The archive: football writing by year

2025

• 18 December 2025
  Betting on the Premier League 25/26
• 23 September 2025
  Press Listen to Continue: Finding Your Edge in FPL Podcasts
• 11 September 2025
  Killed by Mismanagement: The Resurrection of Bury FC
• 8 September 2025
  A Bitter End: The Collapse of World Soccer Daily
• 5 September 2025
  Bradford City: A Decade of Decline
• 5 September 2025
  Holker Street Blues: The Fifty-Year Exile of Barrow AFC
• 5 September 2025
  Sutton United vs Coventry City: An FA Cup Giant-Killing for the Ages
• 5 September 2025
  The Shame of Gijón: Algeria's Stolen World Cup Dream
• 27 June 2025
  Panorama’s Stadiums of Hate: A Country Misrepresented
• 22 May 2025
  A Home or a Handicap: The Arithmetic of Bradford City's Survival

2024

• 18 November 2024
  A Study in Unpredictability: Charlton’s Collapse Against Swindon
• 8 June 2024
  Bradford City: A Stadium Millstone and the Threat of Exile
• 8 April 2024
  A Title Race On Edge: Wimbledon Stutter as Havant Find Their Resolve

2022

• 1 March 2022
  FIFA thrashed in a game of appearances over Ukraine

2021

• 21 August 2021
  Rochdale AFC: A Question of Trust
• 17 August 2021
  The Scunthorpe Problem: An Owner, His Debts and a Club in Decay
• 27 March 2021
  The National League: From Mismanagement to Outright Contempt
• 12 March 2021
  Whyteleafe, Ian Rush and a Glimpse of Football's New Normal
• 13 February 2021
  As Bad As It Got: Leicester City and the Collapse of 2002
• 12 February 2021
  The National League: A Competition Spiralling Out of Control

2020

• 26 October 2020
  Is The Bell Tolling For Southend United?
• 16 September 2020
  Macclesfield Town: Thirteenth Time Unlucky
• 9 August 2020
  As Bad As It Got: Queens Park Rangers and White City
• 24 July 2020
  As Bad As It Got: Oxford United and the Maxwells

2019

• 29 April 2019
  Money Can't Buy You Love: The National League Play-off Final

2018

• 21 October 2018
  Nuneaton Borough: The Football Club Without An Owner
• 19 February 2018
  A Normal Club: Rangers and the January Transfer Window
• 13 January 2018
  Fourteen Days to Save Hartlepool United? It’s Not Quite That Simple
• 9 January 2018
  Hartlepool United: Hanging By A Thread

2017

• 7 December 2017
  Celtic: A Price Paid For Spoiling The Party
• 1 September 2017
  Billericay Town: The Only Way Isn’t Necessarily Essex
• 7 March 2017
  The Price of Genius: The Career of Bela Guttmann

2016

• 10 December 2016
  Beitar Jerusalem: Pure, Unadulterated Stupidity
• 11 November 2016
  Southend United: Fossetts Farm and Other False Starts
• 12 September 2016
  Democracy, UEFA Style: An Election Under A Cloud
• 2 June 2016
  AFC Wimbledon: For You, Fella
• 1 June 2016
  AFC Wimbledon: A Victory Fourteen Years in the Making
• 26 May 2016
  Losing the Moral High Ground: The 2016 Scottish Cup Final Aftermath
• 19 March 2016
  How the Scottish Football Press Rewrites History

2015

• 13 December 2015
  Wimbledon's Return Home: The Price Paid by Kingstonian
• 11 November 2015
  What The FFA: Australia Backs Sheikh Salman
• 11 November 2015
  The Rangers Tax Case: Best of Five?
• 17 October 2015
  Ten Million Holes at Sixfields: The Unravelling of Northampton Town
• 2 May 2015
  Are Enfield Town to Pay the Price for FA Maladministration?

