Outside the Box – Football on TV: No handshake for Evra and no love lost between the partisan pundits at Sky

Think about this for a second. How many times do you think you have seen Luis Suarez’s hand this weekend? Ten times? Twenty? A hundred? I’m sure I’ve seen his wandering hand more than I’ve seen my own two in the past 48 hours, such has been the swirling media-frenzy since he refused to settle his di...

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Carlisle United: The Highs and Lows of Carlisle Revealed

What images do you associate with Cumbria? Beautiful scenery or the words of Wordsworth readily spring to mind. The county’s only Football League club has a far lower profile. However, the rich and varied history of Carlisle United is a fascinating tale. United were founded in 1904 and spent the n...

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The View Outside The Premier League: The Gulls Fly High But The Owls Crash Land

Another weekend of fixtures badly affected by the freezing conditions. Without undersoil heating it was the games in the far south and west that had the best chance of surviving and Torquay, Exeter City, Bristol Rovers and Hereford United all took advantage while others were forced off. Torquay jum...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Serious lessons to learn from Fashanu’s footballing family

I’m fairly certain we can all agree that football has its fair share of problems. If it is not the shady transfer dealings of murky agent types skulking around the bins at Tottenham’s training ground, it is the ignorant grunts of ill-informed morons as they boo a man purely for being the brother of ...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Hughton's Birmingham Maintain Promotion Push

A much truncated programme because of the weather. And some of the games that were completed only just made it - Birmingham and Southampton fans were especially unlucky to be slated for the late kick-off at snowy St Andrews and the two sides put on a creditable show. Only Sporting Braga have won at...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A prosperous week for Liverpool in the cups but off the field is a different story

The days leading up to the weekend’s FA Cup Fourth Round ties were not particularly pleasant for many football fans, a week in which the unseemly and murky face of football was glaringly apparent. Many column inches were devoted to the tax-evasion trial of Spurs manager Harry Redknapp, as well as th...

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The View Outside The Premier League: The Onward March of Crawley Town And Accrington's New Era

This weekend saw a mixed programme with a virtually full fixture list in League Two and reduced numbers for the Championship and League One as clubs tried to reach the Fifth Round of the FA Cup. In the cup the standout result was Crawleys win at Hull City. Steve Evanss side reached the last 16 last...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Confusion reigns at City as Coleman fluffs his lines

Have you played Football Manager 2012? You may wonder how a game brimming with data, facts and incalculable statistics comes to contain such a dearth of information. Well, in the early stages of the games development, some spotty oik is charged with the task of finding someone close to each of the 7...

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The View Outside The Premier League- Hammers Go Top And Sky Blues Shock Boro

The word is that some West Ham fans dont like the way Sam Allardyce gets his teams to play - come to think of it, most fans dont care much for his style but when it wins pointsevendiehard adherents of the beautiful gamewill swallow their doubts. Theres probably a debate waiting to happen about the ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: An incident-packed week at the BBC leaves Savage short of support and Lineker lost for words

They say a week in football is a long time and it can certainly be said that there was enough controversy, incident and wonder crammed into the last seven days of football to keep Joey Barton’s Twitter account going for years. The fallout from the Manchester derby, the return of Scholes and Henry, t...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Birmingham Hit Six and Southampton Get Back In The Groove

Birmingham City smashed six goals without reply at Millwall and while they did benefit from two dismissals for the home side, the result demonstrated that Chris Hughtons side are firmly in the promotion picture. Inthe league the Blues season has had something ofa slow burn about it - partly due to ...

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Racism is in the spotlight but what is being done to tackle homophobia?

The FA stamped down on Luis Suarez’s racism towards Patrice Evra. And it’s quite right that they did, isn’t it? For when we look back into the past, and certainly in football’s past, we see things that are shockingly vile. In the seventies and part of the eighties, black footballers were subjected ...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Robins Fly High And Rhodes Terrorises Wycombe

This was a weekend when FA Cup action mixed with a number of games in Leagues One and Two. Huddersfields star man Jordan Rhodes got things off with a bang on Friday night by crashing five goals past a hapless Wycombe Wanderers. Manager Lee Clark must have had mixed feelings as his top striker once ...

