Writing Competition (Article of The Week) 1 ****[VOTING]****

How times change... - Hendo's nightmare U's debut as he is sent off in the U's 5-0 thrashig by Norwich.

Colchester, Essex - This afternoon, Colchester United winger Ian Henderson has vowed to score over twenty goals this season and tunnel Colchester into the Championship. It comes after the Colchester winger scored 3 goals this season in just two games, two coming in the U's 4-2 rout over Preston North End and the other coming with a wonderstrike in the Carling Cup against Wycombe Wanderers who they face tommorow again. Henderson added "I want to become an exciting player and entertain the crowds at the Weston Homes, I know that I have had a rough start to my career being turned away by the likes of Norwich, Northampton and Luton, but now Ive found my feet in England with Colchester and the goals with keep coming", many U's fans also questioned why he hesitated on signing a new contract in the summer and he just claimed it was difficulty in neogations but the is in the past. Henderson has now worked a flurishing partnership with striker Kayode Odejayi and the goals should just flow from now on. Colchester play Wycombe on Saturday and tickets are avalible on CUFCRetail.co.uk and can be collected two hours before kick-off and any point after that.

If there's a player with "Messi" or "Pelé" in his nickname, then you can be sure the lad's a least decent at playing his football. "Messi with a beard" or "The Derry Pelé" are two of the nicknames he's called by fans. We're of course talking about Paddy McCourt, 27, player for Northern Ireland and Celtic. He might not be blessed with extreme pace, but he has a very good ball control and is an excellent dribbler. The right footer's preferred position is the left wing, allowing him to cut in, taking the opposition on and linking up with his teammates. He's not a starter for Celtic, Scottish international Kris Commons is currently preferred to him on the left wing by Neil Lennon, McCourt only made one substitute appearance this season. He scored nine goals in 39 appearances for the Hoops. His International career isn't exactly satisfying either, his first senior cap came in 2002, but his second one only seven years later, in a qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup. He's played eight games for his country, scoring two goals. More on that later.

The reason why McCourt isn't better known in world football despite his talent, is that he's a very injury prone player. Injuries threw him back times and times again, his fitness isn't the best either. Still he's one of the Scottish Premier League's most naturally talented players, he may seem a bit lanky standing at 5'11'', but he's a very elegant player possessing some flair. He's known for scoring very nice solo goals, nearly all from his nine goals scored for Celtic came from one of his trademark mazy solo runs, most notably on his first start in the SPL against St. Mirren which saw him dribble past six players before beating the goalkeeper in addition. He also scored Celtic's 6000th home SPL against Inverness, again with a beautiful run through the defence before cooly slotting the ball home.

The Northern Irishman's senior career started at English club Rochdale AFC, he signed his first professional contract at the age of 18, having previously played for Rochdale's youth team. He scored eight times in 79 appearances for the Spotland club, attracting interest from Premier League sides such as Blackburn or Manchester City during the 2002/03 season. After several injuries combined with a loss of form Rochdale saw themselves forced to release him. In March 2005 he was signed by Irish club Shamrock Rovers, scoring seven goals (of which three were goal of the season contenders) in 17 appearances. The Rovers were facing financial difficulties at the time, and following interest from several clubs, Shamrock decided to sell their star player to his hometown club Derry City where he played three years scoring 25 in 61. He helped the club to win both the FAI and the League of Ireland Cup 2006. In 2008, both Celtic and Premier League side West Bromwich Albion agreed a fee with club and player, McCourt decided to join Celtic, the club he supported since he was a child. His time there was characterized by injuries, but also exceptional solo goals.

On the 10 August 2011 he scored his first two international goals, both with exceptional solo goals against the Faroe Islands in a 2012 EURO qualifying match. After hardly featuring last season the bearded Messi (even though he was shaved that day) is back with a bang! Several English clubs including Wolves and Liverpool were reported to be interested in buying the skillful winger, his future has yet to be decided.

In the editor's opinion, Paddy McCourt is a very special player who could be an asset for any Premiership manager when fit, it would be better for his career if he gets regular football, something he'd be likely to get at the likes of Wolves. The lure of going to Liverpool could be big though as well, even though he might only find himself coming off the bench as a possible game changer. Best of luck to him, and hopefully he'll stay healthy for large parts of this season.

16th August 2011, 11:43 p.m.

