I’m delighted to see one of my favourite pieces of football writing reappear on the web. It’s a piece by my friend Alan Crockford on the birth of his daughter (it runs down the right hand side of the page, under the heading which begins ‘Ellie was born on 23 February 2002”)

It may be glib to say that Al doesn’t see football as a metaphor for life, he sees life as a metaphor for football. It’s at least partly true, though. Why else give Ellie those initials?

Whichever way around, I love this piece, and I’m fairly sure I’m not just being soppy. It’s the bit about the traditional centre forward which always gets me…