from outside the area reminiscent of a young Steven Gerrard. Forest couldn’t respond. The Brian Clough trophy travelled back along the Brian Clough Way, to the city in which the family has called home for nearly fifty years; the Rams sit prettily in the Championship table with more than two points a game and two home games to come.

Football is partly the beautiful game because of the passion of the fans – nothing beats a noisy stadium with one set of supporters attempting to out-sing the others, or the brilliant banter between the fans. The problem often is that not everyone remembers it is only a game – there are far more important things happening in the world every single day than any football match.

In my new book, Johnny Mackintosh: Battle for Earth, the future of the entire planet is at stake, but Johnny is still able to play an inter-county tournament where his Essex school travels up to meet the teams from Nottingham and Derby (amongst others). It’s great that you can have a light-hearted play when writing a book, and I confess I had the team from Derby (my dad’s old school) beating the team from Nottingham (my old school!) in the opening match.

Back in the real world, Saturday’s local Derby might briefly have felt like the battle for Earth, but happily no blood was shed and the Rams remain well placed as the season continues. For me it was an epic encounter. Tomorrow, the game between Crewe Alexandra and Port Vale will feel just as important to fans of both teams.

Clarets Creative – fans stories

A few weeks ago Keith Mansfield wrote about the bungee cord that connects him to his club and how football keeps us hoping. A similar article in The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/aug/31/football-depression-spurs-john-crace) last week by John Crace, reminded me that even when your team is in the Premiership, hope is greater than certainty.

 The Clarets Creative project has been running in Burnley since June 2010. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, it is an oral history project, which by its very nature is about real stories rather than official history, fans rather than players, hope rather than certainty. In the case of Burnley FC, the fans have to be some of the most passionate, loyal and hopeful in the world (well every team would say that wouldn’t they) – but when it comes to thick and thin, surely Burnley fans can most ably demonstrate the ends to which they would go. Here is one story that has come out of the project, that illustrates what we mean. It is from the diary of Richard.

1983.
As we started to slip down the leagues the possibility of watching the team play at all 92 league grounds became a real possibility and many of us were determined to do it. As a result I found myself walking through 6 foot snow drifts in blizzard conditions one Friday in April, trying to get to Colne from Lothersdale . The reason was catching the Shoppers Special train from Manchester to Plymouth that evening. I managed to get to Colne soaked and half frozen. There I got a change of clothes at a mate’s house and we bussed it over to Manchester. Come 11pm there were 50 are so fans in the Brunswick pub off Piccadilly Gardens suitably refreshed and ready for the trip.

After a narrow defeat and the long journey back to Manchester the next day we weren’t quite as high spirited .We spent the endless night huddled in the waiting room at Victoria Station before getting the first train back to Colne on Sunday morning. I was still faced with a six mile walk home, which I managed before sleeping for 18 hours solid. All part of the experience of being a Burnley fan!

So what is oral history – and why is it so important to football?

Oral history is about capturing stories and memories of good times and bad: things that stick in the memory for reasons that are more to do with the fan rather than the club. As such it helps explain why a club is so important to local people and plays such a large part in the life of a town. If football is more important than life (to misquote a certain football manager), then this project might just help us to understand why.

The project has also been about creativity. Being creative makes us realise who we really are, and it is good for us! From the perspective of this project, this might be about decorating your car for the play-offs, hanging your lucky sock over your bed, collecting a set of badges or painting your face in a new design for every home game (and getting local people to come up with ideas to keep you in designs). 

Of course Burnley does have its very proud official history – Burnley was one of the founder members of the Football League. This project acknowledges that, but then takes things a step further by recording a personal archive that links to this. It has valued the experiences of local people and has created something that they can be proud of.

The final exhibition showing what has been created during the project is being held in Towneley Hall Museum and Art Gallery, Burnley from 19 September to 17 December 2011. On Sunday afternoons we will be there with an Artist in Residence. But if you can’t get there, then the following is a sneak preview:

1.       Objects of passion
Loaned objects from fans: everything from a Turf Moor brick to tea cosy and a lucky hat. These objects of passion mean a great deal to the fans who have loaned them, as told in the stories that go with the object.

2.       Stories Stories have arrived in many different ways and express the depth of emotion and the fantastic experiences that many fans have had as they have followed Burnley over the years. They include the telling of traditions, superstitions and memories – both happy and sad.

Football acts as the thread that runs through the lives of many people in Burnley. It ties together important events in a fan's life and helps many to talk about family loyalties, social contacts, first jobs or the ups and downs of the team (which reflect the ups and downs of life).

Some fans wrote short pieces onto beer mats, others told their story into a microphone. On our website you will find longer pieces, plus some of the pieces from this exhibition. www.claretscreative.com

3.       Made in Burnley (and Pendle)
Part of the aim of this project was to hold workshops across the local area to help fans capture their memories either by story telling or in a visual way. The photographs, paintings and sculptures in this case reflect the stories of those who like to do it visually.

