Footblog

Sun condemns Terry abuse: now where did they get that idea from?

"John Terry does not normally rise to the bait," begins The Sun's sanctimonious West Ham/Chelsea match report. "Saturday, however, was not normal. Even by the vile and hateful standards set by West Ham ‘fans’, the abuse meted out to Terry and Frank Lampard was a disgrace."

"Insulting his [Lampard's] family or Terry’s is unacceptable," it adds later. "If they said the kind of thing about Lampard’s children or Terry’s mum to their faces, they would get a smack in the mouth."

Presumably The Sun's reporters were queueing up outside Chez Terry for a smack round the chops when they splashed this Earth-shattering exclusive on the front page a couple of weeks ago, then?

Squeaky Brum time

Birmingham may really live to regret letting their lead slip against Preston on Saturday and failing to cement a return to the Premiership.

Birmingham face Reading away on the final day of the season. If Reading manage to beat relegation-candidates Norwich this evening, they can win automatic promotion themselves by beating Birmingham on Sunday. Not to mention the fact it's going to be Steve Coppell's last game at the Madjeski, which is sure to give the Reading boys another jolt of motivation.

However, Reading could be the least of Birmigham's worries. The only other team still in with a shout of automatic promotion are Sheffield United, who go away to Crystal Palace on Sunday. The same Crystal Palace managed by former Sheff Utd manager and fan, Neil Warnock, and run by vocal Birmingham critic, Simon Jordan (he once said "the best thing about Birmingham is the road out") . With Palace left with absolutely nothing to play for, what money Warnock will use it as an excuse to give a few kids a bit of "first-team experience" and do his old pals a favour?

I hope the Football League has got a phalanx of independent observers on standby at Selhurst. They might well need them. 

Frank Lampard gives LBC what for

Being a West Ham fan, there haven't been too many times when I've been prepared to doth my titfer at His Frankess. But you have to give the lad credit for phoning up radio station LBC and giving some mouthy, know-nothing, knob jockey a mouthful for making crass comments about the break-up of his relationship.

Shame he had to go and spoil it by setting up the goal against us today... Tosser.

Scott Parker spotted on EasyJet

Whilst waiting for my EasyJet flight to Portugal with the family last Saturday, I was more than a little surprised to find West Ham midfielder Scott Parker sat waiting for the same flight - not least because the newspaper I was holding in my hand at the time told me he was taking a fitness test for the game against Spurs, which was due to kick off minutes before we took off.

I know Upton Park isn't the land of milk and honey it was a couple of years back, but you'd have thought he could afford something a bit better than cattle class on EasyJet. He obviously wasn't used to slumming it, mind, as he naively waited for the rest of the passengers to scramble aboard, before boarding the plane last, and then having to embarrassedly walk back down the length of the plane and ask a couple of kids to shuffle up so that he could take the last remaining seat.

Kerfuffle over, he sat down with his hugely expensive looking leather attache case and pulled out a copy of... The Sun. You literally can't buy class.

 

Video: Darren 'Legend' Huckerby on scoring the 'greatest goal ever'

Unbelievable.

Shearer to be Newcastle manager - there is a God

Splendid news. Not only is the man who offers as much insight and personality as a used tampon banished from the Match of the Day studio, but he's almost certainly going to relegate The Barcodes too, ruining his richly undeserved reputation in the process.

Back of the net.