Quirky Football

'The Fall of the Spireites’ Less than 4 Years ago, Chesterfield were on the cusp of promotion to the Championship. After a very strong season finishing 6th in League One, they set up a two legged Playoff Semi-Final with Preston North End in May 2015. Unfortunately the club had hit their peak. After losing 4-0 against the Lancashire side on aggregate, the Derbyshire side have become a sinking ship with a managerial revolving door. Fast forward to Boxing Day 2018. Chesterfield now sit perilously in the National League relegation zone after a 4-0 home defeat to Solihull Moors. After back-to-back relegations a triple demotion looking increasingly possible. Martin ‘Mad Dog’ Allen, with a great managerial reputation was called in over the summer. After winning his first 3 games of the season, only One win in Twenty-Two followed. Shortly after their 4-0 home defeat to Solihull Moors, Allen was relieved of his post. Chesterfield are now looking for their Sixth manager sinc...

Edinburgh City FC - The Rise of Edinburgh's Forgotten Club When football in Edinburgh springs to mind, you cant help think about Hibernian and Hearts. They share a cracker of a derby and are very distinguished sides steeped in history. Hibernian based at Easter Road, dramatically beat Rangers 3-2 in the 2016 Scottish Cup final thanks to a David Gray injury time winner. The last major trophy triumph by a team in the capital. When thinking about Hibs, several scenes in Trainspotting and the late George Best spring to mind. Their rivals Hearts based at Tynecastle, nearly won the Uefa Cup in 1989. They were narrowly defeated 2-1 against  European giants, Bayern Munich. Between 2004 and 2014 they were owned by and took into administration by Russian-Lithuanian Valdimir Romanov. The Club survived their financial woes and are now back on an even footing. On the rise is their little neighbour Edinburgh City, who mean business. They are on the rise. A few weeks ago, I watched ...

Most Underrated Derbies in World Football (5-1 – Part Two) In the second half of this list, we highlight our top Five most underrated rivalries on the planet. 5 – Genoa v Sampdoria (The Lighthouse Derby) The Derby ‘della Lanterna’ is a deep and historic rivalry. The East and the west of the region have been at loggerheads, believe it or not for over two millennia. Genoa Football Club was founded in 1893 by Elite English ex-pats and is Italy’s oldest football team. Their rivals Sampdoria were formed much later in 1946, through two local clubs merging. This new club immediately moved into the ‘Stadio Luigi Ferraris’ and the clubs have ground-shared ever since. The rivalry between those who class themselves as ‘Genoeise’ and those aligned to ‘Samp’ dates back to before Christ. The Second Punic War between 218-201 BC was the catalyst for this divide. Those in the western reaches of the region sided and fought for Rome (Sampdoria heartland), while those in the East (Tr...

Cult Clubs: Newcastle United 'The Entertainers' 1992-1997 Kevin Keegan is known as 'King Kev' on Tyneside. But we will get back to that later... John Lennon could have written a million songs about love, and none of them would ever have held such a permanent position in musical folklore as “imagine” does. Martin Luther King spoke a lot about peace and love, but yet he will always be synonymous with having a dream. America was built up into the richest and most powerful nation in the world on the ideology of the American Dream. Closer to home, Noel Edmonds achieved remarkable success with deal or no deal, after dubbing the tea time classic game show the ‘dream factory’. I could go on but I think you get the point... A certain Mr Kevin Keegan is perhaps the biggest dreamer English football has ever seen. He dreamed boldly, he dreamed loudly and he dreamed bigger than even the most optimistic of supporters had dared to do before. For a whirlwind, short lived...

Fan Viewpoint: Preston North End - Overachievers From setting foot through the gates of Deepdale for the first time in 1993, the journey of how the club has risen and fallen has been an interesting one. From then to now the club has always cut its cloth accordingly. After suffering relegation into Old Division Three in 1993, the club had to reboot and start again. Many managers and players have come and gone since then but the football club still remains. In 1996 Preston North End were crowned Third Division Champions. This was thanks to Gary Peters, and squad of players he assembled. Much of this success was the fact Preston were being backed by Brian Gray and The Baxi Company. As the late 90's rolled on the club parted company with Peters. His departure was the beginning of David Moyes managerial career. Moyes managed to put North End on an even footing in The Second Division. Careful spending along with the Moyes’ masterplan brought success to The Lancashire C...

As the media are over-hyping the upcoming 'North West' Derby between Manchester United and Liverpool, Quirky Football explores the 10 Most Underrated Derbies in World Football. You won't find any mainstream media favourites such as El Clasico and the Merseyside Derby in this list. 10 - Real Sociedad v Athletic Bilbao (The Basque Derby) We often get told that Liverpool v Everton is the 'friendly derby' but the most anticipated game in the Basque region of Spain certainly goes above and beyond in a show of local unity. The only friendly natured derby in this list puts Basque identity as the centre of it's experience. It's tradition that both teams parade the Basque Flag together (as pictured) and both sets of supporters go on a 'Kalijera' (a supporters' parade from the city centre to the stadium) in a celebration of Basque football and culture. The also have a 'Bertso-Derbia' a singing and poetry contest between the supporters pre-ga...

A Big Talking Point regarding Football Fixtures being moved for TV Coverage has reared it's ugly head once again - this time regarding International Coverage of the FA Cup. I know over the last few seasons Round One and Round Two ties have been split mostly on Saturdays and Sundays (with the odd chosen Friday and Monday Night game for TV Coverage). The Split of fixtures was to benefit companies such as the BBC holding FA Cup Live Score programmes showing live Highlights and reaction of the Sunday games. This Year has seen an unprecedented amount of FA Cup Third Round games shifted for TV Coverage at home... and now abroad. Just 10 of the 32 ties will be played in the traditional Saturday 3pm slot. For us at Quirky Football, this has gone too far. FA Cup Third Round weekend was looked forward to up and down the country. Coming home and listening to 5Live while the reaction to all the shocks of the day were rolling in. Later fans across the land tuned in to watch the giant kill...

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