CRAZY DAYS
YEAR... LATE TACKLE EDITOR JOHN LYONS REFLECTS ON AN UNFORGETTABLE
The 2019-20 season
IF SOMEONE had predicted what was going to happen in the 2019-20 campaign, you would have said they were barmy. The season going into shutdown mode for months over a virus, Premier League, Championship and FA Cup of summer, divisions being decided on points per game? What nonsense!
– and why we’ll still be talking about this seemingly never-ending campaign for years and years to come (if we live to tell the tale, of course).
indications that football, just like society itself, might have to ease off the throttle. It was something you almost couldn’t believe – they can’t stop football, can they?
But then it became apparent just how serious a threat the coronavirus really was, though not before the Cheltenham festival and Liverpool v Atletico Madrid in the Champions League snuck through. The true impact of those two sporting events may never be really known.
In mid-March, I remem of Late Tackle’s sister publication, The NonLeague Paper. While the Premier League and EFL had fallen by the wayside, there were, bizarrely, National League, National League North and South and Northern Premier League games going ahead.
If there was a picture that perfectly summed up what we were getting into, a protective mask celebrating his side’s of the players, Josh Payne. The world was changing fast.
Soon after, Non-League bowed to the inevitable, too, and football, like pretty much all sport, was off the menu. We were in full lockdown mode and even
Our boss decided to put the Football League Paper on hold, but, bravely, decided to keep The Non-League Paper going. Brave considering there were no matches to report on – or likely to be for quite some time.
I was switched to working on The NLP myself and in those late March days - agers and players to talk to. You’d ring them up and ask if they had time for a chat. They’d reply saying they had all day. The normally busy pace of life had slowed right down.
On the telly, it was wall-to-wall nostalgia. If you enjoy watching football from back in the day, you couldn’t go far wrong with highlights of Italia ’90, Euro ’96 and pretty much everything else ever screened.
In the national newspapers, there was speculation by the bucketful about when football would return. Would the Premier League season have to be cut short? Would Liverpool be cruelly
Some leagues like the French and Dutch did call it quits, but you always got the feeling the Premier League you think it could have been anything to do with the television contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds?
Anyway, the prospect of a return began to gather momentum, particularly as the Government seemed desperate for the public to have something else to think about rather than their erratic handling of the pandemic.
Finally, after an absence of more than three months, the Premier League returned in all its glory with a goalless draw between Aston Villa and Shef fell behind his goalline clutching Oliver Michael Oliver’s watch to fail to signal a goal. Perhaps the batteries had run out in lockdown?
“I think the goalkeeper was in the Holte End when he caught it!” groaned Shef Wilder.
One of the other noticeable things was the empty stands. We were beginning the then second tier, games
‘behind closed doors’.
The atmosphere created by the supporters had gone all of a sudden and, boy, did we miss it. It almost got you thinking that clubs shouldn’t be charging fans to attend but paying them. With their whopping TV deals, the big boys could certainly afford it. doesn’t cut it for me. guns that were being affected. Leagues One and Two both voted to curtail their seasons and positions were decided on Points Per Game. Coventry and Swindon (League One and Two champions), it was despair for the likes of Peterborough, who were bumped out of the League One play-off positions, and Tranmere, who were relegated from the same division.
For them, it was like running a middle distance race and preparing to kick You have to have sympathy for all those who received an unfortunate kick in the goolies. Hopefully they can recover from the blow next season.
Despite the regular season being cut short, there was still the opportunity for play-offs in the bottom two tiers of the EFL.
certainly made the most of it. After their remarkable 3-0 Cheltenham to overturn a two hapless Exeter City 4-0 in the One.
It was sheer delight for Keith Curle and his troops, though watching them play at an eerily deserted home of football was a strange experience. It was a shame they couldn’t share one of the best days of their career with their nearest and dearest as well as the Cobblers faithful, but it’s certainly a night they’ll never forget.
There were no doubt similar sentiments after the League Ainsworth’s Wycombe Wanderers beat motion to the Championship.
In the Premier League, we all knew it was only a matter of time before runaway leaders Liverpool wrapped up the title and so it proved after second-placed Manchester City slipped to a 2-1 defeat at Chelsea.
of ecstatic Liverpool fans congregated eration in the city following further title revelry.
As I pen this, we’re now in mid-July and the games are coming so thick and track of everything.
Only one thing is certain: VAR is still as lousy as ever!