Brighton v Portsmouth

The Beautiful South

Brighton 3-1 Portsmouth (08:01:11)

by Larry from Lancing

Ever since Charles Alcock (no jokes from us on that name, EFW is a family publication and remains strictly above the waist) suggested on 20 July 1871: ‘That it is desirable that a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with The Association, for which all clubs belonging to The Association should be invited to compete’, the great and good of the footie world have been up for the cup.

As we end the first week of the New Year and the EFW de-tox diet goes out the window along comes the magic of the Cup for another bout of thrills, spills and fixture congestion bellyaches for managers. The Cup now carries a sponsors moniker and has become the E-on FA Cup, but don’t let that put you off. Here at EFW towers we’re powered by windmills and bunny rabbits on treadmills so need to doff our caps to this particular sponsor.

Portsmouth fans arrive en masse.

Third round weekend, or to give it its proper name “Third Round Proper” weekend, is often more fun than a barrel of monkeys as fans from across the land pop up to the loft, dust off their tin foil covered cardboard replica cups, and head off dreaming of a trip to Wemberleee in May.

There is one spanner in the works though, those tardy folk down at Lincoln are still embroiled in a Second Round Proper clash with Hereford, with the winners set to play their third round proper tie on Tuesday. Here’s a question for the Roy Castles out there, has any team ever gone from the 2nd to 4th round in three days? Answers on a postcode please, our new code of conduct means that unfortunately we can no longer offer £1,000 prizes but we will send you the name of a good Doctor to go and see.

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.

FA Cup weekends are nothing if not a time for cliches and more recently the chance to air the annual debate of whether the Cup has lost its magic as Premiership managers field a sprinkling of the under 12 squad alongside has beens, never will beens and probably some Jelly Beans. Not one to wallow in nostalgia, oh go on then just this once, but it is a fact that it’s not what it was.

As we go under the name of European Football weekends we better keep our friends at Trading Standards happy and throw in some Euro chat to the debate. Our European cousins were not lucky enough to have a visionary such as Mr Alcock and have been known to treat their cups as a secret mistress. Once in a while they pop out for a liaison, hope no one is watching then shuffle off guiltily back to their loved one, the league.

This has long been the continental way, their style of football being more suited to the long game of a league rather than the blood and thunder of one-off cup football, and as with weights and measures, where Europe leads we often follow. Now, as our name suggests we’re all about Europe, even the most blinkered amongst us would admit our Euro chums are often ahead of the game when compared to Blighty. When in the 70’s we were happy to bend our knees in homage to Brotherhood of Man, Europe was swinging it’s stylish sparkly boots to ABBA. But, when it comes to Cups, it’s a British thing and like warm beer Europe doesn’t get it and as more European managers take top jobs with British clubs the culture of the cup has suffered.

Barnes strokes home a penalty for the Seagulls.

There’s no one single reason why the Cup doesn’t quite sparkle as it once did and you can probably take your pick from three of the following TV, Sky, European comps, VAT, price of milk and Simon Cowell.

EFW is staying close to home for this week’s match and is off to the Theatre of Trees for a South Coast Derby. It’s neither clubs main local derby as Portsmouth have Southampton and Brighton have Palace, but as grade B derbys go it’s not a bad one. Some Albion fans regard Pompey as their main rivals, and up until the 70’s this was probably the case. Whilst the cities of Brighton & Hove combine to give the team it’s famous name, the support comes from all four corners of Sussex which means that for those in the West of the County Portsmouth is just a few miles down the road.

Taxi for Gus.

Both clubs in recent years have had the prefix “crisis club” cut and pasted by journos before their names, let’s face it there’s not that many clubs who haven’t, but Brighton and Pompey both decided to go the whole hog and see how close they could get to extinction. As both embark on their recoveries, the EFW stethoscope reports Brighton in the ruder health as Portsmouth shake off their debts and Fred Carno circus reputation of recent years.

Pompey’s plight tended to attract less sympathy from the football world, whilst you always feel for those who feared losing a club they loved, at least they had a good time whilst the club was going down the pan. Perhaps most shockingly off all though, players and officials (**cough Peter Storrie cough**) were picking up handsome salaries whilst St John’s Ambulance bills were going unpaid and loyal club staff were being given the old Spanish archer (El bow).

EFW popped down the local library this week to check out the manual on “How to run a football club” and funnily enough the words “Israeli arms dealer, dodgy deals, back street massage parlours or skint Hong Kong businessmen” didn’t feature too prominently.

