It was always going to be bittersweet: the excitement of our first game back in the Football League was inevitably going to be tempered by the emotion and grief we are all continuing to deal with after Justin’s passing. As hard as we tried to focus on the football itself we knew it was going […]
This Saturday will see the return to football-obsessive normality for Mrs Football Nerd and me as we slip back into the familiar and reassuringly comfortable matchday routine and head off to Brisbane Road for Orient’s first game back in the Football League. During pre-season we had a day out at Harlow (https://football-nerd.org/2019/07/11/an-emotional-but-reassuring-day-at-harlow/) and also warmed […]
On Monday a group of the most influential Arsenal-focused supporter organisations, blogs, and fanzines issued a joint statement damming Stan Kroenke’s “passive ownership” and his lack of ambition, purpose and direction for the club. Since the statement’s issue and associated social media campaign, Arsenal fans in their thousands have been signing the letter/petition in agreement […]
With Orient not having been in action since Wembley, some seven weeks previously, and Mrs Football Nerd and me starting to feel the full effects of football-watching withdrawal, there was no way in this world that we could resist a trek into deepest darkest Essex for the O’s first pre-season engagement of the summer. The fact […]
This season’s ‘off-season’ (if there ever truly is an off-season for football obsessives?) has provided me with an intriguing opportunity to compare and contrast the spectator cultures and experiences of two distinctly different sports in unusual contexts. First up, Mrs. Football Nerd and I headed off to New York City for our almost-perennial holiday visit […]
Even as I sit here trying to write these sad words a few days after the devastating news came through that Leyton Orient’s title-winning manager Justin Edinburgh had so tragically passed away, I still find it utterly beyond acceptance and comprehension. That the man who delivered redemption for us by leading Orient back to the […]
After Our Kid’s epic journey to Kiev for last season’s Champions League Final (https://football-nerd.org/2018/05/30/all-the-way-to-kiev-a-guest-piece-by-our-kid/) he of course had to be in Madrid for this season’s final, this time he was accompanied on the rather more straightforward journey by our father, Roger, although securing tickets was going to prove to be much more of a challenge. […]
There aren’t many times in my life when a 2:35am alarm is greeted with excitement, but as I got myself up and ready I knew the next 24 hours plus was going to be the maddest and most surreal thing I had ever done in the name of football. Amazingly I was not alone as […]
On Wednesday morning I will board a flight for a mammoth odyssey that will see me cover in excess of 5,000 miles in 24 hours for a European Final in a country that is three time zones away, to which the majority of the season ticket holders at the participating clubs can’t actually get to, […]
In the end it wasn’t quite meant to be for Orient, whilst they will escape non-League as Champions they couldn’t make it a double by securing the FA Trophy in what will hopefully be their final appearance in the competition. The National League campaign is long, wearing and a severe test of a squad’s fortitude […]
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