4.       Folk ArtSome fans have expressed their love of Burnley FC in their own way. We especially love the
themed painting “Breaking All the Rules” (taken from above one fan’s fire place).

5.       Fans
These photographs have been recorded as part of the project and reflect what it really means to be a Burnley fan.

Please come along – we look forward to seeing you.

 Janet Swan

Labels: Burnley FC, Clarets Creative, Towneley Hall
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A Window Of Opportunity - Dan Tunstall

Not everyone in football is a fan of the Transfer Windows in January and July/August. Respected figures in the game like Steve Coppell, the former Reading manager, and Sven Goran Eriksson, ex of Man City and England, now at the helm at Leicester, have spoken out against them.

According to Coppell and Eriksson, the Transfer Windows have a destabilising effect. Managers can suddenly find themselves without key players and struggling clubs are often forced into panic buying in the mid-season window in a desperate attempt to preserve their status in a particular division, sometimes with disastrous effects for their finances.

I can see the value in these arguments, but it seems like the Transfer Windows are here to stay. And the one thing that no-one can deny is that they provide plenty of drama. The two Deadline Days have become a bit of an extravaganza on Sky Sports News over the past few years, but there's plenty to enjoy in the lead-up period too.

As a writer, I spend a lot of my days sitting in my office staring at a blank screen on my laptop, wondering where I'm going to produce some words from. At times like these, as a bit of a distraction, I often find myself Googling "latest transfer rumours". And for a Leicester fan, this summer has been a cracker. In addition to all the players we signed (I think it was twelve, but I might have lost count), we seemed to be linked with every striker under the sun.

Andy Johnson. Cameron Jerome. Yakubu. Victor Anichebe. Shane Long. Nicky Maynard. Nikica Jelavic. Simon Cox. Adam le Fondre. Robbie Keane. Matt Derbyshire...the list went on and on.

In the end, our only piece of transfer business on Deadline Day was bringing in Jermaine Beckford from Everton. Scored lots of goals in League One, did OK in the Premier League last season. Hopefully should be a good signing.

In the meantime, I'm going to have to find something else to do with my time when I'm supposed to be writing. Although I suppose I could keep an eye on what's happening in the loan market...

www.dantunstall.com

Women's Super League - end of season one

As I type this Manchester United have just trounced Arsenal 8-2 but I've just returned from something even more significant - the last match of the season in the first FA Women's Super League (WSL). I attended the mid-table clash between Lincoln Ladies and Bristol Academy.

Bristol Academy 

The result was a 3-1 win for Lincoln with two goals from new signing Jodie Taylor either side of the half, a third from Lucy Staniforth and an OG for Bristol from Imps' captain  Casey Stoney.  For some ace photographs from the match go to Mark Hodsman's blog on : http://networkedblogs.com/mfNPJ

Jodie Taylor scored twice for Lincoln Ladies

It means the table now looks like this:

Team                    PL.   Pts
Arsenal                14    32
Birmingham          14    29
Everton                13    22
Lincoln                 14    21
Bristol A              14    16
Chelsea                 13   15
Doncaster B         14     9
Liverpool             14     7

So on a humiliating day for the men's Arsenal team, the women's team once more take home the silverware. Some will say little has changed. Before the WSL Arsenal Ladies frequently beat all comers in both league and cup matches. However, the FAs redistribution of quality players at the beginning of the season meant that Arsenal weren't automatic winners this time. Birmingham City were top for quite a while and gave them a good run for their money. Indeed Lincoln Ladies beat Arsenal recently and have shown remarkable tenacity in the post-World Cup half of the season. That's not to take anything away from Arsenal's achievement. They are a force to be reckoned with. Long live the Gunners!

Arsenal Ladies win the first WSL

I'm not sure what the overall consensus will be on whether the super league experiment - if I can call it that - has worked. I'm sure websites like She Kicks and Women's Soccer United will have all the facts and figures  but from what I've read and seen having the women's season in the warmer months must have helped and the injection of cash from the FA has definitely generated more media attention. Crowds have improved but nothing like enough. There were 381 at the game today compared to over 700 at the opening match and it was free in. Pre-match publicity asked for 'donations' at the end but adult prices are usually only £6.00 anyway compared with the £25.00 I pay to watch Huddersfield in League 1. So the game is hardly a money spinner yet. Facilities have a way to go, too, at least at Ashby Avenue. It has only one grotty loo and I witnessed a mum having to change her baby's nappy on the grass outside. Not ideal. 

Still, unlike the men's game it isn't all about the money and the fancy hospitality suites. It's about upping the profile of the women's game. It's about showing that women can play and can play well (for evidence of that watch the Women's World Cup Final from July - terrific). It's about encouraging young girls to see football as something they can join and enjoy. I love it when I see, as I did today, 8 year olds with female footballers' names on the back of their shirts.  More of that please.

