Biting Tackle!

There’s been many hard tacklers among local footballers over the years, in fact in the ‘old days’, it was more or less expected. Not only was it expected, but the ball players and the ‘choppers’ as the hard men were called, had a grudging respect for each other. With the advent of more money and a foolish belief that everybody had a ‘god given right’ to win, tacklers became even more influential in the game. The powers that be decided a few years ago to ban tackling from behind, but as in all things it’s dependent on the referee’s judgement and if he deems no contact to be made during the manoeuvre, chances are the tackler will get away with it. We have had our fair share of ‘hard men’ here in Norn Iron, Roy McCreadie when playing for Portadown, Glenn Dunlop, the famous ‘hatchet man’ at Crusaders and Packy McAllister at Coleraine. There were many others, too numerous to mention, but it wasn’t only defenders and midfielders who ‘dished’ it out. Strikers were usually able to give as good as they got, in fact they had to if they wanted to survive and not be intimidated by their opposite numbers. Jimmy McGhee, a legend at the Showgrounds, an old style centre-forward and member of United’s cup winning team of ’58, was not averse to dishing out a bit of punishment to opponents by all accounts. One of his favourite ploys was to gently nip opponents, not a serious thing, but hurting just the same and it usually had the desired effect of unsettling them. He allegedly did his best to rile them with his tongue also, calling Linfield defenders ‘orange baskets’ and Derry City defenders Fenian ones and I’m sure this type of gamesmanship is still prevalent in the Irish league. Across the pond there were many ‘hard men’ over the years, ‘chopper Harris’, at Chelsea, Nobby Stiles at Manchester United, Tommy ‘I’ll break your leg’ Smith at Liverpool and Norman ‘bite yer legs’ Hunter at Leeds United. These are only a few, a very few, ones from the more modern era were Vinny Jones at Wimbledon, Dennis Wise at Chelsea and Roy Keane at Manchester United. As I said earlier strikers were not averse to giving as good as they got, Sky summariser Andy Gray was well able to look after himself on the football field and one of more modern times, Alan Shearer. But then we have this latest incident last weekend, when Tottenham’s Jermain Defoe, bit his opponent on the arm. What a childish act, I still can’t take it in, it’s like something you’d see at Nursery school or at a dog kennel. The real ‘hard men’ must be laughing there socks off, as its just too silly for words. I suppose the next thing will be a ‘handbag’ fight in the player’s tunnel, god spare us from the ridicule!

Shoddy Show!

In regards to what happened in the County Antrim Shield on Monday and Tuesday night, when Ballymena and Larne went crashing out to junior (lower division) teams, I thought I’d have my say. In my humble opinion, for what its worth, its all down to one thing, professionalism. United manager Tommy Wright says he had Dundela watched on at least three occasions. What these ‘scouting’ missions turned up we’ll hardly ever know. But one thing is plain as far as I can see, the benefit to Ballymena was to put it mildly minimal. In fact let’s not mince words here, the information was worth sweet F.A.. I suppose the logical conclusion to this information is that United also had last Saturday’s opponents Cliftonville, watched prior to that game. If they did the trip was an utter waste of club resources, or did the report tell them that former United player Davey McAlinden and his fellow centre-half O’Hara were useless in the air, otherwise why did we constantly through high balls at them all day, which they duly ‘lapped’ up. Scouting trips for the sake of scouting trips are pretty useless. Larne manager Jim Hagan, a former Showgrounds manager, was always a methodical man and I’m convinced he went into Tuesday night’s game with a game plan. Unfortunately Wakehurst hadn’t read the script and they took the game to Larne triumphing thanks to two first half goals. That was always Jim Hagan’s big failing as a manager, his plans were unable to adapt to changing conditions. When they fell behind Larne didn’t change their game plan and in the end they paid the ultimate price, with elimination from the competition. Ballymena as far as I could see had no plan at all, plus the players gave the impression they’d only just met about 5 minutes prior to kick-off. They also didn’t change their tactics when they fell behind in the first-half either and in the end they also paid the ultimate price. Another of United’s problems was that they had no real options on the subs bench and the changes they made were change for change sake. Tommy Wright and Jim Hagan were asked by their clubs to do a professional job, but I’m afraid they failed to deliver the goods. Unfortunately Larne and Ballymena directors and fans are the ones who have to live with the outcome. I realise no team has the ‘god given’ right to win, but at the end of the day all we ask is that you give it your best shot, I’m afraid we didn’t get that this week!

