LETTERS

When Saturday Comes , PO Box 587 , Beckenham BR3 9NY ~ editorial@wsc.co.uk

Please note that all correspondence will be considered for publication unless it specifically states otherwise

Dear WSC

While I appreciate what Drew Whitworth is saying in his article about goalless draws (Point blank, WSC 466 ) I think he misses a point – context.

Just last season the team I support, Blackpool, were going through yet another appalling slump. We couldn’t win for love nor money. Just the previous week we had lost, badly, at home in a relegation six-pointer to a team who had, subsequently, leapfrogged us in the table. This week we were at home to the league leaders. Before the match it was all “I don’t know why I bother to turn up” and, for the first ten minutes or so we were silent in our seats, convinced we were in for another drubbing.

But then the miracle happened. Our defence found a grit, a determination, a fortitude that had been lacking all season. For once the home crowd were alive. We must have sung the Great Escape theme a hundred times. Ninety minutes later we had done it. We had kept a clean sheet. What is more, the other minnows had had a bad day and we jumped back out of the relegation places.

Goalless draw? We felt like we had won the cup. Maybe we could survive. We walked home with our heads held high. On a more modern note, did you catch the Spain v Cape Verde match at the World Cup? That was a goalless draw but one of the most watchable matches of the group stage. Columb Healy, Blackpool

Dear WSC

The article about 0-0 draws is wrong in both spirit and substance. Contrary to what the article says, it is for each football fan to decide which games and results to celebrate and enjoy, not have it dictated by others. That can include 0-0 draws – Cape Verde, anyone?

The article is particularly mean-spirited in describing the Manchester United v Exeter FA Cup game as “stifling the essence of the sport”. Yes, it included a “stalwart rearguard action”. But there was so much more to the game than that. Exeter actually came to play, fielding two strikers/goalscorers up front, and seriously threatened the United goal on occasions. This was 2005 , before underdogs routinely put everyone behind the ball and waste time from minute one. Yes, lots of Exeter defending was necessary, particularly in the last 30 minutes when Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Scholes, on as subs, ran the show. Defending is part of the game too.

But would it have been a better game if Ronaldo, when through on goal very late on, had scored to make it 1-0 instead of missing? I don’t think so. Andrew Long, Stourbridge

Did you catch the Spain v Cape Verde match at the World Cup? That was a goalless draw but one of the most watchable matches of the group stage

Dear WSC

The award of a corner kick if goalkeepers fail to release the ball within eight seconds has been a new feature of the World Cup. But what if the number of corners was used to decide the result of matches ending level after 90 minutes?

It might sound daft today, but there was a time when the “corners count” came into the equation for drawn games. During the Second World War, when professional football continued on a regional basis, cup matches in Scotland ending in stalemate were decided by taking account of the number of corners awarded to each team.

Hence the 1945 final of the Victory in Europe Cup was won by Celtic, who beat Queen’s Park by one goal and three corners to one goal and two corners, the “winning” corner having been taken in the last minute of normal time. I wonder if the idea will ever catch on again with FIFA? Colin Young, South Shields

Dear WSC

Your Match of the Month feature from St Mirren v Partick Thistle ( WSC 466 ) and the ongoing debate about TV characters’ football teams reminded me of an episode of Taggart many years ago. In one episode, DS Jardine told DCI Taggart “Sir, there’s been a murder at Firhill” to which he replied “There’s murder at Firhill every fortnight”. Alan Davidson, Skipton

Dear WSC

Regarding local derby nicknames, I have heard and seen it mentioned from many sources that when Ross County and Inverness Caledonian Thistle meet some refer to it as “El Kessico”. This playful moniker is derived from the Kessock Bridge, which the teams use to visit each other’s grounds and the backdrop to the Caledonian Stadium itself.

I have also unsuccessfully tried to have people refer to the game where Stirling Albion and Edinburgh City play against each other as “El Castleco” given that both teams’ badges feature their city’s stunning architectural wonders.

But that raises another question: how is a derby defined? I’ve argued that Falkirk and Dunfermline Athletic have a fierce rivalry rather than a derby, but have been shot down by fans of both sides who insist I’m wrong. Yet every definition of a derby I’ve seen mentions a shared geographical location. I would recommend no one incorrectly suggest Falkirk is part of Fife! Of course, Madrid and Barcelona aren’t geographically close, so maybe I’m just overthinking it. Krys Kujawa, Paisley

Dear WSC

Before the correspondence on nicknames for derbies and other fixtures is understandably closed, can I please propose that future matches between Southampton and Middlesbrough are known as El Binoculo? Graham de Max, Nottingham

Dear WSC

As a Derby County fan, it’s rare that I find myself in agreement with a Leeds sup - porter, but I heartily endorse the views of Matt Abbott (Letters, WSC 466 ) regarding the deafening music played at modern football grounds.

Back in our Baseball Ground days you could probably only hear the tinny PA system when the ground was empty, but we were quite happy to take our early places on the terraces and build the pre-match atmosphere singing paeans to the likes of Steve Buckley and Dave Swindlehurst.

Nowadays Pride Park has the regulation enormous speakers pumping out dance anthems as we sidle into our seats just before kick-off. Now in my 60s, both I and the fellow long-term season ticket holder next to me wear hearing aids. While we gamely try to exchange a few words about our prospects for the day’s game, the cacophony only seems to increase and we are forced to revert to the smiling and nodding familiar to those of us who are hard of hearing.

It’s too embedded to change now I feel, but as Matt suggests, less is more, and a break now and again to allow us to pass the time of day would be greatly appreciated. John Barber, Congleton

Dear WSC

I fully agree with Matt Abbott’s obvious dislike of stadium DJs trying to influence celebrations with “curated” playlists, but I would like to draw everyone’s attention to something else creeping into football stadiums that is possibly even more objectionable.

