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 […]
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 […]
So have we all recovered yet? Champions, promoted back to the Football League, bumper crowds all the way through the season and with a cup final still to come. For Orient fans used to facing life with a large self-protective dose of pessimism, does it get any better than this? When we look back in […]
Just for a brief moment on Sunday it looked like the footballing gods may have had another trick up their sleeve for us. When Sadio Mané opened the scoring against Wolves at Anfield after 17 minutes, quickly followed by the news that Brighton had scored against Manchester City, a ripple of cheers spread through the […]
Hands up if you knew all along that Liverpool were undoubtedly going to come back from a 3-0 deficit and eliminate Barcelona on Tuesday night? Having written on these very pages before it happened: “While history tells us Anfield is more than capable of producing special European nights, Liverpool are going to have to get […]
After discussing the potential for both European Finals being all-Premier League affairs a few weeks backs: (https://football-nerd.org/2019/04/26/football-nerd-weekly-ramblings-will-we-see-a-decisive-step-towards-the-title-this-weekend-whats-in-store-in-europe-this-week/), the semi-final first legs proved something of a mixed bag for the English clubs. First up Tottenham were beaten for the second time in a week at their new home, this time by the exciting young Ajax side […]
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