The Robins' Nest Re-Launch

Wow, I haven't blogged since June 2011. Over 3 years on and so much has changed. In short, I'm getting married, I've moved out of my parents' home, I'm looking at moving again and I'm in a new job.

I'm re-launching The Robins' Nest as I've recently had the urge to blog about a few things that I have going on. You'll notice that previously the theme was football, Swindon Town FC in particular. Going forward, I'm not going to be restricting myself to that, you will be seeing more about the other things in my life; technology, music, scuba-diving, wedding planning, house-buying and whatever else gets thrown into the mix.

So sit tight, as I my next post is work in progress.

Paolo Di Canio, Do Two Wrongs Make a Right?

If you haven't heard, you either don't follow football or you've been living under a rock for the last month. Paolo Di Canio has been appointed manager of my beloved Swindon Town FC.

If you don't know who Paolo Di Canio is, you don't follow football or you've been living under a rock for the last 13 or so years.

Di Canio made over 500 league appearances and scored over 100 league goals over a professional footballing career that spanned his home country of Italy, Scotland and England. Clubs he's served include Lazio, Juventus, AC Milan, Roma, Celtic, Sheffield Wednesday, West Ham and Charlton.

Despite an impressive career, Di Canio is shrouded in controversy. Following a successful 97-98 Premiership season with Sheffield Wednesday, which saw Di Canio as the club's leading goal scorer and a firm fan favourite, we of course had the infamous "Ref Push". Di Canio pushed referee Paul Alcock over after being red-carded in a match against Arsenal at Hillsborough. This act saw the Italian's name splashed across British tabloids, along with an 11 match ban and £10,000 fine.

Rumour has it that Di Canio was then forced out of the club in an attempt reduce the effect on their reputation. He made a knock-down £1.7m move to West Ham in the January transfer window, even though Wednesday had paid £4.2m just a couple of seasons earlier.

At West Ham, he was a part of the team that achieved an impressive 5th placed finish and qualification for the UEFA Cup via the Intertoto Cup. He was voted Player of the Season for the 98-99 season and his volley against Wimbledon in March 2000 is still noted as one of the best in Premier League history.

As if his achievements in our own top flight weren’t enough, 2001 saw Paolo pick up the FIFA Fair Play Award for what was described by FIFA as "a special act of good sportsmanship". During a game against Everton, despite being in a clear goal-scoring opportunity, Di Canio caught the ball from a cross rather than heading home as Everton 'keeper Paul Gerrard lay injured on the floor. (Though admittedly, anything slightly tied to FIFA these days has been tarnished).

However, Di Canio would soon be in the press once more, following his return to Italy to play for Lazio. Many pictures and videos exist of Paolo Di Canio performing the "Roman Salute" as a goal celebration (if it doesn't ring any bells, think Nazi Germany). This coupled with his self-proclamation of being of fascist belief and a keen admiration of Benito Mussolini, the former leader of the National Fascist Party, has English Football Fans split right down the middle on his return to the English game.

But why shouldn't Paolo Di Canio have a crack at football management in our beloved country? The man is one of a long list of great footballers to have graced our English Premiership, but is unfortunately remembered instead for a loss of temper here or a controversial interview there. Paolo has a raw passion for football and winning, and as an STFC supporter, I think this is just what we need following our disastrous last season.

No, this doesn't mean I have fascist beliefs, far from it. But apart from the saluting in Lazio, Di Canio's right-wing views haven't otherwise influenced his footballing game. I might add, Italian football has a huge right-wing following, including the infamous "Ultras". These top Italian clubs are not stopped from participating in European competitions and Italian footballers are not stopped from representing their nation at International tournaments, so why shouldn’t Paolo Di Canio manage Swindon?

Sure, the English game has long pushed the message of “Let’s kick racism out of Football”, but until Di Canio walks out of the Swindon boardroom, sacks everybody that doesn’t agree with his beliefs and turns Swindon Town Football Club into some sort of right-wing fascist movement or propaganda machine, English football has no right to kick him out. After all, we shouldn’t hate on others because of their race, belief or colour of their skin right? Or do two wrongs make a right now?

Let the man do his job, yeah there’ll be controversy along the way, the press will talk, but he may just be the man to get Swindon moving in the right direction and back to the Championship where we belong.

Forza STFC!

Expecting a call...

Waiting with baited breath for a phone call that you know will arrive is a bizarre feeling. This morning that is what I have been doing. I know Mark is doing all he can, and that by constantly checking my phone, if anything, I'm prolonging the process. That's how it feels anyway. Yet I still do it. I'm sure if I just got on as normal, the call would come.

It's not even a life or death situation. Simple Minds;

You only sing when you're winning...

I haven't blogged for 10 months. Go on say it: "You only sing when you're winning".

The last time I let my mind wander onto the World Wide Web was close season, during World Cup 2010. Oh how much has changed since then! And truth be told, I have been singing when we definitely haven't been winning! Luckily, I've managed to put a poor World Cup and even worse League 1 season to the bottom of my list of things to worry about and it's definitely for the best.

