Page 30 - 358264 LP231909 A Love Supreme 48pp A5 (Issue 257)

One of the recurring theories in football is The Curse Of The Former Player. You know, they played for us therefore they’re bound to score against us for whichever club they currently represent. Is this an actual thing, or just a footballing urban myth?
the twentieth century, actually, they might well have begun before that, but records are sketchy and arduous to trawl through, with the first £1,000 footballer.
We decided to investigate and put out an appeal on Social Media asking folks to name players who’ve come back to haunt us. Answers were multitudinous and varied, ranging from “all of them” to Danny Graham, who, after four loan-littered seasons which brought him a single goal in his forty two games (and that went in off his arse at Goodison), had four years at Blackburn before we brought him back. He haunted
Sunderland-born Alf Common scored four times for us in fourteen games in season 1900-01 before we sold him to Sheffield Utd for the princely sum of £325. Despite being shorn of his talents, we won the league in 1901-02, while Alf failed to find our net in his three seasons at Brammall Lane. He came back to Roker, but within six months he moved to Boro. The haunting began
us while playing for us, as the back of the net steadfastly remained a no-go area for him and he struck just the once (in the 8-1 destruction of Villa kids in the Papa John’s Trophy) in his seventeen appearances. Thirteen of those appearances came from the bench, and he was subbed on each of his four starts before he decided it would be best for all if he gave up and chucked his boots away.
on New Year’s Day 1906, when he scored against us, but we won 2-1, and continued on Good Friday, when Bank Holidays were reserved for local derbies, as the scores were reversed and he scored twice. The next season he was at it again in a 4-2 Lads win at home, after failing to find the net in the Teesside fixture. His final goal for Boro
Others have haunted us is a different way. Shay Given, teenage hero of the 1996 promotion winning side, has put in a handful of outstanding performances against us for Villa, Man City, and them up the road. Ollie Younger, recently transferred to Doncaster, who aren’t promotion rivals, did the us a favour by starring in their win at MK Dons, who are. Let’s see what happens when Donny come to town before we thank him too much.
The most usual method of haunting, and the most obvious, is scoring against us, and that nonsense began in the early days of
MAGUIRE
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