As soon as I heard the sad news of John Motson’s passing this morning, I immediately set to work on writing this tribute. He was a footballing legend (a phrase often used but seldom warranted, but in this case more than necessary) and broadcasting supreme. As I grew up in the 1990’s, sports commentary was simple: Athletics was David Coleman, Formula One was Murray Walker and snooker was Clive Everton. Football had more than one commentator, however. The BBC had John Motson or Barry Davies, ITV had Brian Moore and the voice of Sky’s coverage was Martin Tyler. Davies, Motson’s colleague at the ..read more

The reigning African Cup of Nations champions finished second in Group A. After an opening day 2-0 defeat to the Netherlands, The Lions of Teranga secured their passage into the Second Round with victories over Qatar and Ecuador. Their star man Sadio Mane has been ruled out of the tournament through injury, but they have still scored five goals. These goals have come from five separate players, so they are dangerous from all over the park. Senegal needed a victory in their final game against Ecuador – and secured this twenty minutes from time thanks to a winner from Chelsea’s Koulibiay. It w ..read more

England secured progression to the knockout stages of the World Cup with a convincing 3-0 victory over Wales. Two goals for Marcus Rashford and a first goal of the tournament for midfielder Phil Foden gave England fans reason to cheer on Tuesday night. They now face Senegal in the Second Round on Sunday evening. The match was almost anti-climactic as the Three Lions were always going to progress to the knockout rounds barring a complete disaster. It was vital for Gareth Southgate and his charges to deliver the England fans a performance to be proud of after an insipid performance against USA ..read more

England looked assured in a display as they put six goals past a poor Iran side. 19-year-old Jude Bellingham gave England the lead with a header in the 35th minute. The Dortmund star put in a performance that looked way beyond his teenage years and looks to be a real star for years to come. Bukayo Saka scored twice, with his second goal being a great individual effort. Receiving the ball on the right wing, the Arsenal forward cut inside the box and had three team mates free to his left. Instead of playing the ball through, Saka took a couple of extra touches to get past some Iranian defe ..read more

The World Cup comes around every four years and is always greeted by the same excitement and joy. Grown men and women are transported back to their childhood memories of previous tournaments and wax lyrical about former players. Everyone has a favourite tournament. Mine is France ’98 as it was the first tournament that I watched in its entirety. Many loved Spain ’82 as it was the first World Cup that England were playing in for twelve years, having missed out in 1974 and 1978. Other favourites are 1966 and the 1970 tournament in Mexico for my Dad’s generation. The Italian company Panini bring ..read more

Following a long absence away from the keyboard, I am delighted to report that I will now be posting new articles on here on an almost daily basis. I have spoken to several former players and will be doing some video interviews with them for the blog’s YouTube channel over the next few months. I will be writing an article about the excitement of an World Cup and will publish this later on tonight. The post Far Post Header is back up and running! appeared first on Far Post Header ..read more

Today is the 26th anniversary of the Germany vs England semi final in the 1996 European Championships. It was one of the most tense and nerve-racking England game that I have seen. It was also one of the most exciting. I was ten years old when Euro 96 started and watched every game. It was the first full tournament that I remembered, because the World Cup in America two years earlier was played late at night because of the time difference. My parents didn’t let me stay up and watch most of the tournament, although Dad gave me special permission to stay up for the final between Brazil and Italy ..read more

PREMIER LEAGUE REFEREE PERFORMANCE REVIEW MATCH WEEK 16 FRIDAY 10TH DECEMBER 2021 BRENTFORD V WATFORD Score 2-1 Referee: Michael Oliver. Assistants: Stuart Burt, Simon Bennett. Fourth official: Mike Dean. VAR: Jarred Gillett. Assistant VAR: Dan Cook. Watford’s Dennis opened the scoring and the equaliser came late into the game in the 84th minute. Brentford then went on to score the winner from the penalty mark in added time. Michael Oliver delivered another top-class performance. SATURDAY 11TH DECEMBER MANCHESTER CITY V WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS Score 1-0 Referee: Jonathan Moss. Assistants: Mar ..read more

I’m getting later and later with publishing this excellent article, and for that I’m very sorry. This week has been dominated with revising for a journalism exam that I am taking on Monday, so I haven’t got round to publishing it until now. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did! – Chris PREMIER LEAGUE REFEREE PERFORMANCE REVIEW MATCHWEEK 10 Saturday 30 October Leicester City v Arsenal RESULT 0-2Referee: Michael Oliver. Assistants: Simon Bennett, Dan Robathan. Fourth official: Robert Jones. VAR: Jarred Gillett. Assistant VAR: Sian Massey-Ellis. Michael Oliver was involved in an almost i ..read more

England progressed to the Quarter Final of the World Cup in Qatar earlier this evening with a 3-0 win over Senegal. Goals from Jordan Henderson, Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka set up a date with France next Saturday. Gareth Southgate decided to drop Marcus Rashford from the starting line up despite the Manchester United man scoring twice in the previous game against Wales. Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka started the game up front with Harry Kane. Senegal pressured the England players right from the start of the game. The Three Lions were barely given any time to play the ball around without a Senegales ..read more