Tag Archives: England

Arsenal fans face train issues to Brighton

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Good morning from a replacement Central Line bus.

I was already not really looking forward to the trip due Brighton due to the Central Line being suspended from Leyton into Central London. That meant replacement bus services to Stratford, before jumping on the Elizabeth Line to Farringdon, to catch the Thameslink down to Brighton.

Not a huge issue, the replacement bus would be fairly quick. And I decided to use my time on the bus to write the blog.

Then about half an hour ago someone stuck in the WhatsApp group about Brighton train cancellations.

Since this update at 4am, it looks like things have cleared up a little and some trains are running from St Pancras / Farringon / London Bridge. But it does look like a lot of the Victoria trains are cancelled.

Brighton is just an hour train journey, so the reported additional hour is not a huge delay. It will just mean a couple of extra beers on the train, and a couple less in Yates in Brighton.

This is just what away fans have to deal with on a regular. Especially in this current age where there are strikes and overtime bans! This time the delay is caused by a landslide (out of the train companies control).

I often see online about how “dedicated” foreign fans are, getting up at 2am to watch a game. But setting an alarm, rolling over and turning your laptop on is not tough. Try being stuck in Birmingham for 5 hours waiting for replacement busses due to train cancellations and getting home at 5am!

Hopefully by the time we embark on our return journey in about 10 hours time, the situation has further improved. I really do not want to be scrapping around brighten looking for a cab that will take us back into London.

I will continue my journey. Should be into Stratford soon and then it is onto Farringdon. Couple of beer in the John Oldcastle. They we will continue our journey to the South Coast.

UTA.

Keenos

Southgate goes from Arteta-ball to cautious Conte

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Morning.

Let’s blog today as it took me a few beers to get over that England performance last night.

I had the first draft of a great blog written about how Gareth Southgate’s England were inspired by Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal.

The transition to 4 at the back, a single pivot defensive midfielder in front of them, two 8’s and inverted wingers.

It worked against Iran as we pressed high, we’re aggressive, and scored 6 goals.

Last night Southgate went from channelling his inner Arteta to becoming Antonio Conte.

The defence dropped deep, Bellingham was pushed deeper to make a 2-man central midfield, and the front line did not press.

Like Conte’s Tottenham, England were set up to not lose rather than win the game.

It is already a bad sign that 2 games in , Harry Kane looks shot. and that Southgate is incapable of substituting him.

He was a passenger for most of the second half and clearly not fit. Yet played the full 90.

I still think we would have beaten Italy in the Euro’s had Southgate had the balls to take Kane off in extra time.

Kane contributed nothing in those 30 minutes and he was basically kept on to take a penalty.

During extra time, whenever Bukayo Saka got the ball he looked a threat. Italy’s tiring, ageing defence were reduced to fouling him on the halfway line.

Imagine had Southgate bought on Marcus Rashford for Kane to play down the middle. Lightening and fresh, he would’ve carved out a couple of chances for himself.

And if it is going to be the same this tournament, England might as well go home.

After 60 minutes, Kane is finished. He begins to rely on just being a 6-yard box striker. Needs others around him to do his running. It is basically like playing with 10-men.

What is the point of having Calum Wilson on the bench if you are not going to bring him on?

England will get through the group, then be knocked out by the first decent team we play (again). Southgate will be heroic in failure, when the truth is he is an awful coach who is wasting a talented group of young, exciting, attacking talent.

Time for a coffee. Tomorrow we go back to focusing on The Arsenal.

Keenos

Book Review: Heads Up: My Life Story – Alan Smith

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OK, here we go: that passage of play embedded in Arsenal folklore. The most famous moment in English club football history? Well, I think so. Tell me of another that tops this goal for spine-tingling drama. People talk about Sergio Agüero’s last-gasp effort for Manchester City, the goal that won the title in 2012. Of course, it was sensational, the Premier League’s standout moment, but that came against QPR, fighting relegation, not the champions of England in a straight shoot-out when everyone else had packed up and gone home. Because of those unique circumstances, there really is no contest. Agüero’s winner doesn’t even come close.

Lukey says he was shattered, lacking the strength to punt the ball upfield, so threw it out to Dicko, who didn’t want it either. But with the ball at his feet, Lee couldn’t understand why I showed for his pass, rather than spinning for a big hoof. But show I did, out of habit more than anything, knowing Lee would try and hit me, as he always did. And what a pass it was, fizzed in at pace. As it flew my way, I knew I simply had to take a chance by trying to turn first-time, otherwise run the risk of getting crowded out in a congested midfield. Luckily, this was one of those nights when everything came off, my ball control as good as it had ever been. As one Liverpool player flatteringly put it later, ‘If they’d have fired a cannonball at Smith that night he would have brought it down first time.’ Well, this wasn’t a cannonball but it was a tricky pass all right. Thankfully, my first touch worked out perfectly, allowing me to swivel in one movement thirty-five yards out. A flash of yellow reared up in my peripheral vision. All I could do was try and find this shirt that, as it turned out, belonged to Mickey, making a run, going for broke. An instinctive poke fell into his path as Steve Nicol rushed across to cut it out. But a fortunate break of the ball saw it rebound right where he wanted.

‘It was actually a crap touch by me,’ Mickey told me years later. ‘I knew Steve Nicol was the last man so I tried to dink it over his head and run round the other side. But I didn’t get it right and the ball hit him.’

I know it sounds corny but everything, at this point, seemed to go into slow motion. I jogged helplessly behind, praying for Mickey to shoot, as Ray Houghton sprinted up from behind, unbearably close to making a tackle. I could see the whole picture and it didn’t look pretty. Our last chance of glory was about to be smothered. We all knew what Mickey was like. As stubborn as they came. Never did anything in a hurry if it didn’t suit and that trait to his character looked like costing us dearly.

Alan Smith is the unsung hero from that night at Anfield.

Whilst everyone remembers the winning goal, Thomas charging through the midfield leading to one of the most famous goals, commentaries and moments in sporting history, none of it would have been possible without Alan Smith heading in a 52nd minute goal to take Arsenal 1-0 up.

Having joined Arsenal in 1987 from Leicester City, Smith scored 115 goals in 347, winning the Golden boot in Arsenal’s title winning seasons of 1989 and 1991.

Smith’s greatest moment in his Arsenal career came when he struck the sole goal in Arsenal’s 1994 European Cup Winners’ Cup Final victory against Parma.

Legend is thrown around too quickly in the modern era.

Anfield ’89. Copenhagen ’94. Two of Arsenal’s greatest triumphs in the modern era. Both matches defined by the goal-scoring prowess of one man – Alan ‘Smudger’ Smith.

He is an Arsenal legend.

The memoir of former Leicester, Arsenal and England footballer, Alan Smith is available to buy now.

Heads Up: My Life’s Story bey Alan Smith from Amazon.

Keenos