PREVIEW

It’s to an old mate of mine I turned for this one – Mike Smith, a fellow son of the late Waveney District Council. Once a Lowestoftian, this Gooner has long since departed the sunny climes and headed instead to that London to answer the call of Stan Kroenke and co. *** Before we get […]

So… here we go again… finally … whether we like it or not. With Southampton the visitors, it was to my old Metro mucker, Chris Rann that I turned for his thoughts on what may, or may not happen… First things first… should we be playing? In your view, is the PL’s unseemly scramble to […]

When Blades and Canaries collide my go-to guy is Pete Turner. In his own words, “the Brixton arm of the Brighton, Brixton and Belgravia Blades” – aka the BBB Blades. So, ahead of the latest in a very long line of must-wins for City, I returned to the calm of chez Turner for what we describe as […]

Ahead of this week’s last 16 FA Cup tie at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, I’ve been chatting again with talkSPORT’s Paul Hawksbee – the Spurs-supporting half of Hawksbee & Jacobs – who described us, after the league game in north London, as the best bottom-of-the-league team he’d ever seen. So, can we justify this dubious […]

Ahead of tomorrow night’s game with Leicester, I’ve been chatting with Phil Holloway from Leicester Fan TV who gave us chapter and verse on all the goings-on at the King Power, including Vardy’s drought, a ‘confident’ Madders and honouring the wishes of their late chairman… First up, before we get stuck into tomorrow night’s game, care […]

Ahead of our visit to the Black Country, I’ve been chatting again to Lynsey Hooper – broadcaster, Wolves fan, co-founder of the magnificent Offside Rule podcast and MFW interviewee prior to Wolves’ 2-1 win at Carrow Road in December. Before we look at Sunday’s game, was sad to hear of the near demise of the Offside Rule’s Women’s […]

Here it comes. Our biggest home match of the season, or at least it is for me anyway. Can David and his slingshots wielded by Teemu Pukki, Emi Buendia and Todd Cantwell bring down the Goliath that is Liverpool? A big match deserves a big MFW preview, so we turned to Liverpudlian extraordinaire Tony Evans […]

For the latest in our very long line of must-wins, we head north to Newcastle and so it’s to Paul Mannion I turn – my old mucker from the Metro Sport days – who’ll give us chapter and verse on what’s happening in the Land of Ashley and Bruce… So… if, before the season started, […]

Ahead of tomorrow’s FA Cup fourth round trek to Turf Moor I’ve been chatting again with Joe Redmond from the excellent Burnley podcast TurfCast. Off the back of their 2-0 win at Old Trafford, he was understandably cock-a-hoop. Have you come down to Earth yet? Or you still drifting over Old Trafford on cloud number 9? Did you see […]

Those of us of a certain age know Danny Kelly as editor of NME in its heyday and also Q Magazine but more recently, of course, he’s headed off into the world of sports broadcasting and, even more recently, podcasting.  But it’s with his Spurs hat on that I chatted with him this week ahead […]

When crunch time arrives while City are still in the FA Cup, you know the brown stuff and the fan are in close proximity. Despite spending far too long telling folk to refrain from using ‘must-win’, it’s difficult to see this as anything but. Joe Hinchliffe wrote a fine piece on this site yesterday, offering […]

MFW regulars [we love you all] may recall that our previous Manchester United preview featured my Norwich neighbour, the admirable Sean Tilsley – who happens to be married to Debbie who is a rabid Citeh fan. But there’s been plenty of water under the bridge since then so it was obviously time for a catch-up […]

Here we go then… the start of the back straight but with a mountain thrown in for good measure. We couldn’t, could we? Well, if we are to, we need to start winning and quick. starting with Palace. Ahead of the latest in a very long line of must-wins, I’ve been chatting with Jack Pierce who writes […]

Our last trip to Villa Park was full of awe and wonder. The 2-1 win back in May wrapped up the Championship title just nicely and the scenes of the trophy being held aloft against a background of claret and blue seats will remain forever.  But the old saying, ‘235 days is a long time […]

For the visit of Wolves I’ve been chatting to Lynsey Hooper – broadcaster, Wolves fan and co-founder of the magnificent Offside Rule podcast. If you haven’t, you really should… So, first up, can you tell us a bit about how the Offside Rule pod came about? Sure – I’m afraid it was a project born […]

As we head to the East Midlands with a certain sense of trepidation, I’ve been chatting with Chris Forryan from LeicesterTillIDie… So, before we start, how did the website, and your involvement in it, come about? It all started some ten years ago when I wrote for a blog called Silver Fox. From that, I set […]

Ahead of Canary/Blade clashes, my go-to guy is Pete Turner. In his own words, he is “the Brixton arm of the Brighton, Brixton and Belgravia Blades” – aka the BBB Blades. In the recent past, we’ve talked footie, obviously, but also John Denver, The Boss, Kell Brook and Test Match cricket, and had some generally convivial conversations […]

Ahead of tonight’s relegation battle at St Mary’s, I’ve been chatting to my old Metro mucker from the south coast, Chris Rann. A top lad he is too… First up, a bit about you and your Saints supporting journey? Is GeogeWeirsCousin still going strong? I’ve been a Saints fan since 1992 after flirting with some […]

Mundesley is famous for three things. Firstly I live there for much of the year, secondly it has a beautiful beach – in the Trimingham direction which we love to run our dogs on – and thirdly it is known as God’s waiting room. But there is a fourth highlight. I love going to my […]

Well, they always say that football is a funny old game and the origin of our MFW Everton preview certainly proves that.  Over 25 years ago I occasionally worked alongside a lovely fella called Ken Stringer and because of a random line in a previous MFW article his son, Sean, got in touch to let […]