The 2009/2010 season was one I'll never forget, and the current season sits at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. I spent most of last year ranting and raving about how good Swindon are and will be this season, only to be completely humbled. Now, I've spent many an hour arguing about why I didn't just have to have a slice, but the whole damn humble pie chucked in my face. Whether it was the manager, a rift between the players or failing to replace the lads that last season's success has catapulted to new levels is a conversation that we could talk about for hours. Don't worry, that's not going to happen.

Instead, this post marks a change in direction for "The Robins' Nest". Though still massively football focused, its going to be more a Molotov Cocktail, an explosive mixture of the things that make me, me. Music, Technology, Film, Friends and Life. If you don't want to read, then don't, it's that simple. In all honesty, I've only ever used The Robins' Nest as a way of channelling everything that's floating around in my head into something logical. I think way too much, on and off, due to all sorts of different stimuli. And my ol' chap once told me "Don't go to bed worrying about something because you'll lose sleep. Instead, write it down and allow it to leave your head, then worry about it tomorrow".

Yes, this season hasn't been ideal for STFC, but if you can accept that without pain, we couldn't have pleasure, suddenly the pint becomes half-full. From a broader perspective, since June 2010 I've had my fair share of good and bad. Admittedly, when these things happen, its bloody difficult to keep this mind-set. But the way I see it you've got two options, sit and dwell or try what I've just said and the world becomes much brighter.

I've got to credit this blog post to the amazing new album "Punk and Poetry" by The King Blues. Since I got home from work at 17:30 this evening, I've been listening to every verb, adjective, simile and metaphor that Itch utilizes to explain what's floating around in his head. Check the album out on Spotify via the link at the end, I can guarantee you will find at least one song you can relate to on there. And remember:

"Time don't wait, like the changing of the season. Sometimes it makes no sense, but it happens for a reason. Everything happens for a reason".

http://open.spotify.com/album/2bLbzMRDHQsbicDwE6Oxy5

A summer of football!

We seldom get to see this much football throughout the year. It almost feels like it never ended! Just a week's break following our trip to Wembley and then it was time to don my 'other' football shirt, that one with 3 Lions upon the chest!

Last season, by the time the new season fixtures were released my mouth was drooling after what had seemed like a lifetime summer break. This summer is the opposite. My mouth is still drooling over the fact that new season fixtures are released tomorrow, but I've still got 3 weeks of International football to get my teeth into! We've done something a little bit special at my house to cheer on the lads out in South Africa. We've transformed the back garden into "Gig's Arms", THE venue to watch the World Cup in Hungerford. We've also created a prediction game called "The Beautiful Game" thanks to the great idea from Will Beattie. This drummed up amazing interest amongst friends and family, getting 34 entrants! And at a tenner an entry that's given us quite a hefty prize pool to play with. The idea is, you make your predictions, then throughout the World Cup, you get points for true predictions. For example, you choose Brazil as Top Goalscorers, each time they score a goal you will get 2 points.

So far I haven't missed a World Cup game. It hasn't been the most thrilling start ever to a World Cup but I just can't get enough of it! This is the first World Cup of the Social Networking age as well, and Twitter has been overhauled with "football twits"! There has been some great discussion, from everything to jokes about Rob Green's gaff, to the Vuvuzela debate! I've been using Twitter for Blackberry away from my computer, Seesmic Web whilst at work and Tweetdeck at home on my PC to stay involved all the time in between my work responsibilities.

At work, I've been used our independent BT Broadband link (so as not to disrupt our network and keep senior management happy!) to watch the games streamed live on the broadcaster's respective websites www.bbc.co.uk/worldcup and www.itv.com/worldcup. This has been a godsend! Though the big names have thus far failed to light up the tournament (bar Germany), I'd have been livid at the prospect of missing games such as Ivory Coast vs. Portugal, which on paper should have been an encounter for the ages.

I think the above have helped let everyone get involved in the World Cup if they want to, wherever they are, for the first time ever. Its a true signal of what is to come - watching games wherever you might be, sharing banter with fellow supporters halfway across the world, or at the games in South Africa themselves. However, all good things must come to an end. The World Cup will be won and lost and life will be back to normal.But until then, keep hash tagging #worldcup and get involved in the first major footballing tournament of the digital age!

Moving on from Wembley...

I've finally had time to sit back and mull over the past week and a half. I'm not going to match report the Wembley encounter or anything like that, rather chat shit sitting at the war table.

As I stood at The Valley following Stephen Darby's penalty kick, I felt pure exultation of the highest form; how I imagine one would feel upon receipt of your first-born or landing that dream job. This is no exaggeration. For me, getting the opportunity to watch my beloved Swindon at Wembley for the first time caused this, and you may or may not be able to relate. If you're unable to, try to find your purest passage of joy; how would it feel to top that? In light of this, perhaps I was not ready for a Swindon victory at Wembley just yet.

