All Around The World: Croatia

Hello and welcome to Outside The Box, the football blog with a cultured left foot. 

Following the success of our interview with Simon Clark from The Other Bundesliga podcast (check it out here: https://otbfootball.blogspot.com/2020/01/), this piece sort of follows on from that as we take a look at football in another country in Europe. 

This week, I spoke to @CroatiaFooty all about the game in the Balkan region. Please enjoy our chat and then stay tuned at the end as we'll take a look at how September 2001 treated my Nottingham Forest team in CM 01/02. 

How high is the profile of football in Croatia? Does the game compete with any other sports in terms of popularity and exposure? 

'The profile of football here is pretty high. Everyone watches it and it's the most watched sport. In terms of popularity and exposure, the closest sports are handball, basketball and maybe waterpolo.' 

Who are the key teams in the Prva Liga? Who are the most successful and best supported? 

'The key team in the HNL is Dinamo Zagreb. They had an amazing run last season in the Europa League where they reached the round of sixteen. They also performed well in the Champions League this season but were eventually knocked out. In terms of best supported I would go for Hajduk Split. The numbers show that their games are the most watched round in round out but the team's performances don't reflect that. Sadly, they were knocked out of the Europa League in the first qualification round by Gzira United from Malta. 

What is the public opinion of the Croatian national team? 

'Everyone supports the national team with their heart, Most of the people (myself included) would die to see Croatia go on an insane run again like we did at France 98 or Russia in 2018. Every game is a must win for us and with the Euros coming up we hope we can do something similar to Russia.' 

How do ticket prices compare against other countries? How does the fan experience differ? 

'The prices are fairly good in comparison to other countries but the fan experience may differ dependent on what team you support. If you support a mid-table team then there would likely be around 1000 to 2000 fans in the stands but if you support a team in the lower half of the league then there will be under 1000 people attending the games. 

The derbies are the most entertaining and most watched games, especially Hajduk vs Dinamo which is the biggest derby in Croatia, better known as the 'Eternal Derby'. That is the best fan experience you can get in Croatia.' 

Are there any grounds that you would recommend as a 'must visit' for groundhoppers? 

'A must visit would be Poijud, the home of Hajduk Split and Maksimir which is Dinamo Zagreb's home. I would also recommend Pampas in a few years time. It's currently being built to be home for NK Osijek, a team that has been on the rise in recent years.' 

How well exposed are other major leagues in Europe such as the Premier League, Serie A or La Liga in Croatia? 

'If you ask me, those leagues are very well exposed. Most Croats support the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool or Bayern. I follow all of the top five leagues, just because I love football and love to be in the running with everything that's happening in the football world.' 

And with that, our chat about football in Croatia comes to an end. If you want to know more about the game in the country and get regular updates on all the action, follow our guest on Twitter @CroatiaFooty. 

Before we go, it's time to check out how my Nottingham Forest team in Championship Manager 01/02 got on the virtual world as we once again step into THE HOTSEAT. 

September got off to the worst possible start as our winless run continued after losing 2-0 at home to Gillingham, despite having most of the possession we couldn't create any chances and it seemed inevitable that we weren't going to get anything from the game. To rub further salt into the wound, goalkeeper Darren Ward was sent off for the second game in a row.

We started our next game, away at Crewe, as the better side and deservedly went a goal to the good when Craig Westcarr continued his impressive form to put us ahead. That was as good as it got for us as we folded like the proverbial pack of cards and collapsed quickly, capitulating to a 4-1 defeat. Westcarr was sent off for scrapping with ex-Forest man Geoff Thomas and despite Crewe ending with nine men, the damage had been done a long time prior.

Thankfully, our prayers were answered in our third game of September as we finally managed to bag three points for the first time this season. Craig Westcarr grabbed his third goal in four games to help us beat Norwich 1-0 at the City Ground to lift us out of the relegation zone.

Buoyed by the win, we showed tremendous character to recover from 2-0 down inside the first seven minutes to be level at 3-3 at half time in our big League Cup tie away at arch-rivals Derby County. Despite showing our class and matching our Premier League opposition for most of the second half, we tired towards the end of the game and conceded twice more to end our interest in the competition for the season.

My notes for the next league game just read 'poor, so very very poor' as we lose 2-0 away at Sheffield Wednesday and my misery continues with another trip to South Yorkshire as we let a 2-1 half time lead slip to lose 3-2 to Rotherham United which sees us sink to the bottom of Division One.

