Dam It's the FA Cup

In 1976, a wee little Southampton player called Bobby Stokes was played through by a Jim McCalliog pass that split the Manchester United defence and Stokes shot past Alex Stepney to win the FA Cup for the Saints.

Bobby Stokes - Fa Cup Finalist & Winner 1976

Fans all over the country jumped out of there seats to celebrate a shock win for the team led by Lawrie McMenemy. It truly was a memorable day whether you supported the Saints or not. Celebrations went on for days in the seaside town with fans and players involved. Bobby is no longer with us having passed from this earth at a very young age of 44 in 1995.

Over the weekend just gone, I sat down to watch the 5th round of this great competition and to say I was disappointed would be an understatement. In fact I reckon little Bobby would have been turning in his grave when the team sheets were handed in at the Stadium Of Light in the game between his beloved Southampton and hosts Sunderland. Let me try and explain over the next few chapters what I am getting at.  

So as the team and fans headed north on Saturday, it would have been with the feeling that maybe this could be their time again. Going to face a Sunderland side should have held no fears for Mauricio Pochettino and his side, after all they were unbeaten in eight matches. So the shock that must have reverberated around the Saints fans when they saw the team that their manager had put out must have been deflating. Now whether he was trying to second guess Gus Poyet’s team or not I for one find it incredible he didn't put out his best eleven to give his team a chance to get to the quarter finals.The old argument was put forward that players needed to be rested and the team, rotated. In my opinion that is a load of crap and in turn put two fingers up to the FA Cup and the Saints fans. It is something that fans have to put up with these days but I for one disagree.You ask any player would he rather sit on a bench or play in a huge game of this magnitude and I guarantee they will all answer, play. In fact if you can get your team on a roll and winning games it builds confidence and who knows, they could have gone all the way. But the bigger prize these days is staying in the Premiership and the FA Cup comes along way back, second. As we know Saints were beaten on Saturday and in my opinion got what they deserved for their total lack of respect for the greatest cup competition in the world. Other clubs who took to resting players over the weekend were Cardiff and Swansea and yes you have guessed it they both lost. Now if I can for a moment play devils advocate, I will put it this way. When you are in or around the relegation area getting a winning mentality into your team can only help with your run in to the end of the league. But with changes like we saw over the weekend that the three teams made you can not get that winning feeling if you are chopping and changing. But the biggest disappointment for those Saints fans has to be the fact that they are nowhere near relegation and surely their manager should have started his best eleven and really gone for it and tried to get that quarter final place.

As I started off by mentioning the 1976 Cup Final I must finish off by giving you what a feeling it was in the 70,s on Cup Final day.Tv,s were turned on to the coverage at around 9am and did not switch off again till tea time, no matter who was playing.If you were a football fan in those days, Cup Final day was like Christmas Day. The greatest day of the year for football fans.But over the years it has become less and less important to a lot of Premier league clubs,their Cup Final these days is more money orientated and staying in the Premier league. Bobby Stokes unfortunately died at a very young age and is sorely missed in the football world,but I can only imagine that Bobby would have been very upset at the way his beloved Southampton threw the towel in before the game had even started,and left the fans with nothing more to look forward to this season than fulfilling upcoming fixtures,after all they for one will not be relegated.

The Mind Games Of Mourinho

Over the years I have tended to stay away from all  the stories about the self appointed special one Jose Mourinho. But today I feel I have to open up on all things that I find infuriating about the Chelsea manager. There have been times when I despair over his antics and over the next few hundred words let me just put my opinion forward to you and whether you agree or disagree I think you will find my views quite interesting.

Jose "master of mind games" or "just a big bully"

As we all know Mourinho breezed into Chelsea many years back and in his first interview proclaimed himself to be the self anointed ‘Special One’. We should have understood from that statement that the man is a self publicist. Jose’s aim is to promote himself all the time in the media, a feat which he has certainly done over the years. I just don't get it, I feel that the man has brought the game into disrepute so many times it has been unbelievable. How the authorities have not dealt with him harder over the years amazes me. If I can take you back to the Barcelona v Chelsea champions league game a few years back he claimed to have seen Barca manager Frank Rijkaard enter the referees dressing room at half time. This set up all sorts of accusations towards referee Anders Frisk after the game and caused all sorts of problems for the official and his family. He actually retired shortly after the game as the pressure from the whole furore had got to him and his family. Later it was proven that in fact the Barca manager had not  entered the referee’s dressing room. To be perfectly blunt about this, if the Barca manager had tried to gain entry to the dressing room of one of the top referees in the world at the time, he would have been sent packing by the official. But look it didn't matter Mourinho had got what is little plan had set out to do and deflect from a defeat on the pitch and blame issues off the pitch. Taking the eyes away from his tactical mistakes in the game.

Another issue that springs to mind is when he poked his finger in the eye of the Barcelona assistant manager at the end of a game in Spain.To my utter astonishment he came up behind the guy and reached out and poked him in the eye. A real cowards way of attacking a person is always from behind.Like in the day of the cowboy, if you shot somebody in the back you were a gutter snipe.

