Out with the old.....

‘Few teams in the world can match Newcastle for crowd size, transfer budget and wages’.

‘Newcastle have to change managers so often because quite simply they rarely pick the right bugger in the first place’.

Quote: Billy Furious, The Sunday Times, 30th Dec 2007.

As I drive down to the Recreation Ground, to watch Aldershot Town, I often wonder about the world that these big club supporters live in. And what is it, that makes an average Premiership side a ‘Big Club’?

Population…I guess.

Yes, Newcastle is a big place. So, like ‘we’ would consider ourselves to be ‘big’ and Histon small…..and Forest Green likewise (find FGR FC on a map), Newcastle has to be bigger than the rest, surely?

But a quick check of the latest Census data will show that Newcastle is smaller than Nottingham and much smaller than loads of other places, including the London Borough of Croydon…..(Croydon FC are currently in the Premier division of the Kent League).

Perhaps then we should look at the honours won over the years to measure the size of a club.

And would recent memory count for more than the results obtained from a trip to the Library, and access to the social history collection?

Well, a quick look around the Newcastle City Library will confirm that Newcastle United has won the League Title on four occasions and the FA Cup six times….with the last win at Wembley being in 1955. Of course some fans will remember the victory in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup in 1969 ( a bit like the UEFA Cup today). But does this make Newcastle a ‘sleeping giant’ or a dead one?

Huddersfield Town have won the League Title four times and the FA Cup once…...and Nottingham Forest, the League in 1978 followed by the European Cup, under Brian Clough, in 1979 and 1980. But then who did Forest play on Saturday?

Div 1 Gillingham 3 v 0 Notts Forest…….

In the virtual world of Billy Furious, the failure to deliver the League Title followed by Champions League success can be attributed to the picking of the ‘(wrong) bugger in the first place’.

Funny thing then that Aston Villa won the European Cup with Tony Barton in charge in 1982.…Tony sadly died in 1993, aged only 56.

Yes, funny that the Villa could rise to the summit of European soccer with an inexperienced manager at the helm and yet Newcastle failed to deliver when, between Sept 2nd 1999 and 30th August 2004, they had Sir Bobby Robson in charge.

Shankly, Paisley, Clough, Robson and Ferguson….five great post war British managers.

And one final thing Mr Furious…..to imply that Bolton Wanderers have not been successful falls somewhat short of my assessment. Just cast your mind back ‘young man’ to 1987. The first season of the play-offs.

Bolton were relegated to Division Four after losing, over two legs, to Aldershot FC….who then went on to consign Wolves to a second season in the basement, with a 3v0 aggregate win in the Final.

Yes I guess Aldershot Town, top of the Blue Square Premier, after going bust in 1992 will do for me…..and Bolton in the last 32 of the UEFA Cup, will do for the Reebok faithful.

So as ‘Big Sam’ considers pastures warmer, my new year message to supporters of 'Big clubs' is….

……work a bit harder to get Northern Rock out of my debt and find those missing 'personal records'!



Aldershot Town lost narrowly to Grays Athletic on Saturday, in a game that was never pretty.

After a comfortable start, the game started to slip away from the Shots when Rhys Day missed from the ‘spot’ and Scott Davies was sent off for a rash challenge.

Two pretty soft goals conceded, a spirited second half fight back, a 65th minute goal from Jonny Dixon….. a late miss…..no points and a young player left to consider the impact that his loss of control had on the result.

I hope he will learn…..and that the team will respond positively. Gary Waddock has much to do if Woking are to be beaten on New Year's Day.

Best wishes for the New Year, to all Blue Square Premier players, management and supporters.