Give me ideas as to what to talk about. Expect a video about 5-10 mins long during the easter holidays.
Love dodge x
Some of you may not know that my grandad and great-grandad both played professional football. Here are some things i found online that have interested me about them.
From Martin Tyler’s Q&A blog on Sky Sports.com:
Hi Martin, with Darren Ferguson taking the reins at Peterborough United, I was wondering if this is the first time a father and son have managed in the league at the same time? Dan Higgins, Dartford
MARTIN SAYS: It has happened on at least one occasion before Dan, and not only did the father and son in question manage at the same time, they also came up against each other in a game – albeit in the cup. In the 1970 FA Cup first round, Bill Dodgin Snr took his Bristol Rovers side to Fulham, who were managed by one Bill Dodgin Jnr. For the record dad got the upper hand with a 1-0 win and just to add a personal note, Bill Dodgin Snr took over the local sweet shop where I grew up in West Byfleet and on meeting my father – also a West Byfleet shopkeeper – and hearing about my love for football, promptly gave me a load of football programmes which I still have to this day!
From Arsenal.com:
BILL DODGIN
England U-23 centre-half Bill Dodgin starred as Arsenal finished third in the top-flight in 1958/59. Initially an amateur with Southampton, he followed his father of the same name to Fulham in September 1949 and joined Arsenal for £4,000 in December 1952. He twice helped the Gunners reach the FA Cup sixth round and made 191 First Division appearances before rejoining Fulham for £7,000 in March 1961, featuring in their 1961/62 FA Cup semi-final replay defeat. Subsequently coach at Millwall, he managed QPR, Fulham, Northampton Town (twice), Brentford and Woking, then was Brighton’s chief scout. He died in June 2000.
About Great-Grandad from Fulhamfc.com:
When the Second Division title was won, Fulham turned to Southampton, the team that was pipped at the post for promotion, for a new team manager.
Bill Dodgin had enjoyed a successful spell at the Dell since his appointment, his first as a manager, in June 1946. Before the war, he been a wing half with Huddersfield, Lincoln, Charlton, Bristol Rovers, Clapton Orient and Southampton, and at 39 years of age, he was not only one of Fulham’s youngest managers (about the same as Kelso and Ducat) but he was one of the youngest in the First Division.
He found it tough going. The Cottagers were probably not good enough for the top flight and, apart from buying three or four players in the summer of 1950, seemed unwilling to spend the money necessary to keep them there.
After two seasons of struggle, they were relegated in the third. Dodgin was given another season in charge but mid table in 1952-53 was not good enough and in the autumn of 1953 he was on his way, first to Brentford and then Sampdoria.
From 1961 until his retirement in 1972, he was associated in various capacities with Bristol Rovers. Dodgin always claimed that he was unlucky at Fulham, Haynes and Robson were just breaking through, but not soon enough. He did not help his own cause, however, letting the popular Len Quested move to Huddersfield and playing his own son, Bill junior.
About Grandad from Fulham as well:
In the chaos that followed Robson’s sacking in November 1968, Johnny Haynes took over the reins temporarily, but he had no desire to fill the role on a permanent basis.
On the Maestro’s recommendation, his friend and former Fulham defender, Bill Dodgin junior, took the job the next month, the second time a father and son had managed the Cottagers.
After leaving Fulham for a second time in 1964, Dodgin had won plaudits for his coaching skills, first at Millwall but especially at QPR where his partnership with Alec Stock lifted Rangers from the Third to the First Divisions.
There was little he could do to save Fulham from a second relegation in 12 months, and so the Cottagers kicked off Dodgin’s first full season in the Third Division for the first time in almost 40 years.
Open attacking football was the only way Dodgin knew how to play and since the nucleus of the side had First Division experience, the policy worked at a lower level. Within two years, promotion was won and but for a home defeat on the final day, the Third Division title would have come Fulham’s way.
This same attacking policy did not work back in Division Two in 1971-2 and relegation was on the agenda until the final matches and the controversial loan signing of Alan Mullery. Despite beating the drop, Dodgin was shown the door by chairman Tommy Trinder, much to the chagrin of the supporters. In his subsequent career, at Brentford and Northampton, Dodgin enjoyed success in the lower divisions by sticking to his attacking principles. For a few months in 1994, by then in his sixties, he was back at the Cottage as youth development officer but this role ended with the club’s relegation that summer.
About Great-Grandad, comparing him to Matt Busby – he wasn’t quite that good…:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19991022/ai_n14282059
Finally, a good quote from Jackie Graham about Grandad:
http://www.legendspublishing.net/cultbees2.html
My favourite quote from my grandad is the following:
“At times I think I’m too much of a liberal. I think you’ve got to be a bit of a fascist with women and footballers.”
Anyone interested in coming with me to the Ireland vs. Argentina game on the 30th September at the Rugby World Cup this year? Tickets are £25. Should be a good game as well.
In the beginning, tom created myspace. there were many good things about myspace – you could add all your friends and joke about in a cyberworld, you could add your favourite bands and here new songs, you could discover new artists. all was good in the land of myspace.
