Laurie Cunningham 8 March 1956 – 15 July 1989

It's 20 years to the day that Laurie Cunningham died in a car crash in Madird.

Laurie joined West Bromwich Albion Football Club in 1977. Laurie broke a lot of round as a player and a man. 30 years ago it was are for black players to be playing professional football and racist abuse from the terraces was shocking (a bit like being in Spain or Eastern Europe nowadays). So, Albion had three black players in the shape of Cunningham, Cyril Regis and Brendon Batson this was unheard of. It coincided with a period of time where Albion were one of the best footballing teams in Europe.

Laurie was the first black player to represent England at any level, and also the first to represent them in a competitive international.

His skills as an Albion player got lots of attention and in 1979 he was the first English player to sign for Real Madrid for £995k.

Desipte early success in Madrid he didn't quite recapture the form that made him one of Albion's greatest ever footballer and he had a bit of a Journeyman career, but was looking forward to facing Madrid in the Spanish topflight for local rivals Rayo Vallecano; a club he had just helped gain promotion.

Still, for those of us who saw him play, he will live long in the memories, and twenty years on his magic is missed.

A couple of years ago I showed the video below on this blog, and you can see how great a player Laurie Cunningham was. you will also notice the aforementioned racism from the crowd.



And the strangest thing is when walking into work this morning I was thinking about a close friend who died in a car crash less than 2 years after Laurie (before I realised it was the anniversary of Laurie's death.)

Back with a Boing!

Yep, I'm back from a 2 week vacation in Florida, and "back with a boing" too. Well, I should say "back with a Boing Boing" really as my beloved West Bromwich Albion won the Championship (the 2nd tier of England's Football leagues) today! Yay!

Already I've been on You tube to find some videos to celebrate this glorious occasion.

The Throstles with the Trophy!


Here's some pictures of the season set to some dodgy music.


Players celebrate with a slide towards the fans.


Pictures with more music!


And finally, someone's filmed the television, includes 1st goal today.


Although I've actually been back for 3 days I've been too I've been too tired to post. It's already gone 11pm tonight so I'll fill in some of the holiday details on another post some point this week, including all the highlights and low points.

Travesty

I hate it when the better team lose.

It's even worse when the result was settled by substandard refereeing. At 50+ minutes Albion were totally and utterly dominating crooked Harry's Portsmouth when Milan Baros (a player who should have been sent off earlier for repeat offending) handled the ball in the box in the move that resulted in the only goal of the game.

Referee Mr Webb and his linemen are supposed to be refereeing at the Euro championships in a few months time but this incident will surely change EUFA's mind.

So, two Wembley fixtures in 11 months and two 1-0 losses despite being considerably superior to the opposition.

I'm gonna be peeed off all weekend.

Boing Boing...Bagiies going to Wembley!

Yay! Mega-congrats to my Football team West Bromwich Albion for reaching the FA Cup Semi-Final for the first time since 1982 (and hopefully can go on to win it for the first time since 1968!)