The Round Ball Game

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Do you not feel a little bit sorry for Schweinsteiger et al Calum ?, I know I don't

er i must confess to glee at the sight of Schweinsteiger weeping at the end of the game ... but today i shall follow Frank Lampard's sporting example with a well played and a handshake just as we did after games at school etc .... oops!

[teamsaint]

seriously,do we not like the schwein?
Has he wronged us, and I didn't notice?
He was magnificent last night till the pen.
must have run about 25 miles !!
Anyway, well done Chelsea. Had a deal of luck this year, but it has gone against them often enough in the past, so probably deserved this one. and true"against all odds" stuff.
Just york now...............

[EdgeleyRob]

Just york now...............

Just gone 2-1 up COME ON!!!!!!!!!!

[Lateralthinking1]

just gone 2-1 up come on!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18049175

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9716222.YORK_CITY_VICTORY_AT_WEMBLEY__FINAL_SCORE__YORK_CITY_2___LUTON_TOWN_1/

Yesssss! York are back in the League.

[EdgeleyRob]

Yesssss! York are back in the League.

Which is where they belong.
Very well done York City (I've been listening to the commentary on radio York too Lat).
Let's hope there's no silliness from the Luton fans this time.

[teamsaint]

Very well done to York. Its a really tough league to get out of, at the top end anyway !!
Happy days for the Minstermen.

Got to feel a bit for Luton though, far too big a club to be in the conference.

Now, what goes where in that trophy cabinet ?

[EdgeleyRob]

Messageboard honours list :
Champions League winners - Chelsea.
FA Cup winners - Chelsea.
FA Trophy winners - York City.
Conference play off winners - York City.
Championship runners-up - Southampton.
League 1 runners up - Sheffield Wednesday.

Hope the cupboard's big enough.

What a crazy season,what next, England win Euro 2012 on penalties against Germany ?

[johncorrigan]

What a crazy season,what next, England win Euro 2012 on penalties against Germany ?

No offence, but I hope not - we've never heard the end of the last time England won something from the 'National' media - boy, do they go on!
But York was a great listen on the radio today - it was mighty edgy and sounded like a crackin' game.

[Lateralthinking1]

No offence, but I hope not - we've never heard the end of the last time England won something from the 'National' media - boy, do they go on!
But York was a great listen on the radio today - it was mighty edgy and sounded like a crackin' game.

Yes it was. Congratulations to all on Rob's list.

My only mixed feelings are about the announcement this week of planning approval for the new stadium. Back in 1983-84 - the season when the Minstermen were the first team in England to get over 100 points - we used to walk home from Bootham Crescent and be indoors just in time to make a mug of tea and listen to all of Saturday's football results. A 10 minute journey!

It is a shame that some of that in football is being lost for future generations.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well done, York. That means I live slightly closer to a football league team. Previously, Hull City was my nearest team. (No so long ago, it was Scarborough )

[antongould]

Do any of you good Yorkies remember Arthur Bottom?

[Lateralthinking1]

Do any of you good Yorkies remember Arthur Bottom?

I'm aware of him but he was born in the same year as my parents so he predates me. I went to York as a student in 1982, an Arsenal supporter who was first taken to Highbury 11 years earlier. I took full advantage of a university education by travelling to various old football grounds in the North. Hull City, Middlesbrough, Manchester United, Sheffield Wednesday. Well, it was partially a history degree! Whatever the claims of the former, it was humble York City that I took to and I became a regular there. It was the era of Byrne, Ford, Hood, Houchen, Sbragia - one for JC, Walwyn and others too numerous to name. Denis Smith was Manager. You might recall a famous game between York and Arsenal in 1985 which is still a significant moment in footballing folklore.

I keep the dual allegiance - a regular at Arsenal during the last 15 years of the century now gone and various bits and pieces since. Occasional attendance with City including at Wembley. As I expanded my horizons, I also attended domestic matches at the grounds of Marseille, Ajax, FC Harlaam and AC Milan. But when Arsenal changed their stadium and the money in the game got silly, I definitely shifted to the view that football on a smaller scale is better. I also much prefer older stadiums, particularly if they are at the heart of communities. I now choose to follow the lower leagues and, I guess, international football where the money advantage seems less obvious, above the Premiership. It is fantastic that York are back in the league and I want them to do well but I don't want an American corporation suddenly buying up the club. Fortunately, that still seems extremely unlikely.

Incidentally, I have Eine placed in Pickering or Kirbymoorside but I could be wrong.

[teamsaint]

The Saints had a particularly good 16 match unbeaten run ended at York in (I think) 1976.

Not that we bear a grudge, obviously !

You are spot on about silly money in the Premier League, Lat.
Compare what you can get in CD's to the price of a ticket at the Emirates.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Incidentally, I have Eine placed in Pickering or Kirbymoorside but I could be wrong.

Filey.

Now I'm trying to work out which school you went to in York.

[Lateralthinking1]

The Saints had a particularly good 16 match unbeaten run ended at York in (I think) 1976.

Not that we bear a grudge, obviously !

You are spot on about silly money in the Premier League, Lat.
Compare what you can get in CD's for the price of a ticket at the Emirates.

Yes, exactly, and there's more. I visited the Emirates very early. Got a complimentary ticket to a training session before a match had been played there. The smell of paint everywhere, all pristine, and frankly soulless. I'd say that there were possibly 500 of us. It seemed right to assume that the lack of branding for Arsenal - the same can't be said of Emirates - was temporary.

However, when I did go to matches it didn't seem to have been rectified. Of course, what is there, a list of achievements, is notable for the way in which it abruptly stops. The stadium hasn't delivered. You can't even sit there and think of all the past glories at the Emirates as there aren't any. Plus the location is fine but it seems very closed in to me, as if it is removed from the world immediately outside. The atmosphere is better in the pub next to Finsbury Park with the Sky Sports screen.

Another winge. Perhaps a bit stupidly, on the day that a Scarborough fan fell to his death through a roof, I was among a small number of 54,000 at Highbury standing on the roof of a toilet block. It was the only way to see the match. At least we were on solid concrete. Not exactly comfortable - I'm not sure that I would want to do it now approaching 50 - but it is a memory because it symbolises to me how everything now is so over-policed. You feel like you are not allowed to move these days.

Eine - I was at the university. I went to school in jolly old Cwoydon, hence the very big need to leave for a real place.

PS I would really like to see Simon Inglis updating that fantastic book he did about the architecture of football stadiums.