Post by gazz on Dec 1, 2013 22:58:45 GMT
Vegemite Vootballers
hatter in macc
Love 'em? Hate 'em? Or just wish we'd never bothered with 'em?
VAS Kalogeracos (born Perth) arrived at County, with the Club very much on the up, as we were about to embark on our first campaign (1997/98) in the second flight. His reputation as an exciting forward, both for Perth Glory and at Australian youth level, preceded him, and all looked set for his becoming a household - if not an easily-pronounceable - name.
As it turned out, Vas made a couple of appearances, during which he did nothing much other than fall over the ball quite a lot. He probably does, however, occupy a small place in the County Record Books, by virtue of having the most syllables in his surname - and the most letters, too...although, these days, he has to be content with a share of the spoils with Demontagnac for the latter!
Jason VAN BLERK (born Sydney), on the other hand, joined a team that, whilst still in the second flight, was clearly on a sharp decline, just after the turn of the century. He was supposedly a 'versatile' player, which meant, in reality, that he neither knew how to defend nor was properly effective anywhere else. Astonishingly, for all that, he was capped over thirty times for the 'Socceroos', although nothing that we saw of him during his dozen or so outings for County would have led us to believe this.
Most unforgiveably of all, on being subbed against West Brom, one of his former teams who, inevitably, were coasting to victory against us in our own back yard, he turned to the Railway End and applauded the away fans. Oh, and he had a well-dodgy mullet, too - a good fifteen years or so after it was socially acceptable (and, even then, only just) to sport one.
Vincent, James
Anon (feel free to claim this one of it's yours)
Expected more from him. Flattered to deceive. Shame.
Villain at Vetch Field
hatter in macc
Swansea City -v- County, 5th March 1993
The villain in question being Swansea's John Cornforth, who, one Friday night in South Wales, and for reasons best known to himself, launched into a tackle, a good two feet or so above the ball, to take out our diminutive - and, on his day, quite handy - midfielder, Brian McCord.
Those of us who were at The Vetch that evening actually heard the impact, and would still swear today that we felt the stand shudder as this happened. Without doubt, all four sides of the ground were almost immediately hushed in the pretty certain knowledge that it had been an exceptionally bad, and a damaging, challenge - although, strangely enough, the ref's immediate reaction didn't match that of the few thousand watching, and he failed to blow up for a foul.
McCord was stretchered off, and, on my long drive home, my thoughts constantly turned to the possible consequences of what I had seen. It was soon known that his career was ruined, with his leg having been broken in two places. He later took a case to court, and became the first professional footballer to be awarded compensation (amounting to £250,000) for injuries received during a game. Cornforth carried on playing, and enjoyed the rewards - including, I am ashamed to say, international honours with Wales - that came with another eight years or so in the game.
It remains the worst, and most harrowing, incident on a pitch that I have ever seen.
Mill Hill Village
archie
Or, the Village as they were/are known. Football/cricket club in North London that had the pleasure of my participation for 10 years or so in the 70s and 80s. In my time the football was in the Southern Olympian League which was one of the better AFA affiliated leagues in London.
Given that my main attribute was speed - I did have the ability to be in the right place at the right time, eg a hat-trick scored from an aggregate of 5 yards, but you still need the legs to support the speed of thought - I was starting to struggle when I got to 35 and a groin strain, still the most painful of any sporting injury including half a dozen broken bones, made up my mind to give up the senior scene. I gave the veterans a go but one game was enough to show me that I was going to be against all the slow old dirty b*stards that had been trying to kick me for the previous 10 years and I was gradually losing the ability to jump high or soon enough. Graceful retirement.
Vuvuzelas
Anon (feel free to claim this one of it's yours)
What a load of sh*te they were.
hatter in macc
Love 'em? Hate 'em? Or just wish we'd never bothered with 'em?
VAS Kalogeracos (born Perth) arrived at County, with the Club very much on the up, as we were about to embark on our first campaign (1997/98) in the second flight. His reputation as an exciting forward, both for Perth Glory and at Australian youth level, preceded him, and all looked set for his becoming a household - if not an easily-pronounceable - name.
As it turned out, Vas made a couple of appearances, during which he did nothing much other than fall over the ball quite a lot. He probably does, however, occupy a small place in the County Record Books, by virtue of having the most syllables in his surname - and the most letters, too...although, these days, he has to be content with a share of the spoils with Demontagnac for the latter!
Jason VAN BLERK (born Sydney), on the other hand, joined a team that, whilst still in the second flight, was clearly on a sharp decline, just after the turn of the century. He was supposedly a 'versatile' player, which meant, in reality, that he neither knew how to defend nor was properly effective anywhere else. Astonishingly, for all that, he was capped over thirty times for the 'Socceroos', although nothing that we saw of him during his dozen or so outings for County would have led us to believe this.
Most unforgiveably of all, on being subbed against West Brom, one of his former teams who, inevitably, were coasting to victory against us in our own back yard, he turned to the Railway End and applauded the away fans. Oh, and he had a well-dodgy mullet, too - a good fifteen years or so after it was socially acceptable (and, even then, only just) to sport one.
Vincent, James
Anon (feel free to claim this one of it's yours)
Expected more from him. Flattered to deceive. Shame.
Villain at Vetch Field
hatter in macc
Swansea City -v- County, 5th March 1993
The villain in question being Swansea's John Cornforth, who, one Friday night in South Wales, and for reasons best known to himself, launched into a tackle, a good two feet or so above the ball, to take out our diminutive - and, on his day, quite handy - midfielder, Brian McCord.
Those of us who were at The Vetch that evening actually heard the impact, and would still swear today that we felt the stand shudder as this happened. Without doubt, all four sides of the ground were almost immediately hushed in the pretty certain knowledge that it had been an exceptionally bad, and a damaging, challenge - although, strangely enough, the ref's immediate reaction didn't match that of the few thousand watching, and he failed to blow up for a foul.
McCord was stretchered off, and, on my long drive home, my thoughts constantly turned to the possible consequences of what I had seen. It was soon known that his career was ruined, with his leg having been broken in two places. He later took a case to court, and became the first professional footballer to be awarded compensation (amounting to £250,000) for injuries received during a game. Cornforth carried on playing, and enjoyed the rewards - including, I am ashamed to say, international honours with Wales - that came with another eight years or so in the game.
It remains the worst, and most harrowing, incident on a pitch that I have ever seen.
Mill Hill Village
archie
Or, the Village as they were/are known. Football/cricket club in North London that had the pleasure of my participation for 10 years or so in the 70s and 80s. In my time the football was in the Southern Olympian League which was one of the better AFA affiliated leagues in London.
Given that my main attribute was speed - I did have the ability to be in the right place at the right time, eg a hat-trick scored from an aggregate of 5 yards, but you still need the legs to support the speed of thought - I was starting to struggle when I got to 35 and a groin strain, still the most painful of any sporting injury including half a dozen broken bones, made up my mind to give up the senior scene. I gave the veterans a go but one game was enough to show me that I was going to be against all the slow old dirty b*stards that had been trying to kick me for the previous 10 years and I was gradually losing the ability to jump high or soon enough. Graceful retirement.
Vuvuzelas
Anon (feel free to claim this one of it's yours)
What a load of sh*te they were.