The month ends with yet another defeat as we once again let a comfortable half time lead slip to lose 2-1 at home to Wimbledon. This is going be harder than I thought.....

With all that considered, it's time to put this one to bed. Thanks very much for reading and supporting the page, it's very much appreciated. 

If you enjoy my content and would like to give something back then head on over to my Ko.Fi page and buy me a coffee (or hot chocolate, I'm not particularly keen on coffee). My page is at ko-fi.com/danbarkergray. 

Until next time, take care. 

The Good Club Guide: Glasgow

Hello and welcome back to Outside The Box, your regular slice of football culture. 

For this article, we're trying something new with the first in a new series dedicated to one of our favourite topics here at OTB Towers. Non-league football. 

Picture the scene, it's a Saturday afternoon and you're in Glasgow with a few hours to kill. You're in need of a football fix and want to try something other than Celtic or Rangers. If you find yourself in this precarious situation then fear not!! OTB has a few suggestions to help feed your craving. 

This is The Good Club Guide: Glasgow. 

Queen's Park FC 

I know I mentioned in the introduction to this piece that it centres around non-league (or junior football as it is known north of the border) but I couldn't mention groundhopping without Queen's Park. The SPFL League Two club play their home games at Scotland's national football stadium, Hampden Park. This presents a unique opportunity to visit the ground without needing to attend a cup final or Scotland international. If you want to see The Spiders at Hampden (their home since 1903), you'll need to get your skates on as the club unveiled plans to renovate their Lesser Hampden training ground into a 1700+ venue suitable for league football. 

As Scotland's oldest club, you'd expect that Queen's Park would be steeped in history and you wouldn't be wrong. Only Celtic and Rangers have won the Scottish Cup on more occasions that The Spiders and they hold the distinction of being the only club from north of the border to have played in an English FA Cup final, doing so on two occasions in 1885 and 1886 losing to Blackburn Rovers on both occasions. The club has even had Champions League winning players and managers on it's books over time. Before he was winning everything in sight as Manchester United boss, Sir Alex Ferguson made 31 appearances for the club between 1958 and 1960, scoring on fifteen occasions. Current Liverpool left-back and Scotland captain Andy Robertson also began his career with the club, playing for them between 2012 and 2013 before making a move to Dundee United. 

As previously mentioned, the club play at Hampden Park and tickets cost £15 for adults and £5 for concessions. For more information on fixtures, visit queensparkfc.co.uk or find them on Twitter @queensparkfc. 

Maryhill FC 

What happens when you cross pro wrestling with football? Usually you'll get that clip off Sky Sports from the 90s when 'The Heartbreak Kid' Shawn Michaels unexpectedly declared his undying love for Alan Shearer and Blackburn Rovers, in Scotland however things are a little different. 

In July 2019 the West Region League One club found themselves on the brink of extinction until local wrestling promoter Mark Dallas came to the rescue. Dallas, a native of the Maryhill area, started promoting his Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW for short) shows at the local community centre with the likes of WWE stars Finn Balor, Noam Dar and 2020 Royal Rumble winner Drew McIntyre performing for the company. When he heard of his local club's plight, Dallas came forward to help save the club, making ICW their main shirt sponsor and becoming their vice-president. 

Formed in 1884, The Hill can boast Celtic legends Danny McGrain and Tommy Burns as notable former players and in their early years entered the Scottish senior football system. They returned to the juniors in 1894 and have won the prestigious Scottish Junior Cup twice in 1900 and 1940. More recently, the club hit the headlines when Gavin Stokes scored one of the fastest recorded goals in football history when he hit the net against Clydebank after just 3.2 seconds of their 2017 encounter. 

Maryhill entertain visitors at the 1800-capacity Lochburn Park, their home since 1897 with entry on matchdays costing £5 for adults or £2.50 for concessions. The club's website can be found at maryhillfc.com and on Twitter you can interact with them @Maryhill_FC. 