My wife is a big fan of televised darts, where it’s the thing now to have the players announced in by assorted individuals whose distorted pronunciations and tortuous phrasings often causes you to doubt their state of mind. This nonsense is aping the notorious American boxing and wrestling announcer Michael Buffer, who actually trademarked his particular way of announcing “Let’s get ready to rumble”. Suffice to say that I’m not a fan.

Unfortunately, but sadly inevitably, this kind of stuff is creeping into football. At Wolves’ final home game of our disastrous Premier League campaign last season, the team was announced over the PA by someone who had obviously been influenced by what he’d seen at the darts, and listening to him pronouncing the players’ names as if Wolves were playing at Alexandra Palace was unpleasant to say the least.

I can’t help feeling I’m shouting at clouds here, though, and this stuff is highly likely to become a feature at most grounds sooner or later. These days it seems atmosphere can’t be allowed to grow naturally, it has to be created and controlled. Paul Quinton, Wolverhampton

Dear WSC

I read Dominic Bliss’s Object Lessons account (Sketch artist, WSC 466 ) of how he acquired the scribbled tactics of Carlo Ancelotti with a knowing smile, as he wasn’t the only holder of the sketches of one of football’s most celebrated tactical geniuses. I was once the proud owner of the last flip-chart page Simon Grayson ever drew as Sunderland manager.

Volunteering at a Stadium of Light “sleepout” the night after Sunderland’s 3-3 draw with bottom-of-the-table Bolton, I took a break from reality TV stars and sub zero temperatures to latch onto a stadium tour. In the home dressing room I noticed the crumpled-up paper in the bin and took a look. The tactics didn’t amount to much other than Aidan McGeady cutting inside and pinging crosses in, and as Grayson was sacked 18 minutes after the game finished I’m not even sure if he got to rip the page off the board and throw it away. On reflection, I didn’t have much use for it, it was never going to adorn my walls, so it has a new home at the fantastic Fans Museum, which is also home to much more celebrated artefacts of footballing history ( see page 9 ). Alan Parkinson, Sunderland

Dear WSC

It’s not often I disagree with your editorial (Crystal maze, WSC 466 ) but as a Brentford season ticket holder looking forward to a future European campaign I am certainly concerned about the effect on league form. These are the games I pay to watch.

I doubt due to age and bank account I’ll be flying to too many far-flung stadiums and I’d guess the majority of season ticket holders will be in the same boat. Billy Reeves, Staines

Dear WSC

Regarding the editorial in WSC 466 , I’ve been a Palace fan for over 40 years and I’ve always said I’d take relegation tomorrow if it meant winning a major trophy today. I used to wonder what it felt like for Wigan and Birmingham City fans when they won a cup and got relegated in the same season. Honestly, would they swap those memories for another year of finishing 14th? I wouldn’t.

I’ve never understood fans who want a cup run to end early because it might improve their chances of finishing a few places higher in the league. That feels completely soulless and misses the whole point of supporting a football club. Football is about moments. Memories. Days that live with you forever.

I’ve got three daughters and I’ve been married twice, so I know a thing or two about love, joy and heartbreak. But nothing can compare with that glorious day in May 2025 when we finally lifted the FA Cup.

After 13 years of grinding away between tenth and 15th, surviving comfortably but achieving nothing, one afternoon of pure, unfiltered euphoria beat every single one of those seasons put together.

Give me the trophy, the open-top bus, and yes, even the Championship if that’s the price. I’d pay it again in a heartbeat. Stuart Saunders, Loughborough

Dear WSC

Tom Williams (Crime and punishment, WSC 446 ) offers an interesting but flawed account of the “crime and punishment” related to Southampton’s “spying”. Firstly, let’s park the wider issues of what other clubs may or may not have done, or what they may or may not be guilty of, as they relate to different rules and different footballing justification. They are wholly irrel - evant. The cowardice of others is also irrel - evant here, as is Middlesbrough’s comms campaign. The only relevant issue is what Southampton did seemingly on more than one occasion.

For me, the flaw in the argument presented is that, on the one hand, Williams points out that the Championship play-off final is one of the biggest games in world football, but, on the other hand, he bemoans that the consequences of EFL Regulation 127 are unspecified. Yet, if we accept the first statement is true (the play-off final is football’s biggest game), then the punishment must fit the scale, context and impact of the crime. It isn’t draconian or unfair, as Southampton, of their own volition, sought to cheat and benefit financially from one of the EFL’s major events.

Of course, we can hide this in debates about other rule-breakers, the state of the game, and the unfairness of football governance… but Southampton brought the sanction and the resulting fan derision upon themselves. Focus more on what the club did, own it, and learn from it. Don’t blame everyone else. John Goodwin, Leicestershire

Dear WSC

While I found Tom Williams’ article in WSC 466 about the punishment meted out to Southampton for the spying incidents interesting – particularly from a Saints perspective – a point of order about one of his assertions.

A Brighton staff member did not defecate on the floor of the away changing room at the Amex Stadium before the Palace play-off game in 2013, as still perpetuated at times by Palace fans in particular. Their coach driver admitted (I believe at a player awards evening, to much hilarity and still to this day apparently a lack of subsequent apology to Brighton) that he was caught short rather explosively, didn’t make it to the toilets in time and apparently did a cack-handed (in more ways than one) attempt at cleaning it up, before scarpering.

He had driven the kit man and kit to the Amex before the game so he could set up the away changing room ready for the evening kick-off. Matt Johns, Brighton