Helena Pielichaty

http://www.helena-pielichaty.com/

Bedding in - Huddersfield Town v Colchester United

Game 4 in League 1 and Huddersfield are bedding in. After the excitement of the play-offs against Peterborough in May and with an unbeaten run of 28 matches Town are a much-fancied side for promotion. However, the unbeaten run includes a lot of draws and three of those have been this season. Fans have started to get agitated and manager Lee Clark called for support, not boos, at the game against Colchester.

We began sprightly enough with a well worked goal in the 3rd minute from striker Jordan Rhodes after a sharp cross from Jack Hunt who had outspaced his marker. 'Hey up,' I thought, 'this is going to be easy.' You'd think after watching Town play for almost 30 years I'd have known better than to let such an idea pass through my head. Less than two minutes later Colchester equalised with Town defender Peter Clarke being bettered by Odejayi.  Still, Rhodes had another chance not long afterwards that produced a brilliant save. Town were looking good. But after the bright start it all went a bit flat.  Our defence was continually breached with Naysmith in particular seeming slow on the right wing. Colchester scored a second (Antonio on 27) and I'm afraid Town players were booed off by some fans as the half ended.

The second half was different again. Danny Ward, who signed a permanent contract during summer, came on for Gary Roberts. Ward's a quality player, pacy and with great ball control. He changed the game. For the next twenty minutes Town had their best spell and played how they should have been playing all season. Rhodes equalised on 59 and Novak put us 3-2 up five minutes later. The last twenty minutes was spent defending the lead.

The win puts Town on 6 points and 11th in the league. 

 Jordan Rhodes

Meanwhile the top of the table looks like this:
                 pts
MK Dons 10
Charlton   10
Sheff U     10
Brentford   9
Preston      7

At the other end Leyton Orient have yet to grab a point and newly promotoed Chesterfield are also having a slow start.

Still, it's early days. Give us a few more weeks, a bit of bad weather and the inevitable injuries and we'll start to see which teams look like being contenders. I hope Town are in there.


Helena Pielichaty

http://www.helena-pielichaty.com/

Wake-Up Call For Sven's Men - Dan Tunstall

Over this summer, you'd be forgiven for thinking that my club, Leicester City, has undergone a name change. We're not just Leicester City any more. We're Big Spending Leicester City.

After a fairly quiet start to their reign, our new owners, the Thai-based King Power Group, have started flexing their financial muscle. Suddenly, we're throwing money around like it's going out of fashion. At the last count, we'd brought in eleven new players since May. A lot of these were for undisclosed fees, but the word on the street is that we have spent upwards of £10 million.

Of course, everything's relative. Getting eleven players for ten million quid seems like pretty sensible business when you compare it to the sort of transfer fees the Manchester clubs and Liverpool have been paying this summer. Even the supposedly frugal Arsenal have just splashed out £12 million for an untested 17 year old. But for Leicester City, and for the Championship, £10 million is serious money.

The thing about spending big though, is that people expect immediate results. And that's the tricky part. We started the season well enough. A 1-0 win at Coventry on the opening day, despite having Darius Vassell sent off for a rash two-footed challenge ten minutes in, and a comfortable 4-1 Carling Cup victory at Rotherham. But on Saturday, Reading came to town.

I don't know what it is about Reading, but we never seem to be able to beat them. In fact we don't seem to be able to get so much as a draw very often. For the fourth successive time, Reading ended the game with all three points.

All of a sudden, the pressure is on. Was the Reading result just a blip, a one-off, or have we got problems? Have we tried to change too much too soon? Will all the new players be able to gel together as a team, or will we end up as an expensive jumble of individuals?

These are all tricky questions, and the man in charge of putting people's minds at rest is our manager Sven Goran Eriksson. True to form, Sven's playing it cool. It's just the sort of wake-up call we needed, he thinks. We've got another home game against Bristol City on Wednesday night. The perfect opportunity to get back in the groove.

I hope he's right. Because if we don't do the business on Wednesday, our next match is away at local rivals Notts Forest - never a happy hunting ground. And if we lose there...well, people are going to start panicking.

Football. Don't you just love it?

www.dantunstall.com

The Great Bungee Cord of the Football Fan - Keith Mansfield

You can never escape your football supporting roots. From the fateful day as a kid that you start going to matches and getting behind your team, there’s this unbreakable cord that binds you together for life. Sometimes you’re bound tightly; at others you think you might have escaped, that you’re finally free to live a normal life that’s not dominated by James Alexander Gordon’s pronouncements at 5pm on a Saturday afternoon. But that unbreakable bungee binding you and your team together always pulls you back.

