Soccer

From Aldershot's win over Wolves to Mickey Gray's hideously bad penalty, via Paul Dickov's late heroics against Gillingham1) Aldershot beat Wolves (1987 Division Four play-off final)If Wolves fans think their recent relegation to League One was a crushing disappointment, they can at least console themselves with the knowledge that their team has endured worse agonies. Having dropped down to English football's fourth tier on the back of three successive relegations, the West Midlands club had survived a winding-up order 10 months previously and were attempting to begin the gradual ascent back towards former glories. They were doing so via a new wheeze called the play-offs, which had been adopted to increase competition and maintain fan interest by giving more clubs a chance of winning promotion towards the end of the season. Victory would prove a fitting end to one of the most eventful season's in the club's history.The format for the play-offs was different to that which we're used today, contested as they were by the teams which finished fourth, fifth and sixth in the old Fourth Division, along with one team from the league above. In this case, Bolton Wanderers had battled unsuccessfully to retain their Third Division status, going out to Aldershot in the semi-finals. In the other match-up, Wolves had eliminated Colchester United, setting up the first play-off final in the history of English football, to be played over two legs at the Recreation Ground and Molineux (one-off finals at Wembley were not introduced until 1990).Despite their recent financial woes Wolves went into the final as favourites, having finished nine points clear of Aldershot in the league table and by dint of the fact they were … well, the once mighty Wolverhampton Wanderers. Besides, they'd already seen off the Shots twice that season: 3-0 at home and 2-1 away. Beating them over two legs was surely only a formality. What could possibly go wrong?Quite a lot, as it happened. On a rain-sodden pitch in front of 5,069 fans (almost half of them supporting the men in Old Gold) at the Recreation Ground, Wolves contrived to lose the first leg 2-0, going down to goals from Ian McDonald and Bobby Barnes. Even with two sides of Molineux out of commission for the second leg three days later (the North Bank and Waterloo Road Stand had been closed down due to new safety laws implemented following the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985), many of the 19,962 who packed the John Ireland Stand and the South Bank terrace were confident their side, spearheaded by a young striker named Steve Bull who would go on to score more than 300 goals for the club, could overturn the first-leg deficit. Their optimism proved misguided when Barnes struck his second of the tie and the only goal of the game to give Aldershot a 3-0 aggregate win, ensuring Wolves fans became the first in the country to endure the horrors of a play-off final defeat. Many of them didn't take it too well and, of the 42 arrests made in violent post-match scenes, 41 of those who had their collars felt were home fans.In an intriguing and sad footnote, the day ended badly for three Aldershot players, who were hospitalised on their way home when the car driven by centre-half Darren Anderson crashed into a tree. Anderson received stitches to a head wound, striker Glen Burvill broke an arm and playmaker Giorgio Mazzon needed surgery on internal injuries. The precedent for decades of subsequent play-off drama had been set.2) Manchester City beat Gillingham (1999 Division Two play-off final) Sunday 30 May 1999. A second-place finish in the top flight and an FA Cup final defeat were the kind of "failures" beyond the wildest dreams of long-suffering Manchester City fans. A nationwide laughing stock and punchline, their club had reached its lowest ebb the previous season, becoming only the second ever European trophy winners to be relegated to their country's third tier. In a win-or-bust one-off Wembley showpiece to escape f

Midfielder signs a contract extension which will keep him at Goodison Park until 2015, despite David Moyes' departure.

Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea is included in Spain's squad for the European Under-21 Championship.

Former Man United chief exec David Gill looks certain to be elected to Uefa's executive committee unopposed.

Poll: Marcel Desailly believes the time is right for the Welsh wizard to quit White Hart Lane for a bigger club.

This week’s Friday cartoon features a little known end of season event which is held by the League Managers Association, which may or may not be a result of the fevered imagination of our cartoonist-in-residence, Ed Carter. He insists that this is something that definitely happens at the end of each season but, frankly, I have my doubts. You can see more of Dotmund’s art by clicking here, and you can even buy his lovely artwork by clicking here. You can follow Dotmund on Twitter by clicking here. You can follow Twohundredpercent on Twitter by clicking here.

Nicky Law agrees a three-year deal with Rangers with the midfielder leaving Motherwell after two years.

