Football

fake shirts

got this one a few seasons ago in Marrakesh. perfect replica, before the white away came back out
so many people have stopped me asking me if thats next seasons and where to get it..easyjet £90

Maine Rd as pictured last summer.......

Not a good place to get trapped if you were an away fan

Nearly all the pubs nearby have shut

Shit! They turning it into flats?

Nice pics

sad to see manc ronnie, sad to see.

pisti, I was gonna put a caveat mentioning the middle classness of craven cottage, and to a certain extent loftus road, even though loftus road is built right in the middle fo two council estates, but didn't want to get into any class war statements ;O

Loftus Rd used to be quite moody for an away fan, those estates house some right little scallys

I used to live in Bermondsey. About half a mile from the New Den. Was cycling about the night it all kicked off versus Cardiff few years ago. Got the fuck back into my flat quick time.

Place is a shit hole. Burnt out cars just lying around by the stadium. Went into one of their pubs by mistake once with the missus. Very strange experience

I used to go and watch Millwall, got a million stories - I'll keep them off here though. What pub did you go in just out of interest?

pisti LOL, this ride will be a chance to for you to regale us all with your stories.

also anyone got any thoughts about where the end point should be, quite feeling the emirates tt, but is there any parkland around there for kickabouts?

should point out I have dodgy knees, and haven't played football in over ten years, and probably won't be participating in said kick about...

I have slight issues with riding for fifty miles just to get to the place I least want to go. ;)

lol

Shit! They turning it into flats?

Nice pics

An artist's impression. The ball thing is meant to be on what was the centre spot.

Fuckin 'ell! Who's gonna be able to afford them and more importantly and no offence but the kind of people they're aiming at are NOT gonna wanna live round there! Unless they're gonna be for asylum seekers?

Also, if they're like any other developments up and down the country at the moment they probably won't get finished through lack of investment and buyers

Strange area these days, it's in the 'better' part of Moss Side I suppose, and they are described as 'affordable', they certainly will be in a year. Most of the terraced houses are rented to students or Somalians.

I bet there will be a no ball games alloud.

right in the heart of the community a bit like Craven Cottage and Loftus Road, proper old stadiums.

Ha. heart of the community!.. the people that live in the million pound houses around the cottage hate the club and constantly try to undermine any efforts at improvement. No Fulham fans (including myself) can afford to live there nowadays. Very sad. You are right though, it is a Fantastic old ground and one which I will be visiting tonight for Hulls ongoing relegation party.

Loftus on the other hand is actually the size of a half-made subbuteo staduim and made of mechano. Fingers crossed I'll never go there again.

Tonight I'm havin:

19:45Man City vs Aston Villa 1-2
19:45Newcastle vs Man Utd 0-3
19:45Stoke vs Bolton 1-1
19:45Wigan vs West Ham 2-1
20:00Blackburn vs Everton 1-2
20:00Fulham vs Hull 2-0
20:00Tottenham vs Middlesbrough 1-1

Marco, understand what you mean about craven cottage, a colleague at work was upset about the fans coming to watch the game, like she wasn't aware that she'd bought a house by a football ground.
Sign of the times I suppose.
played in loftus road when I was a nipper on the astro turf so its got a bit of soft spot and went and saw someone play a european game there as well, much fun...
and its just round the corner from work, wanted to take a friend to see a QPR match there, but tickets are high for a championship club, was shocked by how much it was, and they're not even in the premiership, hoping the fans that do pay their hard earned are getting something good to support...

I used to go and watch Millwall, got a million stories - I'll keep them off here though. What pub did you go in just out of interest?

Quite a few actually.

The Blue Anchor and The Acient Forresters, both Southwark Park Road

Used to drink in The Gregorian on Jamaica road cos it was a bit more chilled. Funny thing was where I lived, near the Arches, it was often a meeting place for mass protesters before they went West to kick it off.

Once I was in the Gregorian and about 50 skinhead nutters types came in. I was well nervous. I wanted to flee straight away, but the misses said be calm, finish the pints and then go. They didn't cause any trouble then, but I am pretty sure they were about too.

Still give me round there any day compared to Hackney

thought we'd qualify for europe as beaten finalists in the carling, but t'would seem not. Nothing but a fight to the finish to avoid relegation and a summer clearout as harry gets happy in a wheeler dealer stylee...

bugger!

Back to the grounds ride. It is really feasible to visit all Premiership and Championship grounds in the same day (60-odd miles), seeing as other, shorter rides that stay in London take hours and end up with an average speed of 1.74mph??

Premiership one weekend, and Championship the next FTW.

Tonight I'm havin:

19:45Man City vs Aston Villa 1-2 ----- 2-0
19:45Newcastle vs Man Utd 0-3 -----1-2
19:45Stoke vs Bolton 1-1 -----2-0
19:45Wigan vs West Ham 2-1 -----0-1
20:00Blackburn vs Everton 1-2 -----0-0
20:00Fulham vs Hull 2-0 ----0-1
20:00Tottenham vs Middlesbrough 1-1 ----4-0

Hope you didn't have money on it;-)

Coles goal last night was a thing of beauty in a pretty ugly game.
Lee Cattermole is a cunt.

surely you don't want to be involved in the uefa europa league next season? it'll be the absolutely worst thing ever.

"your prize for winning a cup, is not a nice easy knockout format for a prize that is actually valued, is in fact a fucking joke of a league system that only manages to knock out 10 teams, is topped up by 10 teams that fail in the uefa champions league and goes on forever. your team will get knackered and probably want to pull out by december."

european football in whichever guise is a good thing, and should be seen as such, I can only point to how much it is valued in europe - willing to be proven wrong on that point, and if you want to get into the rhythm of playing against foreign opposition the uefa's or europa cup from next season is where it's at.
Recent winners zenit st petersburg, sevilla, porto, feyenoord, cska moscow, valencia, some like sevilla, have become more established european competitors, as well as the confidence of winning/ doing well in the europe making them one of the four or five teams challenging for the spanish title, after winning the uefa, porto went onto win the champions league. Uefa is a place to get used to european competition, effective to lure foreign players to your team, shows ambition, and ultimately makes the team stronger, as you need to rotate players to be strong in both league and cup, meaning that the club as a whole progresses.
It could be argued that english teams should have won a lot more uefa cups recently than they have done, if the managers and fans had taken it more seriously, last finalist was middlesborough in 2006, and last winners liverpool in 2001

that west ham wigan game was a bit x-rated last night, some of those challenges were well over the top, both figuratively and literally.
seemed like there was a lot of retaliation going on, someone from either side should have cooled it down, cole's sending off seemed really harsh, eyes fixed on the ball, not away of the wigan defender sticking his head in, didn't seem malicious in any way. Parker's challenge, lucas neill's challenge, cattermole's lunge, all of those could or should have been straight reds, and they couldn't have complained in the slightest.

Didn't see the highlights for spurs, but a good result, middlesborough are the most up and down club I've ever known, what light does this throw onto liverpools defeat to boro on the weekend.
Hopefully with Keane off the mark, and the confidence that comes from playing well in a bad game at wembley (even though we lost) that we can kick on up the league to safety and eighth or ninth place..