The World's best fans*. *Self anointed.

Both clubs also have a cup pedigree. Pompey famously held the cup through the war years and bought it (sorry won it) again under Harry Redknapp, and managed the Albion double last year of reaching a cup final and being relegated. Brighton of course were a Gary Bailey leg away from lifting the cup in 1983, just as Stanley Matthews gave his name to the 1953 final, 30 years on Gordon Smith became synonymous with the ’83 final thanks to the wonderful and still much missed Peter Jones.

As a Championship club Pompey enter the cup at this stage, that is the Third Round Proper, whilst Brighton have twice toyed with the idea of being knocked out by non-league oppo, only to think better of it in the replay.

After the on and off field dramas of the FC United tie, the last thing the Sussex constabulary would have wanted was a second consecutive Category C FA Cup fixture. Unlike FC United, Portsmouth do have a bit of a reputation in the trouble stakes, we at EFW should know having nearly been on the receiving end. Back in the late 80’s and following a game at Fratton Park, a collection of their finest were galloping towards us, as you know we’re more lovers than fighters and were not exactly relishing the prospect that awaited us, and there may even have been a Gary Lineker V Ireland World Cup moment going on. So, you can imagine the all round relief as they ran past and into another group 30 yards down the road!

The 6.57 Crew have been quieter of late. Perhaps since the privatisation of the trains there isn’t even a 6.57 anymore? It does make you wonder what they would be called if they were starting up today, “Train delayed due to driver being stuck at Southsea” probably.

South Coast bragging rights to Brighton, tick.

Onto the match, at last you say, both sides apparently put out strong XI’s, I say apparently as after several pre-match Harveys and a few chasers in EFW’s Lord Nelson HQ Gully’s Girls could have been playing for all I knew, and in all probability would still have won.
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Much has been said and written about the Withdean experience, it will never be the best, but given the right conditions and a full house you can just about squeeze an atmosphere out of the place. Approaching kick there was an air of anticipation and the cup seemed to be working its magic as songs rolled down from the South Stand and the Pompey fans, minus their bell, chimed away. It must be said though that the world’s best fans (self anointed) were quieter than expected. Just to put them properly in their place Woking and of course FC United were better visitors.

Brighton started the better, were better in the middle bit and in all honesty finished the better. So no surprise they ran out 3-1 winners. Despite fielding the likes of Kanu, ex-England forward Nugent, Ginger Kitson and Liam Lawrence, Portsmouth were no match for Brighton. That’s about as much as you need as a match report, I’m sure Brighton wouldn’t have expected such a straightforward journey into the 4th round but the result was rarely in doubt.

The last of the mohicans.

Portsmouth were disappointing and didn’t looked interested, Kitson got himself needlessly sent off for an off the ball elbow and the rest of the Pompey team seemed in a race to join the Ginger one in an early bath. Post-match their gaffer, Steve Cotterill, tried to blame the red card on their defeat but the truth is they were never at the races.

After a good string of results over the crimbo period the Gus Bus rolls on and at times today the passing and play was as good as its been this year. A work out against higher league oppo is always a good gauge of progress and based on this performance you would back them to hold their own should they gain promotion to Div 2 (in old money).

Her majesty’s constabulary did a better job post-match than they did of protecting the Heir to the throne against the students and all seemed to pass of peacefully. There were reports of various games of Mike Read says Run A Round in Lancing, Worthing and all stops to Portsmouth Harbour in the evening, but no real incidents of note to spoil what was a good day for the Albion.

Early bath for Kitson.

The 4th round is not to be sneezed and after a gap of 17 years Brighton have now reached that stage for the 2nd consecutive season. The cash from a cup run is always welcome, but more importantly it’s a great opportunity for Gus’s young team to pit themselves against teams from a higher division and to show just what a good team they are becoming.

Pompey fans were gracious in defeat and we even enjoyed a chat with Mr Portsmouth himself on the train home. The word character doesn’t really do him justice, let’s be honest it takes some balls to go to footie in clown shoes and a big wig. In Pompey’s troubled times he showed himself to be an articulate defender of the genuine fan and spoke out against the excesses of the game.

A "character"

The Albion are still very much up for the cup and far from being a diversion from promotion the cup run could give a big boost to their confidence....altogether now....

