Uncategorized | Buzzin Championship Football

Fundraising Trio Visit 92 Football League Grounds In 92 Hours

October 19 2016 – Staff from audio branding specialist PHMG have raised over £2,500 for charity after completing a whistle-stop tour of all 92 Football League grounds in under 92 hours.

(L to R) Alan Aspden, Kristian Hunt and Luke Walker at Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium during their 92 in 92 challenge. — (L to R) Alan Aspden, Kristian Hunt and Luke Walker at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium during their 92 in 92 challenge.

Kristian Hunt, Alan Aspden and Luke Walker took on the football-themed endurance test in aid of Manchester-based charity Once Upon a Smile, covering 2,300 miles – equivalent to the distance between Manchester and Moscow.

They kicked off the challenge at The Alexandra Stadium, home to League Two club Crewe Alexandra, and completed their goal at Old Trafford, just half a mile from PHMG headquarters.

The three-man team travelled as far south as Plymouth Argyle’s Home Park and as far north as St James’ Park, the home of Newcastle United.

Hunt, who is Client Services Director at PHMG said: “It was a tough task as we had to keep travelling almost continuously throughout the 92 hours, grabbing sleep when we could while someone else was driving.

“But, as football fans, it seemed like the ideal opportunity for us to raise money for such a worthy cause. We are all impressed by the great work done by Once Upon a Smile and wanted to do our bit to help.”

PHMG has already held several fundraising events in aid of Once Upon a Smile this year through the company’s official charity the PHMG Foundation. These included a football match where a team from PHMG took on the Once Upon a Smile all-stars, including Owen Coyle, Cell Spellman and Jake Quickenden.

The PHMG Foundation has already raised £26,000 for a series of good causes throughout 2016 and is working towards a target of £30,000 by the end of the year, which will be matched by an equivalent donation from PHMG.

Burnley Win Promotion

A 1-0 win over QPR at Turf Moor following a 1-1 draw on the South Coast between Brighton and Derby means that Burnley have returned to the Premier League at the first opportunity.

Whoever will go up with them will come down to a last day clash at the Riverside Stadium between Middlesbrough and Brighton (Saturday noon, Sky Sports 1)

Back on Friday.

Post Coming Later

There won’t be a post this morning due to technical difficulties with my front door overnight. The lock broke and despite some excellent help from a local locksmith, my wife and I didn’t get into the house until 2am…

Game Of The Evening: Burnley v Middlesbrough

Tonight’s slate features an important game between the top two that will have implications for the top three.

Any of the leading contenders that make a mistake over the next couple of weeks will probably find themselves in the playoffs rather than watching them so this is a massive game for Burnley and Middlesbrough.

The Clarets are on an eleven game unbeaten streak at Turf Moor, which means that they’re due to be beaten there soon. They’ve done well in Lancashire against the other candidates for promotion though: three wins and a draw so far, but it’s their defence that’s been impressive recently. Burnley have kept nine clean sheets in that eleven game streak and haven’t conceded at home since a late Danny Batth equaliser against Wolves last month.

After three straight away defeats last month it looks as if Boro have got back to winning ways again, although it was touch and go at Bolton on Saturday. However, since losing at Bristol City in January, their away defence has looked vulnerable as the leaders have only kept two clean sheets in eight road trips since then and have conceded two at Blackburn, Charlton and QPR, which isn’t that impressive. Although Boro have lost at Hull this season, their struggles on the road this season have come at teams that have been trying to avoid relegation than those looking to win promotion: they’ve won six of their eight games against the other clubs currently in the top six. Burnley can’t afford to ignore that record.

Head to head in Lancashire (league only): including Burnley’s 5-2 win in November 1971, each team has won three of the ten meetings at Turf Moor but the Clarets haven’t won on their home patch since April 2001, which was also the last time they scored against Boro in front of their own fans.

Verdict: a draw would suit Middlesbrough, but if that happens and Brighton beat QPR then there’ll only be two points between the top three going into the weekend. This is Burnley’s penultimate and toughest home game of the season and after a lack lustre performance at Bolton on Saturday, I’d imagine that Boro will want to bounce back.

Two more games to keep an eye on:

Bolton v Charlton

The irony here is that if Bolton win, in all likelihood they’ll be taking Charlton down to League One with them.

Sheffield Wednesday v MK Dons

I can’t see MK Dons winning at Hillsborough – that would be a first – especially as Wednesday have been dominant at home against teams in the bottom half of the table this season. Furthermore, the hosts have only lost once at home since the end of August: there’s a possible weird, end of season result here but I don’t think it’s going to happen. That’s even though the Dons need a win to postpone what looks like an immediate return to League One.

There’ll be an update later.

EFL? WTF!

I’m happy to admit that I’m a traditionalist when it comes to the Football League. After all, it’s oldest organisation of its type in the world (there are older Australian Rules leagues) and only the Argentinian and Belgian competitions were playing before the turn of the twentieth century.

However the announcement last week that the Football League will be renamed the English Football League next season is as depressing as it is ridiculous as it is inaccurate. It’s not hard to see why rebranding should have been considered as an option: since 1992 the top tier of English football has been known as the Premier League, even though it’s not a ‘league’ in the strict sense of the word, it’s a division. In a world dominated by social media, the Premier League is usually abbreviated to EPL or BPL (the ‘B’ being the initial of the current title sponsor) but the Football League has been left behind by all this modern stuff. It doesn’t appear to have any kind of instantly recognisable hashtag – which is a pain in the backside when it comes to promoting these posts on twitter and Facebook – and was clearly caught flat footed by the Conference renaming itself the National League.

The problem is that #EFL is internationally recognised as the abbreviation of English as a Foreign Language and the three letter airport code for Cephalonia in Greece: then there’s also the fact that the oldest football league competition has now been reduced to a letter – we’ve got the A-league, J-League, K-League and presumably now the E-League. EFL is also one letter away from both an energy provider and a far right political party. Before anyone mentions the NFL, that organisation has been operating under that name since 1920, when they felt that the American Professional Football Association was a bit of a mouthful: that’s almost a century ago.

The social media aspect of this rebranding is only one part of the exercise – the derision that greeted the logo was almost universal as it looks like a load of blue bubbles swirling around a washing machine as much as it does a football. Presumably the logo will feature on arm patches and balls next season, although it remains to be seen if Sky Bet English Football League Championship will fit on them in anything other than a really small font. In fact, I wonder if The Championship is going to be a thing of the past: it’s been the title of the second tier for over ten seasons, which is an eternity these days. I’ve supported my club for over two decades and although they haven’t been outside the second and third tiers of English football over that period, those competitions have had their titles changed six times – and that’s not even counting the title sponsors.

In conclusion, changes could have probably been made to have given the Football League a higher profile, but the results have been widely derided and rightly so. I’ll be back next week.