Chesterfield 0-2 Preston North End
B2Net Stadium, Chesterfield



As the Preston North End fans travelled to North Derbyshire for their 2nd away match of the season, they didn't know what the hell to expect. A 4-2 opening day loss to Colchester United and a poor performance in the Carling Cup against Crewe Alexandra, which they just shaded 3-2, then a 1-1 draw at Scunthorpe on Saturday afternoon, meant the Lilywhites had started the season unconsistently. Of course, it isn't Preston North End if you don't have a shaky start to the season to give the fans something to moan about.

I never thought we would take a big following to Chesterfield. First reason is it was a night game, secondly it was in Derbyshire, a good 2 and a half hours over the hills, that including the inevitable rush hour traffic in Manchester. Only 3 coaches set off from Deepdale, with maximum 50 people on each. At the new stadiums we were visiting, we would want to make an impression on the opposition fans, so we needed as many people as possible to come and support the team.

It was a tedious journey to the ground. We had to go through the centre of Stockport which was a nightmare, several chavs flicking the V's up at us but we arrived at the B2Net Stadium shortly after 6:30PM, a good 2 and a half hours after setting off from Deepdale. As soon as I stepped off the coach, the coach steward pulled me over. I had no idea at first what it was about, but then I remembered I was playing with the armrest a lot. He gave me a bollocking and said if I do it on the way back i'll be banned from the coach travel in the future.

Cunt.

Anyway, first impressions of this modern new ground is that it was a very nice stadium for this level in looks, but it was a bit away from the centre of Chesterfield, stuck next to a big Tesco superstore. The facilities in the away stand were good, no better than Preston's and obviously smaller but you can't expect that much from a club plying it's trade in League Two last season. The food and drink prices were ridiculous though. £2.80 for a shit pie, £1.20 for a Twix, and £4.00 for a Hot Dog. Needless to say I didn't give Chesterfield FC anymore of my money.

Me and my three mates chose our seats right at the back of the stand, just to the right of the goal in the Rubicon North Stand, next to the drummer and the regular singers/loudmouths. Even before kick-off we were singing our hearts out. We belted out a rendition of 'Falling In Love With You' before the players graced the pitch, every name read out followed by a rapturous cheer.

I'd never heard of most of Chesterfield's players, and you could tell even in the first few minutes they looked physically weaker than us. We had bigger men at the back, the commanding Clarke Carlisle partnering teenager Danny Devine at centre-half. Clarke is a good influence on the whole team and will be a big player this season. Playing out of position at right-back was new signing Brian McLean and making his debut at left-back, Steven Smith, signed on a Free from Norwich City this past week. We had been crying out for a left-back all Summer, and even with his past injury problems, we were bagging a 'decent, attacking full-back', said one Norwich fan on a PNE messageboard this week.

In midfield, sheparding the defence was the 39-year old Graham Alexander. Grezza is a real hero here, playing from 1999 until 2007 where he was acrimoniously sold to Burnley for £200,000 because the board wouldn't offer him a 2-year deal. Now back four years later, his legs still seemed to be up to scratch for this division. Either side of him was Paul Coutts and Barry Nicholson who would provide the energy and legs from deep. Coutts would drift out wide due to our narrow formation, and Nicholson would just push forward with the ball, allowing Smith to burst down the left flank in Preston attacks.

Our front three consisted of the captain, Iain Hume, good old Humey, an energetic striker but playing in a slightly deeper role on the night, and playing in-front of him was the ex-Liverpool striker Neil Mellor, and the young local lad, Jamie Proctor. Proc had a storming pre-season so has earned the right to wear the famous #9 shirt, a moment he'd probably dreamed about as a kid, supporting PNE as a young boy.

The only Chesterfield player i'd heard of was Jack Lester, and even he was getting on a bit. It was clear from the first 5-10 minutes that Lester was getting no support up top for Chesterfield, Clarke Carlisle had him in his back pocket. It was pretty mich end to end for the first 17 minutes, with neither side gaining the upper hand but Preston were carving out more chances, and deservedly went ahead in the 17th minute. Nicholson floated a ball into the box, and Clarke Carlisle powered a header home from 12 yards. It was his first goal for his hometown club since switching from our rivals Burnley on a season-long loan in the summer, and boy did he enjoy it.



