The Death of Colin Murray

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The False Nine debutant, David Wild, opines on the gradual decline of Match of the Day…

Like any promising youngster making his debut I’ll start with a healthy note of caution. I haven’t written for The False Nine before and so I don’t have a loyal fan base to rely on. Instead I’m relying on a John Sheridan “do the simple things well” attitude whilst praying for the appearance of a flash of brilliance a la Tony Yeboah.

My chosen subject for this article is the puerile and inane jabbering that infects the BBC institution Match of The Day. Don’t get me wrong I love MOTD but I can’t stand anything of the generic matey banter that oozes out, loosely classed as ‘punditry’. The commentary is about as interesting as that on my Lesbian Vampire Killers DVD. How I regret buying that DVD. Continue reading

FA Cup Fifth Round Preview: Luton-Millwall 1985, and all that

Nick Hart, from Millwall fanzine I Left My Heart at Cold Blow Lane, looks at the reaction to the FA Cup Fifth Round draw which pitted Luton Town and Millwall together…

“Luton/Millwall in the FA Cup? ‘Oh good’, says absolutely no policeman in the South of England.” So tweeted the terminally unfunny Piers Morgan when this draw was made. Aw give over Piers, you’re killing us here mate with your funnies … not.

The thing is of course that some fixtures are seared into the national psyche. And the infamous Luton-Millwall 1985 cup quarter-final between the Lions and the Hatters at Kenilworth Road is not so much seared, as branded with a red hot poker into the collective folk-memory.  Continue reading

The Hypocrisy of the FA Cup

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In the aftermath of the Third Round of the FA Cup, James Dutton takes a look at the media coverage which shapes its positioning in the football universe…

The FA Cup has found it difficult to grasp its place in the over-arching landscape of modern football. It sits as a representation of the traditions inherent in English football, a link to the past yet, supposedly, little more.

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