Free View!

That old chestnut of club versus country is rearing its ugly head once more, not so much in that players are being injured while on International duty, more that the ordinary fans are being denied entry to the top games. Take England’s match today, Wednesday, only a small percentage of fans will be able to watch the match live at the stadium, while the T.V. audience will be greatly reduced as the match is being shown live on Sky T.V. Sure the pubs and clubs will do a roaring trade, not to mention off-licences as well, but surely that’s not the main criteria. Once the national game loses the support of the ordinary fans, then I’m afraid it’s on the slippery slope to disaster. Norn Iron on the other hand, whether by accident or design, are keeping their fans ‘sweet’ as their games are televised by the local ‘free’ (as long as you’ve paid your licence fee, that is), channels and long may this policy continue. The English F.A. have sold out to the highest bidder, all they can see at the end of the tunnel, is the match fees from the television companies. They are in short losing sight of the bigger picture, much more important to keep ‘grass roots’ fans happy than earn a quick buck from T.V. Without grass roots fans, there is no continuance of the production line, which sees youngsters taking up the beautiful game, mainly because their fathers (and some mothers too), were dedicated fans of their national team. It’s a sad reflection on the International game that England’s only real goalkeeping choice, is Spurs custodian Paul Robinson (this is no reflection on the Spurs man’s credibility). What a change from a few years ago, when England could boast of having most of the best goalkeepers in the world and most ot them were qualified to play for England. In an ironic twist they still have most of the best goalkeepers in the world in the English Premier league, but they are from almost every other country in the world. We were told some years ago that so called ‘foreign imports’ would boost our national game and improve our players ten fold, I’m afraid I can’t see it. In closing I’d just like to say to the four National associations, do your best to show your games to as many fans as possible, after all it’s in your own best interests!

P.S. My column is a day early this week as I’m hoping to be celebrating yet another Norn Iron victory at Windsor Park tonight, anything else doesn’t bear thinking about, 'stand up for the Ulstermen!

Fourth Dimension!

Just heard on the grapevine that fourth officials are to introduced at Irish league games, from now to Christmas they will officiate at just 4 matches per week at first, but after Christmas there will be a fourth official at all Premier league games. How will this benefit the teams I wonder? Will they be responsible for what time is added on at the end of the game as witnessed at higher level games? Or will their duties mainly entail ensuring that coaching staff of respective teams don’t stray out of their own area? I personally can see little benefit in this new initiative, although it might eliminate the farcical situation that occurred last week at the Oval, when the referee failed to add any stoppage time after 90 minutes, despite all six subs being used in the second half. Or could they give the referee a bit of advice before they make any silly decisions, as with the sending off of Gordon Simms at the Oval last Saturday. According to referee Adrian McCourt, Simms received a straight red card, as in his opinion he was the last defender. Television pictures clearly showed that United Captain Albert Watson was behind Simms, even though it was debatable as to whether he could’ve got across to tackle Glen’s player Darren Lockhart, before he shot for goal. Big Gordon’s tackle was, as United manager Tommy Wright correctly pointed out, ‘clumsy’ rather than deliberate, but the referee was adamant that he had to go. The fact that the home team scored from the resultant free kick, only added ‘insult to injury’, in my opinion. Then as if to make matters worse he merely cautioned Darren Lockhart later in the game, when he ‘deliberately and maliciously’ scythed the legs from United’s Mark Picking after his misplaced pass had left the United winger with a clear run on goal. If the fourth official can help to eliminate some or most of these inconsistencies, then it’ll be for the good of the game, if not it will be just another wasted exercise!