Football United - July 2014 West Ham and Newcastle visit

Ok, will have to get a West Ham flag Pic for you lol

Graham Carr - Chief Newcastle scout and father of Alan Carr the gay comedian as seen in "Alan Carr Chatty Man" etc. on TV

(Alan Carr not to be confused with Jimmy Carr comedian)

Watch episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" featuring Alan Carr exploring his family history, largely footballers and miners:

http://www.tubeplus.me/player/1667891/Who_Do_You_T...

(Click away any annoying ads - view on the player lower down, don't bother with links at top)

Comes from a line of pro footballers in the north.

Interesting show, some filmed at St James' Park and the Strawberry pub, shrine to Newcastle Utd.

Interesting lengthy article detailing Newcastle's last visit to NZ in 1985 and links forged between the club and Dunedin football - 

Paul Gascoigne almost ended up on loan at Dunedin City in our national league.

Dunedin did get Newcastle first-teamer Peter Haddock on loan (needed match play coming back from an injury)

Mike McGarry from Dunedin went the other way, joining Newcastle's youth team.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sport/8041646...

HOW PAUL GASCOIGNE ALMOST CAME TO TOWN

"....Dunedin City FC president Dave Smeaton and Otago Football Association chairman Brian Cunningham joined MacKenzie. At the Latimer Hotel the trio sat down opposite Newcastle's representatives, including McFaul and the club's colourful chairman, Stan Seymour Jr.

The first player discussed was Peter Haddock, a defender who'd played plenty of games for Newcastle, but had suffered a horrendous knee injury.

Haddock was still recovering, but the club wanted him playing football during the English off-season. Terms for his stay at Dunedin City were agreed and contracts signed.

"Then McFaul said ‘Oh, I've got another player for you . . .' Mackenzie relates. "He mentioned his name, Paul Gascoigne, and I didn't have a clue who he was - he was only 17. They must have known he was a dodgy kind of a bugger and Peter would look after him."

MacKenzie remembers thinking that with two professional English players he could win the national league, before taking on the rest of the world.

As it transpired, his dreams of football glory quickly evaporated well before Gascoigne's journey to play for Dunedin City could be planned in any detail.

But it came so painfully near to being a reality, MacKenzie and Smeaton both insist almost three decades on.

"Willie McFaul signed the paper and he's handing it across the table to me," MacKenzie recalls. "I've got my hand on it, and I went to take it, when he says ‘there he is now'. I spun around and Gascoigne walked through the door. He'd just gone to the hairdresser's and had his hair shaved off and got a Mohican and coloured it. I was closing my hands on the paper and McFaul pulled it out of my hand. He said, ‘no, this won't work - you'll never be able to control him', and ripped the contract up. We were that close to having him in the squad."

At the time Dunedin City had no idea what they'd narrowly missed out on. But as soon as Newcastle United had dispatched the All Whites and returned to England, Gascoigne became a core first-team player....

....That was all ahead of the 17-year-old who visited New Zealand. It was an eventful trip for Gascoigne, though - he admitted in an interview this year that he lost his virginity here.

And he famously exclaimed, when told there was no bacon for breakfast at the team's hotel, "what, all the sheep in this country and there's no bloody bacon?"

PETER HADDOCK played 12 games for Dunedin City during the 1985 National League, making a huge impact, according to MacKenzie.

He also identified the substantial talents of future All White Michael McGarry, and was instrumental in having the high school student visit Newcastle to train with the reserve and youth teams.

While the weather was rubbish while he was there, over Christmas 1985, McGarry says the exposure to professional football benefited him. And he spent time with the nascent Gascoigne.

"He was making his claim," he says. "He was certainly a livewire; he was around us a lot and he was a bit of a hard thing."

In hindsight, MacKenzie says McFaul's snap decision to kill the Gascoigne deal was probably the right one. "I don't know whether I'd have been able to control him," he reflects. "He would have been on his own all day unless Peter Haddock was able to handcuff him. But if he had come, I'd be an after-dinner speaker now."

FAIRFAX NZ, REUTERS

YOUNG BLOOD: Seventeen-year-old Paul Gascoigne shows his close control in Newcastle’s match against the All Whites in Christchurch in 1985.