Mellor really should of made it 2-0 later in the first half. A crunching tackle by Paul Coutts on the Chesterfield left-back Nathan Smith, diverted the ball off Smith and out for a throw-in. Coutts took this quick, and found Jamie Proctor steaming down the right flank. Proctor found Mellor in the penalty area, unmarked, and his first touch was just too heavy, and he struck the ball weakly into the arms of Chesterfield 'keeper Tommy Lee.

The second half saw Preston dominate more, with slick passing all around the field, and passes by Alexander which carved their defence open in all areas. Iain Hume, unusually quiet on the night, nearly scored a carbon-copy of his goal vs Scunthorpe at the weekend. Paul Coutts cut in from the right flank, but couldn't go any further with his run so found Hume on the edge of the 18-yard box. Hume ran away from goal, skinned the center-midfielder Niven, and smashed a left-footed shot, which was a few inches from hitting the top corner. Instead, the 25-yard effort swerved wide at the last moment. Desperately unlucky for Hume who really should've had at least one goal on the night.

Then on 70 minutes came the killer blow. Brian McLean, who was excellent at right-back, despite it not being his strongest position, drifted forward and played an excellent ball into the box. It bounced over the diving header of a Chesterfield defender, but Barry Nicholson, who contributed to the back end of last season as a goalscoring midfielder, got off the mark for this season, reacting first to a bouncing cross 6 yards out from the Chesterfield goal. The diving header bounced over the early dive of Tommy Lee and into the back of the net. The goal sparked wild celebrations from the North End following who chanted all night long.



We made a few substitutions in the last 20 minutes. Steven Smith's debut went very well, he was composed on the ball and made some excellent challenges, but it was obvious he wouldn't complete the whole 90 minutes, and left-winger Paul Parry replaced him, and slotted in at left-back. Proctor also went off to a standing ovation for his display. Although he didn't score, the teenager hassled the defence all night and made some great lung-busting runs into the box. "He's one of our own, he's one of our ownnnnnn, oh Jamie Proctor, he's one of our own" was sung on the terraces, as another local lad, Danny Mayor, came on for Preston. Phil Brown had now reverted to a flat 442 formation, seeing Mayor slot in on the left, and Hume playing further forward up-front with Mellor.

We had several chances to wrap the game up and make the score maybe 3 or 4-0. Firstly, Danny Mayor combined with another sub Paul Parry to latch onto the Welshman's pass, and everyone was expecting him to complete the win, and him to score his first ever goal in Professional Football. However, he went the long way round, rounded Lee, but two Chesterfield defenders had got back to protect the 'keeper and Nathan Smith blocked Mayor's shot on the line.

Then, Mayor showed great skill to skin two Chesterfield defenders, he pulled the ball back at the byline for Hume, who should of taken a touch then shot, but the Canadian captain shot first time and the ball flew into the crowd. Hume then made way in stoppage time for Northern Ireland teenager Seanan Clucas who made his first league start for PNE. Minutes later the final whistle blew and all the uncertanties before the match had now faded, as North End picked up their first win of the season, convicingly against a side who if they don't bolster their attacking options by the end of August, will struggle throughout the season.

Overall a great team performance by Preston, but my Man of the Match went to Clarke Carlisle, who had Jack Lester in his back pocket, grabbed a goal and was solid throughout the night and never made a mistake. His celebrations at the end of the game said it all. He is a boyhood fan of the club and his air punch and badge kiss showed how much the club meant to him.

Roll on Saturday, where we face Exeter City at Home!

Trophies are over-rated

MATTHEW SYED, former table tennis player, wrote in The Times in 2008 during Arsenal’s annual end of season collapse that Arsene Wenger should be “proud rather than cowed” when it came to the crushing defeats of his boys, asking “what are trophies except meaningless baubles that moth and rust destroy?” His argument was that what Arsene Wenger had done in providing entertaining, principled football should overshadow the fact that their chances of winning anything were brutally crushed in the period of a couple of months.

This article, particularly the line about trophies being meaningless baubles, was roundly mocked, and rightly so, Syed’s article suggested that entertaining football would live on in the memory, while winning trophies would not endure. This is of course, nonsense, winners of trophies go into the record books while entertaining football goes into the head, and is forgotten after a couple of years – ask any neutral whose entertaining football they remember from 2007/08, it’ll be the Double winners with Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez for 9 out of 10 people, ask about who played entertaining football in 2009/10 and 2010/11 in La Liga, it’ll be the winners people talk about, despite the runners up scoring more goals in both years.

