The Round Ball Game

[aeolium]

It would be churlish of me to take pleasure in Brighton's miserable failure in their attempt to reach the play-off final and then to sack yet another manager after their ignominious defeat by Derby.

You churl!

I nominate Crystal Palace as forum team of the season.

No, I would say, comeback forum team of the season (they were truly awful when I saw Swansea play them at Selhurst Park in September). Southampton would be my forum team of the season for their consistently high quality of play and level of entertainment, with a mix of young talent and a canny old trooper. They have at times made higher-placed teams look quite second-rate.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's funny the way supporting football teams works. It's often said you support the first team you watch. My first game was Stockport County vs. Crewe, but there was the additional factor of living just 4 miles from Edgeley Park. My loyalties then fade away according to distance from Marple, where I was brought up. So the Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire teams, Macclesfield, Crewe, Stoke and Port Vale are never despised and I like to see them doing well. But I have little time for glory supporters of successful teams who have no personal affinity with the clubs' locations.

In Wales, I support Bangor City, as I was a student there. Now, living on the Yorkshire coast, I follow Hull City with interest, though I'm not a supporter; ditto York City.

My son supports Arsenal, so we may have some slight disagreements on Sunday. Having said that, I do respect Arsenal for being one of the few big clubs to stay on the right side of the cheque book.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Stop press: Pulis is Manager of the Season

Rodgers is Manager of the Season too, but Pulis is Premiership Manager of the Season. That's funny; I thought they were both Pemiership Managers.

It's a bit like going to a fish and chip shop in Whitby, where they're all award winners.

[MrGongGong]

How Football Sounds To People That Don't Care.

Firstly, imagine every time within a day that football is mentioned by someone else. Secondly, replace it with something that you don't want to hear about every day. Say... Archaeology. Then, think carefully about how an average day would pan out.

So, you awaken to the clock radio. It's 7AM. Just as you awaken, it's time for the news and archaeology already. Not news and other historical investigations, like library restorations or museum openings (unless there's another event happening), but just the news and archaelogy. Malaysian plane is still missing. Pistorius is still on trial. New dig announced in Giza. Ancient Mayan temple discovered. Exciting stuff.

Time for a bite to eat over the morning TV. More news. More archaeology. Yes, you are aware of what is up with the missing plane. Fine. Now the archaeology in video format. Video of people dusting off some skulls and bits of pottery. All well and good, but archaeology isn't your thing. It would be nice to hear about something else.

Even when it isn't archaeology season, the media follow noted archaeologists. They drive fast cars, date beautiful women, advertise fragrances, and sometimes they go to nightclubs and act in the worst possible way. Scandals erupt as the tabloids follow these new celebrities when they're not searching the past for answers. It is entirely possible you can recite the names of certain researchers, even if you don't pay attention to archaeology. You don't know what transfer season is, but you know that someone was transferred to a dig in Peru for a sum of money that could fund the London Underground for two whole days.

Out of the car at 8:55 and into work. What are the colleagues talking about, I wonder? Oh, Jones dropped a 3,890 year old pot and smashed it? What a useless wanker! Someone should do something unpleasant to him. And don't even ask about the unfortunate incident in Athens two years ago - you'll be there all day! Breaking a pillar like that! We don't talk about that here, mate. What? You don't want to discuss the finer points of the prevalence of phallic imagery in Pompeii? Is there something wrong with you?

The drive home from work. Every thirty minutes, no matter the station, someone mentions the archaeology. Best sit in silence. Drive past a huge billboard with a black and white picture of a rakishly handsome archaeologist draped over an impossibly beautiful woman. He's winking at you. Trowel in his left hand, supermodel in the right. Jurassic, by Calvin Klein.

