In the first blog of our weekly Football League series, John Ruddy says he hopes his fellow goalkeeper, who has leukaemia, will be part of any promotion partyAt times this season, John Ruddy has enjoyed possibly the best view in the house. “We have had some games where I am literally just watching in awe of what they are doing,” the Wolverhampton Wanderers goalkeeper says. His team-mates may have lit up the Championship but the ever-present Ruddy has brought plenty to the table too, notably 15 clean sheets, more than any other team in the country.He is engaging and erudite, and makes tremendous company at the club’s training complex during a conversation that spans from never giving up on playing...
Mark Robins’ eye-catching Coventry deserve their headlines, Liverpool have a bargain in Andrew Robertson and Wolves are already good enough for top flightAmid all the hoopla over the departing Mark Hughes, it is right to take a moment to praise Coventry City. They were deserved winners of the third-round tie at the Ricoh Arena, despite giving up the greater number of chances to the visitors. The Sky Blues played with a determination and energy you might expect of a team assuming the David role in a Goliath encounter. But they were also calm on the ball and often quite cute on it, too. Their play was all the more striking, given the starting XI had an average age of 24...
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...
Fifty years ago this week, the United Soccer Association title was decided in a 6-5 thriller. The teams in action were even more remarkable than the scorelineIt happened so suddenly that the Washington Whips goalkeeper Bobby Clark didn’t know what hit him. Los Angeles Wolves full-back Bobby Thomson drove in a dangerous cross that deflected off a defender’s leg, past Clark and into the goal. And just like that, the first and only United Soccer Association championship game was over. “It was the first time I had ever been involved in a sudden-death finish to a game and the finality was numbing,” Clark says five decades later. The Wolves celebrated their achievement while the Whips tried to figure out what...
Liverpool’s defence needs to find cohesion fast, Lincoln felt the force with Alan Power and Bastian Schweinsteiger is welcomed back by José MourinhoIt was an afternoon when the ball would not go in for Ruben Loftus-Cheek. The Chelsea attacking midfielder was twice denied by the Brentford goalkeeper, Daniel Bentley, and, when he clipped over him on 58 minutes, the effort came back off the crossbar. Loftus-Cheek had two other moments when he jinked inside the area but could not find a finish. It was, nonetheless, an eye-catching performance from the 21-year-old – in front of the watching England manager, Gareth Southgate – in which he advertised both his power and the deftness of his touch. Could it offer him a...