Outside the Box – Football on TV: Bruce goes through Hull as the Championship season ends in drama

There are not many days in the course of the long football season that the glitzy farce of the Premier League is shuffled into the background like an ugly sister at a wedding. Usually, as the weekend rolls around every pundit, fan and newscaster is eagerly sharing their thoughts on Van Persie...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Hull City enjoy the rollercoaster but Peterborough lose out in musical chairs

To call it high drama doesnt even do justice to the last day of the Championship. All three major issues - promotion, play-offs and relegation went to the last minute. At the KC Stadium Hull City made sure they did it the hardest of hard ways before finding a way back to the Premier League. Going...

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Predict the Premier League: Squarefootball chief leads the way again

Right weve got three weeks of fixtures to get through here so lets get cracking. Please cast your mind back to the midweek fixtures of January 29 and 30. Aston Villa 1 Newcastle United 2 This was a huge game at the foot of the table and one that the visitors emerged from as victors. Goals from Ca...

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Why Royal Mail's Dream Team fails to deliver the goods

Royal Mail has assembled its Home Nations dream team to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Football Association. Legends of the game like Bobby Moore, George Best and Denis Law all feature in the special stamp collection, but eyebrows have been raised at some of the names who have missed out. H...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Deadline Day drama as Simon gets angry and Peter gets lost

The more attentive among you might have noticed we endured the annual manic torture–fest that is Christmas recently, indeed you may still be recovering from it’s stress-pounding effects even now. Probably the most excruciating facet of the festive period, aside from having to spend uncomforta...

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Arsenal, Norwich, Liverpool, Newcastle: The top 10 FA Cup giant killings of all-time

Luton Town became the first non-league club in 24 years to beat a top flight side on Saturday as the Hatters beat Premier League Norwich City 1-0 at Carrow Road. Paul Buckles men rode their luck against the Canaries, but super sub Scott Rendell wrote his name in FA Cup folklore with a winner 10 mi...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Cardiff stay on track but Blackburn misfire again

In a programme truncated by the weather, Cardiff City made light of a heavy pitch in Blackpool to add three more points to their promotion push. It wasnt the Welsh clubs most fluent performance of the season but winning while not at their best is a good sign. Cardiffs strong start to the campaign...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A weekend of woe for Walters as the BBC put him centre stage

Do you remember the glory days of Saturday night TV? That wistful time before Simon Cowell was given the keys to the kingdom and filled the weekend evenings with a symphony of garish fairy lights, screeching teenagers and Louis Walsh. Things were so much simpler before: you knew where you we...

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Blackpool: Who will be the new manager at Bloomfield Road?

Blackpool are searching for their third manager of the campaign after Michael Appleton was convinced to swap the life by the seaside for life under the Venkys at Ewood Park. The Tangerines have already been denied in their pursuit of Bradfords Phil Parkinson, but there are plenty of potential suito...

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Whose name is on the FA Cup? Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Man United?

The FA Cup Third Round gets under way this weekend and everyone is dreaming of Wembley. Even the big boys, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Man United and Spurs will all be looking forward to a sunny day under the arch in May. But who will win the FA Cup this season? Chelsea are the current ...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Dons end Blades' run and Appleton arrives at Blackpool

League One saw a meeting between the two pre-season favourites for promotion and MK Dons were able to end Sheffield Uniteds unbeaten start to the season. It took a last-minute penalty to send the game the way of the home side and Blades boss Danny Wilson was livid with the decision. Its been a st...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Ollie gets a Palace welcome and it could be Dons v Dons in the cup

Its a truism of football that managers usually take over teams when they are in trouble and the last incumbent has resigned or been sacked. Thats certainly not the case at Crystal Palace though, where Ian Holloway has inherited a bunch of players full of confidence and fairly fizzing on the park...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A shortfall of laughs as Redknapp, Corden and co play the fools

