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.

Up, Down and Round and Round

The last few days have been quite eventful sports-wise. We have seen the quarter-finals of the cricket World Cup, the start of the 2011 Formula 1 season, another round of European Championship qualifiers and the always anachronistic Boat Race!  Add to that another depressingly familiar defeat for Swindon Town and you have a weekend packed full of ups and downs.

Saturday was the busiest day, with the last of the cricket quarter-finals taking place, along with a host of international football matches and the aforementioned Boat Race. It was a day of mixed fortunes for England, as the cricket team were soundly beaten by Sri Lanka to exit from the competition, whilst the football team performed well for 20 minutes in their qualifying match in Wales, which was enough to secure the 2-0 victory. That means that England are now back on top of their qualifying group, and seem to be stumbling their way towards making it into next year’s tournament.

 John Terry, Photo by John Dobson

Talking of the football team, did you see the mess that Fabio Capello made of reinstating John Terry as the national team captain? Whichever way you look at it, it was poor management from Capello. You can argue whether the actual decision was correct, whether John Terry should be captain at all, but whatever you think the handover of the armband was a farce from start to finish. It does seem to be a trait of the Italian’s though. David Beckham was dropped via an ITV interview after many years outstanding service for the England team, and now Rio Ferdinand finds out he has been dumped as the latest England captain also via the media. Mind you, he also apparently found that he had been appointed as captain in the first place via watching TV, so maybe he shouldn’t have expected anything else!

I do have respect for Capello as a coach, but his man-management skills leave a lot to be desired, and let’s face it, the England manager/coach/whatever doesn’t actually need to do a lot of coaching. Good interpersonal skiils and motivation are his priorities and it is exactly here where Capello appears to fall down. Of course, none of us know exactly what goes on behind the scenes, and the media have a vested interest in playing up any story of this kind. But hopefully this will be the last such controversy and both “coach” and players will be able to concentrate on matters on the pitch for the remainder of the qualifying campaign.

Elsewhere, the F1 season finally got under way in Australia after the postponement of the Grand Prix in Bahrain. A convincing victory for current champ Sebastian Vettel will have been very ominous for his rivals in this year’s championship. The F1 roadshow now moves out to the Far East with Grand Prix in Malaysia and China before heading back towards Europe in May. If this year’s battle for the Championship is anywhere near as close as last season then motorheads everywhere will be very happy.

Oh, and Cambridge didn’t win the Boat Race. And Swindon are hurtling fast towards League 2 with no apparent prospect of even winning one match, let alone winning enough games to stay up. Ho hum. Sport – it enthrals and appals in equal measure.

An Oval Ball Weekend

It is another landmark weekend in the sporting calendar, as the Six Nations kicks off on this side of the Atlantic and the Super Bowl takes place tomorrow on the other.

The first match of the Six Nations took place last night and saw England win at the Millennium Stadium for the first time since 2003. The 26-19 victory gave the favourites the start they needed in this year’s tournament, but was a major setback for their hosts. Wales have now gone 8 games without a win and will face a trip up to Scotland next week in a game they have to be looking to win to prevent their season from spiralling out of control already. Elsewhere this weekend, Ireland travel to Italy and France will be looking to start their campaign with a victory over the Scots. I don’t pretend to be a rugby union expert, but if recent past seasons are anything of a guide then expect a French or English victory lap come March 19th.

The major sporting occasion of the weekend is, of course, Super Bowl XLV taking place in Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, Texas. Now, I know even less about the NFL than I do of rugby matters, but I will be sitting down tomorrow evening to watch the Green Bay Packers take on Pittsburgh Steelers – or the start of it at least. Due to the time difference the game is likely to go on to something like 4:00 a.m. on Monday morning, so I may have to bail out at half-time – or rather after watching the half-time show by the Black Eyed Peas. Even as a non-follower of the sport, the Super Bowl is still clearly a great occasion and a wonderful spectacle. I know that the English FA, not to mention UEFA and FIFA, could learn a thing or two about putting on a show from the NFL.

Back in the domain of the round ball the main interest may be the contest between Chelsea and Liverpool in the EPL – not, for once, because of any realistic title challenges but because the fixture computer has thrown up this match in the very same week that Fernando Torres moves from Merseyside to the Blues. I suspect things may get a little tasty at the Bridge tomorrow!

All of this, of course, pales in comparison to events down at the County Ground, Swindon where the Town are taking on Rochdale as I write these notes. Firmly ensconced in the bottom 4 at the start of the day, Swindon will be hoping to get something out of this game in an effort to revitalize what has been a very disappointing season to date. Elliot Benyon is making his Swindon debut after his deadline day signing from Torquay United, and goals are most certainly needed at the CG. Come on You Reds!

Whatever sport you follow, I hope you have a winning weekend!

Full Disclosure

Welcome to The Sports Ground. As I have found with my other blog, there is no telling where this journey will lead us or what I will end up blogging about and sharing with you here. What I do know is that sport in all of its forms is my passion, and I hope to share some of that enthusiasm with all of you who are kind enough to visit this little corner of the web.

As the title of this post suggests, I feel a need to let you all know where I am coming from before I get started with this blog. First of all, I fully expect the majority of my posts to concern football - or soccer if you have wandered in from some foreign parts :) Football has always been, and always will be, my main sporting interest. I currently live in Wiltshire, and I am a Swindon Town and an England supporter, so don't be surprised if a bias towards those quarters appears from time to time. That's not to say that I won't be talking about other teams or other sports - because I most definitely will.  This is, after all, The Sports Ground and not The Football Ground!

As with my football interests, my other sporting posts are likely to be a little English- or British-centric, but I am first and foremost a sports fan and I hope to cover sports, teams and atheletes from across the globe. I don't pretend to be an expert in every sport, but I always feel that you don't need to be an expert to appreciate the competition and drama that sport so often generates. When the Olympics come round I will often find myself watching archery, or volleyball, or judo, or .... well, the list goes on. Sports that don't normally register on the radar of most of us, but all of which have the power to enthral and interest the passing sports fan. That is exactly what I hope to convey here. A love of sport and the power it has to excite and beguile.

So, please join me and feel free to comment and contribute to the debate as it develops. Welcome once again to The Sports Ground - where the turnstiles are always open!