2014

• 24 October 2014
  Epic, Futile, Infinite: The Strange Beauty Of Desert Golfing
• 29 August 2014
  A League of Horrors: Ten Terrifying Tales of Football Governance
• 5 July 2014
  Plus Ça Change: The High Court Damning of Coventry City
• 30 June 2014
  British Television & The World Cup: A Difficult Birth
• 13 June 2014
  Hereford United: How It Came to This
• 7 June 2014
  Exeter City: A Fan-Ownership Revolution in Crisis
• 19 March 2014
  Rangers FC and The Self-Importance of Being Sandy
• 13 March 2014
  No End In Sight: The Continuing Agony For Coventry City Supporters
• 6 February 2014
  Hamlet Under The Hammer: A Club on the Brink
• 19 January 2014
  Maidstone United and the Conference: Time to Change Tack on 3G Pitches
• 18 January 2014
  Port Vale: Norman Smurthwaite's Conquest
• 12 January 2014
  Making Sense of the Cardiff City Numbers
• 9 January 2014
  Bolton Wanderers: The Tales of Chairman Gartside

2013

• 18 December 2013
  The Hedge Fund and The Football Club: A Year-Round Pantomime
• 3 December 2013
  No Speedy Resolution in Sight for the Ricoh Arena Dispute
• 21 October 2013
  Northern Lights: The Sudden Ascent Of Icelandic Football
• 15 September 2013
  Please Can We Have £1m: Bury FC's Desperate Plea for Investment
• 25 August 2013
  Boys From The West of Scotland: Rangers At War
• 15 August 2013
  The Blogger, the Defamation Claim and the £50,000 Legal Bill
• 16 July 2013
  Hull City's Identity Crisis: A Rebrand by Stealth?
• 9 July 2013
  Coventry City Supporters: Sold Down The River by The Football League
• 5 July 2013
  Coventry City: Is It Time For A New Club?
• 16 May 2013
  The Betrayal of Doncaster Rovers Belles: A Matter of Finance, Not Football
• 15 May 2013
  100 Owners: The Bhatti Brothers at Wolverhampton Wanderers
• 10 May 2013
  All's Fair in Lovering's War: The Fight for Barry Town
• 3 May 2013
  Aldershot Town: The Phoenix Becomes Icarus
• 1 May 2013
  Context Lost in the PFA Awards Storm
• 26 April 2013
  Farnborough FC: Six Years To Administration Again
• 22 April 2013
  Barnet's Emotional Farewell: 106 Years at Underhill Come to a Close
• 18 April 2013
  Sunday Reckoning: The Continuing Decline of Stockport County
• 16 April 2013
  Archibald Leitch: The 1902 Ibrox Disaster and the Price of Safety
• 9 April 2013
  Who Can We Trust: The So-Called 'Football Men'
• 8 March 2013
  Queens Park Rangers: The £89m Gamble on Premier League Survival
• 5 February 2013
  McLeish’s Forty Days Crowns Seven Weeks of Madness at Nottingham Forest
• 1 February 2013
  Portsmouth: The £800,000 Question Mark Over Fratton Park

2012

• 23 December 2012
  100 Owners: Number 75, Graham Westley at Farnborough Town
• 20 December 2012
  No Sky Blues Ahead Just Yet: Coventry City's Statutory Demand
• 18 December 2012
  100 Owners: Ken Wheldon at Walsall and Birmingham City
• 2 December 2012
  Sharp Practice: The Business Stylings Of Graham Bean
• 14 November 2012
  Confirmed: The FA Cup Match AFC Wimbledon Emphatically Did Not Want
• 11 October 2012
  100 Owners: Irving Scholar, Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest
• 24 September 2012
  100 Owners: Peter Swales at Manchester City
• 23 July 2012
  Minus Ten: Portsmouth FC Don't Do Summers
• 18 July 2012
  Northwich Victoria: A Summer of Rancour and Discontent
• 11 July 2012
  Rangers Again: The Buck is Passed to the Scottish Football League
• 27 June 2012
  The Chips Are Down in Pompey's Ownership Roulette
• 16 May 2012
  Those We Have Lost: Huish, Yeovil Town
• 14 May 2012
  Euro 2012 Runners and Riders: Poland
• 2 May 2012
  Premature Rejection: The Press Against Roy Hodgson
• 8 March 2012
  Fifty Years Ago: How Accrington Stanley Fell From The Football League
• 7 March 2012
  The Return of the Vaughans: A New Club for an Old Problem
• 23 January 2012
  Four Star Daydream: The Portsmouth Ownership Saga Continues
• 13 January 2012
  Blackburn Rovers: When the Owners Turn Chicken

