“This week’s non-league matches of the week come from a variety different competitions. As the weather started to return to something approaching normal, the a near-full schedule of matches was played, including matches in both the FA Trophy and postponed matches from the FA Vase. Our first match is the FA Trophy match between Wimbledon and Braintree Town.” twohundredpercent

“You might remember this map – showing the walking routes of the Apollo 11 astronauts superimposed onto a standard-sized football pitch. On MTMG previously… The original map is actually taken from one of NASA’s own excellent sites – here – but still everyone treated it as something of a joke.” More Than Mind Games

“While football may have been initially organised and codified on English soil, the tactical and theoretical development of the game has historically been cultivated in other pockets of Europe, most notably the inter-war bourgeois societies of the Danubian region. From Vienna, to Budapest, to Prague and beyond, football was met with a deeply philosophical and sophisticated approach to the game which resulted in a distinctive style of play emerging from Central Europe. The social driving force behind this development was, of course, the coffee house.” The Equaliser

Odysseus on the island of the Phaiakians, Peter Paul Reubens
“From what I can tell, it’s awards season in the football blogging fraternity. The Soccerlens awards, the WSC Web Awards and the NOPAs, to name just three. I’m not going to lie to you – GhostGoal didn’t get a single nomination from any of them. Did they not hear about my piece in November’s When Saturday Comes that one reader in the letters page described as ‘not letting the facts get in the way of a good story’? Actually maybe they did and that’s the problem..” Ghost Goal

Web watch: 2010 Web awards
WSC

“The last two weeks have been ones of significant travel delays for The Ball is Round team. Not only did we travel to the arctic wastelands of Northern Denmark to bring you all the action from Randers v FC Copenhagen, but we then had to endure Easyjet at its worst with a 5 hour delay long into the middle of the night, and finally closer to home we have had to suffer the ineptness of SouthEastern railways. But all of this time spent waiting gave us a chance to catch up on some long overdue reading and some new games on our iPhone.” The Ball Is Round

“If the kids are united, they will never be divided. Not the kids or the fans this time, a retrospective look at unity from professional players. Here’s Andrew Thomas.” In Bed With Maradona

“We try and avoid the mainstream games as much as we can here at TBIR. You can pick up any newspaper and read a million different views on Carlos Tevez’s strop with Mancini, or that Arsene simply “didn’t see it”, but it is a bit harder to find the real details about the games that count. And that is why we have moved heaven and earth to sign up Mark Pitman to TBIR who will be bringing us the inside view on Port Talbot Town in the Welsh Premier League.” The Ball Is Round

“With December looming, an array of reading matter will be flooding the shelves of your local bookshop. But what to pick? We had hoped to attract Richard & Judy to IBWM but they didn’t answer the phone. Iain Macintosh did though, so we gave him a book. Look what happened.” (In Bed With Maradona)

“Today’s football had been planned for week and was due to coincide with a nice family lunch as a starting point. CMF wanted to spend some of my money on Christmas presents and I had no intention of venturing into any of the 21st century cathedrals we have built in the South East of England. So I agreed to drop her off at Lakeside and pick her up afterwards, leaving me with a 3 1/2 hour window. I hate to say that I was turning my back on Lewes, who were playing at Ship Lane against Lakeside but there is only so many cars you can count on the M25 there. Instead I had two options. Billericay Town and Concord Rangers. So I went to the God of all decisions. Twitter. I asked which one I should go to, and within minutes I had my answer.” (The Ball Is Round)

“Zenit St Petersburg have emerged as one of Europe’s most recognisable clubs, but it has taking a while to get here. Domm Norris charts the rise of a Russian powerhouse.” (In Bed With Maradona)

Earlsmead
“For what I am about to write may the Lord forgive me. Every so often I make bold statements. ‘I will not use my Blackberry after 7pm at night’, ‘I wont use my laptop in bed’, ‘I will have a weekend without watching any football’. What, can you repeat that last one again? I WILL NOT WATCH ANY FOOTBALL FOR A WEEKEND. Yes, in a mad moment some months ago I agreed that I would not go to any games for one weekend in a year.” (The Ball Is Round)

“In March 1947 in the small Kent village of Langton Green a game was invented that literally changed the past times of millions of children around the world. A chap there called Peter Adolph created a set of plastic footballers that he wanted to market in a game called ‘Hobby’. Unfortunately he could not get a trademark on such a generic name so he settled for the slightly similar Falco Subbuteo which was a bird of prey also known as the Eurasian Hobby (see what he did there…).” (The Ball Is Round)

“European Football Weekends is an absolute treasure trove of away days around Europe, from the San Siro to the Dripping Pan. The man behind it all, Danny Last, speaks to Dave Hartrick…” (In Bed With Maradona)

“At 1.30pm on Saturday afternoon I was handed my ‘Get out of jail free’ card. This was supposed to be a treat for Lolly, but my little battle hardened football daughter finally admitted defeat on her heavy cold and declared herself unfit to go to West Ham versus Blackpool. I had a five minute window to decide. Go to Upton Park and undoubtably come home as depressed as Avram Grant on a good day, head down the M23 to watch Lewes amongst the Lewes Lunatic Fringe as they played St Albans City or even pop down the road to Thamesmead Town for a new adventure.” (The Ball Is Round)