Ah. The days when shorts were shorts

I remember the little yellow ones that I wore back then, what were we thinking?????

He's my man but he's one of the boys in his stubbies (stubbies).
He's wearing the name that's making all of the noise it's those stubbies (stubbies).
And what makes him kind of fit into any crowd, it's that name on his hips, and he's oh so proud.
Some days he won't wear any other brand of gear but his stubbies. Stubbies.

mmmm long stubies.......

http://www.thecomet.net/stevenage-fc/boro_nearly_ace_premier_league_test_1_3682052

The mighty Stevenage drew 2-2 with a strong West Ham side yesterday. I can't imagine the two clubs I support the most will play the same side in a month again,this could be the best chance I get to measure them against the same yardstick.

$40 for PPV ???????? 

Don't worry, lad, that only matters if you're old enough to pay your own SKY bill.

Complete the star chart on the fridge & you could get more pocket money

Most kids would know how to find free viewing on the net.

nufc_nz, if the big kids are being mean to you, just tell them "stop it. I don't like it when you do that."

To be fair id only pay $40 to watch the nix (which i assume is why most people are). I wouldn't give 2 cents to watch shitney, hoofball united or frenchcastle play their crap footy. So to add that onto what people are already paying for sky is a little meh, are they trying to gain lost profits since losing the epl rights?

great Noocastle banners up outside Four Kings

You got that almost completely right, except that you wouldn't normally expect the Nix to even be playing pre-season games against Premier League opposition x 2, let alone for any pre-season games to even be on TV.

But yeah, apart from that the Nix are being really mean to you.

@bradmma30 @DanRichardson21 Chotey and I are doing pre-match and sideline stuff - Simon Hill and @PaulIfill in the box #dreamteam

— Jason Pine (@pineyzb) July 14, 2014

That's worth $40.

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/wellingtonphoenix/news-display/Curtain%20Raiser%20To%20Open%20West%20Ham%20Match/91168

Celebrity curtain-raiser featuring Michael Burgess. How good would it be if they opened these events to the public as a charity fundraiser (i.e. pay to play on the opposing team with the money going to charity). Imagine the coin some people would fork out to crunch some journo in a tackle.

I'd pay $40 to see Teddy Sherringham munt Gordon Ramsey.

If only this was a tester for the proper A-league season...

That's great news on the commentary front. I genuinely love Simon Hill, one of the only Aussie commentators that actually give a shit about us, him and Iffs is an absolute dream.

might stay at home and watch it on PPV now! 

I'm keen get get Feverites mingling with the rrrrivals pre-game at the pub (in some sort of jovial competitive scenario). 

If anyone can suggest some sort of 'challenge' with spectator value then please feel free to. ie Hard News competes against some 150kg Geordie in naked jelly wrestling in a blow-up kids pool whilst we all throw cream and hundreds and thousands at them - then the loser has to neck ten pints of Newky Brown.

Boat races and the next person isn't allowed to start till the glass is sitting on the head of the one before them.

they will probably happen spontaneously. 

Investigating the feasibility of an Ultimate Fan contest

A qualifying aspect is that one must not have missed an A League "Home" game for the Nix anywhere in NZ. Thus far, I believe that is 93 games. :)

A hackies comp between the two sets of fans

Why oh why do we need a "celebrity" curtain raiser?  Does anyone actually want to watch bad, old, unfit middle aged media people who were not and never will be footballers badly kicking a ball round?  I truly do not get it

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/wellingtonphoe...

With u on this 2

And ill be streaming these games for free. Fuck sky

The Football United games are on BT Sport (British Telecom) in the UK free for all BT broadband subscribers

These are two sports channels all British Telecom broadband subscribers get for free online or on Sky TV or people can pay to subscribe on Sky TV.

http://sport.bt.com/sportfootball/football/live-fo...

The four Football United games are part of fifteen pre-season matches on BT Sport in July and early August.

So far, West Ham are doing a much better PR job than Newcastle. They have a dedicated 'New Zealand' section on their website.  http://www.whufc.com/page/newZealandIndex/0,,12562,00.html

Check out pre-season fixture list on Unofficial Supporters site nufc.com.