FoxHole

I can’t say I’m excited about an all English Champions League final. This is mainly because I wanted Barcelona to beat Man Utd. To some people I may seem unpatriotic, but it’s all a matter of credibility. Like many football fans I really don’t like United. So why should I suddenly want them to win just because they are playing a team from another country? It would be hypocritical.

I therefore empathise with all those who found ITV’s glorification of the team in red just a little too much to take on Tuesday night. If I do bother to watch the final I’ll tune in to Sky.

PS…. And I wanted Liverpool to beat Chelsea.

I really don’t know what to think about this afternoon’s match. Clearly it is vital that we win, but is that very likely? On last week’s performance against Hull City the answer is clearly no.

Believe everything you have read or heard about the game last Saturday. We were totally third rate and only worthy of third division football. The players, and it is they who should take most of the blame, simply weren’t bothered. Only Henderson in goal played well (it could have been 0-6 without him); and only Hendrie seemed prepared to put some effort in, and he had a nightmare of a match.

So what of today? Our North Lincolnshire rivals have had some notable players pass through their ranks: Kevin Keegan and Ray Clemence are probably the most well-known. But the current squad is made up of players I’ve not even heard of. Is this a good thing I wonder? Current results suggest that the less we know about the opposition, the worse we play. We will know at about 4.50pm.

I was never a Megson fan, and what little respect I had for him vanished when he walked out on Leicester City. But last night he sank to a new low by putting out a reserve team at Sporting Lisbon in the UEFA cup. His actions were an insult to all the other teams in the cup, and above all, to the long suffering Bolton fans whose season is almost as bleak as our own.

Indeed, imagine traveling to Portugal, your side is just one match away from a quarter final place, but on arrival you learn that Megson doesn’t think the competition is important enough. I’d be furious, and judging by comments on Radio 5, many Bolton fans were.

Thank god he’s no longer our manager; and good riddance.

Things have going well for FC Barcelona. Fortunately for me, Sky regularly show the top matches from La Liga. Last Sunday I was able to watch the genius that is Lionel Messi, together with Eto, Ronaldinho, Henry and a team of exceptionally gifted players show just what football is all about. In their five goal victory they demonstrated excellent teamwork, precision passing, imaginative movement and a fair amount of style. We can only dream I suppose…

How will we do against the Tractor boys this evening? Surely our fortunes must change for the better sooner or later.

And let’s look on the bright side. At least Ipswich don’t have any players called Pele (unlike West Brom, which is the clearly the real reason why we lost to them on Saturday).

So tomorrow we play the team that brought the world Kevin Keegan, Ray Clemence and Sir Ian Botham. Nowadays their old ground is a Sainsbury’s and their mascot is a bunny called Scunny.

But what about Scunthorpe the place? It used to be a steel town, which presumably is why the football team is called the Irons. And Greenpeace once described it as a PVC toxic hotspot.

Hopefully pollution is a thing of the past. Indeed, I’m sure it’s a nice place today. However the nearest I’m going to get to this match is the TV set. Will we win? Come on, we’re talking about Leicester here, so anything could happen.

I find it hard to believe, but Megson is being touted as a serious front runner for the Bolton job. If this is true we could be losing yet another manager, and this time without an away trip to Plymouth!

Some reports (see here) even suggest Milan will simply let him go! Frankly I’m gobsmacked.  Surely we aren’t about to see another round of speculation about another new Leicester manager….or are we?

Perhaps we should have just stuck with Rob Kelly.

First we had Pele in Escape to Victory. Then we had Hollywood hard man Vinnie Jones. And more recently the film Goal! has featured the likes of Zidane, Beckham and Shearer. Indeed, I’m told even Cantona did some acting in the period drama Elizabeth. Yes, footballers as actors has a long pedigree.

Of course I may be doing him a dis-service, and I apologies in advance if he was genuinely injured, but Milan’s goalkeeper last night deserves a gong for the worlds most terrible acting by a footballer. To those of us who saw the match, it looked like a little tap. But Dida was brilliant. After setting off after the fan he suddenly collapsed in very dramatic style. Clutching at his face, lots of rolling around, and then a stretcher and substitution. Definitely a case of over-acting if ever I saw one.

According to a report in the Leicester Mercury, Martin is backing Megson to galvanize our team into thinking they can beat Villa. I assume he means “stimulate into action” rather than “cover with a protective zinc coating”, but Martin O’Neill always did have a way with words. Mind you, I hope our defenders do a better job of protecting the goal than they did at Charlton.

I don’t fancy him, and I’m not going to talk about him.