Wembley, Here We Come!!

Well, what a night! Yesterday evening saw the second leg of Swindon Town’s play-off semi-final against Charlton Athletic. Swindon had won the first leg 2-1 on Friday night at The County Ground and so travelled to London needing just a draw to book their place in the final at Wembley.

I was unable to travel to the game myself, but it was televised live on Sky Sports, so I scooted round to my mum’s house to watch the excitement unfold. I won’t bore you all with all the details but suffice to say that it was a very, very dramatic evening’s entertainment that had my blood pressure going through the roof! Close to the end of the match Swindon were 2-0 down, had lost their goalkeeper to injury in the first minute and had seen their captain sent off leaving them with ten men. At that stage all hope looked lost.

But this Swindon side are nothing if not battlers, and a very well taken goal levelled the overall scores at 3-3 and pushed the game into 30 minutes of extra-time. No more goals were scored during that time and so the tie had to be settled on a penalty shoot-out. Now, Swindon’s record in penalty shoot-outs is a little like England’s, ie they don’t win ‘em!! But last night, under the greatest of pressure, all 5 Town players scored their penalties and, as Charlton missed one of theirs, Swindon incredibly won the tie and secured their place at Wembley a week on Saturday.

Town players celebrate their win

So, Swindon will be deserted in 11 days time – a burglar’s paradise! It has been 17 years since Town last played at the home of English football and the recollections of that day are still very vivid. Hopefully this month will see the creation of some more good memories!

Tension Time

It is now less than a month to go until the start of the World Cup when all the best players from around the globe will come together to compete for the greatest prize in football.

Before that, though, the club season still has a few notable matches to play out. Last weekend saw Chelsea claim the English Premiership title, and yesterday the final of the Europa League saw Atletico Madrid squeeze a win against Fulham by virtue of a goal deep into Extra-Time. On Saturday, Chelsea will be aiming to complete “the double” when they meet Portsmouth in the FA Cup Final. And then next Saturday (22nd) will see the biggest single club game in the world when Bayern Munich take on Inter Milan in the Champions League Final.

But I’m not actually writing this post about any of those matches. If you have a very good memory, then you may remember that I mentioned how my team, Swindon Town, had been heavily defeated on the opening day of the season. At that point the prospects for the season ahead looked bleak, and 9 months of struggle loomed. But, just to show that “one swallow does not a summer make”, the form shown by the team since that day couldn’t have been more different. So much so that, if the results on the final day of the regular season this last weekend had gone slightly differently, then Swindon would have finished second in their league and been promoted to the Championship (that’s one level below the Premiership).

Swindon Town club crest

But all is not lost. Having actually finished 5th in the league, Town are now taking part in the end of season play-offs, the winner of which will be promoted along with the teams who finished 1st and 2nd. The semi-finals of the play-offs take place this weekend, with Swindon playing Charlton at home tomorrow night and then away on Monday night. If they win the semi-final then they will go forward to play either Millwall or Huddersfield at Wembley Stadium in two weeks time. So the next few days will be full of nail-biting and lots of frayed nerves. Hopefully the results will go the right way and I will be going on a trip to Wembley at the end of the month! Fingers crossed.

Election Day

So today is the big day. Britain has gone to the polls to decide who should lead the country for the next few years.

I went round to the polling station after getting back home from work. It was very quick and easy, and I was out again in less than 2 minutes. In the UK you vote to elect your local Member of Parliament (MP) and whichever party has the majority of MPs will form the next Government. If the polls are to be believed, and frankly they’re not, but if they are right then we could be heading to a position where no one party will have enough MPs to command a majority. This could lead to all sorts of pacts and alliances between various political parties or even a second General Election in the near future. But that’s all for another day.

This campaign has been defined by the TV debates – the first ever in the UK. Before the campaign kicked off it was thought that this would be the “internet election”, but the debates have so captured the public imagination that it has turned out to be very much a TV campaign. And it is because of the debates that this looks like being one of the closest elections in the last 40 years.

The results will come in from all over the country overnight, and Dori and I are planning to stay awake for as long as we can to watch the drama unfold. It could be a very long night!

