Martin Penney

When I read Gary’s article on Wednesday the memories all came flooding back. They were the glory days and let nobody ever tell you any different. I’d seen Spurs thrash Club Brugge 3-0 at White Lane in the 1980s but that had been the only UEFA Cup match I’d ever witnessed. Until… I remember that final […]

“So, what we gonna do now?”. Then the drums come in with that fantastic tick-tock beat from Nicky Headon. It was called Clampdown and on London Calling by The Clash. The next line was “Taking off his turban they said is this man a Jew?” Joe Strummer in full angst-driven flight and the musicians in the band […]

When I was about six or seven my parents took a holiday to Jersey and unusually let me accompany them. For once I wasn’t dispatched to Grandma’s in salubrious Forest Gate. On the last morning, Dad decided he’d buy me my first watch – a Timex. It was like getting your first Action Man, some […]

Preston North End 0, Norwich City 0. Oh well, that’s the end of my match report. Alex Neil can hardly make the playoffs now, but I derive no satisfaction from that. Like many of us I suspect, I bear him and PNE no ill-will. The candle of their season burned considerably longer than ours and […]

We all know what a Neil Warnock side is like. Many of us have seen enough of those over the years and know exactly what to expect. And on Saturday we were not “disappointed”. They will bark, b*ll*ck and bite, and orchestrate themselves to take it in turns to snuff out any skilful approach play […]

With four games left to go (yes, just four) I’ve noticed something quite uplifting – a statistic that cheers me immensely. After what was apparently a crazy game on Tuesday night at Sunderland complete with Fog on The Tyne (sorry, Wear), Ivo Pinto’s last-gasp strike means that still, as of April 12, no side has […]

I used to drink in, and briefly worked in, one of the best-known pubs in Broadland. As you entered the establishment the first thing you saw on the wall was a massive, framed illustration of two early Victorian railway engineers staring up at a broken aqueduct with the equivalent of Puffing Billy falling through the […]

One thing I have always almost perversely prided myself upon is that as either as a player or a supporter I have never really, deep down minded too much about losing to a better team. Defeat still rankles but sometimes you just have to take it on the chin, as I did on Friday. As […]

Boxing is heavily engrained in my DNA. While I cannot punch my way out of the proverbial wet brown paper bag, my dad Len was Royal Engineers middleweight champion either twice or thrice (depending on how many lagers he’d had when recounting the tale) and boxed for the Army against the Navy more than once. […]

When you walk something like three miles to the theatre of pipedreams on a cob-freezing day, eventually take your seat and realise a couple of your mates and several of your acquaintances haven’t managed to attend for various (unknown but hopefully solely weather-related) reasons, the least you expect is to be entertained by events on […]

When I were a lad (quite an appropriate expression after a visit to Barnsley) I was very lucky in that my dad had a real taste for often black comedy on the TV – and radio – and by that token, I grew up with Steptoe and Son, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-in, Sgt Bilko, TW3 […]

Seven goals, three penalties (forget the fourth as it only existed in referee Tim Robinson’s mind until it unfortunately became a reality). We lost, and a necessarily hungry Hull won. Madders’ hat-trick added to his summer sale value, we’ve probably lost Moritz Leitner for the season and I expect very little from this squad between […]

To these ears at least The Jam’s finest moment was That’s Entertainment. A sarky, poignant set of lyrics about life on an outer London council estate penned by somebody who knew that environment all too well and wrote all too honestly… one Paul Weller. Well, the sarcasm was flowing around the Upper Barclay with the sages […]

When it comes to music I’m a hard-rock loving, progressive metal adoring ex-longhair with a soft spot for The Faces, David Bowie and Manic Street Preachers. One genre I cannot abide is American soft rock, with one exception: the 6:30 of sheer beauty that is the Eagles’ Hotel California. After the Bolton match a line […]

If Timm Klose dyed his hair bright red, had some deconstructive dentistry and adopted an exaggerated Scouse accent he could easily become the next Cilla Black. I know this because as his imperious header in the late, late show hit the back of the Barclay net he sparked off the most unlikely bromance you could […]

I can’t help but kick off this piece by bringing Daniel Farke’s “philosophy” on penalties – and more importantly, who takes them, to the forefront. After an excellent point and result against Derby – which could, or couldn’t, have been more – Farke said there were two nominated penalty takers in our side, i.e. Nelson and […]

On the way to the ground I have to pass the Prince of Wales. That’s no big deal, I’m sure loads of us do likewise. However, I literally bumped into a couple of Boro fans and one of their sons who were bemoaning the demise of the Compleat Angler as a haven for away supporters […]