Lucky Wednesday?

It looks like Sheffield Wednesday will get away with a fine from the Football League after naming six loan signings in their sixteen-man squad for the game against Stoke on Saturday.

There can be absolutely no excuses from Brian Laws or anyone at Hillsborough. Everybody knows the rules, and the fact that Wednesday failed to adhere to them should cost them dearly.

I’m Club Secretary for a local Sunday League team and although you can hardly compare the standard of football between the two leagues (we play to a much higher standard ) the same rules should apply.

In our league if you play an ineligible player you are given a hefty fine, deducted two points (we have two points for a win), the other club is rewarded maximum points on a 0-0 basis and the game is usually re-played, schedule permitting, at the expense of the club who did wrong.

Last season Leeds were found guilty of the same thing and were fined £2,000, so it would be a real surprise if Wednesday were deducted points, which once again highlights the differences between the top of the game – where you would think this sort of “mistake” would be much less likely – and the grass roots level.

It’s all very frustrating – and not just because a point deduction for Wednesday would help the Canary cause.

Pattison gets Mercy from Magistrates

It was good (if that is the right word) to hear the facts surrounding Matty Pattison’s drink-driving arrest after he had been fined £2,300 and banned from driving for 20 months – as well as being ordered to pay £60 court costs and a £15 victim surcharge by Magistrates.

What happened looks to be pretty straight forward. Pattison went out in the City to Mercy after the 2-0 defeat at Sheffield United, had a few drinks and got back to Dunston Hall late (ok, very late). He got up in the morning and decided to drive to work even though he “still felt drunk” when he woke up.

In the meantime, hotel worked Ben Lee got on the blower to the police to say that he thought Pattison’s “speech was slurred” and breath smelt “intoxicated”. Police arrived at Colney and breathalysed him where he was found to have just over double the legal amount of alcohol in his system to drive.

You can’t defend Pattison for his actions, but now would be as good a time as any to remind anyone who does not know that he is a South African who has spent many years living in Newcastle. I’ve never heard him speak, but I know a few South Africans and a few Geordies, and their speech is slurred at the best of times so I can’t imagine how they would mix!

After the case, he said in a statement:

I sincerely regret the actions which have led to me coming to court today. I fully accept the sentence handed to me by the magistrates and I am determined to learn from my mistake. I would like to say sorry to the magistrates and the police for taking up their time.

The club released their own statement:

Matty genuinely and sincerely regrets his behaviour and the club will support his determination to learn from this serious breach of his position of responsibility as a Norwich City player.

The club is committed to working with police and other relevant local authorities and welfare groups to promote responsible citizenship – and this includes a very firm stance against drink-driving and other forms of irresponsible or anti-social behaviour.

We will continue to drive this message home during the programme of development in place to educate young players in our Academy and to support local initiatives aimed at driving home these messages to the wider community.

Perhaps Pattison should take a leaf out of Ipswich’s Danny Haynes’ book?

Championship Predictions: 31st March 2008

It’s getting harder and harder to predict how the Championship will finish, so for this week I’ve abandoned the BBC predictor and have taken a leaf out of Luke Skywalker’s book by trusting my instincts.

I’m not interested in the play-off picture or automatic promotion at the moment. The only thing that concerns me are the relegation places, where there are as many as seven clubs realistically fighting it out to not be the one that bags the third and final relegation place (For the purpose of this exercise I am assuming that Colchester and Scunthorpe are already down and that Preston in 15^thon 53 points are safe, so apologies any U’s or Irons fans who may be reading this).

After the weekend’s round of matches the bottom of the Championship table looks like this:

1. Blackpool (50pts)
2. Norwich City (49pts)
3. Coventry City (48pts)
4. Leicester City (47pts)
5. Barnsley (46pts)
6. Southampton (46pts)
7. Sheffield Wednesday (45pts)
8. Scunthorpe United (38pts)
9. Colchester United (33pts)

Canary Classics: Sheffield Wednesday 3 Norwich City 3, 1st September 1993

The latest Canary Classic takes place back in the 1993/94 season (when we were still good).

After going 3-0 down goals from Mark Bowen, Efan Ekoku and Chris Sutton sent the travelling supporters home happy with a point following a truly remarkable game.

PS keep your eye out for former City boss Nigel Worthington during the Wednesday celebrations.

What we have learned this weekend: 29th/30th March 08

It has been a weekend of confirmations if anything, so we’ll look at “what we have confirmed this weekend” instead:

Derby are rubbish. Not much to argue there I think. The fact that the BBC website has an article up asking if they are the worse Premier League side in history says it all.

Andy D’Urso is absolutely useless. Fact.

The Championship relegation battle is going to the wire. It’s squeaky-bum time at the bottom of the Championship, and there seems no doubt that the relegation places will be decided on the final day of the season – I just hope we’re clear by then.

Liverpool will finish fourth in the Premier League. After coming out on top in the Merseyside derby only a very brave soul would put money on Liverpool finishing anywhere other than fourth.

Newcastle are…weird. They don’t win a game for ages, and after beating Fulham last week gave Spurs an almighty tonking at White Hart Lane today. What’s that all about?