For many more photos from the day CLICK ME

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In Bed With Maradona

EFW meets IBWM

You would own a collection of bruised fingers if you clapped every quality article that appeared on the pages of the delightfully named football blog In Bed With Maradona.

Not many days go by with some form of mutual backslapping and high fiving between European Football Weekends (EFW) and In bed with Maradona (IBWM). This is a mutual appreciation society (MAS) that borders on the lunacy (BOTL). We're like one of those sickly friendships between teams made popular in German football. We haven't quite got around to releasing joint scarves in our respective club shops, but it might not be long before someone in Taiwan is weaving a stitch in that direction.

IBWM is a website that thinks outside the box. They've assembled a team of writers, all of whom provide thought provoking, entertaining articles on a daily basis. It's not just me who has acknowledged them, they've scooped a host of awards and had praise heaped upon them from all quarters.

So step forward Jeff, editor of IBWM, a man who knows his blogging onions and a chap who was quick off the mark in paying tribute to my knitwear of choice for the interview:

Many of the best writers in the business have hopped on-board the IBWM bandwagon. Do you head hunt those, or do they come tugging on your coat to volunteer. Right, first off, can I just say how fantastic it is to be interviewed on EFW, I am a HUGE fan of the website. Is this the seat that Sid Lowe sat in? Wow! You're quite coy on this place aren't you Danny. Do your readers know that EFW is run from a narrowboat called the Rosie Jimbo? And that you visit all of these great places via the canals and waterways of Europe? Very impressive it is. Nice aran sweater by the way. Not sure about the pipe though.

Get on with it Jeff.... It's a mix to be honest. I've asked some writers to work with us and others have been in touch saying they would like to contribute. I'm always keen to increase the number of writers we work worth so it's an open door.

How many people are on the editorial team, and who do you all support? Three of us, including me. I'm from Newcastle, and that's the team that I've watched most down the years, but I'm passionate about football more than any one club. I can just as easily cheer for Sunderland, which makes me a bit of oddity in the North East! Originally, IBWM was just me, but things were getting a bit out of hand so the editorial team now includes Ben Shave and Dave Hartrick. They are tremendously talented writers and have really brought a lot to IBWM over the last few months. Dave is a Brighton fan based in West Yorkshire and he has a very dry sense of humour and a fantastic knowledge of football history. He's writing a book now, which I've been privileged to have a look at and it's excellent. Ben is a Watford fan based in Pinner and I think he is one of the most exciting football writers around. He really knows his onions when it comes to Portuguese football, as well as other areas too. He's on his way to the very top.

Do you all get out to games, or are you chained to your laptops 24/7? Not chained as such, but I probably watch a lot more football on TV or via streaming than actually going to games these days. I know Ben gets to watch Watford as much as he can and Dave likes to get to whatever games he can, regardless of who is playing.

Did you do any writing or contribute to any blogs prior to IBWM or is this your first effort? I've written for magazines, fanzines and other websites down the years, but IBWM has been my first project like this.

You must have punched the air with delight when you came up with the name for the site, no? Originally, this was going to be a blog centered on the World Cup called 'three months with Diego' but that never felt right. I was watching Argentina in a World Cup qualifier on my laptop while lying in bed in the wee small hours and the good lady wife turned over to me and said, "you spend more time in bed with Maradona than you do with me", well, that was it! I thought it was genius, a title that worked on several different levels. I point this out to my wife and her solicitor on a regular basis but they never see the funny side. Shame.

Depression and homophobia in football, the Uruguay national team and Dion Dublin's instrument. These aren't mainstream topics, and yet you get thousands of hits everyday. People want to read about more than just the EPL don't they? I think so. I've no great problem with the Premier League as I watch a lot of games myself and can understand it's appeal, but football is a beautiful game the world over and has so many layers to it. Each week across the planet, football consumes millions of people and there are so many side stories and emotions apart from the games themselves. I often feel like 99.9% of football coverage looks at 0.01% of what is going on out there. I want IBWM to address that imbalance.

Is there one article you'd point to as breaking you into the big time? The big time? Behave yourself! I think Iain Macintosh coming on board and writing his first piece for us was a defining moment. Iain is a fantastic writer and has such a huge following that it opened IBWM to a much bigger audience. Iain's first article was a critique of MotD, which was perfectly timed, and he really nailed the subject. Getting Dan Brennan to join in was a real coup for us and we've been fortunate enough to publish some outstanding articles from brilliant writers that have really helped build IBWM's reputation.