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The View Outside The Premier League: West Ham Close On Stuttering Saints And Leeds Leave It Late

In the Championship, the festive season has been defined by the teams at the head of the table all finding it difficult to make headway. Southampton have been especially wobbly and defeat at Brighton opened the door to their nearest rivals. Middlesbrough came unstuck at Blackpool but West Ham event...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A football overkill but Fabregas’ Barcelona adventure keeps us watching

At the top of this article you will see, if you can get past the crass, self-congratulatory overuse of my own name, that the tagline for this column mentions that there isn’t enough football on the TV. Obviously this pithy line is actually nonsense as there is in fact far too much football clogging ...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Sheffield Pair See Out 2011 In Style But Its Misery at Northampton

No doubt where the gloomiest bunch of fans were to be found on New Yearss Eve. Excellent results by the teams around them sent Northampton Town to the bottom of the Football League. This event was even more galling as the Cobblers conceded a last-minute winner at home to Swindon Town. There is now ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Stelling and his merry mates bring festive cheer and genuine fear in the absence of any football

If we boil it down, there are two distinct ways to spend the festive period. You either endure the holiday wallowing in a pit of desperate desolation, alone with no hope of joviality, good tidings or communal kinship. Sat crestfallen in front of Eastenders on Christmas night, nursing a bottle of gin...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Southampton Dominant At St Mary's And Its Presents For The Cellar-Dwellers In League Two

Southampton have had a few blips on the road of late but everyone feels warm and comfortable at home over Christmas and the Saints found life at St Marys as welcoming as ever. Crystal Palace drew the holiday short straw of a trip to the South Coast and went down 2-0 to the Championship leaders. Pal...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A battle of wits ends in defeat for Worthy’s warhorses, but football marches on

Let’s face it. Our footballing heroes don’t have the greatest reputation when it comes to brainpower and academia do they? A cautionary glance at the post-match interviews every week on Match Of The Day show us superstars struggling to grasp the complexity of questions such as, “How do you feel the ...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Sheffield Wednesday And Huddersfield Serve Up A Christmas Cracker

A few weeks ago the Sheffield Wednesday-Huddersfield Town encounter shaped up to be a collision between a 100 per cent home record and a record unbeaten run - but Wednesday have been held at home recently and the Terriers lost their sequence on 43 games. The match still turned out to be an epic enc...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A love-in for O’Neill as marvel Martin ruins Rovers’ day

It was clear at 1pm on Sunday what the overriding theme of the day was going to be on Sky Sports’ Live Super Sunday. Ed Chamberlain, growing more and more comfortably into the role of football anchorman, opened the afternoon’s football coverage by loudly proclaiming, “Sunderland’s new era begins tod...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Southend Fall At Cheltenham And Crawley Take Advantage

Cheltenham staged National Hunt racing this weekend but Southend were the big fallers in Gloucestershire as they went down comprehensively to the towns football team. Their defeat allowed Crawley to open up a bit of daylight at the top of League Two. Cheltenhan are well in the promotion mix so the ...

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England: Euro Draw Could Have Been Worse But This Will Not Be A Walk In The Park

Depending on your national orientation, emotions following last Friday’s Euro 2012 group stage draw will have been mixed. If you are Irish, you will presumably be quite gutted that, having qualified for your first major finals in 10 years, perennial powerhouses Spain and Italy were drawn in your gr...

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England: The Group May Be Tough But Let's Be Positive!

