Ian Winwood Trinity Mirror Trinity Mirror 2012-02-10T15:02:49Z 2012-02-10T14:09:28Z A few years ago, on the weekend before Christmas I went with my mum to see Barnsley play at Queens Park Rangers. As the visitors invariably do when visiting Loftus Road, Barnsley lost. I’m reminded of this game because the temperature on the day was much the same as we’ve been suffering in Britain for the past week or so. That evening, like the evenings this week, was horribly cold. My mum and I were horribly cold. But as we reached the car, its windows entirely frosted over, I remember sayin...

A few years ago, on the weekend before Christmas I went with my mum to see Barnsley play at Queens Park Rangers. As the visitors invariably do when visiting Loftus Road, Barnsley lost. I’m reminded of this game because the temperature on the day was much the same as we’ve been suffering in Britain for the past week or so. That evening, like the evenings this week, was horribly cold. My mum and I were horribly cold. But as we reached the car, its windows entirely frosted over, I remember sayin...

2012-02-10T14:09:28Z 2012-01-28T11:49:13Z 2012-01-27T15:15:32Z In the middle part of the last decade I lived only a well-aimed free kick away from Drayton Park, North London. It was there, from a piece of scrubland, that the Emirates Stadium inched into view. While construction of the new Wembley Stadium was beset by the kind of problems that quickly rendered the project a national embarrassment, work on Arsenal’s new home went without a hitch. Each week, new layers were added to a sight as magnificent and unusual as a giant alien spaceship. Even for som...

In the middle part of the last decade I lived only a well-aimed free kick away from Drayton Park, North London. It was there, from a piece of scrubland, that the Emirates Stadium inched into view. While construction of the new Wembley Stadium was beset by the kind of problems that quickly rendered the project a national embarrassment, work on Arsenal’s new home went without a hitch. Each week, new layers were added to a sight as magnificent and unusual as a giant alien spaceship. Even for som...

2012-01-27T15:15:32Z 2012-01-20T22:46:54Z 2012-01-20T12:34:17Z I am a firm believer in the notion that a football fan earns his or her stripes by being involved in at least one disastrous journey to a match. Me, I now have two. A lifetime ago, I caught a bus from Oakwell in Barnsley to Boundary Park in Oldham, to see the Super Reds play an FA Cup third round replay against Oldham Athletic. By the time we arrived we couldn’t see the ground in front of our faces and the match was postponed. By the time we left the car park on the ride home, the sky had c...

I am a firm believer in the notion that a football fan earns his or her stripes by being involved in at least one disastrous journey to a match. Me, I now have two. A lifetime ago, I caught a bus from Oakwell in Barnsley to Boundary Park in Oldham, to see the Super Reds play an FA Cup third round replay against Oldham Athletic. By the time we arrived we couldn’t see the ground in front of our faces and the match was postponed. By the time we left the car park on the ride home, the sky had c...

2012-01-20T12:34:17Z