Black Magic!

I see the draw for the C.I.S. cup semi-final has been made and quite by chance Belfast's big two, Glentoran & Linfield, have escaped each other in the draw. If anyone believes the previous statement I would encourage them to stay indoors for the next few days as 'allegedly', the 'bokie' man is on the prowl. Why have the pretense of a draw, when all they have to do is seed them one and two and then they need never meet until the final anyway. The I.F.A. always seem to be able to call up a wee bit of that old 'black magic', when it comes to cup draws in order to keep the big two apart. Speaking of magic, United manager Tommy Wright could be doing with some at the moment as his team face the prospect of a seventh defeat in a row this Saturday. It's hard to pinpoint where our beloved Sky Blues have gone wrong this term, but go wrong they have in a really big way. The C.I.S. cup always seems to take us by surprise and we rarely look like qualifying although we did still have a 'foot in the door' going into the last game this time. The County Antrim Shield looked promising, dismissing Orangefield Old Boys and Donegal Celtic, in the type of games which generally trip us up. For a change we approached these games in a professional manner and were rewarded with a home draw in the semi-final. Unfortunately we didn't approach the semi-final in a professional manner and judging by our naive defending we obviously didn't have the Crues watched as we allowed their forwards far too much space and they duly punished us for it. If that wasn't bad enough we committed suicide three days later when we visited them for a league game and our form has continued to sink downhill ever since. The time has come for this alarming slide to be halted and halt it we must, if not we're going to be in for a very long winter and I'm not talking about the weather here I can assure you. Tommy Wright may have to call up the good witches and get them to cast a spell or two, well he has tried everything else, he might as well bet on a fairy tale, after all he has everything to lose, and plenty to gain!

Wake Up!

Just watched the Norn Iron Sweden game on TV last night and suddenly had a 'brainstorm' about the 'new' National Stadium, or should I say the new on/off National stadium. Let's be honest here, the proposed 'maze' stadium hasn't got a pups chance of ever coming to fruition. Never mind the impracticalities of the scheme, Soccer, Rugby and Gaelic games under one roof, but would somebody tell me where the hell are we going to get the 44,000 fans to fill it? Norn Iron has a population of less than 2 million, of that only about 10% have any interest in football (sorry soccer) and about 90% of them are armchair supporters (as far as International soccer is concerned I include myself in that number). So we're proposing to build an International stadium that we haven't a snowballs chance in hell of filling. We could possibly, I grant you, fill it for the first three or four games, but once the novelty wore off we'd be back to square one, well in fact we'd be in a whole new position and one we had no idea of how to get out of. The best option for Norn Iron in my opinion is to get together with someone like Crusaders, who recently stated their intention to build a new stadium, going into partnership with a strictly laid down agreement, e.g. the club gets use of the Stadium when not required for International games and picks up a fair percentage of the running costs. We'll only need a capacity of 20,000, actually 15,000 would do, but lets have a bit of optimism for once. Norn Iron as I said, is a small country, we can ill afford to have a national stadium that lies idle for 40 weeks a year. Much better to have one that is in use almost every week, but where International games take priority and where no club can hold the governing body to ransom for £500,000 a year. Yes boys its time to 'wake up and smell the coffee', the time for dithering is over, one more good 'purge' and we can turn over a new leaf and set our 'wee' team and local football, up, for many years to come!

Appeal! Appeal!

When the I.F.A. published it's league table for next season various teams appealed against the ratings, two of which spring to mind, Crusaders and Donegal Celtic. Lo! and behold, the I.F.A. in it's wisdom (I just realised I've committed a major gaffe, wisdom and the I.F.A. are incompatible), have regraded both teams. In the case of Crusaders I can understand their being regraded, finishing in the top six of the Irish league last season and with if not a top ground for a base definitely one of the top six grounds in local football. When one considers some of the teams rated above them it's easy to understand why Irish football is in the mess it's in. Let's take Glentoran who were placed third in the rankings, for example. They have no toilet facilities for visiting fans (at least I've never found any except the exterior wall between the ground and the Sydenham by-pass), the view from the visiting stand is obscured by at least 8 supporting beams and it's a bottleneck to get out of and is a disaster waiting to happen. Dungannon Swifts placed 4th has only one toilet which must be used by both sets of fans, which could lead to trouble, the view from the terracing will give you a 'crick' in your neck and the exits are much too small leading to a potential disaster, if they ever get a big crowd (unlikely). How Coleraine are in fifth I have absolutely no idea, as for a start they shouldn't even have any points, having been in administration, while their ground with only a covered terrace behind one goal for visiting fans or a seat in a stand which is about 40 yards away from the playing surface, doesn't make for exciting viewing by any stretch of the imagination. The list goes on with such worthies as Cliftonville, only a temporary toilet for visiting fans, while Armagh City and Distillery's grounds have to be seen to be believed. Yes the Crues did have a case and they were rightly moved up the rankings, but Donegal Celtic, come on for Pete's sake, they have nothing going for them whatsoever, visiting fans don't even have a covered terracing, what am I saying, they don't even have terracing. Did the I.F.A. decide to just give more points to anybody who appealed? Where does this leave the likes of Ballyclare Comrades whose Dixon park ground would put many others to shame given that suddenly Donegal Celtic are even further ahead of them, even before they've had a chance to state their own case? As usual the I.F.A. (basically the same people who foolishly gave Linfield a 104 year contract), have made a complete balls-up of a straight forward procedure. I have said it before and I'll say it again, we will never get anywhere in football terms until we disband this useless organisation, time and again they've proved it, they couldn't even run a one-man business!

Bigger Blunders!

I do not believe it, I'm sure you've all heard that saying many times, but I must emphasis, 'I do not believe it'. What do I not believe? I do not believe that the I.F.A. have appointed the biggest 'bigot' in local football, David Jeffrey, as the boss of the under-23 squad. This is the man who has accused, nay falsely accused, United fans of sectarian abuse and must substantiate his claim or apoligise unreservedly. I am beginning to think that the United fan's chant which goes, 'Linfield are the I.F. A.' is closer to the truth than even I thought possible. Is David Jeffrey the best man for the job, will he not in fact pick mainly players from the 'big two' to supplement the cross channel players at his disposal, or as recently proved, players he has in mind to sign. Would it not in fact be more prudent to pick someone like Paul Kirk who one hopes would be a more discerning manager, or someone with their base in England or Scotland, where let's face it the bulk of our International players are going to come from. Then again maybe the I.F.A. have made an agreement with Ryan Air that the 'fat controller' will be flying to England on fact finding missions on a regular basis. Do budget airlines realise that he is too fat to fit in a conventional seat? I very much doubt it, even if his body could get in, his head is too big, much too big! Enough about the fat controller, I was also interested in the comments of the Cliftonville manager Eddie Patterson about the Glens being allowed to kick the ball away at free kicks, by referee Brian Turkington who took no action. This also was the case last Saturday when the Glens constantly kicked the ball away after United were awarded free kicks and encroached also on quite a few occasions. The referee on this occasion, was, surprise! surprise!, Brian Turkington! Does this official travel with the Glens (I've always suspected that this was the case), or am I being paranoid here. I made a comment on Wednesday night that David Best was a Linfield fan only for Sammy Patterson to say, 'what you really mean is he works for Linfield', after much thought the 'penny' finally dropped, 'Linfield are the I.F. A.,' now I'm starting to believe it myself!