Which article has been the most popular? Three stand out. Earlier in 2010 I was trying to decide which direction to take IBWM and considered looking at transfer stories that were being reported by reputable sources in other countries. I'd already decided that this wasn't the way I wanted IBWM to go, but took a call from a former colleague who told me that Hatem Ben Arfa was 100% on his way to Newcastle United. It was bit of a scoop as the UK press had already called this a non-starter following a press conference dismissal by Chris Hughton. I was satisfied that this wasn't just speculation so wrote something and L'Equipe actually backed everything up in their own version five minutes before I published This took some of the scoop element away, but backed up the story. It went up on a Friday and just went nuts. The article was read by about 13,000 people and is still picking up around 200 reads each week, which is a touch bizarre, but it did bring an awful lot of people to IBWM who hadn't been before. Michal Zachodny's piece on Krzysztof Dowhań the Polish goalkeeping coach was another groundbreaker because it was an excellent story that wasn't picked up outside of Poland. That really demonstrated the importance of having someone in location to deliver this sort of stuff. Another article that has been immense is Greg Theoharis' 'Facing up to Gazza's death' . It's a real heartfelt piece and while quite a morbid subject, I think Greg captures the feelings/fears of millions of football fans.

The critical acclaim that swung your way towards the end of 2010 must have been most welcome? Receiving any sort acclaim is always nice but to read some of the comments that IBWM has received from people that I admire and respect has been amazing. In July 1989 I was on a caravan holiday in North Wales and it was tipping down, my only salvation came from De La Soul on my walkman and two magazines I had with me. One was the Viz, which I had been reading for years, and the other was When Saturday Comes, which I'd bought for the first time. A love affair started there with WSC, so to see IBWM mentioned in the magazine has been a real highlight. Seeing IBWM mentioned in the Guardian a few times has also been fantastic as it has been my newspaper of choice for many years.

The aforementioned Iain Macintosh recently said that there's a strong chance that the larger blogging communities will become something of a talent pool for traditional media. Have any of you been approached to write for cash, and is that a long-term goal? Iain has made a good point there. Journalism is a very demanding profession and especially difficult to break into so editors want to see examples of what a writer can offer rather than just reading from a CV. It's 20 years since I first stepped into a newspaper office and while you still need to learn your trade, it's important to keep your profile high. We have been approached by TalkSport, the BBC and World Soccer magazine about our writers and articles so I think it's fair to say writing for IBWM does no harm if you want to be noticed. Having work published somewhere regularly is essential for building a portfolio and several of our regular writers have received paid work. On the subject of traditional media, credit has to go to the Guardian sports team for the way they have embraced blogging culture. It's one of many reasons that they are the best at what they do. James Dart's 100 blogs for 2011 was an absolute revelation and it demonstrates the way that the Guardian interacts with bloggers.

Can we expect any new innovations or surprises on IBWM for 2011? Right now IBWM is 1% of what I want it to be. We have some amazing things lined up for 2011 and we will continue to do things differently with moves into new directions, so keep watching. I really want to create something that reflects what a truly beautiful game this is. Football is a religion and I want IBWM to celebrate that. There are a myriad of stories created each week and I want to look at all levels and emotions of the game. Articles, analysis, opinion, films, photography, artwork, music, poetry, multi-layered and interwoven, all with the common theme of football set out across a website that looks and feels like nothing else. I'm talking to web designers that will help me transmit what's in my head onto a pc, which is a scary thought I'll grant you, but it will be worth seeing when I get IBWM to where I want it.

I've always thought the type of content you deliver would make for a perfect podcast. Is that something you'd consider investing time in? A podcast is something that we have discussed and Dave is especially keen to get this going. For my part, I'm quite guarded as I want an IBWM podcast to be a truly majestic experience, with orchestras and choirs that offers something way different to anything else out there. Basically I'm Brian Wilson trying to create Pet Sounds, while Dave and Ben are of a 'Jeff, this is just a podcast, we'll not get too hung up on it' train of thought. If it is left up to me an IBWM podcast will be 5 years in production so something will have to give, they'll inevitably talk me into it.

Have you ever thought of going down the match report route? It is possible, but to deliver something comprehensive you really need to be running things full time and be resourced to hit deadlines. We're unlikely to ever be in that position so league tables, results and match reports are something that we'll leave to others. Never say never though.

