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Articles by Rex Mitchell

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About Rex Mitchell

Rex Mitchell is a Brentford supporter from childhood. This has not prevented him having a distinguished Fleet Street career as a sports reporter and later deputy football editor. A widower, Rex is a bit of a bandit golfer off his official handicap of 20 and is currently chairman of his local bowls club. More Posts

George Eastham (RIP)

I was truly saddened to hear of the death of George Eastham, chiefly for two reasons. Firstly, he belonged to a genre of player that no longer exists: the inside forward. They were technically very skilful, slight and did not score that many goals. Secondly, aged 18, I was watching  from behind [...]

December 23, 2024 // 0 Comments

Euros 2024 Final: Spain 2 England 1

So in the end England came up short to a technically superior side. They could not come back. This England team has determination and, even though they may say that a goal line clearance deprived them of a draw, Spain had many more goal opportunities in the second half. Analyst Chris Sutton [...]

July 15, 2024 // 0 Comments

England 2 Slovakia 1

The gap between performance and result has never been more marked than in this game. England are through to the last 8 v Switzerland but it was another dysfunctional performance. Indeed it took a remarkable effort from Jude Bellingham to equalise in the dying embers. There was nothing in this [...]

July 1, 2024 // 0 Comments

The Euros so far

The best teams do not necessarily win tournaments. Brazil were the best team at the 1992 World Cup in Spain but Italy beat them and won the title. Italy drew all 3 of their group games but the team that impressed most in the qualifying stage do not tend to win either. The team that gathers [...]

June 20, 2024 // 0 Comments

Earth/John Boyne

This is not your normal football novel as the subject – Evan Keogh- is gay and does not like football but instead wants to become a painter. The story is that his teammate Robbie Wolverton is accused of raping a girl which Evan filmed. Much of the 168 pages of this novella is taken up with [...]

May 8, 2024 // 0 Comments

Ipswich: now for the hard bit

“Pleasin’, most pleasin …” an Ipswich fan messaged me on their automatic promotion, mimicking their greatest manager Alf Ramsay’s difficulty with ‘g’s and use of ‘most’ instead of ‘very.’ When I say “greatest manager”, Ipswich have a few to pick [...]

May 7, 2024 // 0 Comments

Champions League Thoughts

Few expected Real Madrid to qualify – and not at the expense of champions Manchester City – but the fact remains that often the best teams do not win competitions. There are too many variables: injuries, refereeing decisions, VAR and  penalty shoot outs. Barcelona’s coach Xavi railed [...]

April 19, 2024 // 0 Comments

Entertainment or trophies?

I sent a message to an intelligent West Ham friend congratulating him on his club’s season. The Hammers are seventh in the Premier as I write and set fair for their fifth consecutive season in European competition, having won the Conference League last season. He would not have it, retorting that [...]

March 30, 2024 // 0 Comments

Football finale

It’s the most exciting Premier finish in years but are the public really engaged? High ticket prices, VAR – and the rarity of a key match on the traditional kick off time of 3 pm –  have all estranged the public. In the week I saw my optometrist, a visit with his son and friend to [...]

March 11, 2024 // 0 Comments

Ipswich 2 Norwich 2

I have a few good friends who support Ipswich so I watched on Sky yesterday what is wittily known as “the Old Farm Derby”. There must be some clever copywriters out there composing names for derbies as Brighton v Southampton is called the El Coastico. Mind you, these derbies are serious [...]

December 17, 2023 // 0 Comments

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