Unless you choose to follow one of the “big” teams then your football-supporting life is likely to have more downs than ups – there are a lot of teams and only a few can win trophies or be promoted each season. But, if supporting a less fashionable outfit what you find is that the highs can be such great moments, largely because of their rarity.

I suppose I’m saying football is an addiction and you always want one more great hit. You have no right to expect you’ll get it, but the problem is there’s always hope. There’s always a secret belief you dare not speak that this season could be the one when everything clicks and you taste success again.

The great thing is that everyone starts every season equal, even if it’s with the classic Eurovision nil point (unless your team’s recently been in receivership). However bad your previous season has been (and there’s been little for a Derby fan to shout about for some time) you can always believe the new one will bring a surprise. Success in football is a lot about building and maintaining momentum – get on a good run and who knows where it will take you.

Derby County never begin a season well and are always playing catchup. Last season, after another dreadful start I was determined not to let the team’s performances get in the way of my day-to-day life. Then we had a brilliant run late in 2010 when we were unstoppable, playing the most attractive football seen at Pride Park for a decade. The bungee cord connecting me to my team reeled me right back in and I found myself going to games home and away. The club stormed from nowhere up to 4th place and I convinced myself promotion was just around the corner. How did things turn out? We finished a miserable 19th in the table, just three places above the drop zone.

Thankfully I spent much of the summer working in North America, still largely a football-free zone (especially when it comes to news of the Championship as opposed to the “English Premier League” or “EPL”). I arrived home, thoroughly jetlagged, about 2pm on Saturday 6th August, just an hour before the new season kicked off. Having avoided it all summer, I turned on Radio 5Live and Derby were the main commentary game.

It’s impossible to sleep on planes so by the time I reached home I’d been awake for almost forty hours. I crawled to my bed with the radio blaring out close to my ear. Fighting and failing to stay awake, the last thing I heard was us going a goal behind. I drifted off to sleep certain in the knowledge of another season of disappointment that I should do my best not to bother about.

The beeps of various texts woke me up. The Rams were victorious. Beating Birmingham City, a team in the Premier League last season, was no mean feat. I felt that elastic band yanking me and my team close together. Roll on Tuesday and the chance to get a second victory under our belts quickly in the Carling Cup at home against lower league Shrewsbury. What could go wrong? My excitement was mounting…

At half-time the score was Derby County 0 Shrewsbury Town 3. I blamed myself – I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. Saturday’s result was clearly a fluke. If only I could I should cut this giant bungee cord and walk away. But then we come back. Not enough to achieve a glorious morale-boosting victory, but a final score of 2-3 shows at least there’s hope.

This Saturday, away at Watford we win again. It’s backs to the wall stuff built on dogged defence but the boys are playing as a team – playing for each other. It’s only two wins but when you’re a Rams fan that equals the best league start since 1973 when Nigel Clough was already sitting in the dugout but his dad was in charge. We were third in the The League Table and only below Brighton in third by that narrowest of possible margins – alphabetical order. I’m well and truly back in the fold, the bungee wrapped tightly around me, binding me and my team close.

Win on Wednesday at Blackpool and we could be in an automatic promotion place. Hope springs eternal.

Visit the Keith Mansfield or Johnny Mackintosh (my football-playing hero's books) websites.

Japan win the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup

History was made yesterday when Japan became the first Asian team to win the Women's World Cup. They beat favourites USA in a thrilling contest that went to extra time and penalties. In Frankfurt the stadium was sold out with over 45,000 people watching the spectacle. In the UK, BBC3 showed it live on TV and Twitter went into meltdown. There were something like 7,000 tweets a second - a new record for the social network site.  What was great on Twitter (I was joining in) was the general sense of admiration - from female fans, from sports pundits and from professional male players such as Rio Ferdinand and Cesc Fabrigas. Everyone was commenting on the standard of play, the passion and the understanding of the game both sides showed.
In the first half, USA were dominant and looked likely to win but although they had most possession and plenty of chances they couldn't convert. Then, early in the second half USA's super sub Morgan gave them the lead in the 68th minute. Japan, however, kept calm. They continued their dogged and determined passing game that eventually paid off with Miyama's goal in the 81st minute. Extra time was much more end to end with heroics from both teams' keepers and defenders. Again USA scored (the outstanding Wambach 104th minute) and again Japan replied, this one from the indefatigable Sawa four minutes from the end! to make it 2-2.
So yet another match was decided on penalties with Japan totally outshining a somewhat dejected USA to win convincingly 3-1.

World Cup honours:

Winners: Japan
Runners up: USA
Third: Sweden (AET)
Fourth: France

Golden boot: Homare Sawa (Japan)
Silver boot: Marta (Brazil)
Silver ball: Abby Wambach (USA)

Golden Glove: Hope Solo (USA)

Fair Play award: Japan

Best young player: Caitlin Foord (AUS)

Homare Sawa of Japan









As small consolation England's Alex Scott and Jill Scott were selected in FIFAs 'All Star' team of the tournament. I should also point out that England were the only team to beat Japan!