St. Anthony's FC

If you find yourself in the Govan area of Glasgow, you could do worse than pay St. Anthony's a visit at McKenna Park

A popular urban legend is that The Ants' green and white hooped jerseys provided the inspiration for Celtic's switch from stripes to hoops in 1903. Given the fact that St. Anthony's didn't commence playing competitive football until 1904 and that it is widely believed that Celtic took inspiration from Edinburgh club Hibernian, there is reasonable doubt that the story is nothing more than a colloquial fallacy. The club themselves have even attempted to disprove this theory speculating that the club's original pattern featured stripes although it may never be known as the original jerseys were lost following Luftwaffe bombing attacks on their ground during World War Two. 

Arguably the club's most famous former player is former Celtic captain Bobby Evans. The centre-half joined the Parkhead club from The Ants in 1944 and made 535 appearances for the Bhoys before leaving for Chelsea in 1960 as well as representing Scotland on 48 occasions. Evans was posthumously inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2008. 

The club won three consecutive Scottish Junior League titles between 1919 and 1921 but nowadays find themselves in League Two of the West of Scotland league. In 2018, the club garnered widespread social media attention when Italian Serie A giants Roma publicly announced on Twitter that they were supporting the club to celebrate Non-League Day. 

McKenna Park has been The Ants' home ground since 2003 and match tickets cost £5 for adults and £2.50 for concessions. The club are active on social media (I would advocate giving them a follow) and you can find them on Twitter @StAnthonysFC with their web address being theants.co.uk. 

Pollok FC 

If it's a club with a voluminous trophy cabinet you're after, don't look any further than Pollok from the Newlands area of the city. 

After Scottish junior football's restructuring in 2002, The Lok (as they are nicknamed) have won the West Region Premiership title on four occasions, more than any other club with their most recent title coming in 2008. The club were also one of the first junior clubs to be admitted into the Scottish Cup, making their bow in the competition in September 2007, defeating St. Cuthbert Wanderers 6-2 before holding Third Division side Montrose to a 2-2 draw at Links Park before eventually exiting the competition after a 1-0 defeat in the replay. 

Prior to the restructuring of the junior system, Pollok had won the Central League eight times and have also won the Scottish Junior Cup three times, triumphing in 1981, 1985 and 1997. 

In 2016, the club received plenty of viral attention following full-back Tam Hanlon's hat-trick against Neilston. The trio of long range strikes, which included two free kicks, clocked up thousands of views on YouTube and garnered many plaudits from around the football world. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chq__VLJhO0

Newlandsfield has been the club's home since 1929 after Glasgow City Council forced them to move from their original Haggs Park ground in 1927 to use the grounds for school playing fields. The club spent two years playing at Rosebery Park in Oatlands and the Queen Mary Tea Gardens in Thornliebank. 

Tickets for The Lok's home matches cost £6 for adults and £3 for concessions. Their website is pollokfc.com and are on Twitter @pollokfc. 

So there you have it, a few suggestions to help kill the time if you're at a loose end on a Saturday afternoon in Glasgow. Hopefully we've inspired you to visit one of the clubs we've mentioned here or non-league football in general. There are plenty of clubs on your doorstep that you can visit. 

Before we go, it's time to begin a new mini-series on OTB as we pay homage to one of the definitive football management simulators, Championship Manager 01/02. At the end of each subsequent OTB article we'll take a month by month look at our save as we manage a cash-strapped Nottingham Forest. Here's how we fared during August 2001 in THE HOTSEAT. 

We join the game as clouds begin to gather over The City Ground with the receivers called in to try and aid the club's perilous financial situation. Given the belt-tightening the club's only transfer activity is regarding player departures with David Prutton joining Sunderland for £1.7 million. Captain Chris Bart-Williams left for Birmingham later in the month and was quickly followed out the exit door by Andy Gray who signed for West Brom in a £450,000 deal. 

After two pre-season wins (1-0 vs Danish side Silkeborg and 4-0 vs Eastwood) and a 3-0 home defeat to Chelsea, the serious business began at Valley Parade as guests of Bradford City. Benito Carbone's quick-fire double in the latter stages of the first half give us a mountain to climb and despite a better showing in the second period, Bantams keeper Aidan Davison turned out an impressive display to keep us out, hardly an ideal start. 

As I'm unable to make any signings, the club are relying very much on young players. This became prevalent as young midfielder Gareth Williams popped up with two goals in our first home match against Barnsley. In a reverse of the Bradford game, an impressive first half display was overshadowed by a poor second half showing and an air of inevitability surrounded the game with Bruce Dyer netting an equaliser to end the game 2-2. Thankfully, we manage to get our first win of the season with a routine 2-0 victory over Bournemouth in the League Cup. 