The alternative Queen's speech from Kay Murray on Christmas Day was a stroke of genius. All the big names want a piece of the IBWM pie these days don't they? They are most welcome to a slice of that pie and we'd love to have them collaborate with us! I'd been talking to Kay for quite a while about doing something together and had the idea of an alternative queen's speech. We wanted something visual and Kay was the perfect choice. The video is superb and really highlights what a huge talent she is. Kay is without question going to be one of the biggest names in television in the next decade, so it has been great to have an opportunity to work with her. Now the video is done and dusted, I've promised to honour the restraining order. Good news all round.

You were the expert journalist on the Total Sport programme on BBC Newcastle recently. How was that experience? It was great actually! My day job means I've done hundreds of radio interviews down the years but not about football, so it was really enjoyable, even though my voice was just about hanging on in there. I've worked with lots of footballers in the past but having John Anderson make me a coffee was a bit special. He told me some great stories about Jack Charlton and the 1988 Republic of Ireland squad, a true gent.

Did you really mean it when you said you would do Mike Ashley's PR for free? Jeez, did I say that? Why do I say these things? The point I was trying to make - and this isn't something that is exclusive to Mike Ashley, it happens at plenty of other clubs - is that I hate to see supporters brushed aside by owners. It might not necessarily always be the intention to antagonise and provoke, but if I had been responsible for Mike Ashley's PR, the ad on the website saying the club was for sale and many other things that have involved shooting one's own foot wouldn't have happened on my watch. I would make sure that direct communication with the fans was paramount; they have invested their lives into your club after all. Actually, if I did the PR for Mike Ashley the first thing I would do would be to issue Swiss Ramble's article on NUFC's finances as a News Release. Kieron has captured the reality of Mike Ashley and NUFC perfectly via the balance sheet. It's the most definitive article I've read on any club in the last 30 years and I'm a huge fan of his site.

Do you think you'll ever make any money from IBWM? If you get involved in this malarkey with the sole intent of making cash then you'll be disappointed. It would be great to make a living from running a website, but you have to be realistic, it should be something you care about rather than a means to an end. I'm talking to different people about developing the website further, but I've no interest in coating IBWM with irrelevant ads or pop ups, so we're unlikely to ever get rich from that! I'm more interested in ensuring that our writers get the opportunity of paid work and this is something that we always push when we talk to other media outlets. The sole aims of IBWM are to provide a website with lots of good content and give writers - whether established or new - maximum exposure.

Doesn't it grate a little that you give out all this great content for free? Not at all, writing is an art and good writers are talented artists, so I look on IBWM as a gallery to display creative talent. Writers at IBWM have the freedom to express themselves and write what they want without the shackles of a specific topic, word count or deadline. IBWM does what it does and can act as a stepping-stone for anyone that wants to make a living from writing, or provide somewhere to show off your best work. We will push the case to get our writers paid gigs but we'll not charge anyone to visit IBWM! If you are running a website as a business then you need to 'maximise your revenue streams' so that's when subscriptions come into play, but I've no interest in that; it's not really the spirit of rock n' roll is it?

Do you get time to read other football blogs? Hell yes, I'm all over the indie blog scene. I've found that trawling the net has replaced the days when I would go to car boot sales and markets looking for records and CD's! Digging out a great article or blog that I've never read before is the equivalent of finding the Stranglers on white vinyl! I read hundreds of blogs every week and I really need to sort the IBWM twitter follows to reflect that. I'm as much a travel junkie as I am into football so, as you know, EFW is a massive favourite of mine; you really have a knack for bringing people, places and events to life. I'm a huge admirer of The Run of Play too, which in terms of content and aesthetics is nothing short of magnificent, Brian is a true genius, just visiting feels like an experience and it really is a benchmark website. I'm big on the US blogs like Dirty Tackle, A Football Report, Nutmeg Radio and I love The Original Winger as they do lots of fashion/subculture stuff and I'm a trainer/sneaker obsessive! I always enjoy reading The Ball Is Round and The Equaliser, Dave is always brilliant at Knowing Cyrille and Ghost Goal, Twisted Blood, The 72, Dispatches and Magic Spongers are all sublime. Football and Music, Obscure Football and Two Hundred Percent are long standing favourites and Ben's Cahiers Du Sport in tandem with Portugoaldotnet has really made me fall in love with Portuguese football. Between them, they've shown how football in a single country should be covered; they've really defined a genre and set a marker for coverage of other regions. I'm straight on anything new that Layla Carlsson, Juliet Jacques or Iain Macintosh post on their respective blogs and read everything that anyone who has appeared on IBWM does along with lots of others. I could go on for ages here, I really could, there's a never-ending array of brilliance out there and I think it's a fantastic and vibrant scene now. We're going to put a links page back up soon and we'll get as many as sites/blogs as we can linked on IBWM.