Other trivia:

• The German referee for the final. Bibiana Steinhaus, had to work overtime to be allowed time off from her job as a policewoman to officiate!  Can you imagine that happening in the men's game? 
• Sepp Blatter, head of FIFA, was booed by the crowd at the award ceremony. He is unpopular because he has little regard for the women's game and once said he might watch it if the women wore tighter tops. Ignoramus.
• Marta was also on the receiving end of some negativity from the crowd. The golden girl of football (FIFA Player of the Year)  displayed a petulance not usually found in the women's game during the semi-final between Brazil and USA.
• England coach Hope Powell was reported to have stirred up a hornet's nest by calling the England team 'cowards' when they allegedly refused to volunteer to take the penalties during the shoot out against France (see earlier blog). It wouldn't surprise me if she were replaced over the next year or so.
• Germany and Norway, two of the top sides in the world, will not be able to participate in the 2012 Olympics owing to their early departure. This seems harsh to me. Team GB qualify because we're the hosts.

All in all Germany 2011 has been a great  showcase for women's football. I hope as a result of the excellent media coverage the game gets a higher profile and I also hope my Girls FC books sell in shedloads as a result!!

Helena Pielichaty      http://www.helena-pielichaty.com/

Three Lions on her shirt - Helena Pielichaty

So another campaign ends at the quarter final stage for England. The brave lionesses were sent out of the Women's World Cup last night after misses by Rafferty and White in a tense penalty shoot out. It was a huge blow.  After drawing 1-1 against France in the first ninety minutes and hanging on by a thread through extra time because of injuries to  Smith and White I began to think that maybe, just maybe, we might snatch victory especially after Bardsley saved the first penalty. Then there was Smith's conversion to boost hope further. For half an hour she'd been limping, barely able to move to the ball but remaining on the pitch because we had no more subs left. When she walked up to take the third penalty I was amazed. 'Come on! Surely someone else will take it?  But I should have had more faith and I should have known the psychology of football better. No way was Smith going to give up this opportunity. This was her Stuart 'Psycho' Pearce moment. She buried it, no messing.
 But our two misses to France's one ended the dream of progressing to the semis.
From a neutral's perspective the right team won. France had played the better football, created more chances and shown more flare but England never gave up. They dug in. Bardsley had been fantastic - man of the match for me - saving everything that came at her. So much so that France's equaliser, in the 88th minute, came as a shock. Deserved but a shock nevertheless. 

A bigger shock came in the next quarter final. Germany, the hosts and favourites to win, lost to Japan a team England had beaten 2-0 in the group stages. Japan were so tenacious, doggedly absorbing everything the German side threw at them.

The remaining quarter finals are Sweden v Australia and Brazil v USA. Prepare for more upsets!

This Women's World Cup has been a joy. The standard of football has improved drastically over the last few years; so much so that it is now a spectacle worth watching. Gone are the days of heavy defeats and embarrassing moments. These women can play as crowds of over 20,000 per match (72,000 in the opener) testify.

The End of Football? - Tom Palmer

I was walking across a park in Cambridge recently and saw this sprayed onto the ground. The picture seems fitting now. The football season is over. No Leeds United games for two months.

Do you feel it on Saturdays? That lack of something.

My wife picks up on it. What's the matter with you? she asks. Have Leeds lost again?

No, I tell her. It's worse: they're not even playing.

But don't despair. There IS football. It's the Women's World Cup from 26 June. And England are in it to win it.

http://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/matches/index.html

If you want to know more about the women's game, you are better listening to Helena Pielichaty than me. I hope she will be blogging about it here. She writes the Girls FC series and it is very good. Her daughter
used to play for West Brom.

I love football, so I will love watching England's women. But I still have my eye on 17 June, when the Leeds fixtures are out and on 31 July, when I am taking my daughter to Leeds v Newcastle, the pre-season game.

League One Play-off Final 2011 Huddersfield Town 0 Peterborough United 3

I blame Tom Palmer. If I hadn't bumped into him at Harshead Moor Services on the way to the match we wouldn't have lost. Having coffee with a Leeds United fan ahead of an important game like that was bound to influence the outcome.
It began so well, too. The atmosphere outside the ground was buzzing as 31,000 Town fans and 17,000 Posh fans descended on Trafford Way, our combined blue and white colours morphing into one. The air resonated with the sound of fans' singing and the pungency of fried onions from the numerous burger vans lining the surrounding streets. People took it in turns to take photographs beneath the iconic statue of George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton outside the main entrance with Town fans having bragging rights as Denis was one of our players before Man U.

