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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 »

With Tottenham and Real Madrid going head-to-head in the 2017/18 Champions League, this week I am taking a look back to their 1985 UEFA Cup quarter final, and two particularly harrowing games for Steve Perryman. It said a lot regarding the recent fortunes of Real Madrid that, in the eyes of many, they went into their 1985 UEFA Cup quarter final with Tottenham as underdogs. A recent run of just one win in ten matches had seen the club slip out of the race for La Liga, something not made easier by the fact that Terry Venables' Barcelona were on their way to the title. Manager Amancio Amaro was under heaps of pressure, especially with President Luis de Carlos standing down, and Ramon Mendoza expected to take his place in the summer of '85. Read more »

With the 2017 Rugby League World Cup about to start, this week I am taking a look back at the 1985-88 tournament, as Australia continued their domination of the sport. Although the Rugby League World Cup had been running since 1954, the irregular staging of the tournament had not helped the event establish itself in the sporting calendar. Indeed, after the 1977 tournament, it would be another eight years before the International Board decided to resuscitate the concept. A Paris meeting in May 1985 saw the five member nations of Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, France, and Papua New Guinea agree to take part in a ninth World Cup, although a change in format meant that it was now a three-year event. Read more »

Wales failing to qualify for the 1986 World Cup was a devastating blow to their supporters. But the tragic death of Scotland manager Jock Stein put everything into perspective. Although many would say Scotland have had a monopoly on footballing tales of so near and yet so far, surely no one could digest as much disappointment as Welsh football fans in the 1980s. Missing out on World Cup qualification in 1982 on goal difference, and a minute away from Euro 84 , the last thing the Welsh nation needed was another agonising near miss during their 1986 World Cup qualification campaign. But the pain of September 10, 1985, would soon be a new chapter of Welsh woe. Read more »

Watching the recent World Cup qualifying match between Scotland and England, I turned to my son and started boring him, as usual, with tales of my sporting childhood. Recalling the era where the England-Scotland fixture was an annual event, and a match that was eagerly anticipated, I felt grateful that I had grown up during this period. With so little live football on our televisions, the England-Scotland match was not far behind the FA Cup final in terms of excitement. Read more »

As Manchester United prepare to visit Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup fifth round, I'm taking a look back at the same fixture from the 1985 competition. Many thanks to Mick Rathbone for his time in helping me write this piece. Read more »

When Northern Premier League Burton Albion were drawn against Division One Leicester City in the 1985 FA Cup third round, on paper it appeared to be a romantic tie. The typical David v Goliath clash, the outside chance of a shock, and a day in the spotlight for the part-timers of Burton, provided all the classic ingredients required for this stage of the FA Cup. Sadly, the fixture ended up making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Read more »

Looking back this week at Ian Botham's 1985 charity walk from John O'Groats to Land's End, in aid of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. If you would like to donate to this great cause then please visit the following link: https://bloodwise.org.uk/be I'm not sure the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu ever knew that a journey of a thousand miles could begin with a single step on a cricket ball. When Ian Botham decided to use one of his size 10½ boots to prevent a boundary in the fourth Ashes Test at Headingley in August 1977, little did he know that it would change his life forever. Had he fielded it in the modern era, Botham may have employed a sliding stop. In 1977, it was more of a Sliding Doors moment. 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 »

Jimmy Tarbuck joked that the Titanic and Lawrie McMenemy had one thing in common - both should never have left Southampton. After a turbulent time at Sunderland, McMenemy probably agreed. It looked like a marriage made in heaven. A sleeping giant in the North East of England, combined with a manager who had achieved great things at his previous club. In July 1985, a Messiah rode into Sunderland promising to bring the good times back, to restore some pride to an area that definitely needed a boost. 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 »

A one-shot penalty fortunately did not derail Dustin Johnson's US Open hopes in 2016, but 31 years earlier, a Zimbabwean did pay the price for an indiscretion on a green. Read more »

1985 had been a fun time to be a Norwich City supporter. Victory in the Milk Cup final had seen the club qualify for the UEFA Cup, the run to the final including a delicious semi-final win over local rivals Ipswich, and a win over Coventry the week after Wembley saw the team move up to 13th in the table and seemingly moving towards a solid mid-table finish. But sometimes it's funny how quick the milk can turn sour. Come May, these canaries would fall from their perch with a bump. Read more »

Bernhard Langer may well have won his first major at the 1985 US Masters, but he had to share a lot of the headlines with the man who finished joint runner-up. For Curtis Strange, April 11-14, 1985 was quite an experience. Read more »

The calendar year of 1985 was going so well for Willie Thorne. A breakthrough win at the Mercantile Credit Classic in January provided the perfect start, and although Thorne's performances towards the end of the 84/85 season and the beginning of 85/86 were not particularly encouraging, it looked as if the December would see the twelve months bookended with another ranking tournament win. Read more »

If the 1981 Ashes series was seriously good, and the 1989 version distinctly bad from an English perspective, then I would argue that the 1985 series was far from the ugly relative in comparison. Above all it was the series that made me fall in love with the game, during a summer when I didn't have a care in the world, and I found new heroes in Botham, Ellison and Robinson. So I hope you enjoy some of my favourite memories of the 1985 Ashes, starting with the day cricket found me.   Read more »