We closed the month out with back to back draws, coming back from 2-0 down to draw away at Stockport before a thrilling 3-3 tie with Burnley on August Bank Holiday Monday. Another youngster entered the fray as Craig Westcarr netted his first senior goal for the club to help us fightback from two down before Alan Rogers scored a free kick to put us ahead. Goalkeeper Darren Ward was sent off and the visitors scored the resulting penalty to snatch a point, although we could have won it at the end. We end August in the bottom three with three points from our four games, hopefully September will see an upturn in fortunes, especially with a League Cup tie at arch-rivals Derby to look forward to. 

That's all from OTB for now, we'll be back later this week with some more football musings and of course more from our trials and tribulations as Forest's virtual manager. 

Just before we go, can I point you in the direction of Dan's Ko.Fi page. If you would like to donate and contribute towards the future of OTB then head over to https://ko-fi.com/danbarkergray. 

Until next time, take care. 

The Hills Are Alive: Football In Austria

Hello and welcome back to Outside The Box, the thinking man's football blog. 

We've been away for a while, it's been a hectic few weeks at OTB Towers but now we're back with plenty of football goodness to keep you occupied through the remainder of the winter. 

If you're a fan of football podcasts then you should make a point of listening to 'The Other Bundesliga', a show dedicated to football in Austria. Luckily, a few weeks ago I was able to speak to Simon Clark from the podcast and get an insight to football and it's profile in the country. Here's what Simon had to say. 

How high is the profile of football in Austria? Does the game compete with any other sports in terms of popularity and exposure? 

'It's high. By attendance and press coverage it is the biggest sport in the country. However, to no surprise, winter sports are a very big deal here with famous skiers, ski jumpers and winter athletes being among the famous in the country. In fact, the Austrian Sports Personality of the Year has only had two footballers win the award in the last 30 years (David Alaba and Toni Polster) and until he retired this year you could argue that champion skier Marcel Hirscher was the most popular athlete in the country along with Alaba. Ice Hockey is also a big deal here but I think football wins out overall.' 

Who are the main teams in the Austrian Bundesliga? Who are the most successful and best supported? 

'You'd have to start with Red Bull Salzburg who are the perennial champions and had a fantastic showing in the UEFA Champions League group stage this season. They are currently Austria's most successful club with seven of the last eight Austrian Bundesliga titles heading to Salzburg.

At the moment, LASK are their closest rivals in the title race (only two points behind at the time of writing) and have had an historic campaign in the Europa League, they are currently enjoying their best season since 1965 (their only Austrian title). The two biggest clubs historically and in terms of support are both in Vienna. with Rapid Vienna and Austria Vienna boasting 32 and 34 titles respectively with Rapid undoubtedly the best supported club in the country. Other notable clubs currently include Sturm Graz and Wolfsberger AC.' 

What is the public opinion of the Austrian national team? 

'I'd argue it's mixed at the moment. Despite qualifying for a second consecutive European Championship, expectations are much lower for Euro 2020 than they were for Euro 2016 when Austria had the second best qualification campaign overall.

Franco Foda, the Austria manager, is a pragmatist and his football doesn't inspire much joy. We'll see how this works in their friendly against England in June and in the summer at Euro 2020.' 

How do ticket prices compare against other countries? Does the fan experience differ? 

'I feel that the fan experience in Austria is highly dependent on the club. If you want a big time atmosphere, you'd go to Rapid Vienna. The fan experience in general is similar to that in Germany, with many fans mingling before games in local establishments and beer flowing everywhere, you can also drink on the terraces which is great. It's really nice and only for the big derby games do you feel any intensity. 

Ticket prices are fairly competitive I think. For the standard of football it is about right.' 

Are there any grounds that you would recommend as a 'must visit' for groundhoppers? 

'Well there are plenty of unique grounds across the country! My personal favourite is Wiener Sport Club's Sportklub-Platz. Imagine an English lower league ground right in the middle of a Viennese neighbourhood, it's great! Staying in Vienna, First Vienna's Hohe Warte Stadiuon is cool with a lot of history while Rapid Vienna's Allianz Stadion is ideal if you want to see a big game. 

