First Division

Wearing my Derry City shirt over here in England I do get the odd, er…odd look. I’ve been mistaken for a Stoke City, a Sunderland, and an Inter Milan fan, among others on occasion (home, home, and away kits respectively). We play ‘jumpers-for-goalposts’ (or Finn Harps) level football in the park at the weekend and while it’s can be a great way of breaking the ice with people, everyone spent last weekend asking me how I felt about losing the FA Cup to Manchester City.

Sadly, it’s the ...

Both sides of Manchester will be celebrating this weekend as both United and City clinched the top prizes in English domestic football. For them and, indeed, all British clubs, players and fans, it's almost time for a well-earned breather before the pre-season matches, transfer speculation and season 2011-12 preparations get fully underway in July.

On this side of the water through, we're just into a dozen games into the season with plenty to come, not least the inevitable trials ...

We’ve all heard it; like a particularly tone-dead, annoying, half-witted cuckoo heralding the Spring, it recurs with depressing regularity, often around this time of the year as the Premiership season nears it’s conclusion.

Yes, it’s that hoary old chestnut, “I don’t go to League of Ireland games because the fans are too cliquey and they won’t make someone outside their gang feel welcome.” League of Ireland fans “look down from a self-appointed pedestal,” denigrating those foolhardy ...

“It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.”
A. Bartlett Giamatti

Strange things, leads. Like an investment banker checking his bank balance, you can never be too far in front. And when things go the other way, any lead at all will inevitably ...

Nice little article from Eamon Sweeney in today's Independent contrasting the passion and the excitement on display in the midweek FAI Cup quarter-finals, which saw three of the top tips for the trophy go crashing out, with the soporific Champions League ties on the same night:

"There is something deeply shallow about the affection of Irish sports fans for English soccer teams. A minority of men and women spend a lot of time and money making the journey across the water to follow ...

90th minute winners are part of the mythology of football. Every football fan can recall the games that went down to virtually the last kick, with the goal either coming 'at last' or else out of nowhere as the game appeared to be heading to it's prescribed conclusion. It's part of the thrill of football that goals have such a high value, making them a stronger currency than say, a rugby try, or a wicket in cricket and to score one at the very end of a game, when the opposition has no time to respond ...