2011

• 29 December 2011
  Crawley Town, Steve Evans and the Season of Ill Will
• 19 December 2011
  Everton: A Textbook Example of English Football’s Failed Business Model
• 15 December 2011
  Barnet: The End of Underhill and a Future Unknown
• 3 December 2011
  Kettering Town's Season Descends From Bad to Worse
• 25 November 2011
  Portsmouth: An Unavoidable Calamity
• 21 November 2011
  Football in Wakefield and the Question of Ongoing Viability
• 16 November 2011
  Panorama Has the Last Word on Notts County and Munto Finance
• 31 October 2011
  The Worm Turns: Cardiff City Fans Walk Out at Elland Road
• 21 October 2011
  The Premier League's Voodoo Economics: An Elite Plan?
• 20 October 2011
  Football League Turkeys Vote For a Premier League Christmas
• 12 October 2011
  A Winding Up Order for Truro City
• 11 October 2011
  Fans Re-United: How Brighton Are Repaying A Fourteen Year Old Debt
• 20 August 2011
  Pilgrim's Regress: Deadlines, Assurances and Endless Questions at Argyle
• 18 August 2011
  Pilgrims Regress: The Continuing Suffocation of Plymouth Argyle
• 3 August 2011
  Can you really watch league football for less than twenty pounds?
• 18 July 2011
  Dispatches and The Football League: Not a smoking gun, but a start
• 12 July 2011
  The Vaughan Effect: A Shadow Over Stockport County
• 9 July 2011
  Stockport County: The Further Adventures Continue
• 3 July 2011
  A Carnival of Calamity: The 1986 World Cup Video Game Fiasco
• 29 June 2011
  Those We Have Lost: Fellows Park, Walsall
• 27 June 2011
  A Parallel Universe: The Lost World of the FA Amateur Cup
• 23 June 2011
  A Decade of Enfield Town: The Pioneers of Supporter Ownership
• 13 June 2011
  Those We Have Lost: Kingstonian FC at Richmond Road
• 4 June 2011
  Those We Have Lost: Southbury Road, Enfield
• 28 May 2011
  Cup Football Through the Prism of the Hampshire Senior Cup
• 23 May 2011
  Earthquake: The Spectacular Collapse of ITV Digital
• 10 May 2011
  Diamonds Aren't Forever: Rushden & Diamonds in a Critical Condition
• 9 May 2011
  Play-Off Prices: The Questionable Value of a £41 Ticket
• 1 May 2011
  How Chester’s Season Went Down To The Wire: It Couldn’t Have Been Closer
• 25 April 2011
  Bananas and Blowtorches: The Julian Alsop Story
• 21 April 2011
  An Open Letter to HMRC Regarding Wrexham FC
• 16 April 2011
  Fiddling While Wrexham Burns: The Dragons' Off-field Crisis Deepens
• 6 April 2011
  Hereford & Torquay: Inconsistent Punishments for an Identical Crime
• 4 April 2011
  The AGM Cup: How to avoid relegation the non-league way
• 10 March 2011
  Wrexham FC: Familiar Faces and Even More Familiar Divisions
• 26 February 2011
  A Tale of Two Takeovers: Odd Goings-On at Blackburn and Watford
• 18 February 2011
  Craig Levein and Graeme Hogg: A Classic Punch-Up Revisited
• 6 February 2011
  The Shaming of St Albans City
• 26 January 2011
  The Maximum Wage and Retain & Transfer: A Match Made in Hell for Players
• 18 January 2011
  Leyton FC: An Unfathomable Past and an Uncertain Future
• 12 January 2011
  A Pincer Movement: The Fight for Wrexham FC Continues
• 5 January 2011
  Wrexham Supporters Prepare to Man the Barricades Again
• 2 January 2011
  2010: A Year in Football's Financial Folly

