Cheltenham Town 0 Shrewsbury Town 0

Scott Brown made sure the Robins had a reasonably happy Boxing Day ... and he did me a favour as well.

This was an odd game in that while it was entertaining and both teams played their part, there were very few 'stand out' players on whom to hang a story.

That isn't a criticism of the lads on either side. They all did their jobs well and both managers were pleased to have come away with a point - and as Cheltenham boss Mark Yates said afterwards, it could prove to be a very important point.

A manager who treats Shrewsbury manager Graham Turner with anything less than total respect is a fool and Yates is anything but. He knows that Turner has been there and done it and that if the Shrews are not in the final shake up come May, they have enough about them to take valuable points off the contenders. And that is now what Cheltenham are certainly proving they are.

Keeper Brown has been warming the bench for much of the season while England U-21 international Jack Butland has been Yates's first choice. I'm guessing that part of the loan deal struck with Birmingham ensured Butand first team action before he returned to St. Andrews and that is fair enough given his pedigree, but credit has to go to Brown for biding his time and not sulking. I've come across plenty of players over the years who have done precisely that and it doesn't do them or their respective clubs any good.

He didn't go through the motions either and produced some good - and brave - saves (especially in the dying stages of the game) to make certain of the draw ... and give an increasingly desperate reporter an angle!

On Friday I'll be back at Whaddon Road to see Cheltenham take on Rotherham in what should be another evenly matched encounter, but I suspect that Yates and his team will be unhappy if they don't claim all three points that evening.

Second in the table by Boxing Day evening is more than most home fans would have been expecting back in August, but I suspect that they now have the smell of promotion in their nostrils.

There is still an awfully long way to go though and injuries, suspensions and the surface of the home pitch may all have a bearing before the final ball is kicked this season, but for the moment the dream is very much alive. And isn't that what it is all about for players and fans alike?

My clipping from the paper

Who's for a stuffing this Xmas?

I've just been given my list of games to cover this Christmas/New Year period for the paper.

I'll be working off the turkey and brussel sprouts on Boxing Day with a trip to Whaddon Road for the Cheltenham v Shrewsbury fixture and I'm looking forward to seeing the Robins play.

I 'bigged' them up earlier in the season as a smashing footballing side and - going on results and other press reports - it appears I was right .... for a change.

Mark Yates certainly has them building towards a promotion push, although admittedly it is still early days. Still, when you marry their league form to the plum revenue generating FA Cup 3rd round tie they have coming up away at Spurs, it makes you wonder whether it might give the board the financial security and belief in their manager to back him with a couple of key loan deals in the transfer window.

On December 30th I travel to ... er, Whaddon Road again for their tussle with Rotherham.

Both of these games look to be tight calls on paper, but I wouldn't be surprised if Yates uses the Tottenham tie as an incentive to wrack up points in the league (i.e., "if you play like a wally in these league games, don't expect a guaranteed place on the team bus to North London").

Then again, the squad isn't massive and so Yate's options are always going to be limited. And that is probably the key to any success in League Two. If they can keep their first choice fifteen or sixteen players fit all season, they certainly have the ability to have the green welly brigade of Gloucestershire in raptures come May.

The following day sees me off to Buckinghamshire to watch Wycombe take on Stevenage in what has already become a very important fixture in their hopes of League One survival.

The Chairboys may be second from bottom of the division, but like Cheltenham, they also have a good manager and a decent set of players. One win and they'll be out of the mire though and as long as they don't let that gap grow, I think they have the bottle to stay up.

From day one it was always going to be about survival for Wycombe and they knew it. This might prove an advantage later in the season when nerves start to fray at other clubs who had grander expectations.

My final match this festive season sees me take my New Year's hangover to see Oxford take on Crawley on January 2nd.

Oxford started brightly, but have suffered a few injuries to key players since I was last at the Kassam.

One noticeable absence was Michael Duberry who was excellent when I saw the side several times earlier in the campaign. For the sake of the club's promotion ambitions, I hope that he is making a good recovery and I get to see him lead Oxford to a promotion charge in the second half of the season.

Michael has already made himself a favourite with the Us faithful and I suspect they will forgive him anything given his obvious commitment to the cause, although as a neutral, I have to say that seeing him dressed as Princess Leia in photos from their Xmas 'do' certainly cut my breakfast short!

