football rambles

The 80s saw the 'Zombie' figures and machine painted Subbuteo introduced. The sets from 1981-1983 also came in oblong boxes with the players on display in 2 rows instead of 2 columns for the first and last time in the history of the game. More mechanical practices also led to more teams than you could shake a stick at with clubs from a variety of leagues and divisions being represented in both their home and away strips. I only have 2 teams from this short lived period, and they came from saving up tokens in 'Match'. I think, as you will see, they did this to shift some teams that they may have had a bit of difficulty in selling. La Louviere When this team first came out they had just been relegated from the top Belgium division to Division 2. When I received the team from 'Match' they had gone down to Division 3. Nevermind though if Royale Association Athletique Louvieroise weren't your bag they also doubled as Lincoln City away. Despite being ...

On Saturday we went to the big Derby match of the weekend when Villa took on West Brom at Villa Park. All in all we had a good day out, although the result wasn't great and the refereeing from Phil Dowd would have embarrassed a referee at County League level. Villa started off well enough and dominated the opening exchanges, although N'Zogbia and Hutton quite frankly looked out of their depth even when Villa were fully in control of the game. Villa duly took the lead when Gabby Agbonlahor was fouled in the box (the foul is shown at the top of the page) and Darren Bent popped the penalty away in style to make it 1-0 on 23 minutes. Villa were looking comfortable, but seemed to lack the creativity of a wide man, whether N'Zogbia really is out of his depth or Mc.Leish and his disregard of the Villa tradition of exciting wing play is the problem only time will tell. Baggies had felt aggrieved on 19 minutes when Shane Long limped off after a tackle from Alan Hutton, I think he go...

On Saturday I'm going to my first Premier League game of the season when Villa take on West Brom in what is the derby game now that the Blues have gone. They might be the local neighbours and Villa's traditional enemy, but it's certainly worth looking at their history. West Bromwich Albion started off as West Bromwich Strollers when they were formed as a team for the George Salter Spring's Works in 1878. They got the name Strollers allegedly after they walked to Wednesbury to buy a football so that they could play. Their first strip was the rather fetching white shirt with a blue sash and hat a baggy trousers shown below. However, they didn't get their nickname 'The Baggies' from this strip rather it was from when their fans turned up to Villa straight from work wearing the baggy aprons of the metal works that got them the name not long after their inception. Their next change of kit came in 1881 when they adopted yellow and white quarters and also wore the ...