Can you sum up IBWM's 2010 in under 140 characters? 2010 has been brilliant for everyone involved with IBWM but we will make sure that 2011 is even better.

And finally, you knew this was coming, what is your favourite Maradona moment? I'm going for an image more than a moment and it's the one of El Diego facing up to six Belgian players from Spain '82. I've never seen a photograph capture so much in just one frame. It has a look of one those wildlife shots where a leopard (I nearly said cheetah!) is just yards away from a group of antelope. There's an air of inevitability about what will happen next and it doesn't involve the Belgians/antelopes coming off for the better. They will lie slain in the wake of the master and you can see in their eyes that they know it. He was that good though and I'm proud to carry his name on the website, it's homage to a truly outstanding footballer and a complete idol.

You can follow both In bed with Maradona and European Football Weekends on Twitter.

IBWM meets EFW

Read more from Jeff and the team at In bed with Maradona.

- Feel free to comment below -

Real Valladolid v Tenerife

Daddy, Daddy Cool

Real Valladolid 2-2 Tenerife (02:01:11)

What better way to kick off 2011 than a six hour journey, north by northwest, from our traditional Spanish festive season HQ in Salinas del Manzano to Valladolid for a slice of Segunda Division action. This is European Football Weekends, it's what we do, and - after the briefest of mid-season winter breaks - we're not just back, but back with a bang, an explosion, a thermo-nuclear explosion at that.

The Spanish spoken in Valladolid [Va-yer-do-lid] is said to be the purest, some say poshest, in the country. Hablan muy claro (they speak very clearly). It's also renown for being perishingly cold there, so much so that the Estadio Jose Zorrilla has heaters fixed into the roof of the stands to keep the punters warm during matches.

Historically, Real Valladolid have flip-flopped between the top two divisions. They've spent 40 years licking their lips in La Liga and 30 licking their wounds in the Segunda Divsion. Despite being tipped for promotion, the Pucela are having a decidedly average season and the fans aren't happy. Their socios (members) are down in numbers from 18,500, this time last year, to 12,500 and the dwindling home faithful have turned their anger towards the owners of the club.

Real Valladolid have always been the main team of the Castile y León region. A few fans dislike their near neighbours UD Salamanca, but nobody gives two hoots about other local teams Zamora CF and Palencia. Their main rivals are, somewhat surprisingly, given the distance involved, Sporting Gijon. Clearly, this rivalry was dreamt up before the advent of high speed trains. It only takes an hour to get here from Madrid on the AVE these days. It'll cost you though.

"Make sure you eat some Lechazo (baby suckling lamb) and drink plenty of Estrella Galicia (beer)" demanded my Spanish amigo Juan before my visit. So we did. Bar hopping in Spain is one of life's great pleasures, and the Calle de Correos, set just of the Plaza Mayor is the place to go in the old quarter. With a caña here and a tapa there, eat, drink, laugh, sing, everywhere a great seat. It was food and drink that had us dabbing away at our chops with a napkin and beaming with contentment. Delicious.

Pre-match nibbles in Bar Jero, Calle de Correos.

The fox in the box. Well, just outside, actually.

The football ground is a 20 minute or so bus ride out the to west of the city. There's a huge shopping centre just across the main road where some fans hang out before games, but that wasn't for me, obviously. I pitched up in the bar of the training ground directly opposite the main stadium. The good news is that Nirvana and Madness tunes were blasting out across the bar, the bad news was that I was pretty much the only person in there. Fans arrive late to games in Spain, very late.

There is no club shop at the stadium. Not even a measly trestle table selling knock off scarves. Nothing, nada. Well, aside from a lady selling pipas and jelly babies out of the back of a van. I had noticed a club shop on the Plaza Mayor, but even that had been boarded up. This means, that with a capacity of 26,000, I'm declaring the Estadio Jose Zorrilla to be the biggest club stadium in Europe without a club shop. It's not a fact but it's true, possibly. They need a bit of Zorrilla marketing there, no?

