The Sporting Hack

Throughout June, Biltcliffe’s Sports Thoughts will bring you a regular condensed and opinionated version of events throughout this summer’s European Championships in Poland and Ukraine. Good start for:   Denmark – The unlikeliest of victories over the Netherlands on Saturday courtesy of Michael Krohn-Dehli's first half strike has seen the Danes in with a chance of escaping the ‘Group of Death’. Morten Olsen’s men were priced at 100/1 to win the tournament this summer and while that price is unlikely to have reduced, the dark horses will hope they can spring at least one more surprise. Russia – A convincing 4-1 hammering of Czech Republic has left former Rangers manager Dick Advocaat on the brink of progression from another tournament group stage. The Dutchman is due to return to club management with PSV Eindhoven the day after the final of this tournament. Don’t expect him to be there though, despite the best efforts of Alan Dzagoev’s double. Italy – Amid...

Congratulations today must go to Didier Drogba who will be leaving Chelsea this summer after an illustrious spell at Stamford Bridge spanning eight years. Some may view his decision to leave the Blues and potentially head east to Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua in search of a healthy pension as greedy. Perhaps financially so, however, not only is it the least he deserves for a glittering club career, but would staying in the Premier League chasing trophies not be equally avaricious? Let’s be honest, Chelsea are hardly in the best of places at the moment; they still have an ageing squad, uncertainty surrounds the manager’s position and they were, to all intents and purposes, a tad lucky to win the Champions League on Saturday night. Therefore congratulations are in order to the Ivorian who has decided to leave on a high. As highs go, there are few better ways to go out than to strike the decisive penalty in the Champions League final. Mention the name Zidane for ex...

Sheffield United 1-0 Stevenage (Agg.1-0) Npower League 1 play-off semi-final second leg. Bramall Lane Attendance: 21182 Sheffield United booked their place in the League 1 play-off final and a potential Yorkshire derby against Huddersfield Town at Wembley.   The Blades edged past Stevenage in a nervy re-run of Friday night’s drab goalless semi-final first leg, courtesy of Chris Porter’s late header (right) . The fact that Danny Wilson’s men missed a spark was understandable as they relied heavily on the lone forward Porter with James Beattie, Richard Cresswell and Will Hoskins all out through suspension or injuries. After one of the poorest first halves of football in recent memory, both sides came out after the break galvanised by the fact that they had 45 minutes to create something meaningful or face extending the tedium. Thank goodness then for Luke Freeman, the Stevenage midfielder, who, by looking inventive and industrious in equal measure, proved to be t...

Picture the scene: The air of a cold Thursday night in Turin is punctuated by roughly 1800 Fulham fans who burst in to bedlam to celebrate midfielder Dickson Etuhu’s deflected strike with a chorus or two of ‘Woy, Woy, Woy’ in gratitude to their then manager Roy Hodgson. What a truly remarkable job he did with the West London outfit when he reached the 2009/10 Europa League final after overturning a 3-1 deficit against Italian giants Juventus in the second leg of the round of 16 fixture.  The fact that Hodgson’s own supporters gently teased their leader with a song that has reference to his slight speech impediment could perhaps be justified as a sign of affection. However, one Sun newspaper headline this week will read ‘Bwing on the Euwos’ in the aftermath of the 64 year olds appointment as England head coach this week. Crude and patronising? Most certainly. A sign of things to come? One can only presume so should the Three Lions fare any less than expected. ...