I’ve reached a slightly worrying point as a football fan. I now find managers more intriguing than the games themselves. The touchline, the interviews, the small details of behaviour and language have started to hold more interest than the actual ninety minutes.
Not all managers are the same, of course. Some can spark a short-term bounce that lifts a struggling side almost overnight. Some build something lasting with a clear identity that ...
I’ve just finished watching Waiting for the Out on BBC One and it’s one of those series that quietly sneaks up on you rather than making a big song and dance about itself.
It’s a six-part drama set mainly inside a British prison. The main character is Dan Stewer, played by Josh Finan, who teaches philosophy to inmates. That might sound a bit right on and worthy, but it really isn’t. It turns out philosophy is a pretty good way of ...
I should know better than to get up early on a winter morning to watch England get thrashed by Australia. But I can’t help myself. Some deluded part of my brain insists I must endure every abject performance, just in case I miss the once-in-a-generation moment England accidentally do something worth celebrating.
In this latest cricketing catastrophe, England have added an extra layer of torment by occasionally looking like they’re on top ...
Oh, what a night! Watching Scotland qualify for the World Cup was nothing short of intoxicating. A full-throttle cocktail of passion, drama, and glorious chaos. From the very first note of a thunderous Flower of Scotland (an anthem to match any) you could feel the electricity in the air. A warning that something extraordinary, or at least utterly unhinged, was about to unfold.
Great Start then Denmark Dominate
Just three minutes in ...
An Unexpected Tearjerker
When Chloe Kelly smashed in her penalty on Sunday night, I felt that now-familiar surge of emotion. Bottom lip quivering, lump in the throat, the whole works. I don’t know why this keeps happening in my latter middle age. Maybe it’s hormones. Or maybe it’s the same reason I get choked up when someone fixes a dusty old jukebox on The Repair Shop or when the movie ‘Up’ comes on at Christmas. There’s ...