Regardless, the 11 days between the thrilling 2nd leg encounter with Charlton and our big day out at New Wembley saw me on top of the world. No cheap-shot, sucker-punch, slobber-knocker or crippler-crossface could knock me down. Even with such anticipation, those 264 hours felt more like a mere 24. In hindsight, I wish it had been the opposite. To have been able to bask in the glory of the evening of Monday 17th May for longer would have been nice, and our Wembley defeat brought myself and I expect many a Town fan back down to earth, too hard and too soon. Alas, the organisation of transport to Wembley and the purchase of tickets consumed many of these hours and before I knew it, it was squeaky bum time and Destination Wembley Stadium. A huge thanks must go to Trevor Wainwright, Gig Talmage and Wayne Talmage who gave up a huge amount of their own time and money to make our Wembley trip possible.

Final day was an absolute stonker. I had an absolutely amazing time journeying and whilst at Wembley, and I'm sure many others will agree. The only thing left was Town being en route to the Championship, but this was not to be. For days I thought about what could have been, and in my head what should have been, but finally my pint is once again half full.

A long and fruitful season has left me with much to be grateful for; the unearthing of starlet Charlie Austin, some of the best football I've seen grace the County Ground, unbeatable away days, back to back victories over both Leeds and Southampton and of course the privilege of watching the mighty reds grace Wembley's hallowed turf.

This was my third visit to New Wembley, after previously watching Exeter's rise to League 2 and an England friendly. On my 2nd visit I stopped off at the statue of Bobby Moore for a quick prayer to the footballing gods. As my father and I turned to leave I said "The next time we see this statue we will be here to watch Swindon in the playoff finals". If only I'd have added "winning" to my statement...

League 1 climax most exciting in England?

Tomorrow, we make the short trip to South East London. Destination; The New Den, home of Millwall Football Club. The buzz ahead of this encounter is huge, as the race for second place and the fortune it brings, gets set to climax on the final day of the season.
The excitement is phenomenal; as only Norwich have secured a route to the Championship, one of five teams will take the other automatic spot tomorrow afternoon. So here is how it pans out:

Leeds Utd currently sit in 2nd place on 83 points. They are the only team in the fray with fate in their own hands. A win on the final day of the season will seal automatic promotion for the whites, but they must overcome Bristol Rovers at Elland Road to achieve this. The Pirates sit in 9th place after losing their early spot in the playoffs and on paper, Leeds should take all 3 points, but we all know that 90 minutes are played on the pitch and not on paper. So bearing this in mind, what can happen if Leeds and Bristol Rovers share the spoils?

Millwall and Swindon are hot on the tails of Leeds United, holding 3rd and 4th spot respectively and joint on 82 points. With these two teams meeting at The New Den, both players, management and supporters will be keeping a close eye on the game at Elland Road. If Leeds slip up, there is EVERYTHING to play for. And if either team steal all 3 points, with that will come the automatic promotion place. In the event that Leeds draw, and nothing separates Millwall and Swindon, 2nd place remains open to...

Charlton Atheltic, who are in 5th place on 81 points. Though 3 points alone wouldn't be enough to steal automatic, they would need a 12 goal advantage as they travel to Oldham Athletic. So Charlton will also be hoping the Pirates take all the plunder of Elland Road, and that they can swashbuckle their way to 3 points at Boundary Park.

And finally, sitting safely in the final playoff spot; Huddersfield Town are the last team who could take the coveted 2nd spot. Though currently on 80 points, if results go their way; namely a Bristol Rovers victory, a draw at The New Den and Charlton failing to beat Oldham, then Huddersfield could pip the automatic place on the home straight. They will of course need to take all 3 points from Exeter at St. James Park, but also win by 6 goals. 5 wouldn't be enough as Leeds would take 2nd place based on the number of goals scored throughout the season. Such a goalscoring feat could send shock waves at the other end of the table...

There is of course still 1 relegation place to be decided. Tranmere currently occupy the place but are on 48 points along with Exeter City, whose goal difference keeps their head above water. If Huddersfield achieve what they need to be in with a chance at automatic, that would likely sink Exeter to relegation from League 1 if Tranmere manage to gain a point against already relegated Stockport County. Above them on 49 points sit Hartlepool United. Thanks to their goal difference, it would require both Exeter to beat Huddersfield AND Tranmere to beat Stockport to relegate them if they fail to win their final match away at Brentford. Safest bet here is to take all 3 points from the Bees!

Above them and still not safe sit Gillingham. The Gills are on 50 points, and again, if they fail to win away at already relegated Wycombe and the aforementioned teams pick up 3 points, the Gills will be relegated to League 2.

I think football fans across the country will be tuning in to see the League 1 culmination tomorrow afternoon as we are set for what could be one of the most exciting final days of football in a long time. Its a time when heroes will be made and jobs will be lost whilst pride and dignity hang in the balance. I implore you to pick a team and cheer them on until the death whilst watching Jeff Stelling and the lads on Soccer Saturday. Be the 12th man and get involved in a historic day of football!

Of course, Leeds might win and Tranmere might lose, rending my pre-match speech completely void, but I've got a hunch that their could be a surprise or 2 in store when Saturday comes.