Across the country, Klagenfurt's Worthersee Stadion is the best stadium in the country in my opinion. I've not visited it yet but Innsbruck's Tivoli Stadion has incredible views of the Alps and even more niche, Leobendorf has a castle right next to it.' 

Finally, how well exposed are other major leagues from Europe (eg: the Premier League or Serie A) in Austria? 

'We all live in Vienna so the access to foreign leagues is very easy. You'll find that most Austrians will support either a Premier League club or a German Bundesliga club (most likely Bayern Munich!!) even if they don't support an Austrian side. You can find most games from all the major leagues on in pubs across Vienna or at home via Sky Sports or DAZN.' 

That brings our chat with Simon to a close, we'd like to thank him for taking the time to speak to us (even if it has taken us a while to get it uploaded!!). For more from The Other Bundesliga then search them out on your podcast platfom of choice. You can also find them on Twitter @OtherBundesliga and they also have a Facebook page. 

Before we go, our editor Dan would like to direct you towards his Ko.Fi profile. Put simply, it's an online 'tip jar' for content creators. If you like what you read on Outside The Box then feel free to donate to the page. All donations help go towards creating better content for the page. 

If you would like to donate then follow this link. https://ko-fi.com/danbarkergray

We'll be back next week with some more football chatter. Until then, take care. 

How Was It For You?

Hello and welcome back to Outside The Box. 

As the 2010s are drawing to a close and decade reviews seem to be the in thing at the moment, here at OTB we decided to a similar thing and take a look back down the years. 

To assist me on this nostalgia trip, I got in touch with some writers, bloggers and creators to take a look at how the 2010s treated their respective clubs. 

Dave Black: Newcastle United 

Newcastle started the 2010s in the Championship and will finish it as a midtable Premier League club so from the outside looking in the decade would be considered a success. Unfortunately, Newcastle have continued to tread water as a football club during the 2010s. A second season in the Championship was to follow in 2016-17 and despite escaping at the first time of asking again, the club has let a world class manager slip through their fingers in Rafa Benitez. All of this after the surprising removal of Chris Hughton in 2010, the individual brilliance that bailed Alan Pardew out for years and the ineptitude of Carver and McClaren. A fifth place finish did at least mean an overdue European adventure in 2012-13 but given it almost ended in another relegation, it put the owner off ever trying to achieve success again. That extends to the cups where Newcastle haven't advanced past the fourth round during the decade whilst a couple of EFL Cup quarter finals are as good as it has been.

For my favourite player of the decade I chose Hatem Ben Arfa. There are certain players where every time they get the ball, you want to get off your seat. During the 2011-12 season, easily one of the most bonkers following this ludicrous club, Ben Arfa scored two goal of the season contenders, slaloming from half way past numerous defenders to score goals you normally see on the playground. At times he was a one man show and unfortunately, he eventually fell out with Pardew (and subsequently Steve Bruce at Hull). Poor man management or an unmanageable player?

Despite an honourable mention for the 2019 win over Manchester City. I've opted for a much blander on paper 3-0 win over Barnsley as my favourite game. It was the final day of the Championship season and Newcastle needed to better Brighton's result to take the title. The win was in the bag for us but in the last minute Jack Grealish equalised for Aston Villa against Brighton and I'll never forget the news rippling around the ground and the notification lighting up my phone. Sure, it was only the second tier but the celebrations, the trophy presentation and winning the league in that manner. I don't think I'd swap it, it might be as good as it ever gets!

I've already touched on Ben Arfa's two wondergoals and I think we all have a special place in our memories for Shola Ameobi's karate kick in the 5-1 win over Sunderland. However, my choice is Papiss Cisse's 'banana shot' at Stamford Bridge, a place we never do well but this shot from a ridiculous angle that rendered Steve Claridge in the 5Live studio speechless, a double bonus. It sealed a 2-0 win that kept our hopes of a Champions League place alive and just allowed us all to believe that anything at all is possible on a football field.

Dave Black runs a brilliant site dedicated to Championship Manager 97/98 and has also written two books dedicated to the series. You can interact with him on Twitter @cm9798 and follow the blog at cm9798.co.uk. Dave's two books are also available for purchase from amazon by following this link.  https://www.amazon.co.uk/World-According-Championship-Manager-97/dp/1519609523/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=championship+manager&qid=1577623883&sr=8-7

Colin Webster: Inverness Caledonian Thistle 

My team is Inverness Caldeonian Thistle and they have had an incredible decade! Formed after the merger or rival clubs Inverness Caledonian and Inverness Thistle, the club is only 25 years old. They spent the first ten years working their way up to the top league in Scotland, a period that included the famous 'Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious' headline after they defeated Celtic in the cup.