“For over a hundred years football programmes have been the vital accompaniment to any match. Even the smallest, most insignificant game is normally commemorated by the issue of a matchday programme. I know some people who will not count that they have been to see a game unless they can get a programme or at least a team sheet.” (The Ball Is Round)

“Yesterday everybody screamed the praises of one Gareth Bale, one week after a certain disreputable website sang his praises by comparison to the Garbage Pale kids. That disreputable website was this one. And I admit my mistake. Gareth Bale is a shining example of athleticism, a white knight, the hero at the end of the fairy tale who smooches the princess, slays the dragon, and lives happily every after. But Pippo Inzaghi is not. Which is why I love him.” (futfanatico)

“We’ve got something a little different for our Video Of The Week this week. Match Of The Eighties will be back later on in the week, but for now it seems like as good an idea as any to ease ourselves into Monday morning with some highlights from this weekend’s FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round matches from the weekend just passed. We’re starting off with FC United of Manchester, who were at home yesterday afternoon against Blue Square Premier side Barrow. With the draw for the First Round Proper already having been made, United already knew that their reward for winning this match would be a local derby against Rochdale if they could get past a team two divisions above them.” (twohundredpercent)

“So today, the meat and potatoes as it were of this series: what might more cooperation between independent blogs and on-line newspaper football sites actually look like? Before I dive in, I think it’s important to point out that I’m not going to lay out concrete models with specific revenue streams and publishing formats, but rather point out general features that would make a union more desirable than the current situation, where the only mutual connection between newspapers and blogs comes in the form of hyperlinks. I should also mention that discussion of the obstacles to this kind of union will be examined at length in a future post, but feel free to start shredding in the comments.” (Pitch Invasion)

“This is brilliant. You can check out more laugh out loud football comics on the excellent Things Fall Apart by C. Anderson.” (Footysphere)

“Few football coaches have grabbed the public’s attention through sheer force of personality in quite the same fashion as Brian Howard Clough. An intoxicating mix of intelligence, arrogance and abrasiveness, Clough was the antithesis of the mid-twentieth century stereotype which saw British managers as gentlemanly sorts who played the game to strengthen their moral fibre rather than to win at all costs.” (The Equaliser)

“Most people involved in modern football receive considerable media training from quite an early age. This manifests itself in several different ways, from the studied mind-games and self-promotion of Jose Mourinho to Michael Owen, who has spent well over a decade as a professional footballer without having ever managed to say anything of note in an interview. There are still some people left, however, an increasingly small number, who come from a different era and don’t seem to have been taught the art of talking a lot whilst saying very little. It is these people that, whether intentionally or not, provide us with considerable entertainment with occasional glimpses into the inner workings of their minds.” (twohundredpercent)

“Is it racist to chant ‘His dad washes elephants’ at an African footballer? And if you were at a match and complained to the stewards and the police that it was racist, would you expect to get thrown out? The Crown Prosecution Service isn’t sure they’d get a conviction because ‘it doesn’t mention a particular race or culture’ – but then neither does making monkey noises. And a 60-year-old vicar got thrown out of Wigan’s DW Stadium last season, after he complained about the chants and that his complaint about the alleged criminal offence was not being taken seriously. When he refused to go back to his seat and asked to speak to a senior police officer, he was ejected from the ground. I know – I was that vicar.” (WSC)

“After 55 minutes of Scotland’s Euro 2012 qualifying group game with Liechtenstein last Wednesday, I made a promise to myself. If the score remained Scotland 0 Liechtenstein 1, I would never watch another game of football as long as I lived. I wouldn’t look at scores, or tables, or anything. If people started talking about football, I’d stick my fingers in my ears and start singing ‘Giiiiiiirls just wanna have fun’ in a really loud and annoying way until they moved off. But of course the score changed, and Scotland gloriously won the game with a brilliantly contrived 97th-minute header. The most amazing thing about that goal, though, was the number of fans still in the stadium to witness it.” (WSC)

“With three losses from their opening three matches, Stoke City have a problem. Their third season back in the Premier League has begun with three losses and it is only the dismal form of West Ham United that is keeping them off the bottom of the Premier League table, although there is an element of falseness about their position, since two of their three defeats have come at the hands of Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur – both matches that it might have been unreasonable to expect them to win. Still, however, there is cause for concern at The Britannia Stadium this evening that they may be set to hit the buffers. This is exactly the sort of match that they have excelled at grabbing by the scruff of the neck over the last couple of seasons, and they need to get back into that habit this evening.” (twohundredpercent)

“Next weekend West Brom fans will display a banner supporting new signing Peter Odemwingie, a reply to the racist one Lokomotiv fans hung following his transfer from Moscow. The messageboard reactions I read to it this week were perhaps typical of a lot of British fans: ‘Shame on Lokomotiv, respect to West Brom!’; ‘An intelligent answer’; ‘Brilliant, a worthy reply’. What is perhaps more surprising is that these were written by Russian fans on the championat.ru forum. However, with the 2018 World Cup hosts announced in December, and the English newspapers seemingly now all onside, this is not an element of Russian football culture that will see much daylight in the UK.” (WSC)

Fabio Capello
“The announcement of the England squad for an international fixtures has become more of a media circus than ever before since the appointment of Fabio Capello. His love/hate relationship with the tabloid media is currently stuck firmly in the hate column, with The Sun leading the calls for his dismissal albeit in a rather childish and uneducated way.” (A Tactical View)