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It goes without saying that a 5-5 draw is a rare but spectacular beast. The recent thriller at the Villa saw two past European champions share ten goals, a reminder of many a game contested on the playground in my distant past. I’m sure Forest were glad that the “next goal’s the winner” rule was not invoked. Talking to my son, I was trying to recall other 5-5 draws, until a bell chimed in the dusty vault of my memory banks. A match played on the skin-shredding plastic pitch at Loftus Road on September 22, 1984. QPR 5 Newcastle United 5. Read more »

For all his outbursts and some of the histrionics that surrounded John McEnroe’s career, there could be no doubting that the American was one of the finest tennis players of his generation. Seven grand slam singles titles between 1979-1984 highlighted McEnroe’s success in the sport, and his battles with Bjorn Borg are often cited as one of the defining rivalries in sport. Read more »

When the draw was made for the 1986 World Cup qualifying campaign, England manager Bobby Robson was taking nothing for granted. With two to qualify from England, Romania, Northern Ireland, Finland and Turkey, the press claimed it "easy pickings". But Robson urged caution. Read more »

Essex recently won their first County Championship in 25 years. But for sheer drama, surely nothing could match their 1984 triumph. As far as I know, no one has ever written a film based on the County Championship. But if a budding writer wanted to take a step into uncharted territory, and pen the first Hollywood blockbuster on this subject, then the person involved would do themselves a big favour by taking a look at the events of the 1984 season. A campaign running from April to September, came down to the penultimate ball of a match in Somerset, with the fate of two counties hanging in the Taunton air. Read more »

Frank de Boer may have only lasted 77 days at Crystal Palace before parting company with the club. But in 1984, Dave Bassett only just managed to make it past the 77 hour mark at Selhurst Park. Read more »

After the night of April 11, 1984, there remained a strong possibility that all three European club finals would be the exclusive property of Great Britain; an exciting prospect, especially for anyone who had taken the 50/1 odds at offer for all six British teams to progress from their semi-finals. It wasn’t meant to be, though. The story of how six became two involves a complex web of intimidation, corruption, disgraceful behaviour, violence, bribery, and heartbreak, an evening that the Daily Express described as Britain's night of misery. Yet this mini drama series was not only restricted to 1984; years later there would be anger, disgust, and tragedy added to the plot line. Read more »

There is not much hope of Arsenal overturning their four goal deficit against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, but in 1984 QPR threw away the same advantage in their UEFA Cup tie with Partizan Belgrade. The beginning of the 1980s was an exciting time for QPR supporters. Under the management of Terry Venables, the club were FA Cup finalists in 1982, won Division Two at a canter during the 1982/83 campaign, and a fifth-placed finish in their first season back in the top flight saw the team qualify for Europe. But there was trouble ahead. Read more »

Australia recently suffered their fifth Test defeat in a row, the innings and 80 run loss against South Africa the latest in a series of embarrassing reverses. But in the 1980s the team managed to go one better (or worse), losing six on the bounce, and in the process, reducing their skipper to an emotional wreck. The post of national captain had been far from kind to Kimberly John Hughes. After winning his first Test in charge in 1979 against Pakistan, things always seemed to conspire against the Western Australian. On the brink of taking a 2-0 series lead in the 1981 Ashes series, Hughes saw victory, and most probably the urn itself, snatched from his hands, as an inspired Ian Botham and Bob Willis combined to pull off the miracle of Headingley. When Botham's 5-1 in 28 balls sealed another unlikely win at Edgbaston, and Beefy bludgeoned a marvellous century at Old Trafford, Hughes had gone from possible hero to absolute zero in the space of a few dizzying months. Read more »

This piece is a shortened version of my previous blogs on England's tour to India in 1984/85, which can be found here and here . Read more »

The Holocaust Season; three words that will send a chill down the spine of any Stoke City fans who are old enough to remember the 1984/85 First Division campaign. A record breaking season so bad that it would take 21 years for Stoke's exploits to be beaten, and a year so stressful that Stoke's manager and chairman paid a heavy price; the latter the heaviest price of all. Read more »