So can I just fast forward all this to the season 2013/14. Back at Chelsea this season after he more or less begged to come back to the Bridge after United showed no interest, every chance he has got he has been sniping at Manuel Pellegrini in the press, he’s at it all the time.The man uses the press to have a go and journalists been journalists will fill pages with his antics.Yesterday when it was announced that the FA were to take no action against Yaya Toure over his kick out at Norwich, Jose was in like a rat up a drain pipe to claim it was wrong. Whether right or wrong, the point I am making is that Jose is trying again to cause issues where he has no business to stick his nose in. If Chelsea don't win the league he will look back at this issue and point to it as been a turning point in the season.For fun, I would love to see Toure over the next three games play out of his skin and bag a few goals as well.

With all that I have said over this article, I feel the FA should deal with his mind games and the next time he has a go in the written media, slap a disrepute charge on him. He should just do his talking on the pitch by winning games and stop all these antics, as I said before he appointed himself the special one when he arrived in England, in my opinion he is far from being a special one, more so a man who can not do without the self publicity.

Leeds United in Meltdown

Over the past couple of months I have been blogging about everything refereeing for this fabulous Pitch Talk website.This week I want to put all the refereeing issues aside and write about a club who are very close to my heart. Leeds United is a team I have supported since been a nipper. Over the years I have followed this once great club and although they have dropped down the leagues, I am always tuned into there matches on a match day.A few seasons ago I was lucky to be invited onto the committee of the Leeds United Dublin members club, working alongside Chairman Noel Rice. Of the many events we attended the most memorable, was an afternoon in the company of then owner Ken Bates at a lunch to honour the late Lord Harewood. I know a lot of fans never liked Uncle Ken but what happened over the past couple of days would certainly never have happened under the watchful eye of Mr.Bates. Let me try and unravel the total mess the club has got it itself in over the past few days.

As we know the owners GFH have been trying to offload the club in recent times. A few deals were on the table and had fallen through for whatever reason. On Friday,GFH seem to strike a deal with Cagliari owner a certain Italian called Mr.Cellino As the news broke,fans of the club were up in arms and didn't  want the Italian anywhere near the club. The Italian has a record of sacking coaches at the drop of a hat.What was needed at the club was stability and not more uncertainty something the new owner would bring. Right on cue with his previous escapades Cellino sacked Leeds manager Brian McDermott late on Friday evening.Uproar was to follow and fans headed to Elland Road to vent there anger over the Italians decision to sack the popular McDermott. Problems had been brewing for the two men during the week as Mr.Cellino spent time looking around his proposed new club. It culminated in Leeds manager Brian McDermott refusing to let Cellino,s man Gianluca Festa sit on the bench for Tuesday nights game against Ipswich.I would have thought the writing was on the wall for McDermott,and his days were numbered at Elland Road.

What developed on Saturday was something you would only see in a soap opera.With only hours to kick off for a home game against Huddersfield,fans anger was been vented on the streets,Facebook,Twitter and all other social networks. During what turned out to be a super performance by Leeds on the pitch in which they stuffed there local rivals five one, news was breaking that indeed Brian McDermott had not been sacked and the new owner wanted to reinstate him after all the fans unrest about his original decision to release the manager from his contract. The phone apparent phonecall to McDermott was from Cellino's solicitor and not the owner himself. GFH claimed they knew nothing about the sacking at all. Therefore the deal had not been rubber stamped by the Football league as the new owner would have had to pass the proper persons test to allow new owners to take over the club. I can only imagine that McDermott's sacking was illegal, leading to the you turn on Saturday.

Now if I can play devils advocate for a while and pass on my views over the whole situation. I personally have not been happy with the teams performance over the period that Brian was in charge. An awful run of defeats was topped off by a six nil drubbing away at Sheffield Wednesday. I thought Brian should have been sacked after that defeat but feel GFH either had not got the money or the balls to remove such a popular figure with the fans. What the team did to Huddersfield on Saturday was incredible and great credit should be handed out to every Leeds player on the pitch. Let us not forget these are the same players that Brian had sent into battle over the previous weeks without getting any victories.

This morning Brian returned to Thorp Arch to take training after looking for assurances from the owners his job was safe. I don't see this love affair lasting very long and if results don't pick up dramatically,he could be on his way out again very shortly.The other thing that has to be looked at here is,the Italian Mr.Cellino is a very wealthy man and has said he wants to invest in the team.Now when was the last time Leeds United fans heard those words spoken around the offices of Leeds United. On Friday when I heard the deal was struck to bring in the Italian, I for one was of the opinion to let him have a go.Especially if he wanted to bring in players.Whether Brian and him can work together after this farce is for another day,but I feel the Italian deserves a chance to take this great club back to where it belongs,the top league in the country. As I finish off this article I do feel this saga is not over and could run and run.In my opinion it needs to be sorted and sorted fast as we don't want to lose another season in Leeds second home,the court chambers. One thing I do know for sure this would not have happened under Ken Bates ownership.