Scotland v England: prelude and aftermath
As our readers know virtually all the sporting staff of the Rust enjoy a flutter and that is why we read the Racing Post. Aside from their ability as correct predictors I enjoy their analysis which is far more forensic than the mainstream football writers’. The latter tend to fill their pages with incident . The father of incident is confrontation. Thus much was made in the build up of the “auld enemy” and it was left to the Racing Post to point out that the England team was composed of premiers players whilst there were 5 from the championship in the Scottish team. It was in effect Burnley at home to Liverpool. No surprises then that England won so comfortably but I see that dreaded phenomenon “a new dawn”: these arise between World Cups and the Euros. The storm of a defeat to a better side wipe these away. There were optimistic aspects of the performance, notably Oxlaide Chamberlain and Nathaniel Clyne, but we are a long way short of being a tournament winner.
The Racing Post also previewed Republic of Ireland v USA. The correspondent pointed out that USA conceded goals in the second half so draw/Ireland at 5-1 looked a good tickle I duly put the Pargiter on at 5-1 and was rewarded after 1-1 at half time, 4-1 at the final whistle.
I have seen one of the best Racing Post analysts Mark Langdon on BT Sport’s Italian football panels and it’s refreshing that journalists are not drawn from the coterie of mainstream newspapers. These tend to be massve know-alls and – like most know-alls – their knowledge, especially of European football, is deficient. I find that fans of a club like Alan, Ivan and Stefano are much better qualified to talk on their club. I must therefore mention an old Brentford friend of mine, Greville Waterman, and his excellent blog [bfctalk.wordpress.com]. No one is more knowledgeable than Greville on the Bees. In checking the title through Google I came across Charlotte Tanner’s Brentford woman’s blog. Is the Tanner house divided?