August 10, 1984: after 1,700 metres of the women's 3,000m Olympic final, four runners are out in front. We didn't know it at the time, but we were just seconds away from one of the most memorable moments of the 1984 Summer Olympics, indeed of the whole sporting decade. A race that had been so eagerly anticipated appeared to be living up to the hype. Yet for two of the athletes involved, there would be no fairy tale ending, more like a nightmare. It is a story that needs to be told and, luckily for a sports addict like me, it has. This unfortunate coming together has been brilliantly covered in Kyle Keiderling's new book: Olympic Collision - The story of Mary Decker and Zola Budd . Read more »

England meet Wales at the 2016 European Championships, with Welsh fans hoping for a first win over their rivals since May 1984. Read more »

Looking back on the 1984 European Championships, which despite the lack of British and Irish representation, managed to limp on nonetheless. A tournament involving French flair, an early exit for the holders, penalty anguish for one of the stars of the championships, and tragedy. Just a shame we didn't get to see more of it.   Read more »

It was supposed to be a consolation victory coming at the end of a demoralising summer for England in 1984. A single crumb of comfort to digest before David Gower's physically and mentally damaged team departed for a tour of India in the winter. Yet the famine stretched on. The one-off Test against Sri Lanka at Lord's ended up leaving more questions than answers. Read more »

Extracted and slightly adapted from my blogs on the 1983/84 FA Cup, a look back on Everton's progress in the competition, and how winning the trophy provided the foundations for the success that followed under the sadly departed Howard Kendall. Read more »

Wales should hopefully seal their qualification for Euro 2016 in the next two matches, but in 1984 they were not so lucky. Read more »

This piece follows on from my previous blogs on the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth rounds and semi-finals of the 1983/84 FA Cup, which you can view here , here , here , here , here , here and here . For a young football enthusiast, May 1984 was an exciting time. In the space of a few weeks, both the UEFA Cup (second leg) and European Cup finals would be shown live, with Scotland v England, and the second half of Brazil v England also broadcast to the nation. In an era of famine this was a feast of live action, but even during this special period there was one day that stood out. On paper, the FA Cup final between Everton and Watford was hardly the sort of match that would set the pulses racing, yet such was the prestige of the competition and the sense of occasion that the game was as eagerly anticipated as ever. Although the final will not go down as an all-time classic, it provided us with enough topics of discussion before, during and after the 90 minutes. The first F...

This piece follows on from my previous blogs on the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth rounds of the 1983/84 FA Cup, which you can view here , here , here , here , here and here . FA Cup semi-final Saturday in 1984, and as the thousands of supporters of the clubs involved made their way to the neutral venues in glorious April sunshine, there were a couple more chapters to be written in the fascinating tale of the competition. Could the Plymouth adventure extend one match further and the Third Division club make history by reaching Wembley? Would Watford's six year journey from the Fourth Division to the Twin Towers be completed? Would Everton return to Wembley and make up for their Milk Cup final disappointment? Or would Southampton crown a marvellous season and reach their second FA Cup final in eight years? So many questions would be answered on Saturday April 14. Read more »

This piece follows on from my previous blogs on the first, second, third, fourth and fifth rounds of the 1983/84 FA Cup, which you can view here , here , here , here and here . "The FA Cup that has overflowed with surprises is almost empty of quality. Among the unlikely sixth round survivors are a third division club that was 10 minutes away from extinction two years ago, a second division club facing a winding-up petition on Monday, and the poorest supported first division club that is expected to be relegated in May". The Times' preview of the 1984 FA Cup quarter finals was hardly endorsing. But if you looked closely enough you could make a defence for the competition and the surviving clubs. Everton were at the start of a run that would take them to a League title just over a year later; Southampton were enjoying a season to remember, many of their players hovering around in Bobby Robson's England thoughts; Watford were continuing their rise under Graham Taylor, ...

This piece follows on from my previous blogs on the first, second, third and fourth rounds of the 1983/84 FA Cup, which you can view here , here , here and here . With most of the main leads out of the 1984 FA Cup already, it was time for the supporting cast to take centre stage as Fifth Round weekend approached. Two First Division clubs would fluff their lines, bundled out by lower league opponents during a round that was blighted by the continuing issue of hooliganism, as clubs and the police struggled to control the angry young men gathered in and around the grounds (as Andy Townsend might say). Some may have been sneering at the apparent lack of quality left in the FA Cup (a slightly snobby attitude), but the competition somehow managed to limp on regardless. Read more »