Football Diary 

by Patrick O'Connor

THE legendary Spurs striker and former TV pundit Jimmy Greaves once said of football: “It’s a funny old game,”   and that has never been more evident than over the last couple of weeks.

Apparently the country’s bookmakers were all literally having a ball last weekend because of Hull City’s sensational 2-1 win at Arsenal.

This match was regarded as such a banker home win that punters everywhere had included it in a variety of accumulator bets which had an Arsenal victory lined up alongside wins for Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Celtic, Leeds and Aston Villa – all of whom won.

The Premier League has become such a four-horse race in recent years that nobody figured Hull would do anything but succumb meekly to the mighty Arsenal, especially at the Emirates.

But it wasn’t to be – thus saving the bookmakers from paying out a small fortune.

Manchester United’s 2-0 home win over Bolton was also well forecast but United had the added advantage of having their game refereed by an incompetent twerp by the name of Rob Styles.

Now kids from an early age are taught all the basic principles of football including how to tackle, that is how to get your foot on the ball to kick it away from your opponent even if he is possession.

So when the Bolton full-back Jlloyd Samuel tackled Cristiano Ronaldo in full-flight only for the winger to go down., most observers thought nothing of it. Ronaldo is, of course, well known as a celebrated diver. It was a superbly timed, clean-cut, textbook tackle as television pictures proved 100 per cent.  But Mr Styles, standing only a few feet away with nobody in his sight line, awarded a penalty which Ronaldo duly converted to put United on their away to victory.

Of course, Mr Styles’ blunder pales into insignificance compared with events in the Watford-Reading match a week earlier when referee Stuart Atwell gave a goal to Reading on the word of his assistant even though the ball had gone several yards past the wrong side of the post. Referees - hey, who needs them?

The crazy world of football also received a boost last week when the League Cup saw League One side Brighton, who play their games in a tacky 7,000 capacity athletics stadium, turf out mega-rich Manchester City.

The game desperately needs upsets like that every now and again to keep the magic alive and what a fitting fate for a club now apparently destined to outspend even Chelsea in their pursuit of world domination.

If there was ever going to be another sure-fire bet on a home win last Saturday it would be for Notts County to gain their first victory of the season against Aldershot.

The reasoning behind this has nothing to do with form or past results, it’s all down to sentiment.

During the week it was announced that legendary former Notts manager Jimmy Sirrel had died in hospital at the age of 86.

The dour Glaswegian had managed the Meadow Lane club three times including taking them to the top flight of English football in 1985.

His long and mainly successful association with the club had made him a hugely popular figure in Nottingham where he still lived. They even named a stand after him at the ground.

So it was perhaps fitting that Notts should beat Aldershot – a club where Sirrel made 31 appearances in the 1950s– with a goal coming from Richard Butcher in the fifth minute of extra time.

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