2010

• 31 December 2010
  A New Year's Thought for Ryton FC
• 23 December 2010
  Chasing the Argonauts: The Club That Never Played a Match
• 11 October 2010
  The Khoslas and Kingstonian: Out of Administration, Into the Fire
• 24 September 2010
  What is Bad for Accrington Stanley Could Be Good for Oxford United
• 16 September 2010
  The Way We Were: Aston Villa vs Everton, November 1989
• 10 September 2010
  A Homogenised Game: The Ten Greatest Goalposts of All Time
• 30 August 2010
  Steve Evans: Football Manager, Convicted Criminal
• 28 August 2010
  Sheffield Wednesday: The Long, Long Wait For Change
• 17 August 2010
  Blue Square Premier Preview: Money, Meltdown and the Race for the League
• 6 August 2010
  Resolution 12: An Unfolding Question for the Scottish FA
• 18 July 2010
  World Cup Punditry: An Exercise in Unprofessionalism
• 26 June 2010
  An Open Letter to the Owners of Chester City FC
• 26 June 2010
  Ebbsfleet United: Ghosts in the Machine
• 26 June 2010
  In Praise Of Floodlit Football
• 26 June 2010
  Portsmouth's Administration: Postponement or Salvation?
• 26 June 2010
  When Fulham Blew It: The Story of the 1982-83 Season
• 26 June 2010
  UEFA's Financial Fair Play: The Usual Suspects Have Their Say
• 26 June 2010
  A Summer of Discontent: Tabloid Fluff and the World Cup
• 26 June 2010
  World Cup Tales: The Making of a Design Classic, Mexico 1970
• 26 June 2010
  World Cup Tales: When the World Cup Legitimised a Dictatorship
• 25 June 2010
  World Cup 2010: England's Charmless Mediocrity Against Algeria
• 15 June 2010
  The Decline and Fall of the European Empire?
• 12 June 2010
  Thirty-One Shirts: A World Cup Dominated by Commerce
• 5 June 2010
  World Cup Tales: How Mussolini's Italy Fixed the 1934 Tournament
• 31 May 2010
  The 1966 World Cup Boycott: When Africa and Asia Said Enough
• 23 May 2010
  A New Beginning: Chester FC Gets The Deva Stadium
• 23 May 2010
  The Mail on Sunday May Cost England the 2018 World Cup
• 20 May 2010
  The Power of the Premier League: Triesman, the Bid and the Reckoning
• 18 May 2010
  Hicks the Huckster: Under the Skin of the Liverpool Owner
• 15 May 2010
  Andrew Andronikou: Saviour or Self-Promoter?
• 12 May 2010
  World Cup Tales: Colombia 1986, the Tournament That Never Was
• 1 March 2010
  Chester City: The Death Rattle Continues
• 26 February 2010
  Chester City: A Sale to the Danes and Contempt for the Fans
• 16 February 2010
  Chester City: The Death Rattle and the Wrexham Contagion
• 14 February 2010
  Chester City: Anatomy of a £700,000 Debt
• 11 February 2010
  Notts County: The Morning After the Night Before
• 1 February 2010
  Peter Ridsdale: Chairman as a Repeat Offence

2009

• 23 December 2009
  The Illusions of Shareholder Democracy at Rangers and Watford
• 12 December 2009
  Chester City and the Death Rattle
• 11 November 2009
  Morecambe: Many Questions, Many Owners, No Answers
• 5 November 2009
  Two Legs and a Gypsy Curse: The Story of the 1946 FA Cup
• 3 November 2009
  Brian Potter: A Life in Professional Football
• 14 October 2009
  The Perils and Stupidity of the Internet Football Forum
• 14 September 2009
  A Question of Value: Alan Green and the BBC
• 1 September 2009
  Pitching Up, Pitching Out: Durham City and the 3G Debacle
• 20 August 2009
  Chester City's Summer of Crisis Continues
• 18 July 2009
  When Canada Went to the World Cup: The Story of Mexico 86
• 22 June 2009
  The True Price of Buying Newcastle United
• 8 June 2009
  Liverpool and Everton: A Reluctant Case for Sharing
• 5 June 2009
  Football and Insolvency: A Rough Guide to the Rules
• 18 May 2009
  Chester City in Administration: The Stephen Vaughan Story
• 11 May 2009
  Millwall and Leeds United: A Depressing Familiarity
• 28 February 2009
  What Makes a Football Club Important?
• 16 January 2009
  The Quest for the Golden Fleece: Football's Forgotten Franchise

2007

• 18 July 2007
  A Load Of Old Balls: A History of Football Design