Match tickets for this game cost €20-€45. But EFW is big news in Spain nowadays and the club had offered me a press pass. Their media officer, Mario, took me under his wing and escorted me up to a press box at the top of the main stand. Nice, very nice.

Not a bad view from the EFW office window.

Scorchio. Heaters in the roof, tick.

For fans of attendances, it was 8,388.

Look, a fox, on the pitch. Woof! Or more of a screaming-bark isn't it? Anyway, the fox in question was Pepe Zorrillo, the clubs mascot. He is a cross between a fox and a Castillian gentleman according to Mario. Dynamic, friendly and cheerful he may be, but I couldn't help thinking the budget had run dry half way through the making of his costume.

All the pre-match talk was of Javi Guerra, current owner of the number 9 jersey for the home-side. In recent weeks, Malaga, Deportivo and Racing have been sniffing around with a view to snap him up in the January transfer window. "There has been interest from other clubs", he said "But I like it here, and I came to help the team gain promotion" he added, whilst trying to catch the eye of his agent.

As the teams trotted out, with a half fox, half man for company, the two sets of ultras gave it their best shot to ratchet up the noise levels. They were situated in opposite corners of the stadium. They two groups have differing political views, not an unusual occurrence in Spain. On the left we have the Fossa Gerrafoni and on the right, Los Ultravioletas. Valladolid is supposedly a fairly right leaning city in terms of politics, and some cruel cats have referred to it as 'Thatcher-dolid' in the past. Ouch.

Oscar side-footed the home-side into an early lead, but just a minute later Tenerife had equalised. Okey-dokey, ten minutes in, two goals, tiqui-taca football and the best seat in the house. I was hooked. But I am not a fan of music on the PA after goals, oh no. After Oscar had popped in the opener, they played Daddy Cool by Boney M. Aright, a fitting tribute to Bobby Farrell (RIP), nice touch, I'll let it pass. But no, they play it after every home goal. Is that Daddy, Daddy Cool? You decide. "We do it because we like it" said Mario.

I'll tell you what was cool, and that was Nauzet with his Beckham-esque free kick which regained the lead for Real Valladolid midway through the first half. This was brilliant. It was cold, but there were those aforementioned heaters in the roof of the stand. Not a problem. There wasn't too much noise, but then again, who'd be a Tenerife away fan? You'd have to have buck teeth and whiskers along with very deep pockets to follow them over land and sea. They had eleven fans at this game, and Sombreros off to that second XI for making the journey.

We all follow the Tenerife, over land and sea. 11 away fans, tick.

Real Valladolid battered the home goal in the second half as Tenerife fought like caged tigers to keep them out. Aragoneses in the opposition goal was inspired. The referee did his best to ruin the spectacle, booking nine players, but this was hardly Zorrilla warfare. With the game nearing its conclusion Tenerife swung a hopeful free-kick into the mixer which substitute Iriome glanced into the net with his noggin. 2-2.

A cacophony of tutting echoing around the stadium for the final few minutes. Some fans looked towards the board of directors, voiced their anger and waved their fists. Others shuffled off in a huff and the ultras unveiled a ready made banner of protest. Relative joy had turned to despair all too quickly. For the neutral, it had been a thriller at the Zorrilla. The local Vallasoletanos thought otherwise, however.

Sack the board. We put the passion and you take the money.

The other ultras.

I made my way down the post match press conference where I was soon joined by the buoyant Tenerife gaffer, Juan Carlos Mandiá Lorenzo. He struggled to hide his grin and a rough translation of his press conference would read something like "I'm as happy as Larry, bollocks to the lot of you and have some of that."

The mood changed as the home boss, Abel Resino Gómez stepped into the room with a face like thunder. His bottom lip quivered as he blamed tension, money, the weather, the crowd, the fox and the lack of a club shop for defeat. Something like that anyway. He was in a mood, that much I do know.

Abel excuses.

New year, same old tactics. On the pitch again. Yeeeeessss.

So that was my first game of 2011. I didn't know that it would turn out to be a fitting tribute to the life of Bobby Farrell, but I'm glad it turned out that way. I headed back into town to listen to a string of disco hits and continue where I'd left off on the food and drinking front. Valladolid is a perfect weekend destination if you're thinking of your own EFW. It's cool, Daddy Cool.

For lots more photos from the match and the weekend CLICK ME.

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