In these bleak, recession-hit days of austerity and hardship, we are all frantically searching for ways to forget our woes and feel a little better about things. Often, we look towards our local footballing heroes for an escape, but even that’s turning sour right now. A game seemingly awash ...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Middlesbrough enjoy another away day and Bournemouth down Tranmere

Saturday proved to be one of strange results in the Championship, as most of the frontrunners fluffed their lines. But Middlesbrough once again demonstrated their talent for getting a result playing away from the Riverside. Their 1-0 win at Brighton delivered a fourth successive away win for To...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Helguson boosts Cardiff and Stevenage go second

There are exciting strikers who score spectacular goals and there are strikers who are efficient and score goals that wont appear in compilation videos. Heidar Helguson is very much the latterkind of player, but Cardiff City were grateful for his efforts at Ipswich on Saturday evening. The Icelan...

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Blackpool: Can Phillips pip Ince to be their top scorer?

Blackpool surprisingly failed to score at the weekend against Cardiff City. It was only the second time this season that the Tangerines had failed to hit the back of the net but it was their second league defeat on the trot. The Seasiders, who started the campaign with three wins on the bounce, hav...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A more civilised way to talk about football perhaps, but it all comes down to Rooney’s gash in the end

Any long time readers of this column will be acutely aware of my ill feelings towards the current football malaise we reside in: the international break. A fortnight long forced abstinence of domestic football with only a scattered group of international fixtures to keep us going. Mercifully...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Harry has a new game as Redknapp makes his Match Of The Day bow

All in all, it’s fair to say that the summer of 2012 will be looked back on with a great deal of fondness by the vast majority. Sure the weather failed to resemble anything remotely “summery”, and we may of had to put up with the usual bunch of sycophantic ne’er-do-wells in the Big Brother h...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Mackail-Smith double sinks Burnley

Craig Mackail-Smith is an unusual name for a Scotland striker but the Brighton player showed his international pedigree at Turf Moor on Saturday with two quality strikes, one of which would grace a goal of the season compilation. The striker made the difference in a 3-1 win which didnt flatter th...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Mischievous Murray makes Match Of The Day 2 anything but the Muppet Show

It already feels like the 2012-13 season has been going for months. Arsenal and Tottenham have had about three different periods of crisis already; Sir Alex claims Wayne Rooney isn’t pulling his weight, despite only having played one and half games; and Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert is al...

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Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, Spurs or Sunderland: Who will win the Capital One Cup this year?

Liverpool are the most successful club in League Cup history. They won the competition for the eighth time last season as Kenny Dalglish’s men beat Cardiff City in an epic game that had to be settled on penalties. The competition enters its second round this week and, although some teams may dec...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Wycombe washed out but its raining goals in Blackpool

Saturdays games saw the rare occurrence of amatch being abandoned due to health and safety reasons. With thunderous clouds overhead and lightning flashing, Wycombe Wanderers and Bristol Rovers were called off well into the second half of their League Two contest. Rovers were the most aggrieved by...

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Leeds, Forest, Wednesday or Blackburn: Who will win promotion from the Championship?

Ian Holloway’s Blackpool have made an unbeaten start to the new campaign. The Tangerines have scored 10 goals in three games against Millwall, Leeds and Ipswich Town, conceding just one in the process, and are looking good for a promotion place. However, trying to predict the Championship i...

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Blackpool hit the ground running

After Tuesdays programme of matches in the Championship the only team left with a 100 per cent record is Blackpool. Yet again Ian Holloways team has startled the rest of the division. Though Blackpool are remembered - and celebrated for it - by many fans for their dramatic season as a Premier Leagu...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Neville looking sharp as Sky’s fantasy football begins

The beginning of a football season is always a curious period. Our much-cherished teams turn up at 3pm on opening day looking ever so slightly different from the last time we saw them. New kits, new colours if you live in Cardiff, new players and sometimes even new managers. Whatever misty remnant...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Fleetwood fire blanks and Pompey players get to know each other

A new football season always throws up some unusual stories on day one but there can have been few beginnings to a campaign quite like Portsmouths. Amazingly Pompey came away with a point from their first League One encounter despite sending out a whole team of debutants. Before he joined the sou...