This decade, however, began with the club having just been relegated to Division One. Led by Terry Butcher, they won promotion that year and set about re-establishing themselves in the top flight. Butcher had his head turned by a bigger club, Hibernian, so John Hughes took over and he took Inverness to their first major cup final. In one of the world's worst games of football, Inverness lost the final to Aberdeen on penalties. However, we went back to Hampden in 2015 and lifted the Scottish Cup, a glorious moment! In that same season, Inverness finished third place in the top league which is an incredible achievement. They did it by playing some terrific football too. As tends to be the case when a small team rises to the top, the club's best players were picked off and the team suffered as a result. We now find ourselves in the second tier once again where we're making a decent fist of a promotion run.

My favourite goal and game of the decade came in the dying moments of the League Cup semi-final. We were reduced to nine men after two red cards and chasing an equaliser against Hearts. Right at the death Nick Ross snatched it. Despite the lack of numbers, we dominated extra time and eventually won the game on penalties. What a day!

Colin designed and created 'Counter Attack: The Football Strategy Game'. To purchase your own copy of the game from counterattackgame.com and keep in touch with the game's future developments on Twitter @ctrattackgame. 

Chris Lee: Brighton And Hove Albion 

The 2010s was a pivotal decade for Brighton, probably the most important in the club's 118-year history. The decade started with the club at the tail-end of it's nomadic period. Brighton had moved out of the old Goldstone Ground in 1997 but then spent fourteen years in the wilderness, playing at Gillingham's Priestfield (a 150 mile round trip) and the Withdean Stadium, an athletics ground.

The Seagulls started the 2010-11 season at the Withdean under Gus Poyet and won the League One title that season while the new Falmer Stadium (now known as the AMEX Community Stadium) was in the final months of it's construction. The move to the AMEX in May 2011 has given the club a positive and stable platform from which to grow, and it has done.

After coming up short several times in the Championship play-offs, Brighton finally came up to the Premier League under Chris Hughton and are now an established lower mid-table club. It's a world away from where the club started the decade.

The AMEX is also used for women's internationals, conferences and was the scene of Japan's incredible upset of South Africa at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Chris is editor of Outside Write. A blog and podcast series dedicated to football culture and travel. The blog can be accessed at outsidewrite.co.uk and you can follow the blog on Twitter @outsidewrite. The podcast is available on all good podcast platforms. 

Lucy Jade: Bradford City 

There have been plenty of ups and downs for Bradford throughout the decade. We have beaten the likes of Aston Villa, Arsenal and even Chelsea when we came from 2-0 down to win 4-2. We have had trips to Wembley, beating Northampton to win promotion and losing the Capital One Cup Final as well as a play-off defeat to Millwall.

We have gone from fighting for promotion to new owners, ultimately worsening the club which led to relegation with possibly the worst team I have ever witnessed. We finish the decade looking promising in League Two and will hopefully start the new decade with promotion back to League One.

Lucy's blog site EdgeOfTheArea is dedicated to all things football across both the men's and women's game. You can follow her on Twitter @edgeofthearea and the site is accessible at edgeofthearea.co.uk. 

Richard Foster: Crystal Palace

Palace's decade could not have started at a much lower point. The club had been heading into serious financial waters for a while under chairman Simon Jordan and reality bit on January 27th 2010 as the team boarded a flight to play Newcastle away. By the time they had landed they had been transformed from play-off contenders to being thrust into a relegation dogfight thanks to a ten point deduction for entering administration (for the second time in the space of a dozen years). The team plummeted from 10th to 20th at a stroke of HMRC's red pen.

The problems had only just begun as the most valuable player, Victor Moses, was sold to Wigan as part of a fire sale to raise some much-needed cash. Manager Neil Warnock left in March, leaving the club rudderless. Paul Hart took over as caretaker manager and the season reached a nail-biting conclusion as they faced Hart's former club Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough needing at least a draw to survive, if The Owls won they would survive and send The Eagles down. A battling 2-2 draw saved the club's skin but there was one more battle to fight, which threatened the very future of the club.