Trophies, results, they are the reason we watch football, they’re what we celebrate lifting, they’re what we boast to our rivals about, they’re the tangible reward for a season of struggle, and they’re what we remember. 4th place might be seen as more important for this season by some fans, but you can be your arse than Arsenal fans remember winning the FA Cup in 2005 with a hell of a lot more fondness than they remember finishing 4th last season, and Liverpool fans regard their 2001 cup successes with far more reverence than their Champions League qualification in the same season.

The argument that trophies aren’t important historically is clearly a nonsensical one, the winners of a competition live far longer in the memory than the entertaining runners up, as well as in the history books. However, when it comes to judging the ability of a team or a manager, their importance is over-stated, and used to draw conclusions which are often unwarranted, and reliant on the importance they seek to argue for.

Take the UEFA Champions League in 2009/10, where Jose “The Special One” Mourinho’s Inter Milan side were victorious with their most laudable achievement being a defeat of Barcelona in the Semi Finals. Following the Champions League success, Mourinho was proclaimed as a genius, a man who had written himself into the pantheon of great European Coaches, and a tactical mastermind who had the beating of Barcelona.

Without assigning any pre-conceived notions about managers, let us note some factors which went in to Inter’s very narrow victory in the Semi Finals, which are independent of any manager’s ability, almost entirely out of his power
• The Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted, meaning Barcelona had a difficult travelling schedule due to flights being illegal
• The referee mistakenly allowed a goal from Gabriel Milito despite him being offside
• The referee mistakenly failed to give a penalty to Barcelona during the first leg despite an outrageous foul by Wesley Sneijder on Daniel Alves
• The referee failed to give a penalty to Barcelona early in the second leg despite shirt pulling on Ibrahimovic which left his shirt hanging off him
• The referee mistakenly denied a goal to Barcelona in the second leg which, with minutes to go against 10 man Inter, would have given Barcelona an away goals advantage
You can argue that other refereeing decisions favoured Barcelona, but that’s beside the point, with all other things being equal, if any of the above incidents had occurred differently, or not occurred at all, Guardiola’s side would have marched on to the Final, and Mourinho would have remained on one European Cup.

So we call him a great on account of the trophies he’s won, but some of those trophies in large part came to him because of instances of luck. If he’s a great because of his second European Cup, does that mean he is a great because of a volcano or a referee’s mistake? It’s wholly unfair that we assign greatness based on these crude tournaments which have such massive levels of luck. You can look at Guardiola’s successes and look at the ‘scandal of Stamford Bridge’ and the ‘scandal of the Bernabeu’, van Persie’s extraordinary red card in Camp Nou. For Mourinho, again you can look at Paul Scholes’ disallowed goal in 2004 in Porto’s defeat of Manchester United.

Sir Alex Ferguson, probably the only other man who bears comparison with these two when discussing managerial greats, his European Cup wins were reliant on 2 shots from Bayern Munich and 3 from Chelsea hitting the woodwork rather than the back of the net. Rafael Benitez is seen as a great manager by Liverpool fans due to their extraordinary comeback from 3 goals down in Istanbul, and while that’s an extremely difficult thing to do, Ancelotti deserves just as much, or as little, credit for what he did that night, because both men’s teams played out a 3-3 draw and the penalty shootout is out of the control of both managers. Does Ancelotti get any credit though? No, he gets severe criticism because his side bollocksed up the second half and didn’t win the shootout, while Benitez gets no criticism for the 114 minutes of football where his side were dominated.

Would Guardiola, Ferguson and Mourinho still be great managers if they hadn’t won those trophies? Without a doubt, if they are great managers now, their abilities would be no different if historically they hadn’t won any cup competitions because of small incidents such as a linesman’s marginal decision or a ball going 6 inches to the left had not occurred, but would they still be judged as being greats? No, they’d be judged as being failures due to the intensely results orientated bubble football exists in.


