The DA: About Us | Subscribe
From The Offside: UEFA Champions League | Premier League | La Liga | Champions League Tickets | Noticias de Futbol
From World Cup Blog: Euro 2012 Qualifying | 2012 Africa Cup of Nations Qualifying | USA Soccer
The DA continues the Mitre Football cities united tour
I’ve always been slightly suspicious of Nottingham, largely down the fact I don’t buy into all this Robin Hood ‘hero’ stuff. Whilst the concept of a lovely man in green tights robbing rich muppets blind is quite a pleasant one, Robin Hood sounds to me like nothing more than a glorified drug dealer…or at best a generous shoplifter. And think about it: Rob-in Hood. This man was sending out subliminal messages to future gangs of teenagers everywhere. In my book, he is the definition of the word ASBO.
Continue reading »
The DA continues the Mitre Football cities united tour
For anyone who’s witnessed the cinematic magic that is When Saturday Comes, it’s very hard to enter the city of Sheffield without getting just a little bit excited. My first mixture of film and football saw Sean Bean don the Sheffield United shirt and effortlessly glide past 8 Manchester United defenders three times in 20 second half minutes to give the Blades a glorious cup victory, before snogging a hot Irish woman and ultimately curing his drinking problem. To put it bluntly, the fact that no Oscar followed is quite simply disgusting.
Continue reading »
The DA continues the Mitre Football cities united tour
The two things that immediately spring to mind when I think of Norwich is Alan Partridge and, most notably, Delia Smith making a right t** out of herself in front an entire television audience, drunkenly running onto the pitch to ‘inspire’ the crowd into a second half frenzy of noise (Let’s be having you! Where are you?!!!). Both are fantastic attachments to have about a place but perhaps the locals wouldn’t agree quite so much. The other thing that was drilled into my mind about Norwich from an early age is that it’s flat as a pancake. Spotting a hill in Norwich is like spotting a UFO, or so I was told.
Continue reading »
After much shuffling around last year, due to a talented ability to contact ticket offices at just the wrong time, the DA is back on the road again tomorrow with a brand new timetable for the Football Cities United tour sponsored by Mitre and theoffside.com. We’ll be starting with the FA cup tie at Carrow road tomorrow, then seemingly following Norwich everywhere they go for the rest of the season.
Continue reading »
At the half way point of the tour we take a second look back at 2010’s visits.
Destinations 8-14
Continue reading »
Week 8 – Portsmouth – Portsmouth v Notts Forest
“Inside the ground Portsmouth fans are very well known for being passionate and dedicated. This has been summed up throughout the years by close up shots of a Mr John Portsmouth Football Club Westwood (yes that is his real name). For those of you who have yet to see John in action, this is a man who makes his name wearing a jester’s hat and ringing a cow bell topless for pretty much 90 minutes straight. Looking at him now, it was good to see that tradition continued even into the cold November months. In most cases, this would be classed as mentally insane. In the football world, it’s seen as loyal. I rather like that.”
The DA continues the Mitre Football cities united tour
It’s hard to believe that we’re already half way through the tour to find the best footballing city in the country and it was with no real hardship that I ended the first 14 weeks with a five and a half hour trip up to the North of the North, Newcastle United. As one of only three trips I physically can not make in a day (Sunderland and Carlisle being the other selfishly located cities) it did dawn upon me on the way up to ‘the Toon’ just how close together everything is in this country. You’ve basically got a choice of supporting 92 teams, especially if you live in the Midlands. Imagine trying to do this tour in America, or Australia…Even Spain, which as Barcelona recently found out during the snow blizzards, can be a damn big country when it wants to be.
Continue reading »
As we reach the half way point of the tour to find the best footballing city in the country we thought we’d recap over all of this year’s venues in this two part overview. Don’t forget we’re up in Newcastle this Saturday so any United fans wanting to show us around we’d be delighted to hear from you. We’d also love to hear your favourite football venue so far, or alternatively, which city you think should win and why…
Continue reading »
The DA continues the Mitre Football cities united tour
For poor excuses as to why Manchester City were the chosen half of a fairly divided city please see last week’s Everton review… I maintain these excuses and add the extra point that I like to try and talk to some fans when I’m in and around the city. Where was I ever going to find a Manchester United fan in Manchester?
Continue reading »
The DA continues the Mitre Football cities united tour
I’m bound to be in trouble over the next few weeks. One of the major obstacles in finding the best footballing city all on one glorious Saturday afternoon per location, is that some cities are obviously quite well known for being divided by footballing loyalties. As a tourist for the day unfortunately I have to pick one or the other which of course will lead to one side calling this entire tour a crock of s***…Hopefully just one side anyway… But my two defences would be A) as a neutral it’s not so much about the sides and their history, but about the atmosphere of the city and how enjoyable a day watching the football can be for the casual visitor and B) in this case, I own more blue clothes than red. Hence why Everton represented my trip to Liverpool, and why, before I have to explain myself all over, Manchester City will be the representatives next week. If it makes anyone feel any better about the situation, I feel simply horrible, and if anyone ever wants to give me a free ticket to Anfield – or perhaps a new red jumper, I’ll be more than happy to compare.
Continue reading »
The DA continues the Mitre Football cities united tour
Due to an unfortunate lack of foresight on my behalf, I discovered early Monday morning that my next tour venue Norwich City had actually sold out of tickets for their weekend encounter against Leeds United. Somewhat shocked and bewildered by this I desperately tried to swing a favour with the club to sneak me in, but alas I was informed that literally every nook and cranny of Carrow Road would be full. I even offered my services as a ball boy but it turns out they weren’t hiring.
Continue reading »