A winding-up petition had reached the eleventh hour and Palace's potential new owners were locked in talks with Lloyd's with fans staging a noisy protest outside the bank's offices. Apparently, a senior banker entered the meeting to declare 'I have got hundreds of football fans outside making an almighty racket outside my head office, let's get this deal done.' And the deal was done, Palace were saved by a consortium including Steve Parish, who remains chairman to this day.

Back on a relatively even keel, the club could look forward and a skinny teenager offered a sign of things to come. The academy graduate started in the opening game of the following season, scored his first goal for the club in a 3-2 victory over Leicester City and over the coming ten years became the talisman for the club's rise from the doldrums to it's longest spell in the top flight. There is no real competition as to who is the club's player of the decade despite a brief and unhappy move to Manchester United, Wiflried Zaha has made the most Premier League appearances (182 up to Boxing Day 2019) as well as scoring the most Premier League goals (35).

Zaha can also lay claim to scoring a couple of the best and certainly two of the most important goals this decade when he notched a brace in the second leg of the 2013 Championship play-off semi-final against Brighton at the AMEX. Those goals propelled The Eagles into the final which they won courtesy of a Kevin Phillips penalty, won almost inevitably by Zaha. The Eagles are now in their seventh consecutive Premier League season and while there have been more spectacular goals such as Andros Townsend's screamer against Manchester City last season or even Jordan Ayew's impudent chip following his mazy dribble just a few days ago, none of these would have been possible without that crucial victory on the South Coast.

Although there have been some memorable games, including that 2-2 draw at Hillsborough, the 'Crystanbul' game when recovering from 3-0 down to title-chasing Liverpool in 2014 and the 3-2 win at The Etihad last year, the Brighton game also gets my vote as game of the decade for being the launch pad into the club's most successful era, inspired by the player of the decade.

Richard Foster's new book 'Premier League Nuggets' features a raft of facts and figures which can assist you in becoming a font of top-flight knowledge. To purchase your own copy of the book head over to http://bit.ly/2XsBdb4 or https://amzn.to/2OrD7ow. You can also follow Richard on Twitter @rcfoster. 

I suppose I ought to contribute with a personal spin on the 2010s for my club. As I have previously stated on here and on Twitter, I'm one of those awful people who supports two clubs and given Manchester United's plight is headline news on a daily basis. Here is how the 2010s treated Grimsby Town. 

The decade began with Town's inevitable slide into non-league for the first time in 100 years with the 2009-10 season ending with us bottoming out after a 3-0 defeat at Burton Albion that saw fans take their frustrations out on stewards and police in ugly post-match scenes. Two mid-table finishes in the National League followed before some astute signings by Rob Scott and Paul Hurst (later, Hurst was made sole manager) saw us emerge as one of the heavyweights outside 'the 92'. 2012-13 saw us return to our spiritual home of Wembley (we've played there seven times since 1998) but lose the FA Trophy Final to Wrexham on penalties. To further compound our misery, Newport defeated us over two legs to deny us of a play-off final appearance.

Consecutive play-off defeats followed, including a heart-breaking shoot-out defeat to Bristol Rovers in 2015 before the townsfolk rallied and raised over £110,000 to assist with Hurst's playing budget. The plan paid off and we made our triumphant return to the Football League in May 2016 when we beat Forest Green 3-1 in the play-off final, Nathan Arnold's goal sparked joyous and emotional scenes in the Wembley sun. Our first season back in League Two ended with a respectable mid-table finish despite an inconsistent and disjointed campaign as we went through three managers over the course of it. Paul Hurst left for Shrewsbury which led to Marcus Bignot taking the job. The ex-Solihull manager lasted until the spring when Russell Slade returned for a second spell in charge.

The 2017-18 season saw us stare down the barrel of the relegation gun for the second time in less than ten years until the appointment of Michael Jolley to replace Slade kept our heads above water. Despite optimism and Jolley's attempt to become a face for the local community, less than eighteen months after his appointment, he was unemployed. The club's relationship with the local media (tempestuous at best, downright toxic at worst) and a now-infamous expletive filled confrontation with BBC Radio Humberside is believed to have precipitated Jolley's departure.

