And the Rollercoaster Moves On Again

I should probably be talking today about the Champions League semi-finals, or the spat between Guardiola and Mourinho, or the Snooker World Championships nearing their end, or whatever. But, to me this last week has meant only one sporting story - the relegation of Swindon Town to the fourth tier of English football.

Just 11 short months ago, Swindon were facing Millwall in the final of the League One play-offs to determine who would claim the final promotion place to the (ridiculously named) Championship. I don't think anybody who was watching that day would have thought that we would be looking at relegation down to the basement of league football less than a year later.

There are a number of reasons why this has come about, all of which I know every Town fan is sick of hearing. Sold a number of the best players, never properly replaced, board dithered over changing manager, poor tactics, ..... I could go on for hours. The fact is we are where we are because the players that were put out onto the pitch did not perform to the expected level. A lot of them are now out of contract and a big rebuilding job is clearly needed. The current stop-gap manager, Paul Hart, is not in my opinion the man to carry out that rebuilding process. His reign has seen little change from that which went before at a time when a big change in attitude, if nothing else, was needed. Very negative tactics and some bizarre substitutions, together with an extremely haughty manner when dealing with the media (and through them the fans) has destroyed any semblance of credibility he had with the Town faithful. The team are not inspired and the fans are merely agitated. A change is needed.

And a change did come today - the resignation of chairman Andrew Fitton. He is the man who, three years ago, led a consortium that saved the club from the brink of bankruptcy and liquidation and I will be forever grateful to him for that. But, whilst the club is now immeasurably better off away from the pitch, the same can obviously not be said for the playing side. Some poor decisions on managerial appointments, and a busy work schedule that took him away from the County Ground on a very regular basis, have contributed to the failure of the team this season. I feel that a change will be welcomed by most supporters, and I hope that new chairman Jeremy Wray's first decision will be to point Mr Hart in the direction of the exit and look to bring in a new, enthusiastic and inspirational manager to revive the team and get us moving back up the league.

Things are never boring at the County Ground. The rollercoaster moves on again.

It's More Important Than That

One of my favourite sporting quotations is one attributed to the famous old manager of Liverpool, Bill Shankly. He said, or is alleged to have said that "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

Bill Shankly

It is a great line and succinctly sums up the feeling that a lot of sports fans have for their chosen game. But then, sometimes, real matters of life and death impinge on sport and you realize all over again that at the end of the day, sport is a leisure activity, a piece of entertainment, a release from the daily grind but that is all. Two events over the last week have reminded me of that very fact.

Firstly, last Friday was the 22nd anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster, where 96 people lost their lives whilst attending the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. I can still vividly remember that day. I was at the County Ground, watching Swindon take on Watford in a Division 2 game. I switched on my radio at half-time to see how the other games were going, only to hear that there had been “some disturbance” at the semi-final, and that a number of fans were injured and they believed that there was a possibility that 1 or maybe 2 people had even been killed. Obviously, that information just got worse and worse as the afternoon and evening wore on. It struck me to the core that these were fellow football fans, doing the exact same thing as I was on a Saturday afternoon, and they had lost their lives because of it. It was a seminal moment in English football, and years later resulted in the enforcement that every major football ground in the country should be an all-seater stadium. The ultimate sacrifice of The 96 will never be forgotten.

The other episode that brought the importance or otherwise of sport into proper focus was reported on the news bulletins last night. Neil Lennon, manager of Celtic, and 2 – possibly now 3 – other renowned Celtic supporters have apparently been sent parcel bombs in the post. Somebody has seemingly seen fit to try to take the lives of these people because of their football affiliations. I know that there is also a religious element to the rivalry between the 2 Glasgow clubs, but ultimately we are talking about sport here. People are dying all over the world because of real problems and real issues; let us not start killing each other because some are wearing a different replica top. Strikes me that some people need to grow up, open their eyes and see the world for how it really is.

Some people believe that football is a matter of life and death – it isn’t, and it never should be.