Quotes of the Week: 30th March 2008

Glenn Roeder scrubs Andy D’Urso’s name from his Christmas list:

I’ve got the fourth official screaming in my ear: ‘Glenn, the Bristol City player has handled the ball. I can clearly see that…’ And that’s before the free-kick’s taken.

He (D’Urso) even actually came over before the free-kick was taken. And the fourth official told him: ‘It was a Bristol City player that handled the ball…’ But he had gone by then. His lights had gone out. He wouldn’t listen and the ball ends up in the back of the net.

It’s not acceptable. If a referee got that wrong on a Sunday morning pitch, he’d be cried down. If D’Urso can’t get those simple decisions right, my God, where’s he going?

And reveals his shock at the money Stoke have “paid” for Shola Ameobi:

I have to take him for his word, I know Dennis (Wise) reasonably well and that’s what he was telling me. I am not obliged to say what Stoke’s business is with Newcastle, but it is mind boggling, the amount of money he has told me that Stoke have gambled for Shola to get them in the Premiership because, I believe, if they don’t do it, there isn’t any way that Stoke are going to carry through paying £5m for a striker while they are still in the Championship.

Darren Huckerby has his targets for the end of the season:

I need to chip in with a few more goals before the end of the season – I’m four away now from 50, so if I could get anywhere near that I’d be very happy. I was hoping to get to 50 before 200 games, to be honest. Because then it’s one in four and for a left-winger, that’s pretty good. But we’ll have to see what happens.

Matty Gilks reveals he could have left the club:

A couple of clubs came in for me, trying to get me on loan but obviously with the situation with goalkeepers at the club he can’t afford to let me go, or he’s not looking to let me go. Which is a bit unfortunate for me but then again it’s up to the manager and I’m sure if there was a chance I could have gone, he wouldn’t have stopped me from getting first-team football.

Sven rules out selling Ched Evans:

We do not have any plans to sell him. A little bit depends on him and he’s doing well at the moment for Norwich and his country. If I had to make a plan today, it’s to take him back for pre-season, look at him and decide from there. That will be his big chance.

How I (nearly) got to Wembley for less than two pints

Living in Bedford my nearest football league club is MK Dons, who are going to Wembley today to play Grimsby Town in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Final.

Their average home attendance this season is somewhere between 8,000-9,000 I believe which is quite impressive for a League Two side without any ‘traditional’ support, but for their big day out were given an allocation of around 30,000 tickets.

Cue loads of locals who don’t particularly follow Franchise FC, but want to have a nice day out at Wembley. People like me (hello!).

I left it pretty late (as is my way), but on Sunday I went on the Dons website to see if there were any tickets left and what do you know there were – priced at £20, £30 and £50 each.

So I selected the “find me the best seats available” option (as they were all out of £20 tickets), and I was presented with two Club Wembley tickets (RRP £50), marked as -£1 each. Yes that’s right, I could get two £50 tickets for the rather cheaper price of -£2.

How could I turn that down? So I ordered them, and after postage and packing etc the final price was £3.80, which made me smile.

Rather naively I thought I might actually get away with it, and thought I had right up until the dreaded phone-call arrived on Wednesday afternoon to say that there was a “mix-up” with their online booking system so the tickets hadn’t actually been allocated to me – and nor would they at at -£1 each. I had a simple choice – pay the additional £104.20 and bag the tickets, or get a refund.

Contrary to what some northern observers have stated in the passed (I’m looking at you Randall), I’m not that tight, but I’m not paying £50 to go and watch the Dons. No chance.

Bristol City Preview

This afternoon the Yellow Army rolls into the West Country to meet high-flying Bristol City at Ashton Gate.

The Robins will go back on top of the table should they win and Stoke fail to beat Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough, and Canaries chief Glenn Roeder believes they are there on merit:

Generally speaking the league table doesn’t lie and Bristol are there on merit. They are very close now, very much in the home straight and they can see the winning line but they haven’t got across it yet. They play good football and if we allow them to play it will be much more difficult for us.

The hosts will give late fitness tests to Lee Johnson and Jamie McCombe, while the Canaries are sweating on the availability of Gary Doherty and the influential Darel Russell.

A few facts…

League Position: Bristol City 2nd, Norwich 17th.

Last Meeting: 20th October 2007 – Norwich 1 Bristol City 3.

Top Goalscorer: Bristol City – Byfield (8), Norwich – Cureton (14).

My Prediction: When I originally made my predictions I went for home win, but I can’t bring myself to predict a defeat. Bristol City 1 Norwich City 1.

£5m for Ameobi? He’s all yours Tony…

So Stoke pipped us to the post for Shola Ameobi, but if Glenn Roeder’s right and there’s a £5m future transfer fee attached then good luck to them.

In a recent column for Vital Norwich I said that I thought Ameobi could cost anywhere from £1.5m upwards, but £5m? The board have their critics but if they spent that much on him there would probably be uproar.

Still, he’s pretty chuffed to be going there:

As soon as I heard of Stoke’s interest in me I was absolutely delighted. They are a big club, who play good football and they are doing extremely well this season, hopefully I can help them achieve their goal.

I guess one and a half out of three’s not too bad…

The mystery of the disappearing banner

At some point in the last 36 hours the banner on the main page vanished. It’s back now (as you can see), but I’ve no idea what happened there. Sorry about that.