A funny thing happened on the way to a forum, I saw sense and ran away. Last weekend in the refurbished Sokolniki Park saw the “Football – two countries, one passion” event that was to “herald the way forward for Russian football”. What was almost added was, “into the 20 th century”. I seriously expected a very competent and productive showing as the media blurb in advance of it had it at a pretty high level. It was to be all about showing the Russians the right way to do things, after all, weren’t two German clubs in the Champions and Runners up, third and fourth place (in some leagues) League final, sponsored by a beer company who cannot be named. Sure weren’t both of the clubs in the final after winning it before, one of them even went bust since. And that same one was responsible for selling replica kits that were not fit for being placed on the human body. It was all the past, everything was the past. Sponsors rolled out, like Continental tyres, and German stadium services and building companies hovered around declaring how German technology was superior and that unless the locals took it on board the 2018 World Cup was doomed to failure. I couldn’t help but smile when I heard one comment from a young father as he shook his head at the malfunctioning “Robo Keeper” stall where people lined up to take penalty shots. “German technology didn’t help in Stalingrad.” I wanted to say that NKVD pistols at the back of Soviet soldiers necks probably balanced it and weight of numbers, weather and home support swung it the way of the Red Army, but I was trying to keep from smiling. The apex of the event was the promotion of the best way to build a club, presented by – TSG 1899 Hoffenheim! Now before anyone might ask if this is the same guy from Baywatch, they’re a village team who did a Roy of the Rovers turnabout and rose up from the fifth tier of German football to make a run at the title a couple of years back. In six days from now they’ll know if they are still a top flight side when they face off against another “dream” club, Kaiserslautern, in the relegation-promotion playoff. What goes up, must come down and Hoffenheim have shown that when it goes bad, it goes very bad. Once SAP founder Dietmar Hopp poured millions into the club to push them up the leagues, there have been many snooting their noses at the “village” side who have no tradition, though this is very interesting coming from teams whose history enjoyed more restarts than a 30 year old Lada. Promotion and consolidation under the steady hand of Ralph Rangnick was impressive with a likely cast of characters push the club to the top of the table and last eight of the cup. With Demba Ba, Vedad Ibisevic and Luiz Gustavo turning in quality performances weekly, the club looked like being genuine contenders, especially with the club ensconced in the newly built Rhein-Neckar-Stadium. Then it went bang. Rangnick left over the sale of Gustavo, Ibisevic got injured and was sold, Demba Ba went. Since January 2011 the club have had six head coaches (including two caretakers) and the unity and stability that got them to the top had all but vanished as they slid from top five contention towards the trapdoor. Yet in Moscow they were wheeling out the miracle of Hoffenheim and how they would be the model for Russian clubs to follow – until it was pointed out to their spokesman that there was indeed a model in Russia of this type, in fact many models, with most long out of business including FC Moscow as the biggest casualty. While the event was meant to promote the German way of doing business, there are existing good models of club development here in Russia that would be far better looked at and used as a base model. Nothing is perfect, though buying into a failed philosophy is one sure way to disaster. So what club(s) here could be looked at and learned from? FC Krasnodar is one that has turned out good youth players, stayed competitive and keeping itself moving –so long as the owner

Today's rumours are huddled and yearning to be freeNearly 20 years after Jean-Marc Bosman nobly fought for the liberty of out-of-contract footballers and won a famous victory, another Belgian player is donning rudimentary leather battle-armour and questionable blue face paint and telling his club that they may take his life but they will never take his freedom. That man is Christian Benteke, who wants to break free from the shackles of contractual enslavement at Aston Villa in order to push through a move to Arsenal, or indeed somewhere else. "If they say I must stay, I won't necessarily accept that. I do not in any way want to feel I didn't get the most out of my career," he WilliamWallaced when asked about his future.The remarks left his agent right narked: "This always happens when he goes away with the national team. I'd prefer he didn't speak to journalists but the Belgian team insist he does a press conference." No matter, the words are said now and cannot be unsaid, and so along with Arsenal, Tottenham and Borussia Dortmund are set to jostle for his £25m-rated services, although the German Champions League finalists are also linked with a season-long loan move for Chelsea's Romelu Lukaku, whose parent club are keen on Atlético Madrid's Turkish winger Arda Turan, whose current employers, along with Sevilla and Real Betis, want to sign QPR's Esteban Granero, whose freshly-relegated English outfit want to bring in out-of-contract defender Richard Dunne, who has just been released by Aston Villa, current home of Christian Benteke. And thus does the circle of rumour life keep on turning.Stoke's Asmir Begovic has given his biggest hint yet that he is indeed to leave this summer, which everyone knows will happen even though his club insisted it wouldn't when they signed Jack Butland in January, when he told a journalist in Bosnia that he was going to do pre-season training at Liverpool. The Potters have been linked with Twente's 19-year-old shot-stopper Timo Plattel. Fulham, meanwhile, have been urged not to release ageing gloveman Mark Schwarzer, with John Arne Riise trilling that he is "a fantastic goalkeeper and a great person".Back to Stoke, though, where Stephen Nzonzi has handed in a transfer request. It is a second transfer request in under a year for Nzonzi, who forced through a move from relegated Blackburn last summer. He is advised by his father, Fidele. Fidele is a name of Spanish origin which translates as "faithful". "We are not unduly worried about the situation as he has three years remaining on his contract," said the club's chairman, Peter Coates, who by the sounds of things needs to keep a close eye on Benteke-based events detailed above but who instead has been locked in discussions with key advisers about potential targets to replace Tony Pulis is manager, with Roberto Di Matteo, Roberto Martínez and two people not called Roberto – Mark Hughes and Gus Poyet – thought to have been prominent in their conversation.Elsewhere in the world of management, Napoli have started sniffing around Tottenham's Andre Villas-Boas, with their president Aurelio De Laurentiis admitting "there is a very tempting argument to hire a young coach". Fulham's Martin Jol, meanwhile, is among the names being considered to replace the sacked Frank Arnesen as general manager of Hamburg. Dennis Wise has applied for the vacant manager's post at Millwall, where he was previously in charge between 2003 and 2005, says the Sun. The job will go to former Liverpool defender Markus Babbel, says the Mail. Also variously reckoned to be in the frame: Alex McLeish and St Johnston's Steve Lomas. In other boardroom developments, the Reading chairman John Madejski was taken out by security staff when he made a misguided attempt to cuddle the singer Paloma Faith while she was performing at a corporate event.Sunderland are preparing for a massive clearout as Paolo di Canio ushers doorwards every workshy wonder who hasn't been impressed by the Italian's m

Former Manchester United chief exec David Gill looks certain to be elected to Uefa's executive committee unopposed today.