Despite its vastness compared to the Glapharm, Old Trafford is easy to navigate and we found our seats in the Stretford End nae bather. It does take your breath away as you come up the stairs and out into the 'ampitheatre' of dreams - especially when blue and white instead of red is the dominant colour. Dean Hoyle, chairman of HTAFC, bless him, had made sure the fans each had a 'Believe' t shirt on their seat to greet them. We were in one of the blue sections. It all added to the day.

The first half was OK. Not brilliant but OK. Peterborough probably edged it with their ace striker Craig Mackail-Smith proving a handful. Luckily Antony Kay was on full alert and made some timely tackles to prevent him scoring. At half-time our unbeaten run of 27 matches without loss was intact. Hopes were high. Town are renouned for coming out all guns blazing in the second half.

The play-off final proved no exception. We ran it. For 30 minutes we ran it. If you watched it on TV you'll know we ran it. Hunt, Roberts, Ward and Afobe were immense. making incisive runs into the box with Hunt's cross on 58 minutes coming so close to scoring the opener and a great chance for Afobe on 75. Then disaster. We gave away a free-kick on the edge of their penalty area. It took a slight deflection off Naysmith and Rowe scored on 78. We could have coped - we would have equalised, I'm sure - but two minutes later they scored again. Mackail-Smith (who else?) from a deflection off Kay. That second goal on 80 minutes was the killer. Town slumped. Heads went down. Tackles became less cautious in dangerous areas. Peter Clarke's foul set up their third on 85 minutes. Game over.

I barely noticed. I was distracted by things landing on my head from the upper tier. Dean Hoyles' t shirts were being lobbed by some 'fans' in disgust. Higher up to my right a fight had broken out. A fight!  Among our own fans!  Disgraceful scenes followed before stewards stepped in to eject the idiots. According to Twitter five or six men had been obnoxious all match, kicking off big time after the second goal. When people complained they turned on them, with one woman being spat at full in the face and a guy having his head kicked in - in front of horrified families. It beggars belief. I hope the bunch of morons are banned for life. Town, like every club, has always had a cretinous element among the rank and file of decent fans; it's just a pity they were allowed off their leashes for the final.

That soured things further to say the least. However, unlike some 'fans' - I'm having to use inverted commas a lot here - I stayed until the end. I clapped our lads. They'd given their all, not just today but throughout the season. Peter Clarke was in tears. Clarke, our toughest guy, our hard nut defender, crying his eyes out. Proof, if needed of how much he cared. Proof, if needed, that Town will be back, refreshed, regrouped and gunning for automatic. So yes, the 2010-11 season is officially over. In the words of the great philosopher, Vinny Jones, it's been emotional.

Roll on August!


Helena Pielichaty

PS Sorry about lack of images - I took loads of photos but Blogger's being awkward and won't let me download them. Will try again later.

For some of us the season isn't over...

Congratulations to Narinder Dhami and her team Wolves' Great Escape yesterday on Survival Sunday but hard lines to Ian Holloway's plucky Blackpool team who were relegated. However, for some of us the season continues. The mighty Huddersfield Town march on. This coming Sunday we meet up with Peterborough United at Old Trafford to decide who takes the last remaining place in the Championship. I hope you'll all be watching! I'll wave to you from the Stretford End if you do. We've sold 26,000 tickets already and two fans are travelling over from New Zealand.

It should be a great match. Sir Alex Ferguson's son, Darren, has done a fine job as manager of Peterborough. His side romped home in the second play-off semi-final leg against MK Dons. Town's match against Bournemouth was much more evenly balanced and went to penalties. Argh!  Talk about tense. My nails are only just recovering.

Anyway, watch this space. Lee Clark's barmy army are on our way. Come on Town!

Helena Pielichaty

http://www.helena-pielichaty.com/

An Opportunity Missed - Dan Tunstall

So another season for Leicester City has come to an end.

Our final match was a 4-2 home win against Ipswich on May 7th, but the season effectively finished on Good Friday when we lost 3-2 at local rivals Nottingham Forest in a game we needed to win to have any realistic chance of making the Play-offs. Ironically, Forest's winner resulted from a goalkeeping howler by fans' favourite Chris Weale, recently restored to the team in place of the erratic Ricardo.

Looking back on the last nine months, 2010-2011 has to be considered a disappointment. A missed opportunity. There were no outstanding teams in the Championship this year, no Newcastles or West Broms, and after coming within a fluffed penalty kick of the Play-off final in 2010, hopes were high for this campaign. But things just didn't work out. Why? Well there are lots of reasons.

Parting company with Nigel Pearson in the summer was a big blow, and the short, disastrous reign of Paolo Sousa didn't help. The arrival of Sven Goran Eriksson got our season under way again, but we'd left ourselves too much to do. In the end we were like the runner who fell over on the starting line, ran like a maniac to catch up with the pack, but was too tired to kick on round the last bend. Considering we were bottom of the table after ten games, to finish tenth was a decent achievement. But really, we were hoping for so much more.