But then a scourge appeared upon the land. a scourge known only by the horrifying “scenesters.” Scenesters took what was good about myspace and they destroyed it. They started adding people they didnt know just to make themselves look popular, when in reality they were anything but. They forgot how spell Eg “omg howz r u? i luv u so much, u r my bst frend.”and Myspace was destroyed, along with everything it stood for.
Many were desperate.
Then riding through the dark on a white horse, carrying a torch, came facebook. Facebook took what was good about myspace – that you could fool around with your friends online – and recreated it, but without the aspects of myspace that the scenesters craved and there was much rejoicing.
Facebook turned night to day, brought light to darkness, and best of all, allowed me to find out what my best mates girlfriend at uni looks like.
The final nail was placed in the myspace coffin upon its purchase by the fox company, owned by rupert murdoch, the world’s second largest arsehole (because let’s be honest, George W is a premier league arsehole, whereas Murdoch is at worst Championship).
If you are still of the uneducated opinion that myspace is better than facebook – come to the light. you will never have 1,052 friends. No-one does. Come to the facebook life and realise that you dont need personalised backgrounds, you dont need to add your favourite bands and you dont need over 500 friends. you just need somewhere to arse about with your real life friends when you cant see them. So come on. Join facebook.
“23 Magnaville Road,
Bushey Heath,
Hertfordshire,
WD12 1PN
5.6.99
Dear Sam,
Thanks for the letter and the pictures. They are very good. Luke didn’t find a secret area on might and Magic. It is actually the Supreme Temple of Baa which is part of a very important quest. It is full of priests and devils and I wandered around in there for weeks before I realized that all I needed to do was jump through a gap in a wall and run like hell! I have discovered what to do on Tomb Raider 3 and I will show you when I next see you.
From your best friend
Oliver.”
He still is, you know…
met her 11 months ago the day before yesterday (that being the 5th of March 2007). We have been together ever since and I love her. I love her dearly. What I feel for her, I will never be able to describe. She is wonderful and made my life worth living. I would not be here to type this if it wasn’t for her. She is 5ft of beauty and brains. Thick curly brown hair down to just above her shoulders, that’s perfect to run your hands through. A smile that lights up an entire room. A fantastic sense of humour. Everything I’ve ever wanted. And it’s mine.
We met in Germany. In Stuttgart, to be precise. She stood out from the others. Firstly, she was a lot more attractive. Secondly, she was a lot quieter. I struck up a rapport with her. She interested me greatly. It seemed to me that she had a lot to say and a lot of pain, but that she was trying to live her life. We first kissed in the Wilhelma Tiergarten. I remember it distinctly. We had gone off hand in hand, just chatting away without a care in the world. Then suddenly something clicked. Certainly in me anyway. I had to take her somewhere quiet. I needed to kiss her. This was on a Monday. The Friday before we had almost kissed in an Eiscafe, but some angry little man had ushered us away from our private little spot. Just outside the toilets. So romantic. Anyway, I needed to find somewhere private. We wandered to where the polar bears were kept, which was a long way out of the way of anywhere else. Just as I was about to move in, someone, I can’t remember whether we knew them or not, appeared. FUCK. Opportunity lost. We started walking back down towards the main part of the zoo and I stopped and turned round. This was my moment. I moved in and I could see her doing the same. Our lips met and I got the most FANTASTIC feeling I have ever felt. Elation on a scale greater than I ever thought possible. Greater than Jonny Wilko’s winning drop goal in the Rugby World Cup Final. Greater than seeing Muse live (is it obvious that not a lot of really good things have happened to me?). Completely brilliant. I felt a whole new person. That was 11 months ago yesterday. That is still the best moment of my entire life. When I first kissed Victoria Elizabeth Anne Hook. Every time I kiss her, I get the same sensation. Like being on top of the world. No-one will ever replace her. No-one will ever make me feel like this again.
“And the first time ever I kissed your mouth,
I felt the earth move,
Like the trembling heart of a captive bird,
That was there at my command”
The first months of our relationship were fantastic. We did all the things that couples do. Sent each other letters. Went to the cinema. Went places together. I have a whole box of things that I received. I remember the first time we met up after Germany. I had stayed on for another week, which had been prearranged. I have never wanted so much to get home. I missed her so so so so so so so so so so so so so much. All I could think about was her. I met her the day after we got back. I was a nervous wreck. Would she turn up? Would she still feel the same? Would she still want a relationship? I started well, and just got better. She was there when I arrived. She smiled at walked up to me. Owing to the foots height difference between us. She stood up on the tips of her toes and kissed me. I got that feeling again. We went to Costa. I can’t remember if she had anything. To be honest that whole day feels like a blur. I was over the moon. Finally, things appeared to be going my way. We came back here and spent a whole day in each other’s arms. From that day onwards, I have been completely and utterly in love.
“I could see whomever ever I choose,
But nothing, I said nothing, can take away these blues,
‘Cos nothing compares to you…”
