When Saturday Comes Issue 344 (Still Here: Durham City's Chequered History)
Issue 351: the Northern League wants to remain isolated
The Football Pink
Issue Three (Founding Father: Tom Watson)
Issue Four (Planes, Trains and Automobiles: South Korea and the 1954 World Cup)
Blog: Prejudice and Curiosity
Falling For Football (Ockley Books, 2014)South Korea 2002 (pp 43-49)
Available to buy on Amazon here.
In Bed With Maradona
Kashiwa Reysol
Whatever Happened to Urawa Reds? (also in World Soccer Magazine)
Dettmar Cramer: The Football Professor (also in World Soccer).
South Korea vs Italy
The Importance of the Northern League
The Legacy of Kim Yong-sik
Cha Bum-kun
A Japanese Nigel Quashie
Dragan Stojkovic. Better Than Wenger.
A Good Week for Gary Lineker (Nagoya Grampus)
Omiya Ardija and the Invisible Fans
The Decline and Fall of Chernomorets Odessa
From Washington Colliery to the World
With The Ball at Brazil 2014
Sabotage Times
The Greatest Goal I Ever Saw: David Kelly against Portsmouth
European Football Weekends
Gamba Osaka: The Japanese Newcastle
FC Zimbru vs Nistru Otaci
The False Nine
Fumaca: the first Brazilian non-footballer
The Ball is Round
Europe's Worst Football Weekends
Top European Weekends
My First Game: Newcastle United vs Coventry City
The Seventy Two
Lower Leagues Across the Globe: Japan
Newcastle united for Plymouth Argyle
The Two Unfortunates
The Monday Profile: Tadanari Lee
From Northern League to Football League
The Real FA Cup
Blyth Spartans vs Gateshead
Nagoya Grampus vs Suzuka Rampole
The Northern League in the FA Cup
Jarrow Roofing vs Eccleshill United
Jarrow Roofing vs Congleton Town
Northern League clubs in the 2015-16 FA Cup Preliminary Round
The Magic Spongers
John Dahl-Tomasson's Nightmare on Tyneside
Hebburn Town (Programme)
A Brief History of Consett
Bishop Auckland: The Two Blues and the Reds
A Brief History of Celtic Nation
A Brief History of Ashington
Jarrow Roofing (Programme)
Opinion pieces, player profiles and club histories for The Roofer, the Northern League's Programme of the Year in 2013-14.
Online copy here.
Playing for Kicks in the Kanto Regional Leagues
Les Rosbifs
Jimmy Hagan
The English Influence on South Korean Football
Leazes Terrace
Halmstads '96
Rushden: Diamonds Aren't Forever?
Preview of Newcastle United vs Metalist Kharkiv
Viva Northern League
What Has the Northern League Ever Done For Us? Bishop Auckland and the Munich Air Disaster
No More Excuses for Racism in Football
What Has the Northern League Ever Done For Us? Samuel Irving and the Cardiff Invincibles
Beer and football: is it time we allowed drinking in the Northern League?
Miniboro_dotcom
Middlesbrough vs Newcastle United, 1990
Newcastle United vs Middlesbrough, 1991
The FootyBlog.net
Omiya Ardija
Footysphere
Five Facts About Newcastle United
TwoHundredPercent
Clubs in Crisis: Ryton FC
Salut! Sunderland
View from a Newcastle Fan
Roker Report
Northern League Day
Polly's Pause For Sport
My Favourite Premier League XI
Unofficial Football World Champions
All Eyes on Uruguay
JSoccerMagazine
Issue Three: Omiya Ardija
The full
account of how I ended up supporting Omiya Ardija is a long and complicated story
involving a grave misunderstanding of the geography of Greater Tokyo, the David
Mitchell novel number9dream and an
Arsenal-supporting English teacher from Limerick. Essentially, though, it all boils down to
this: as a Newcastle United fan from birth – thanks a bunch, Dad – and thus
duty-bound to root for wildly unsuccessful sides wherever I can find them, I could
hardly have supported anybody else.
When I
first came to Japan in September 2004 Tochigi Soccer Club were in the 2nd
division of the Kanto League and my closest J.League teams were the country’s
then most successful team, Kashima Antlers, the best supported side, Urawa
Reds, and their city rivals Omiya, who’d never finished any higher than fourth
in J2. For once, my arrival coincided
with an upturn in fortune, Ardija finishing runners-up behind runaway J2 champions
Kawasaki Frontale. My first game at the NACK 5 was a 2-0 victory over Kyoto
Sanga on the season’s final afternoon. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to
feeling like a glory hunter.
The
raucous, orange-clad crowd that day included one fan, in sunglasses and an Omiya scarf, who sat on a
crash barrier directly behind the goal, raising his middle finger to the Sanga keeper
throughout the whole of the second half. “Maradona played here once, you know,” my
Irish friend told me, as Ardija’s Brazilian forward, Baré – later a J.League Yamazaki Nabisco Cup winner with Gamba Osaka – danced a Samba by
the corner flag. If ever there was a moment to half fall in love with a
football team, then that was it for me. Later that night, I shimmied up a lamp-post opposite Omiya Station and
liberated a promotion flag, two fans and a shopkeeper cheering me on. Resplendent
with a cartoon squirrel, it now enjoys pride of place on my living room wall.
“Who’s this team again?” asked Mark, a Sheffield Wednesday fan, still glassy-eyed from the night before, “and why the hell do you support them?” “How far is the ground from the station?” moaned Richard, who claimed to be a Swansea supporter but spent a disturbing amount of time attempting to talk rugby. “Look at the sky,” said West Ham fan Patrick, whose morose facial expression suggested it wasn’t bubbles he was worried might be about to start falling.
The game ended in a 1-0 defeat and eleven orange shirts slumped to the ground. “God, that was awful,” said Patrick, tidying away some discarded cans of beer. “When are they playing again?” asked Mark. “I wouldn’t mind seeing them at home.”
See, no matter how bad they are – and sometimes they’re very, very bad indeed - Omiya Ardija have a way of doing that to you.
Issue 14: Captain Tsubasa and Nankatsu SC.
Issue 18: Dettmar Cramer
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