And so we come back to Arsene Wenger. A man increasingly criticised since 2005 for his side’s failure to win any competitions despite the likes of Portsmouth, Liverpool, Tottenham and Birmingham having done so in the intervening period, these teams are undoubtedly inferior to Arsenal, so why haven’t Arsenal won? Conventional wisdom is that ‘Mental Strength’ is the issue or conspiracies (even Wenger has bought into these) rather than simply bad luck, and this is used as a stick to beat Wenger with. There are too many examples of competitions where Arsenal have failed to win any been criticised for a lack of mental strength, so I will only go into a few here, but there are a lot of things which are out of the manager’s control which have caused Arsenal’s trophy drought

2005-06
• Lehmann’s moment of madness in the Champions League Final left Arsenal with 10 men, first ever red card in a Final, had been playing exceptionally well in the competition up until that point, not Wenger’s fault
• Eto’o’s equalising goal was offside
• The replacement goalkeeper scored and own goal (Yes he did, go and watch the video, no way Belletti's shot was going in without Almunia's touch)

2007-08
• Arsenal were knocked out of the Champions League, not because they lacked mental strength or because Liverpool were a club with an incredible destiny, but because Ryan Babel dived to win a penalty from Eboue
• In the Premier League they should have had a penalty in their game against Birmingham which was drawn 2-2 with a meltdown by William Gallas
• Later they drew with Middlesbrough due to an offside goal by Jeremie Aliadiere
• Later, they went to United, and lost to two set piece goals, neither of which were clear cut fouls
• Lost the title in the end by 4.5 points

2010-11
• Defeated in League Cup Final by a worse team due to a very good goalkeeper having an absolute shocker, it happens
• Defeated in Champions League due to an extraordinarily stupid outburst from Robin van Persie, and a late miss from the replacement striker
• Effectively knocked out of the Title race by another Liverpool player diving to draw an imaginary foul from Eboue

If any of these things had gone differently, which Wenger has no control over, people mightn't be talking about Arsene Wenger the bottler or Arsenal’s mental strength, they would be talking about Arsene Wenger the European Cup winner, or the 4 or 5-time Premier League Champion, but these things are largely independent of Wenger's ability or Arsenal's mental strength. It should be chance we view as the key factor, not subject, uninformed criticisms.

Human nature prevents the vast majority from doing this, we can’t as a species put something down simply to luck or coincidence, we have to find someone to blame or idolise for success or failure, we have to attribute responsibility to a person or a group, even when it’s not necessary, or luck simply doesn’t favour someone. Sometimes it’s fate or destiny we blame, sometimes it’s a conspiracy, and sometimes it’s a manager’s psychology, even if we aren’t psychologists, no-one ever says it’s just luck though, that’s seen as a cop out or an excuse, but it plays a far bigger factor in our game than your instincts and your media tell you.


This isn’t to say that the role of mental strength or the manager’s ability plays no role, it undoubtedly does, I have no doubt the ability of Jose Mourinho and Alex Ferguson has a major impact on their tendency to consistently deliver League Titles, nor is it to say that trophies are completely useless in determining a manager or team’s ability – it would be an incredible statement to say that a team that never wins or gets close to winning anything is equal to a team who wins the Quadruple in the same country, it is simply to say that trophies are not the only factor we should take into account when evaluating a manager’s ability or a team’s ability. To get an accurate picture we must look at his circumstances, we must look at his achievements outside of what he has won, principally his achievements in a League system irrespective of if he wins or loses the competition. Matches, trophies, careers, can rest on the decision of a referee who hasn’t seen the incident he’s judging properly; it is overly simplistic to attach huge importance to these decisions, which we see every week can be mistaken, and other random factors for evaluation of the abilities of separate entities – ie. Managers and teams, and to offer psychological evaluations from results can only be described as stupidity.

The original Matthew Syed article can be found here
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/arsenal/article3717226.ece

Hello members of the Playmaker. I hope for you all to read on, but this may not be in your best interests. Football. A very fun game indeed. But do you know what makes it that little bit funner? Actually getting up off your fat arse and going to your fucking local team. So don't be a cunt and support Man U. Support your local team and I will guarantee you, that your footballing experience will be so much better. You still have time to change. Do it before it's too late. No football fan should not have the experience of standing on some shitty terraces freezing your bollocks off on a cold, wet and windy December afternoon, eating a lovely warm Chicken Balti pie and drinking a hot cup of Bovril. Fuck the Champions League, fuck the Premier League, and fuck those silly souless bowl stadiums with no atmosphere whatsoever. The Football League Thread; this forum's greatest thread. Glory glory Man United, YNWA!