Slavisa Jokanovic’s men have history on their side but there are reasons to believe for Middlesbrough, Derby and Aston VillaSome teams flourish, some fret and some freeze but there is nothing quite like the pressure-cooker that is the Championship play-offs, where promotion and almost £200m are at stake. By June, one of four reasonable heavyweights – Aston Villa, Derby, Fulham or Middlesbrough – will be back in the Premier League.Four legs and a final, at Wembley, will decide who that is but until then, let the brave, often defeatist, meaningless rogue predictions, mind games and number crunching commence. Now is the time to be choked by cliche; how form is temporary, class is permanent and how head-to-head records and the...
Bitter rivalry, free-scoring marksmen, stretchers, rage and Peter Enckelman: half a dozen Second City derby storiesVilla dominated the Football League during its Victorian infancy – they racked up five titles by 1900 – so their early command of the Birmingham scene is no great surprise. In November 1887, they met the club that would become bitter city rivals in serious competition for the first time: Small Heath Alliance were dispatched 4-0 in the FA Cup second round. It was payback for the first friendly between the clubs in 1879, which Alliance won 1-0 at their Muntz Street ground. Villa – already a grand, bordering on aristocratic, institution despite being just four years and nine months old – complained bitterly that...
In an exclusive extract from his new book, Darius Vassell recalls his incredible season with Turkish side Ankaragucu, which involved a remarkable welcome, several broken promises and a truly bizarre pre-match ritualI didn’t want to become a journeyman footballer. Aston Villa was the only club I’d ever wanted to play for and I’d grown to love Manchester City, but I just didn’t want to go through all of that again in England; I wanted something new, something completely different. I knew that there was nothing right for me in England and I told my agent that a move abroad was the only option. I was capable of living abroad, learning a new language and adapting to a new culture, so...
Middlesbrough have spent heavily in the chase for an immediate return to the Premier League while Aston Villa lead the Midlands challenge with John TerryOver a long summer it has been difficult to get away from the usual faces at the same select few clubs – none more so than that of the Middlesbrough chief executive, Neil Bausor, who has been pictured with a beaming smile time and again alongside new arrivals at the Riverside. Related: Gary Rowett: ‘We’re trying to take away feeling we’ve a right to be up there because we’re Derby’ Related: League One 2017-18 season preview | Lawrence Ostlere Continue reading...
From Sugar Ray Robinson v Jake LaMotta to Bowie Race Track, a date traditionally associated with romance has a history of sporting slaughterOne of few consolations England could take from their humiliation at the last Cricket World Cup after their premature exit had been confirmed by Bangladesh before the party had really got started was that, when it arrived, their embarrassment had become very much the norm rather than the exception. Ultimately this flaying at the hands of the Adelaide Oval’s supposed whipping boys was not so much an upset as an act of mercy. “England had the wrong team, the wrong style of play and everyone could see it,” tweeted Shane Warne in his withering post-match assessment. “Tonight’s result...