F.A. CUP ROUND 1 – HAYES AND YEADING AWAY Our Opponents In the previous FV I noted that ten years ago our opponents, Pompey, were in the Premier League. Quite hard to believe now but even harder to get one’s head around is the fact that we were in the same league as Hayes and  [ more ]

PORTSMOUTH AWAY Our Opponents Ten years ago Pompey were in the Premier League finishing bottom 11 points worse off than the team immediately above them. Their subsequent plummet was spectacularly alarming for their supporters. Back in the Championship they survived their first season finishing 16th but the next two campaigns each ended in relegation. In  [ more ]

SUNDERLAND AT HOME – EFL CUP The build up I couldn’t work out how big/important a game this was. The winner goes through to the quarter finals. We’ve not been there for 32 years. So pretty big then. But there’s little money to be made from winning games and even the tournament itself when compared  [ more ]

ROCHDALE AT HOME The week gone by James Henry. Photo Simon Jaggs I’m well pleased with the news that James Henry has signed a new contract but don’t know what to make of Erick Thohir’s departure from the board. Is it meaningless or a vital cog in the ownership and financing of the football club?  [ more ]

ADDENDUM TO FAN’S VIEW NO: 18 (2019/20) – ROTHERHAM AWAY A Rotherham fan has been in touch and explained why the home support joined in the applause a bit after the Oxford fans. Here’s some of what he said: I just want to point out, as I think it very important that the Rotherham fans  [ more ]

ROTHERHAM AWAY Our Opponents Rotherham have the 5th highest average home attendance in L1: 9,640. I’ll gloss over how pathetic ours is in comparison. Even though we’ve only got three sides the capacity of the Kassam is marginally bigger than that of the New York Stadium. In 2000/01 when we finished bottom of Division 2  [ more ]

DONCASTER ROVERS AT HOME But First ….. England 5 Scotland 1 – Home International Championships. 24/05/1975 This was a very long time ago but it was one of those football experiences I won’t forget. I’m pretty sure it was when the second goal went in – a Kevin Beattie header – when I started jumping  [ more ]

OXFORD UNITED 1 SUNDERLAND 1 A draw obviously yields just a single point but that is so much sweeter when achieved by coming from behind. A lead conceded naturally leaves you feeling deflated to a greater or lesser degree. What made this particular point gained even more satisfying was that it was not only against  [ more ]

SOUTHEND AT THE KASSAM On the face of it we should be thanking the man who wrote the software that produces the fixture list? What more can we wish for than a home game on Boxing Day when traditionally there is a much larger gate than the norm. That’s money to be popped into the  [ more ]

DONCASTER ROVERS AWAY Checkatrade I’ve done this subject to death and find it all a bit wearing. I’ve recently been asking myself whether I should embrace it all as I’m never going to change the world. It’s good to re-evaluate our stance on various matters from time to time. So did I attend the game  [ more ]