For my Grimsby player of the 2010s, it's hard to look beyond Craig 'Ginger Pirlo' Disley. A central midfield captain marvel who played 279 times for the club, scoring 40 goals along the way and sometimes dragging us through games almost single-handed. He was with us during our lowest ebb of non-league (getting twatted 5-0 away at newly-promoted Braintree) and rightfully saw us to the highest of highs as he led his team-mates to the royal box after the Wembley play-off win in 2016.

In terms of the game and goal of the decade, both of these occurred on the same day. May 15th 2016. Grimsby Town 3-1 Forest Green Rovers, Vanarama National League Promotion Final. Omar Bogle's quick-fire double late in the second half set us on our way before Keanu Marsh-Brown's howitzer tried to spoil the party. Thankfully it didn't and when Nathan Arnold picked up the loose ball after Pat Hoban's shot had been blocked and took it beyond his namesake Steve Arnold in the opposing goal to seal the win, it was sealed. Grimsby Town were back where they belonged. 

That brings to an end our nostalgic look back at how the 2010s treated a variety of clubs. I hope you have enjoyed our trip back through time and please feel free to get in touch and share your memories of following your club through the 2010s. Get in touch with us on Twitter (@FootballOTB) or on Facebook. 

We'll be back soon with some more football chat but until then, take care. 

Stickin' It To 'Em

What's going on everyone, welcome to Outside The Box, a new blog page dedicated to football and the culture that surrounds it. 

In one of the most high profile transfer deals in recent years. It was announced that Panini had regained the licence for top division football stickers in England for the first time in over 25 years and for the first time, the Premier League. Being a bona fide sticker nut, I decided to reclaim my childhood and sample the new album. Read on to see what I thought. 


Ok, just in case my wife is reading I'll be blunt. I'm still massively into collecting football stickers, whenever a major tournament comes round I'm always straight down to the paper shop or supermarket to grab the starter pack and as many packets of stickers I can get my hands on (I haven't quite gone the whole hog and bought an entire display box....yet).

While I can't wait to get stuck in (pun completely intentional) to tournament albums, over recent years I've been reticent to take the plunge and collect the Premier League album, mainly because of reports that the quality had diminished since the heyday of the 1990s when Merlin held the licence.

The first thing that grabs you in the above image is the vibrancy of the colours on the cover, collectors of a certain age will be drawn towards the retro themed logo that adorns the headline with esteemed names such as Harry Kane, Virgil Van Dijk and Dan James giving it an up to date twist.

One of the main reasons I purchase a sticker album is the ability to have an adequate statistics book to hand, the new album ticks this box as it is packed full of important and interesting facts. Panini must know there are more stat addicts like me in the universe as the album contains a handy guide to the facts that each sticker contains.

Before we get into the meat of the album and each team's individual section (which boasts two generous two page spreads for each team), we're greeted to stickers of some of each team's key players posing in stances reminiscent of the line-ups on Sky Sports and the team badges. I liked this section even if I did find the stickers a little fiddly to fix into place, mainly due to the fact they needed to be lined up with the joining pieces already printed in the album. That and the fact I am ever so slightly visually impaired.

And so to the stickers themselves and each team's sections. The stickers are printed on high quality glossy adhesive paper and made of tough stuff, seemingly strong against potential rips and tears (a major criticism of latter Merlin/Topps stickers). The first two pages for each club features spaces for 22 players (other squad players are depicted overleaf) while the following two pages consist of foil stickers for the respective team's key player and captain as well as the stadium and (feeding another of my addictions) the home kit. The ever popular foil badge sticker sits in the top left hand corner of the squad page.

To say Panini haven't had the Premier League licence, it is easy to see that they have transferred plenty of the successful aspects from their albums on the continent to these shores with tremendous effect. Everything from the bright colourway of the album to the high quality of the stickers and the depth Panini have gone to in order to cover each team leads me to believe that the Premier League stickers are in good hands and I look forward to a fantastic future collecting Panini Premier League stickers.

I even managed to get the Premier League trophy in one of the packets contained in the starter pack. That means I have one more Premier League than Liverpool....for now.

I hope you enjoyed my review of the Panini Football 2020 album. Are you collecting them? Or are you a sticker nut too. Why not share your memories of collecting and your collections online. You can get in touch with us on Twitter @FootballOTB or via Facebook by searching for FootballOTBOfficial. 

We'll be back the week after next with a piece about football in a certain European country. 

Until then, have a very Merry Christmas and take care.