Ah, the old draw. It was an interesting affair, as it always is. England have managed to avoid the two Groups of Death (which look insanely, absurdly hard) and have found themselves in an easier group than many other nations find themselves in. It is of course not easy, just easier. Sweden, de...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: The rise and fall of the sprightly Savage is far from a waltz in the park

Do you remember the first time you ever saw Star Wars? That intoxicating and bedazzling rush of pure unadulterated excitement as you sat slack-jawed, unable to wrench your eyes away from all the bright lights, whizzing space ships and questionable acting? And perhaps you also remember the desolate f...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Southampton Lose Again While Bristol Rovers Stage Goal of the Season

Saturdays Championship results would have delighted the bookmakers as both Southampton and West Ham United went down to unexpected defeats. Middlesbrough and Leeds United were both beneficiaries as the top two lost, while Doncasters victory threw more gloom towards Coventry City. Nigel Adkins has e...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Bristol City Are On The March As Northampton Keep On Crumbling

Bristol City posted the eye-catching result of the weekend when they overturned Championship leaders Southampton. As so often happens, the arrival of a new manager has produced a sharp upturn in performance - the gaffer in question this time is Derek McInnes, who is adding yet more lustre to the re...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A hair-raising spectacle on Saturday turns to sombre reflection on Sunday

Take a look around you. Chances are that if you are reading this in a public place; a library, at your office while you should be working or perhaps even on the Tube, then someone close by is displaying some facial hair that seems to be a little out of place. These moustachioed menfolk are either un...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A test of comedy quizzing is passed with help from the inspiring Irish

Ok, before we go any further let me first congratulate the Irish team on their impressive qualification for the European Championships next summer. There was the inevitable party mood for the second leg of the Republic of Ireland v Estonia match last Tuesday and I’m sure there are not many that begr...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Huddersfield Make It 43 Games Unbeaten as the Cobblers struggle

Huddersfield Town are mentioned a lot in this column but it could hardly be otherwise when a team goes 43 league games without defeat. Thats what the Terriers achieved this weekend when they ground out a hard-fought win over Notts County. This run sets the record for the Football League surpassing ...

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Can Paolo Di Canio Win A Trophy With Swindon?

Putting Paolo Di Canio in charge at Swindon Town was always likely to be something of a gamble. The Italian is the walking definition of the term mercurial and is always liable to end up in some form of controversy. When he got into an on-field barney with one of his strikers, everyone sucked in th...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Fleetwood Sit On The Chairboys, Charlton Show Their Class as Swindon KO Huddersfield

This weeks View Outside the Premier League is really an FA Cup round-up because the Championship is on hold due to internationals and League One and Two sides scrapped it out in the First Round proper. Instinctively we look for non-league success but these events arent quite what they used to be, a...

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Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Birmingham: What game would you like to erase from your club's history?

I think it is safe to come out from behind the sofa now. The trick and treaters have gone into 12 months of hibernation, giving the nation’s doorbells time to recover. The BBC can put the series of Halloween movies back into cold storage. Just how many were there? As football fans we too have exper...

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Stoke City And Greece: Why Should 'Pretty' Success Matter?

The European Championships 2004. Ah, what a tournament. The Greeks told every single one of us that fairy tales can come true. They defeated France and Portugal along the route to triumph and won a major international tournament for the very first time as rank outsiders. Unfortunately, what came...

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Leicester City – Nigel Pearson, return of the king or a ghost that that should have stayed buried?

There’s an old adage that is often repeated in the world of football; you should never go back. Players are warned of the perils of returning to former clubs for fear of tarnishing their carefully cultivated reputations at past homes. And managers even more so, lest we forget the almighty car crash ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: ITV begin to repay their debt with a feast of Man City delights

It’s the 12th June 2010. Seven thirty-four on a warm summer’s evening. My friends and I are huddled around my television, just as a million more expectant eyes are doing at the same moment up and down the nation. Then pffft … nothing. A moment’s darkness was followed by some guff about Hyundai cars ...

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Could ex-players as referees ever work?

Ah, referees. Nasty men in black, the forever stern officials of our game, often painted to be rather humourless beings who get out of the house on Sundays to escape their nagging wives and only serve to annoy us. There is a theory, which Roberto Marinez brought up back in January of this year,...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A bad week for JT just gets worse and worse as the news hacks attack!