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The 10 worst opening day defeats in the modern game

The new football season in England kicks off on Saturday and everyone will be going into the first game full of optimism and hope for a successful season. Unfortunately, some fans may be left crying in their beer come Saturday night. You see, football can be a cruel, cruel game. It can take that op...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: An Olympic hangover means Dixon’s debut fails to inspire

It’s been a gruelling few weeks for fans of sport hasn’t it? Ever since Spain cemented their place as football’s frontrunners at Euro 2012, there has been a disorientating vacuum of sport on television and no amount of frantic bashing of the Sky remote has been able to render any nourishment for s...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Team GB and the BBC could do with heroes like Neymar and the incredible Hulk

I don’t know about you, but even though the Olympics are yet to actually begin, I’m pretty sick of them already. I’m fed up of seeing clowns from the Government on Sky News demanding that the underclass should stop complaining that they can’t afford a pint of milk and just swoon in admiration at t...

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Is this the worst football kit ever?

Players and fans are supposed to wear their shirts with pride, but sometimes the tops are so hideous they make you utterly ashamed. Arsenal fans have complained about their Dennis the Menace away kit, Manchester United supporters have hit out over their new tartan home kit and some Liverpool fans a...

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Fantasy Football 2012/13 is here

Do you think you can do a better job than the professor Arsene Wenger? Could you out-muscle Mancini at defending title winners Manchester City? Then this is your chance to prove it! Squarefootballs Fantasy Football is back for another season and we want as many participants as possible. Last season...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Carlisles united as Clarke delves deep into racism in the game

Can you feel it? We’re in that disorientating period in the football calendar when everything’s not quite right. There’s no football on the TV; other sports like cricket and bloody cycling are beginning to barge their way onto the back pages, and most distressing of all your squads on Fifa are all...

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Bergkamp, Gazza, Larsson, Fowler, Shearer or Beckham - which former star would you like back at your club?

Scottish football is in a sorry state right now as the Rangers debacle rumbles on, but today (Friday the 13th) Charles Greens newco Rangers are due to find out whether they will be gracing the first or third division of the Scottish Football League. Its been a crazy few months for the men from Ibro...

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Keane, Ferguson, Mackay or Souness: Who is football's No1 hard man?

These are the men that put the fear factor into football. The men that gave their opponents nightmares. Here we celebrate the top 10 tough-tackling hard men that we all hate to love. 1. Roy Keane Born and raised on a tough estate in Cork, Roy Maurice Keane is the undisputed king of hard men...

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Special report: Following football from the disabled area

On August18, 2012, Charlton Athletic visit St Andrews in the Championship. Personally speaking the fixture is a trip down memory lane. You see Birmingham City v Charlton Athletic was the first game I saw in the flesh. The date was September 15 1979 and the Blues won 1-0. Immediately I was hooke...

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England: World in Motion or Three Lions - What has been the greatest song?

England take on France this afternoon in their first game of Euro2012 but expectations of Roy Hodgson guiding the country to glory are as low as those racist yobs in Poland and Ukraine who are grabbing all the headlines. Music could hold the key. England have had some notable tournament songs i...

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Euro 2012 Fantasy Football invitation

Calling all fantasy football fans. Have we got a treat for you. If you think you are a better manager than Englands Roy Hodgson or that you could leave Germanys Joachim Low feeling really down in the dumps then why dont you prove it? Weve set up our own Euro 2012 mini-league with the Sun and youve...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Chelsea win, but there were plenty of losers in the final day of football

There are some days that it simply doesn’t pay to be a non-football fan. We have a tendency in this country to lurch en masse into things and render them inescapable to the more indifferent among us. We latch on to an event, a past time, even a television talent show and let it consume us until we...

