… Not that the FA Cup has the magic of yesteryear anyway whatever some commentators and pundits would have us believe as they try to talk up the product their employers have purchased. These are very different times to when Ricky George scored that late winner against Newcastle United. That Newcastle side was 100% a genuine first team …

Will Green debuts on Rage Online with his thoughts on the introduction of VAR at the highest levels of the game

ROCHDALE AT HOME North stand five minutes before kick-off Pre-match worrying We could lose to Rochdale and end up back in the bottom four. We could then follow that up four days later by getting knocked out of the FA Cup by a side even lower than us. That would be rather disastrous and if  [ more ]

BRADFORD AWAY The state of Bradford City FC Last season Bradford’s average attendance, 19,787 was the highest in L1. This impressive figure is largely incredibly cheap season tickets and of course a ground that can accommodate such numbers and still have room to spare. The capacity is just over 25,000. This season the price of  [ more ]

FA Cup First Round Replay It’s one o’clock on match day. In a couple of hours I’ll be heading to Nailsworth. The BBC weather forecast informs that the temperature will feel like -1 degree. It’s not a place where a visitor is spoilt for choice of pubs, although to be fair the same can be  [ more ]

GILLINGHAM AT HOME Military Day. Photo Simon Jaggs My pre-match thinking but is it pessimistic or realistic? This season to date has been a very dark and depressing one. Whilst I can only genuinely speak for myself it isn’t that difficult to pick up the mood of fellow supporters in and around the Kassam and  [ more ]

A WEEK OF CUP FOOTBALL My indifference to the Checkatrade Trophy lessened just enough that I listened to the beginning of the game on Radio Oxford and also most of the second half. I’d be fibbing if I said I wasn’t pleased we’d won. Although I’ve vowed not to return to this tournament in its  [ more ]

SCUNTHORPE AWAY Our opponents and their form Scunthorpe had for some time been planning to move away from Glandford Park, a ground they only moved to in 1988, to one very close by, just the other side of the A18. That aim was ditched a year ago when chairman Peter Swann, who owns 87.5% of  [ more ]

SHREWSBURY TOWN AT HOME Some OUFC legends 125 YEARS AND COUNTING … THE HOURS TO OUR NEXT GAME There’s so much that goes to make up a football club. It is what it is at any one time but within that it has a fair bit of how it got there, its history including the  [ more ]

CHARLTON AWAY Pre-match mode I often slip into pre-match mode for our next fixture just hours after I’ve heard a final whistle. This is particularly so when we’re playing twice a week so after Bristol Rovers I was soon pondering how we’d do at the Valley. In the Rover’s FV I said I was hard  [ more ]