It’s been a bad old week for Chelsea and England captain John Terry hasn’t it? The on-going racism row between Terry and his accuser Anton Ferdinand has been front and back page news since the incident occurred a week ago and the story shows no signs of halting. Like most I have seen the footage...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Southampton Make Their Mark While Burton Hit Barnet For Six

As statements of intent go, Southamptons victory over Middlesbrough could hardly have been more emphatic. Taking on the side with the best away record in the Championship and the meanest defence, the Saints swept them aside by a three-goal margin. Ever since the campaign began the South coast clu...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Mancini’s Manchester magicians spoil the party… and this column

Why always me? This week I was going to talk to you about the light-hearted Sky Sports knockabout quiz Take It Like a Fan. I was armed with reams of faint praise for the show and was readying my keyboard for a glittering review and even a possible recommendation for you all to check it out. But al...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Huddersfield and Wednesday March On

Charlton Athletic have set the pace in League One but two of their closest rivals are putting together a pair of remarkable sequences. Sheffield Wednesday have now made it seven wins from seven games at Hillsborough and, in West Yorkshire, Huddersfield Town are still to be beaten. The Terriers un...

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Can any player, including Messi, be considered 'the greatest'?

Ah, the Champions League. Bringer of drama, stopper of dreamers, platform for Ray Wilkins to say ‘my word’ 50 hundred thousand times. And there are other things that are nearly always discussed, certainly when seeing the two dominant Spanish sides play. The great debate has moved from trying to ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Football on Sky is becoming a fairytale thanks to Wilkins the Wizard

So we were repeatedly told that it was the ‘biggest club game in world football’ as Liverpool and Manchester United met at Anfield on Saturday for the ever-intense North-West derby. The fevered atmosphere was apparent at Sky for Live Ford Football Special and there was an almost fairytale mood in ...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Leicester Get The TV Blues Again

The Championship returned after the international break with a televised game on BBC. Leicester City fans must wish that the Beeb would leavetheir team alone - for the second time this season they were undone in front of the cameras by a penalty and a sending off. The Foxes appeared to be comfo...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Chesterfield Succumb At Fortress Hillsborough

With no Premier League or Championship games this weekend the spotlight fell on League One where one of the rarer local derbies took place. Just 13 miles seperates Sheffield from Chesterfield but meetings between the Steel City clubs and the Spireites can be infrequent. This was the first league...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Tevez, tantrums and Trigger? The pundits pull no punches when it comes to Carlos the Jackal

By the time this weekend came around I, like most, was sick to death of hearing about Carlos Tevez this, Carlos Tevez that, suspensions, fines, lip-readers, caveman, Aleksandar Kolarov, Argentina, Mancini. The whole overblown schism engulfed the country’s consciousness like some toxic mist and re...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Sven's Leicester On The Move

Early defeats to Reading and Bristol City put a sizeable dent in Leicester Citys aspirations but since the first weeks of the season the Foxes have steadily been improving. Everything came together nicely on Saturday evening when they thumped East Midlands rivals Derby County by a four goal margi...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: You’re On Sky Sports… or should that be Moron Sky Sports?

There are three clearly defined pursuits enjoyed by the average football fan. One, demonstrating the unwavering certainty that they know the best way for their team to play. Secondly, morphing into yob-like tyrants at the very sight of an opposition supporter and lambasting them with vociferous ange...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Forest's McClaren Finally Gets A Break

A managers tenure can turn on individual events. Steve McClaren could have been staring at a sixth straight defeat with Nottingham Forest if Watfords former Forest player Joe Garner had buried a close range header midway through the second period of Saturdays evening game. The Hornets paid for it w...

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Should football introduce a wage cap?

On Tuesday night I had the honour and privilege of commentating on Rochdale’s Carling Cup third round game at Aldershot for our official club website. Despite going into half-time 1-0 up, we managed to lose 2-1 and Aldershot progressed to the last 16 of the Carling Cup at our expense. Despite this,...

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