Link here for those who can stomach it! http://www.offthepost.info/blog/2011/12/the-most-disturbing-photo-of-2011-michael-duberry-dressed-as-princess-leia/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+offthepost%2FTLAa+%28Off+The+Post%29

Happy Christmas to my readers and I hope you both have a great time and stay safe. Jeff

Swindon Town 3 Morecambe 0

Ah, the glamour of writing about professional football.

Just after arriving at the County Ground I was informed that the Swindon lads were off to Cardiff for their Christmas egg nog and mince pies immediately after the game. Having been caught out before on days like this, I decided to try and catch them outside the players exit rather than wait in the warm of the Press Room in the hope that one of them might call by.

As anyone at the game on Saturday will recall, the temperature plummeted as the sun went down and consequently the lads were confronted by a reporter more concerned with whether his toes were still attached to his feet than what they had to say!

Before the game, I was interested to see how the players would react to Paolo di Canio's rant last week during which he slated many of them and questioned whether they were good enough to get the club promoted. It could have gone either way.

For the first twenty minutes or so Swindon weren't really in the game. However, I think credit has to go to Morecambe here as they were knocking the ball about well.

After Jake Jervis had scored the opener though, the Robins took full control. And Rafa De Vita's second on the stroke of half time seemed to knock the Christmas stuffing out of the visitors. By the time Ronan Murray had sealed the win in the second half, the home team's thoughts had probably drifted off to the pleasures awaiting them in South Wales.

From a Swindon fan's point of view it was a good result - and probably also a relief to see the positive reaction to di Canio's blast was a positive one.

The players I spoke to through chattering teeth, as they made a dash to their cars, were also fully behind their boss.

Rafa De Vita told me that as a 15 year old he had come to England (to join Blackburn) not knowing "how to feed myself or tie my own shoelaces" and consequently had "to toughen up fairly quickly." Criticism was something he said you learnt to deal with in football and he revealed, "it was more important to react the right way to criticism, especially when it came from someone like him (di Canio)".

Matt Ritchie was of the same opinion and said, "it just goes to show his level of expectation. We've not lost in fifteen games, but he still wants us to improve. That can only be good for the club."

Jervis was delighted to grab his fifth goal in eleven starts and said, "I came here to gain experience and so the goals have been a bonus. I have one game to go and hopefully can finish on a high."

My clipping from this morning's paper

C'mon you Whites

An excellent win for Salisbury last night in the Cup replay at Grimsby Town will see them travel to face Sheffield United in the 3rd round.

I covered the first game against the Mariners and was really impressed with their work rate and application - it was also a very hospitable club - and so I'm glad to see they have secured this plum tie.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not getting carried away and haven't been down to William Hill to put a bet on them lifting the Cup next May, but for a club of this size, a trip to Bramall Lane is like a cup final in itself.

Setting aside the financial benefits which will undoubtedly allow Salisbury to develop, on a personal level there are lads down there who are now 'living the dream' a little. And how many fans (and backroom staff) of the team ever thought they'd live to see the day when their boys took on one of football's big clubs?

Make no mistake, the Blades are, historically, one of British football's bigger names. Sure, they may not be playing top flight football at the moment, but they still play in the oldest major stadium in the world still hosting football matches.

They have also played in six FA Cup finals (winning four), although admittedly their are no surviving players from their last trip to Wembley in 1936!

If it's football pedigree you're after, Sheffield United have it. No doubt. And boy should that make for a great day out for fans of the Whites.

On a normal weekend, only those in the Hillsborough area of the Steel City would be hoping for a United defeat. I suspect that in early January Salisbury will have the rest of the country on their side. Not nice for United, but isn't that what the Cup is all about?

Papering over the cracks at the Bridge

A good win for Chelsea last night against ten-man Manchester City, but is all well in the Kings Road?

There's no doubt that Andre Villas-Boas has inherited an aging first eleven that needs the injection of new blood, but I wonder whether he is going about it in the right way.

Frank Lampard has never struck me as one of life's prima donnas and - as an outsider looking in - I think he has done enough in his time with the club to merit an explanation from the boss as to why he is spending so much time watching from the subs bench. I'm not saying that Lampard shouldn't be on the bench, merely that he has done enough to earn the courtesy of that explanation.