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Ten of the biggest cup final defeats ever

Heart of Midlothian clinched their eighth Scottish Cup on Saturday with an emphatic 5-1 win over their Edinburgh rivals Hibernian. It was a terrible afternoon for the boys from Leith, but Pat Fenlons men are not alone in being humiliated on their big day. Here are the 10 of the biggest cup final de...

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West Ham: Can the Hammers win their day of destiny?

Forget the past nine months. Forget the fact that West Ham United finished third in the Championship. Forget that they ended the season 11 points clear of todays opponents Blackpool. And forget the fact that West Ham havent lost a league game to Blackpool since 1966. Its irrelevant and wont mean a j...

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Blackpool v West Ham United: Championship play-off final betting special

The Championship play-off final is reportedly worth £90 million to the winner, but it could also be worth a few bob to you too. Blackpool and West Ham United are desperate to cap an immediate return to the Premier League. The Hammers should have sealed automatic promotion, but their poor home form ...

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Predict the Premier League: Great finish for Aberdeen, Portsmouth and West Ham

Aberdeen and Portsmouth fans have not had a lot to cheer about this season but Dandy Don Colin Illingworth and Pompey fan Peter Rendle have ended the season in the style. Both Mr Illingworth and Mr Rendle picked up 10 points from the final weekend to sit pretty at the top of our weekly table. Aber...

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Predict the Premier League: Blackpool clinch the title

Blackpool fan Phil Trow will be cracking open the Champagne today. The Seasider has secured the Predict the Premier League Experts title. Mr Trow has been the man to beat for most of the season, but Sundays thrilling final day ensured the title was heading to Bloomfield Road. It is part one of what...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A final day fanfare for Sky and the Blues

It all came down to this then. It’s been a gruelling journey, epic in its fluctuating fortunes as the favourites for the crown jostled back and forth. Each weekend millions looked on, eagerly cheering their chosen heroes, willing them to put in the performance that would clinch the prize they so ...

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Predict the Premier League: Blackpool enter final week eight points clear

Blackpools Phil Trow has led our Predict the Premier League competition for the majority of the season and he is on course for a double celebration as Iain Holloways men are now within 90 minutes away from a return to the Premier League. But can he stay strong and get the job done on the final weeke...

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Predict the Premier League: Birmingham put their play-off woes behind them to challenge Blackpool

Birmingham City missed out on a play-off final date with West Ham United on Wednesday night as they lost 3-2 on aggregate against Iain Holloways Blackpool. It means an uncertain summer is in store for the Blues as speculation surrounds the future of the manager, Chris Hughton, and the board. However...

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Squarefootball's Championship Team Of The Season

There have been a number of top class displays from players in the Championship this season, some will even be polying their trade in the Premier League next season. But who has made it into Hugh Larkins Team of the Season? Squarefootballs Hugh Larkin has kept his eye on the ball in the world outsi...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A long time ago in a Stadium far far away, ITV began their FA Cup Final coverage

The 2011-12 football season will probably be looked back upon with a real intrigue in future decades. It has been a long, incident-strewn expedition encompassing an abundance of controversy, drama and despair. It is hard to remember another campaign with more extraordinary talking points. The Luis S...

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Predict the Premier League: Portsmouth come back fighting

Portsmouth Football Club are facing up to life in League One next season but Pompey fan Peter Rendle could still cap a traumatic season as a winner. Our man from the land down under has been our top pundit over the past three matchdays and has given himself a chance of pipping long-time leader and B...

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Predict the Premier League: Blackpool stay top but Portsmouth pile on the pressure

Blackpool moved one step closer to winning promotion to the Premier League last night by beating Birmingham City in the first leg of the play-offs, but can Seasider Phil Trow hold on to clinch our Predict the Premier League title? Mr Trow has been the man to beat for most of the season but Portsmou...

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