Monday, 10 February 2020

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. 



Sunday, 2 February 2020

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. 

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 Clar...