While it might be frustrating or annoying to Lampard, his treatment will not have gone un-noticed by the rest of the squad who respect him. In turn they may be starting to ask questions about the style of the new manager and whether he will turn on them in the same manner. So much of football management is about how you deal with individuals. Villas-Boas's man management style is open to question at the moment in my opinion.

Interesting to see how (following the manager's request that, when Chelsea scored a goal, everyone should celebrate with him, his staff and the rest of the bench) the players stayed well away from Villas-Boas. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but body language or actions can sometimes tell a story.

With the spine of the team (Lamps, Drogba, Terry and Čech) reaching a certain age, Villas-Boas admittedly needs to make changes. But, if he does it the wrong way and it effects player morale, Chelsea could find themselves dropping out of the Champions League places. If that happens, it will be difficult to attract the types of players needed to find their way back in an increasingly competitive Premier League. Better to make the changes gradually and subtly and keep everyone on side than to take a sledgehammer to the situation in my opinion.

Sure Roman's billions will attract they the odd mercenary, but is that what the Chelsea faithful want? As a football fan, I would think not. They will want players who are prepared to run themselves into the ground for the shirt. Players, dare I say it, like Frank Lampard.

Walsall 1 Charlton Athletic 1

This was an 'interesting' game rather than 96 minutes of pulsating entertainment and the Addicks have a right to feel pretty aggrieved not to have come away with all three points.
In the dying seconds Yann Kermorgant's cross appeared to hit the hand of Walsall midfielder Richard Taundry in the box, but the referee either failed to see it or gave Walsall the sympathy vote.
While Frenchman Kermorgant was immediately calling for the decision (and insisted it was a penalty afterwards as was chatted by the team bus), he also had the good grace not to moan about it and shrugged: "That's football." Refreshing to hear a player 'talk' about a decision and not whinge about it. This may well be his own philosophy, but I suspect that it is also manager Chris Powell's.
What isn't in doubt is that Kermorgant, 30, joined Charlton because he wanted to make his mark in English football and knew that by working with Powell (who he knew as a team mate and coach at Leicester), he would get his chance to shine.
And he certainly did. Despite the player's marks out of ten in the paper - often provided from a source other than yours truly - I felt he deserved the man of the match award for his tireless hard work for the side.
To be fair to the Saddlers though, they did deserve something out of the game and so a draw was probably a fair result. I have seen Charlton play twice this season and have no doubt that they are the team to beat in League Two and so the Walsall lads should take a lot of confidence from this result in their efforts to climb clear of the drop zone. They certainly didn't play like a team resigned to a relegation scrap and in Jimmy Walker, 38, they have a keeper who has been there and got the t-shirt, but still gives his all for the club in every game I see him play.
And both Kermorgant and keeper Ben Hamer made the point to me afterwards that they needed to concentrate on - and in - every game if they were to win the title.
The highly rated former Reading trainee was also big enough to admit it wasn't his best game, but he could hardly be faulted for the Walsall goal.
Defender Mat Sadler (eventually sent off for a second booking in the 90th minute) rifled in a 20 yard goal bound drive in the 36th minute that nearly took the head off team mate Olly Lancashire, but fell to excellent vetren sriker Jon Macken to poke home from about six yards with Hamer wrong-footed.
Charlton's respnse couldn't have come at a worse time for the home team. As the the ref was checking his watch before blowing up for the break, lively winger Hogan Ephraim sent over a cross from the left and Kermorgant jumped to bury a header for his sixth goal of the campaign.
I've met Hamer several times before and he draw parallels with the Brentford side he won the League Two title with in 2009. The ability of the players on the pitch speaks for itself, but the camaraderie among the squad is also there for all to see and Ben made the point that they were all friends as well as team mates ... before they hopped on the coach and made their way to Liverpool for their Christmas session, er, I mean party,
Like many people in the game who have reached the dizzy heights of the Premier League and international football, Powell is slightly guarded when it comes to the media (maybe with good reason, I don't know), but is a pleasant guy and you can see why the Charlton players like working for him. A man's man is the football term I think.