Perhaps our biggest problem was our inconsistency. Two statistics sum up Leicester City in 2010-2011. Firstly, we scored more goals at home (48) than any other side in the Championship. But balanced against that, we conceded more goals away from home (44) than Preston and Sheffield United, two of the teams relegated to League One.

All in all though, I'm not too downhearted. I've seen worse. Much, much worse. And as the transfer speculation starts to mount, I can't help thinking this is going to be an interesting summer.

Roll on August...

www.dantunstall.com

Can we survive?

As you might have guessed, I've spent the last couple of weeks watching the ever-changing bottom half of the Premiership, wondering who's going to be relegated. It's been even more exciting than the race for top spot (well, it's never that exciting, really, is it? We all know it's going to be Man U, Chelsea or Arsenal up there... Hopefully Man City will pep things up a bit more next season).
Anyway, back to the bottom. Apart from West Ham, it's still all up for grabs. I always felt that Wolves were just about good enough to stay up (without any bias), but have they left it too late? Will they lose to Blackburn? Will I have any fingernails left after next week's games? My predictions are that Blackpool and Birmingham will join West Ham in the championship (sorry to any fans of those clubs); on the other hand, it could be Wolves and Wigan. Or maybe Wigan and Blackpool...
That's the great thing about football - no-one really knows what will happen. It's what keeps us all watching.

The Women's Super League - an update

Well, the Women's Super League is half way through. The eight teams are having a break as players prepare for the Women's World Cup that starts at the end of June.

The table looks like this:

Team                           Played    Points
Birmingham City              7          17
Arsenal                            6          13
Chelsea Ladies                7          12
Everton                            6           7
Bristol Academy              7           7
Doncaster Belles              7          7
Lincoln Ladies                 7           5
Liverpool                         7           3


As you can see from the points there seems to be a definite gap between the top three and the bottom five. I'm not sure how true a reflection of the teams this is. I've watched Lincoln Ladies play three times and read the reports in the Lincolnshire Echo for matches I haven't attended and in my opinion the difference in standard between them and their opposition hasn't been that great. The Lady Imps have never once been swamped or thrashed by their opposition - even Birmingham and Arsenal. When they've lost it's been by one goal. The main missing ingredient seems to be the lack of a striker to put the ball away. If it's the same for Liverpool, Doncaster and Bristol the mid season break will give coaches a chance to shore up the deficiencies and come out firing on all cylinders after the World Cup. Well, that's my theory anyway!

I think the FAs initial idea of 'pooling' talent has worked fairly well. The idea of sharing the top players round has made for much more even and fast paced games. What I'm not sure about is how the original 'base' team has adjusted to the new hotshot signings and vice versa. Teams take a while to bed in and get used to each other. And how do some team members like the fact that while they're earning peanuts, four of their squad are on £20K (still peanuts but jumbo variety). I'd love to be a fly on the dressing room wall!

One good thing about the new league has been the increased interest in media terms. There was a whole ten minutes about the origins of the game on the One Show last Wednesday. Gabby Logan interviewed Gail Newsham about Dick, Kerr Ladies (see previous blogs). In girls magazines, too, women footballers are increasingly being mentioned and features. This is real progress. The more girls read about, and see, sportswomen as media-worthy the more they'll choose them as role models instead of vacuous wannabes who've done nothing more than look pretty and got ahead thanks to daddy's money.

The daily newspapers have been less enthusiastic. After an initial flurry of interest it's back to the same old mass reportage of the men's game and nothing about the women. The good old Guardian seems to be about the only one who regularly reports results. However on a local level it's a different matter. The Lincolnshire Echo has been fantastic at supporting their WSL team. On Friday they carried a whole page report of the match between Lincoln Ladies and Chelsea, complete with photos, interviews, stats and marks out of ten for each player. In other words, they got the same coverage as the men's team. OK, poor Lincoln City FC have just been relegated out of the football league so there's not a lot for the Echo to write home about there but to be fair the Echo has always been generous in it's coverage of the women's game. Well done that paper!

Twitter is even better. Through that I've discovered that there are loads of websites and contacts dedicated to women's football. http://www.shekicks.net/  is one. So we're getting there. Now, if my Girls FC books can be part of that groundswell, I'll be chuffed to bits!

Helena Pielichaty http://www.helena-pielichaty.com/

Keith Mansfield

I’m Keith and I’m a Derby fan. There – I’ve admitted it. I actually grew up in West Bridgford, Nottingham, the location of the City Ground. However, from when I was five years old I shared a season ticket to the Baseball Ground, then home of Brian Clough’s Derby County, with my older brother. We alternated matches, but I seemed to get all the good ones. My dad’s from Derby and I guess he didn’t want us led astray by the locals.