Tee and Sympathy

Congratulations to Charl Schwartzel for his victory on Sunday at Augusta National in the first major of the golfing year. It was an amazing climax to the competition with as many as 10 players having a very real chance of walking away with the green jacket as they played the final 9 holes. The lead swung from one player to another with alarming regularity and I would have defied anyone to pick the winner with any degree of certainty with just 45 minutes of play remaining. It was a nail-biting conclusion to the tournament, and as unpredictable as sport should always be.

Sadly, that last round on Sunday also saw the leader at the start of play, Rory McIlroy, explode in spectacular fashion on the back 9. Still leading as he entered those final 9 holes, despite a bit of a wobble on the opening 9, things just went from bad to worse to cataclysmic for Rory as he shot 43 coming home. That included a triple bogey 7 on the 10th hole, followed by 3 putts on the 11th green and an even worse 4 putts on the short 12th hole. The collapse of his game was painful to watch at times, and you had to feel for the lad who at just 21 years of age still has a wonderful future ahead of him. And, I believe, that future will also include major wins if he can harness the brutal experience of Sunday evening and turn it around to his advantage the next time that he finds himself at the sharp end of a Major Sunday. I have every confidence that he will do just that.

The other major event of the weekend was the Grand National, which was won by Ballabriggs on a glorious Saturday afternoon at Aintree. Sadly, his win meant that I lost in the family flutter as my mum somehow managed to pick him out as one of her two selections. I did manage to choose the fourth placed horse, but that’s little consolation when you are being fleeced by your own mum!! :-)

It’s back to the Champions League this week as the semi-final line-up is decided, and it’s looking like there will be 2 Spanish teams, 1 English and 1 German – but maybe an upset will still occur. As always, you never know until the final whistle.

Til next time!

Sporting Spring

So, here we are in April and the sporting season really cranks up a gear now. Congratulations today go to India on securing their second cricket World Cup win over the weekend. The pre-tournament favourites certainly lived up to that billing and were worthy winners of the trophy, defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in Saturday’s final. Over the course of the last 6 weeks there have been a number of memorable matches, most notably Ireland’s triumph over England during the group stage. England’s progress was stilted at best, and they were eventually eliminated at the quarter-final stage after squeezing their way out of their group. A thorough rethink needs to be carried out in the corridors of power if the home of cricket is ever to see a World Cup victory.

Elsewhere, as I said, the sporting season is now really kicking in. Having enjoyed the start of the F1 season a week ago, and the culmination of the cricket World Cup this last weekend, the next few weeks are crammed full with major sporting events. This coming week we have the US Masters at Augusta, Georgia – the first major golf tournament of the year. With 5 of the world’s top 6 players coming from this side of the pond, will we be seeing the first European victory at the Augusta National since Jose Maria Olazabal triumphed back in 1999? I have my doubts, but I will certainly be glued to the BBC’s much-truncated coverage over the weekend. Quite why they have chosen to only have live coverage for the last two days I don’t know – maybe budget cuts? Whatever the reason, it is another kick in the teeth for us non-Sky Sports subscribers. Sport is so becoming the pastime of the rich – or at least of the more well off.

This weekend will also see the 164th running of the Grand National, and hence my yearly flutter! Not that I will be risking large sums of money on my non-existent horsey knowledge. Rather I will be randomly picking 2 horses out of the list of runners, and along with other members of my family, I will put a massive 40p into the pot, with the person whose horse finishes nearest the front taking the whole darned lot home with them! Back in the day we used to get our dog to pick out a horse (by stepping on the list of horses) and he had a remarkably good record of choosing winners, or at least top 3 finishers. In other words, this race really is a lottery and I guess that is why it is the nation’s favourite.

The National is one of those events by which I mark the passing of the year. And another one will be coming along the following weekend, when the London Marathon takes place in the capital. That weekend London will also host both FA Cup semi-finals, which as I have discussed before, is geographically perverse (given this year’s participants) but financially understandable. That we have reached the penultimate stage of the premier cup competition in the country shows us that the end of the football season is very nearly upon us – although for some we are pretty much there already (I’m looking at you Swindon Town!). Then the great summer of sport will be upon us – one event of which I will be attending in person – but I will talk about all of that at a later date. Until then, just enjoy the feast of sporting fun that awaits us over these coming few weeks.

Til next time.