My clipping from this morning's paper

Speed and Socrates

As a kid I watched the great Brazilian side of 1982 compete in the World Cup and wished I could play like their skipper Socrates. Given that none of you will have noticed my name listed in any professional outfits over the years – let alone an International squad – it won’t come as a surprise that I never ‘quite’ realised that particular fantasy.

As an adult I watched a classy midfielder by the name of Gary Speed turn out for the likes of Leeds, Everton, Bolton and Newcastle and wished all footballers could conduct themselves in the same way as the Welsh wizard. Some do, but most don’t of course – and frankly who among us can say that we do so in our own lives?

The reason why football fans have been mourning these two guys for the last week is that they were exceptional people - as well as players. The contribution they made to the game was as whole-hearted as it was effective and they were then also able to share and add to their talents or build upon them away from football. The sad thing is that they were also both relatively young and so still had time to offer very much more.

The tributes for Gary Speed have been touching. While most 'eyes' were on the one minute applause at the Premier League grounds this weekend, I was part of a significantly smaller tribute at non-league Salisbury where the visiting Grimsby fans joined the home support to pay their respects. I dare say that this scene was replicated at most of the other football grounds in the country. I hope Gary's family get to hear of this as well.

We all read about the vicious chanting by Manchester United and Liverpool morons earlier in the season – goading each other about the horrors of Munich and Hillsborough. Well I’d like to give a 'shout out' to all of those fans – the vast majority of us, I believe – who don’t treat tragedy like it is part of some TV soap opera and realise that it’s very real and very painful - especially to those closest to the victims.

A special mention to the classy Manchester United fan who laid out his red shirt at the foot of the Billy Bremner statue outside Elland Road. On it bore the inscription: From a football fan to a football legend. If that isn't showing true class, I don't know what is. Morons - look and learn.

There have been (and I guess will continue to be) questions asked about Speed’s suicide and Socrates alcohol use and lifestyle, but they don’t really interest me. All I know is that I had the pleasure of watching two excellent players - from slightly removed eras of the game – showing us what it took to be truely exceptional in what they did and I’ll always be grateful for the memories.

Salisbury City 0 Grimsby Town 0

After one week away on holiday, I was given the weekend's big game to cover on Saturday!

Joking aside, it was good fun and while it was sad to see Grimsby playing in the second round of the Cup as a non-league outfit, they and the home side put on a decent show in front of just over 2000 fans.

Salisbury play their footbball one flight below the Mariners in the Blue Square South, but showed they are a decent team and dominated in the first half.

Speaking to former Cambridge United striker turned central defender Brian Dutton afterwards, the man of the match  - who played in midfield - told me:

"I was hoping that Stockport would soften Grimsby up for us in midweek, but then they lost by seven goals so it didn't quite turn out like that!"

Maybe not, but Grimsby may just have used up all of their goalscoring luck in that game because Dutton managed to clear one effort off the line, keeper Mark Scott made one terrific fingertip save and winger Michael Coulson inexplicably skied a six yard shot over the bar with Scott stranded and an open goal begging.

In fact Coulson - who to his credit was willing to face the media - told me:

"I was just going to roll it into the bottom corner and looked up to see it flying high over the bar and haven't a clue how it happened. I'm going to have to watch the television replays to finsd out, but it must have taken a bobble before I hit it."

It was tough on Coulson who was Grimsby's best player on the day, but I suspect that he and his team mates will right that wrong up at Blundell Park in the replay.

Scott looks a decent keeper and is on loan from Paolo di Canio's Swindon. The stopper told me:

"I'm just happy to be playing in the second round. Last year I played for Swindon Supermarine in the first round, but then got recalled before the next tie against Colchester. This time my loan spell doesn't run out until after the third round and so if we go through, I might get to face United!"

Indeed he might. I think though that on Saturday he was talking about Manchester United. By Sunday afternoon the third round draw had been made and the wnner of the replay will face a trip to Sheffield United.

Still, not a tie to be sniffed at by any means for either of these two teams.

While my money would be on Grimsby to progress, if the Salisbury players show as much heart and effort as they did on Saturday, they might well still make the trip to Yorkshire themselves. I just hope that having done themselves proud against Grimsby, they can take this form into their league games and start pushing to join Grimsby in the Blue Square Premier division next season.