Keith Mansfield in front of the Clough & Taylor statue at Derby County's Pride Park Stadium

In those days the pitch was famously a mudbath, but the football was beautiful. Under Clough and assistant, Peter Taylor, Derby won the league title and reached the semifinals of the European Cup (the days when the Champions League was for champions only), losing controversially to Juventus. A few years later we won the league again under Dave Mackay and I remember watching us demolish Real Madrid 4-1 at the Baseball Ground in another European Cup campaign, with a Charlie George hat-trick.

Nowadays, the Pride Park pitch is a smooth carpet of green, like a snooker table, but the quality of the football doesn’t live up to it. There’s a new Clough in charge, young Nigel, tasked with cutting the wagebill while delivering mid-table Championship mediocrity – it’s not a recipe for excitement although briefly, earlier this season, we found ourselves playing some of the best football for years. Could next season see a promotion charge? Might Clough Jnr take the Rams in the same direction as his father? Right now it seems far from likely, but success in football’s so much about confidence and momentum. Whoever we support, we know it doesn’t take much to spark our enthusiasm and what’s great is that things can change so quickly from one season to the next – from one game to the next. So, come next August, we can all believe again, however mad it might appear now.

I write books about a boy called Johnny Mackintosh (and his sister Clara). They’re really science fiction adventures, so you might wonder what I'm doing on this blog, but there’s a lot of football in all the stories. On the very first page of my very first book, Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London, we meet Johnny in his school football kit – white shirts and black shorts that just happen to mirror Derby’s. Early in the second book we even visit the site of the now demolished Baseball Ground. And Johnny plays matches in all the books.

As well as being a fan all my life, I captained my school and university teams and I want the football in my stories to read as authentically as possible. I love this blog and can’t wait to write some bits and pieces for it. For those of you still with things to play for at this the business end of the season: (a) you’re lucky and (b) I hope it goes well for you.

You can read more about me at http://www.keithmansfield.co.uk/.

Here come the girls!

The Women's Super League kicked off last night. At 5.30 Chelsea took on Arsenal in front of the TV cameras and a crowd of over 2000. Arsenal bagged the three points with a 1-0 victory over their London rivals. While that was going on I travelled to Sincil Bank, home of Lincoln City FC, to watch Lincoln Ladies take on their 'local' (as in 40 miles away) rivals Doncaster Belles.

Lincoln City are struggling in League 2 at the moment (they should never have got rid of ace ex- Huddersfield Town manager Pete Jackson so readily) and their ground could do with a bit of TLC. Nevertheless I find the old terraced housing that surrounds Sincil Bank comforting, a throw back to times when football was a game for the working classes located in the heart of their community. I'm all for a bit of nostalgia - and humour. I loved the fish and chip shop on the corner called the 'Back of the Net.'

There was an air of excitement outside the turnstiles. A quick survey of the queue showed a fair mix of people - male and female, young and old. I bought a programme - £1.50 - and liked the fact they were giving away postcards of some of the players with them. I got England international Sophie Bradley.

At the turnstiles I flashed my season ticket with pride (£24) and my daughter and her boyfriend paid their £6 entrance fee. Once inside, all the fans were ushered into the main stand - there is no need for segregation at women's matches. The crowd is neither large enough not ugly enough to warrant it. We found seats towards the back and above the half way line.

We could have done with a few drums and a 'singing end' to keep the momentum going but we did have a Donny Belles fan with a handbell (bell - Belles - gerrit?). Everytime it rang I thought lessons had ended or we were at a boxing match. I hope Arsenal fans don't bring a cannon (though Everton can bring toffees...)

Then the two teams emerged into the cold night air and the applause of the 742 crowd.

Guess who the ref was? Sian Massey, the fourth official caught up in the Richard Keys/Andy Gray sexism row (see earlier blog). Anyway, that small distraction aside, the match began. Doncaster Belles came out the stronger and looked more assured on the ball and in set pieces. Lincoln took longer to settle. Sue Smith and Jess Clarke got plenty of the ball but were thwarted by a solid Belles' defence.  Belles pushed and pushed and Vicky Exley deservedly scored just before the end of half time.
 Bringing on Sophie Walton after the break seemed to add that bit of impetus to the Imps. The second half was much more lively and both sides played some great football. My daughter, who'd watched the Chelsea v Arsenal match on TV, said they were just as good as the London teams. Casey Stoney (ex Arsenal) began to exert her influence with some beautifully controlled crosses. Sue Smith came closest to scoring the equaliser and keeper Kay Hawke pulled off an absolutely brilliant save towards the end to prevent Belles going 2-0 up.

So Belles drew first blood and took the three points but Lincoln Ladies have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of; they showed great potential. Ace captain Megan Harris and her team can hold their heads high and go into the next match full of confidence.

 Lincoln Ladies

Post-match post mortem

 Read the full match report on Lincoln Ladies website or Doncaster Belles'

Helena Pielichaty