Blast from the Past

Non-League Crawley Town take on Manchester United in the fifth round of the FA Cup this evening, a dream fixture for the eleven Crawley players that will take to Old Trafford, the Theatre of Dreams. It has been seventeen years since such a scenario was last seen, when Kidderminster Harriers were the team in mention, but how did the  Harriers famous FA Cup run fare?

They reached the fifth round in 1994 shooting to national fame after defeating Birmingham City 2–1 away and Preston North End 1–0 at home in the previous two rounds. They then lost narrowly (0–1) at home in front of nearly 8,000 to West Ham United.After Leaders of the GM Vauxhall Conference, sprang one of the big surprises of the FA Cup, dumping Preston North End out of this year's competition, harried out of it in front of a 7,000 full house at Aggborough as Delwyn Humphreys' second-half goal sealed the fate of the Third Division high-fliers.

The Harriers' manager Graham Allner said after the game,  'I just don't know how good this side is. We went to First Division Birmingham City and won at their ground and now we've beaten one of the most difficult sides in the Third Division.' 

Paul Davies who scored both the goals that beat Burton Albion in the 1987 4^th round replay, the last time Kidderminster won a place in the fifth round two goals among 243 in 513 games for his home-town club, who had in folklore his place already assured remarked 'I didn't think I'd have a moment to beat that, but this is starting to outstrip even the Trophy,' he said. 'I'm 33 now and I consider that I've had a good career, but I had never gone a long way in the Cup or won the Conference. If we are still in the same position at the end of the season, I could retire happily.'

Sadly the dream was to come to an end as 8,000 people saw West Ham beat Kidderminster 1-0 thanks to a Billy Bonds Goal, but the Kidderminster team were always to be fondly remembered for their cup round, now it is Crawley towns turn and all eyes will be on Old Trafford come teatime today.

Whatever Happened?

Every Friday we will be discovering what ever came of those promising young footballing sensations that failed to live up to the ultimate hype, descending into footballing wilderness. Our inaugural subject this week is Liam Miller. 

Liam Miller, now of Hibernian.

Miller was born in Cork, Ireland to a Scottish father and an Irish mother, and joined Celtic in 1997 as a youth player, and made his professional league debut against Dundee United on 21 May 2000. After six-month loan spell with AGF Aarhus, who considered making the deal permanent after impressing, Miller broke into the Celtic first team during the 2003-04 season and after proving himself in the Champions League, scoring in the 3-0 win against Anderlecht Miller was offered a long-term contract. Despite this signed a pre-contract agreement in January 2004 with Manchester United. A move which greatly disappointed Martin O'Neill, who had intended to build a new Celtic team around Miller. Miller also found himself at the end of much abuse from the Celtic supporters who seen miller as a figure of disrespect after Celtic had shown such faith in the Corkman’s talents.

 

After the start of his career for the Red Devils, he found first-team opportunities rare towards the end of the 2004–05 season. Miller later commented that "Man Utd didn't work out but I have no regrets about giving it a go”. In August 2006, he transferred to Sunderland linking up with new Sunderland manager and Ex-team-mate Roy Keane. He left Manchester United after playing just nine league games in two seasons^. After being sent off for the second time in his Sunderland career against Chelsea in December 2007 Manager Roy Keane placed him on the transfer list on 27 February 2008 due to a 'lack of discipline' and 'poor timekeeping', evidenced by his frequent lateness arriving to training sessions. A six month spell with QPR followed however Miller was left without a club after the summer transfer window in 2009, training with clubs in Ireland to maintain his fitness.He offered his services to Hibernian manager John Hughes, who was surprised that Miller was available to him on a free transfer, offered a two year deal, which Miller signed in September 2009. Miller has since established himself in the Hibs first team, with Graham Spiers describing him as the "king of Hibs" after a 1–1 draw against Rangers. He has made 55 appearances for Hibs, netted 5 times.

On Tuesday evening Manchester city had the welcome distraction of European football to keep them entertained after the disappointment of losing the Manchester Derby at the weekend albeit due to a magnificent effort from Wayne Rooney to win the game. At the Kleanthis Vikelidis the citizens were widely expected to beat unknown Greek outfit in the first-leg, last-32 clash, however not find a way through a determined Aris Salonika could defence.  

City manager Roberto Mancini may take comfort from the fact that Aris' two English opponents prior at the ground, Chelsea and Ipswich, went on to respectively win the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1971 and the Uefa Cup in 1981 after failing to win in Greece, as the draw was the Greek sides 25^th consecutive European home game without defeat.But who exactly are these relatively unknowns who halted the attacking force whom succeeded in where Manchester united could not and achieve a clean sheet against the blues? Well here’s a three minuet brief history to impress your mates down the local at the weekend.

Named in honour of the Greek god of war, Aris were founded on 25 March 1914 in Salonika and made a swift impact in Greek football, winning the first national title in 1928 under the guidance of Austrian coach Thomas Kessler; the star player in that team was Kleanthis Vikelidis, after whom the club's stadium is now named. Inspired by Dinos Kouis and Giorgos Firos, the Aris side of the late 1970s played some great football, but lost the 1979/80 title with a 2-0 play-off defeat against Olympiacos FC after the teams had finished level on points.In subsequent decades financial problems blunted Aris's competitive edge, but they regrouped in 2006 with the development of the Aris Friends Club under which supporters financially assist the club while having a say in the election of presidents. The club has been champions of Greece three times, and have won the Greek Cup once.The club currently languish in eighth place after finishing fourth in the Super League last year under Valencia and inter manager Hector Cuper, who left last month despite leading the team into the last 32 of the Europa league replaced by Giannis Michalitsos. Their Star players include Brazilian Neto, Greek keeper Michalis Sifakis and Spaniard captain  Sergio Koke, formely of Marsielle and Malaga. Well I Never.

Notice

Hello all,

After my term governing my own blog for my first college semester, of which could not be called a pronounced success judging by the number of followers I acquired over the time I worked on the Blog, I have grown to quite miss the drudgery and stresses that come along with the blog, so much that I have returned almost two months later to make another cerebral attempt to make a success of the blog. 

Whether it is wise in doing so, but I will continue with the subject of the blog being on the focus of all that is going on in the world of soccer. However i promise to add more features to the blog, as well as again giving my own views and opinions on the day’s events of the world of soccer.

Here’s to the journey ahead, John