Two Days to Go

Shakespeare's Birthday n' all

Happy St George's Day!! A day to celebrate all things English.

This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself

Against infection and the hand of war,

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea,

Which serves it in the office of a wall,

Or as a moat defensive to a house,

Against the envy of less happier lands,

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England

William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act 2

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Elections and Eruptions

Okay, so I don’t want this blog to become a political one, but this is going to be the second post running to mention the current General Election campaign.

Yesterday saw a landmark occasion in British TV and political history – the first ever Leaders Debate. The leaders of the three main political parties took part in the debate which was held in Manchester, and broadcast live to the nation on ITV. Ahead of the programme, the Conservative leader – David “call me Dave” Cameron - was seen as the likely winner, whereas expectations for the less media-friendly Gordon Brown (leader of the governing Labour Party) were much lower. When it came to the night itself, however, it was actually the leader of the third party of British politics - Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats - who blew away the opposition and emerged as the clear winner of this historic event.

Dori and I settled down to watch the debate at 8:30 last night, not entirely sure what to expect. We have both seen a number of the Presidential Debates in the US over the years, but didn’t know how the format would translate into the British political scene. The election campaign up to this point had been somewhat lacklustre and uninspiring, and there were fears that the debate would not be able to rise above the malaise. But I for one was quite surprised by how energised the programme was, and even more surprised that some actual debating was allowed to take place, and not just a series of recited Talking Points as has been seen elsewhere previously.

Gordon Brown performed, by and large, above the admittedly very low expectations, whereas David Cameron was surprisingly overshadowed and subdued and did not perform at all well. Nick Clegg, on the other hand, was a revelation, he came across as affable and he was able to make a distinction between the Lib Dems and the other two main parties. All the post-debate polls had him as the winner, with the other two leaders sharing second place depending on which poll you read. And, talking of polls, this morning revealed a further poll of people’s voting intentions which showed the Lib Dems receiving a monumental 14% bump on the back of their leader’s performance. It’s looking like the British political landscape may have changed forever. There are two more debates before Election Day on May 6th, due to take place on each of the next two Thursdays. I’ll be watching.

In other news, we are currently sitting under a cloud of volcanic ash! If you haven’t seen it on the news, an Icelandic volcano has erupted throwing up a huge plume of ash that is now sitting squarely above the UK. Due to safety fears for aircraft, there have been no flights into or out of England since early yesterday morning, and none are expected until at least 7:00 tomorrow morning, possibly longer. I was in the bank this morning, and overheard a conversation where someone was expecting visitors from overseas today who have now been told that they may not be able to get here until next Friday! Strange times indeed!

The Date is Set

So, the waiting and speculation is over and the date of the General Election here in the UK has finally been announced. Gordon Brown went to Buckingham Palace this morning and asked The Queen to dissolve Parliament, and hence fired the metaphorical starting gun for the General Election campaign. The country will go to the polls on Thursday May 6th.

This election promises to be very different from any that has taken place before. We now live in the digital age, and as Barack Obama did so successfully in 2008, all of the parties will be trying to make the best use of Twitter, Facebook and the other social media that have come to the fore since the last election. That’s not to say that there won’t be some old-style campaigning taking place, and the old ”Battle Buses” are sure to make an appearance during the next month.

The biggest difference this time round though, is that there will be three Prime Ministerial TV Debates. Whilst the US has been having Presidential Debates since the days of Kennedy and Nixon, this will be the very first time that it will happen in this country. Previously it has been impossible to get agreement for any debates from the leading parties, mainly because the favourites to win would always see it as a way to slip up, rather than an opportunity to seal a win. This time, however, the race is close enough that everyone has something to gain from taking part in the debates. They will be taking place on April 15th, 22nd and 29th and will feature the leaders of the three leading political parties. It promises to be a very interesting addition to a British election campaign.

So, we have a month of campaigning to go through when I will not be answering the door to anyone, and will be avoiding strange people on the street with over-sized rosettes. But, that’s not to say that I won’t enjoy it at all. Democracy in action is a wonderful thing, and something that not everybody in the world has access to, so I certainly honour that fact. The debates will also be something new and fascinating this time round to look forward to.

Let the campaigning begin!!