a friend commented that the protest would have had more impact had the slogan the fans made on the Kop said 'Don't Buy The Sun' or 'Don't Subscribe to Sky'. He's got a point.

As of 5pm today, Sunderland too are, ahem, 'concentrating on the league'.

jongoodwin wrote:a friend commented that the protest would have had more impact had the slogan the fans made on the Kop said 'Don't Buy The Sun' or 'Don't Subscribe to Sky'. He's got a point.

I know what you mean. It was only when I went back and reread about the Hillsborough disaster that I worked out the significance of 'The Truth'. And I hadn't realised that Kelvin McKenzie had been talking about not regretting the headline so recently. It's an element of the Liverpool support, I think: they always assume that you know what they're on about.

I was just impressed that they pulled it off, really. There was a 'silent protest' planned at Elland Road when we were in freefall; the crowd was going to stay silent when the players ran on to the pitch, and for the first few minutes. It didn't happen, because it was deemed more important to "support the lads". Idiots. At least the Scousers had the bollocks to go through with it. It also had poor old John Motson squirming as he tried to commentate - "we can't ignore this very loud protest, but, um, Gerrard has the ball".

I meant to mention when I reported Flo's signing; someone changed his Wikipedia page to say that he was also investing £10million in Leeds United. It got as far as Radio Five, although they were rightly sceptical.

And Henrik Larrson scored for the dirty reds, as inevitably he would.

Proud to say I was in The Kop, holding up my little square for six minutes. The protest was sincere, well organised and pretty effective. It did amuse me to hear the lad behind me punctuating his passionate chanting of "Justice for the 96" with occasional panicked gasps of "Man on!!"

Obviously I am gutted about the result of the match (still reeling from it actually), but you always get your 30 quids' worth at Anfield from the supporters. Highlight from this match was a chap near me calling the ref a "baldy nonce", and after finding this insult inadequate, then resorting to calling him the "Fuckin' Ipswich Ripper." I was laughing for about ten minutes.

space junk wrote:Proud to say I was in The Kop, holding up my little square for six minutes.

Well done sir!

chap on the Kop wrote:"Fuckin' Ipswich Ripper."

Very well done sir!

Did you ever read [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Saturday_Comes_%28magazine%29[/url]When Saturday Comes[/url]? Their feature, "The Bloke Behind Me Said", used to be priceless.

Space junk, a YouTube reward for you. From 90/91, Leeds 4 - Liverpool 5. One of the craziest games of football there ever was.

Part one, and Part two.

Cheers! I really enjoyed that. (I topped it off with watching the Steve Heighway footage on youtube. Happy days.)

So... it's the NASL all over again, with David Beckham signing for Los Angeles Galaxy next season. A few things have struck me about this so far:

Galaxy's coach is the former Ipswich Town player Frank Yallop. Funny who turns up in MLS. I'd be interested to watch him coach Beckham.

In an interview on Radio Five last night, Alexi Lalas was asked where he envisaged Beckham playing in the Galaxy team. "I have discussed this with our coaching team," he said. "And we think - we imagine at this stage - we're expecting we're going to play him in midfield." Give those visionary coaches a bonus, Mr Lalas.

For the duration of his contract, Los Angeles Galaxy are paying Beckham approximately one dollar every second. Lord.

daniel robert chapman wrote:For the duration of his contract, Los Angeles Galaxy are paying Beckham approximately one dollar every second. Lord.

The dollar amount of his contract is a bit deceptive. The compensation includes money earned from image rights, an ownership stake in the team, etc.

Still, it's a bad deal for a player who is over the hill at 31. I like MLS, and I want it to succeed, so it worries me when (as you said above) NASL-like deals such as this are made.

daniel robert chapman wrote:Something here for m brother Tommydski - Gordan Strachan scoring against Leicester in Leeds' last great promotion season. With the classic John Helm commentary - "Have you ever seen a better goal? And have you ever seen one better timed?"

Thanks. I actually have every goal from this season burned into my mind. I even remembered the commentary down to a word. I guess that's what comes from spending the first 12 or so years of your life watching season review videos every other day. Glory days.

Have you read 'The Damned Utd' yet? I'm plowing through it now. An incredible read about Brian Clough's 44 day stint as Leeds manager.

Tresor Kandol, Matt Heath, Robbie Elliott, Armando Sa, Tore Andre Flo, Hayden Foxe and now Alan Thompson in. Sad to lose Kilgallon I guess. Maybe Healy following soon. Game against Birmingham tomorrow has been postponed because they tore up their pitch and then forgot how to put it back together again. It's all happening!

So, Beckham may make some noise when he finally plays in the US, but it seems there is still some resistance to the sport. The link is to a long article - which I confess I haven't read all of yet - on the New York Times website. The jist is that the mayor of Clarkston, Georgia, has banned 'soccer' from the municipal playing fields, which are "for baseball and football" as long he is mayor. The main losers here are a club made up of school age refugees from various war-torn regions, whose main common ground is Association Football. But while the organisers are trying to use it to instill some discipline, structure and familiarity to the refugees' lives, local people don't like these foreign people or their foreign sport.

Leeds United lost again at the weekend, and our 'manager' tried to fight West Bromwich Albion's striker as he was substituted at the end of the game. Sigh. At least our two new signings scored - Flo and Thompson - and Thompson was doing that 'geeing up' thing after he scored so at least he looks bothered.

Tommydski - I'm 100% with you on the 89/90 video. That, and a couple of Johan Cruyff films, and 'Goal' - the 1966 World Cup film - are pretty much it for regularly watched football videos. I can even hum the background music from 'Race For The Title'. My favourite bit is the Sunderland game, which has some of the best neck-high tackling you'll see - none of which results in a free kick, until Bobby Davison stops chasing the ball and instead turns 180 degrees to go punch a Sunderland player. It's brilliant. I haven't read 'The Damned United' yet but I reckon I'll tell my mum about it, which means it'll be a birthday present for me come July. I'm wary of a semi-fictional account but I'm intrigued; and I'll take your recommendation on it!