And now the pub. A nice pub with a beer garden. Posters in the windows. LIVE EXCAVATION AT THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS! All of it on a huge TV with the volume up too loud. Drunken people yelling at the screen. "SEND IT FOR CARBON DATING, YOU USELESS ***K!" "WHAT ARE YOU ON, MATE? DUST THE ANCIENT MEDALLION GENTLY! SMELTING METHODS OF THE TIME PRODUCED VERY SOFT AND IMPURE METALS EASILY PRONE TO DISFIGURATION!" All this from two men out of a crowd of twenty. One lousy drunken idiot and his chum ruin the image of other archaeology fans. Carbon dating report from the lab updates on TV, read by a man employed because they've been following the beautiful science since they were a boy. The drunk chimes in again. "WHAT PHARAOH'S REIGN DID YOU SAY? DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT THE UNDERPINNINGS OF OUR THEORY OF AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF 4TH BC EGYPT? GET IN, MATE!" A cheer cascades through the building and you can only wonder why.

Best go home and avoid anyone who might be drinking and singing. You once met a disagreeable chap who threatened to beat you up because you didn't watch the archaeology. "Not a late paleolithic era supporter are you? Think you're better than me? I'll have you, you scrawny tw*t!"

To bed. To repeat the cycle tomorrow. The inescapable, inevitability that wherever you go, someone, somewhere, is just dying to talk to you about the archaeology.

Thought you football folks might like this

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

alas the holes in the ground i played in when young were bomb sites; the grounds i went to to watch the play were Stamford Bridge and Craven Cottage not the Odeon which showed movies then ... later we went to the Royal Court but to see Pirandello not tennis [A Level set play innit] ... subsequently i have become quite as interested in archaeology as footie but not in a passionate way if you take my leaning .... now the Colosseum or the Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες they had some games, rough and all .... and excavations too, but not in the Edgware Road eh ...

[cloughie]

No, I would say, comeback forum team of the season. Southampton would be my forum team of the season for their consistently high quality of play and level of entertainment, with a mix of young talent and a canny old trooper. They have at times made higher-placed teams look quite second-rate.

I would agree with the above for the Prem. Leicester must be the Championship forum team with the Owls as the comeback team.

[gurnemanz]

Southampton would be my forum team of the season for their consistently high quality of play and level of entertainment, with a mix of young talent and a canny old trooper. They have at times made higher-placed teams look quite second-rate.

Happy to agree with that. It will be interesting to see how things pan out with Pochettino probably off to Spurs and big money on offer for Lallana and Shaw.

[BBMmk2]

Brighton & Hove Albion for me to be Forum Team of the Season!

[EdgeleyRob]

The last word on the season as far as forum teams are concerned.

York City didn't make it to the play off final,losing 1-0 to Fleetwood on aggregate.

That's all folks.

[gurnemanz]

Sorry they didn't make it. I spent a graduate year in York in 1971-72 and have a soft spot for them. We went to Bootham Crescent a few times, on one occasion seeing the mighty Ted MacDougall with visiting Bournemouth in the season before he jumped divisions to go to Man U. He was also an ex York player.

[johncorrigan]

Off to Celtic Park for the Scottish Cup Final today (Hampden's out of action till the Commonwealth Games). Dundee Utd v St Johnstone, who like Hull are in their first ever final - Perth is a sea of blue, white and tractors but lots of attention on the Saintee's striker Stevie May who wears number 17 - game being played on 17 May; you can imagine the omens kicking around. Two good teams, very evenly matched; I'm going with a bunch of UTD fans but looking forward to a great atmosphere as the East coast heads over to Glescae.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

sympathies incline to Hull today .....

[EdgeleyRob]

Wonderful FA cup final today,pure entertainment.
Looks like Steve Bruce ate all the pies.

[Anna]

I came in and saw the second half of the Final - I also thought it exciting and was quite surprised that Hull didn't equalise in extra time. Good match and also, well done St. Johnstone.

[gurnemanz]

I would have loved Hull to win but Palace fans have not forgotten Steve Bruce treacherously walking out on our team I find it impossible to wish him well in any enterprise. It may sound bitter and twisted but I would have hated seeing him rejoicing in a Cup triumph, so ultimately have to be pleased he lost.