19 Feb 2026 08:37:13
Just found an episode of "The Big Match" on ITVX.
It was Ipswich v Liverpool from 1980 and I'd forgotten how much the game has changed. Phil Neal 'clotheslined' an Ipswich player and not even carded. An offside wasn't proceeded by every defender raising an arm in the air. Tough tackles followed by a handshake, no play acting and none of my pet hate - players claiming a throw-in even though the ball clearly bounced off them.
No VAR, no endless betting adverts.
Some things have changed for the better; vastly better playing surfaces and stadia. The backpass rule, more than one sub.
I'm not sure the balloon-like ball of the modern game makes for better football than the old casey though.
Fter the game Paisley was quoted as saying "I shot 2 of my players at half time', I wonder what the modern players and press would have made of that?
There was an honesty about this era, an honest game for the working class. It's pretty sad to see how the modern game shapes ip against this era.
{Ed025's Note - halcyon days indeed Willo, now its all about who has the longest throw and all in wrestling at corners it seems mate..
19 Feb 2026 10:02:38
To be fair, if that's what people want to watch, they can always go and support their local non-league side or bottom-end football league side. The game is still there for the working class if they choose it. The upper echelons of the sport have pulled away, but as long as fans keep subscribing to Sky/TNT/Amazon and paying £50-2000 a ticket, on top of £120-270 for a replica shirt etc.
The Premier League/Championship sides will keep milking it. I love going and playing Sunday League personally, and that keeps me in touch with the grassroots side of the game. 10:30am KO, minimum 5 goals in every game, in the pub by 1pm with all the lads. Now that's an affordable way to get your football fix.
{Ed025's Note - great stuff MK..
19 Feb 2026 11:32:56 MK, I am 51 now and still miss playing Saturday afternoon 2pm kick off, straight out on the piss. Wake up Sunday morning rough as f***, kick off 10:30, sweat the booze out and straight in the local club for a good few beers, a few games of killer on the pool table, home for a Sunday roast and the 4:30 kick off.
If Carlsberg did weekends, I'd love to go back to them.
{Ed025's Note - a man after my own heart Grino mate..
19 Feb 2026 11:59:49
Grino, you just described every weekend of my life from 27-30 years old! Those were the days. I'm only a couple of years away from Vets football now, where my knees truly belong.
19 Feb 2026 12:18:53
MK, I did that from 19 to 32. Both knees and ankles are knackered. I've got a broken bone in my wrist because I took the cast off so I could keep playing. From Monday to Wednesday I could barely walk, and then Wednesday and Thursday nights we had training. Then it was the weekend again. lol, I've got the body of an 80-year-old, and yet I've still got the mentality of a 12-year-old, lol.
The good old days, I would not swap them for anything.Ed025, I am from Grimsby and before my disabled son got too much for my wife to look after on her own I always got tickets for the European games and a few league games when possible. I always stayed over for the night. My daughter was at uni in Liverpool, she is working there now, and I always went to The Royal Oak Hotel for a few games of pool.
{Ed025's Note - you are basically living my life Grino.. :)
19 Feb 2026 12:52:18
That's a long old stint doing 2 games in back to back days, Grino! I was broken after doing it for 3 years, never mind 13 years! I'm 32 now and currently playing with a pin/synthetic ligament in my right elbow, loose cartilage in my right knee, and my left ankle fully strapped up with sport tape. I plan to keep playing until my body or my wife stops me, though.
Haha. I did play from 11 to 21 years old as well, but had to quit for 6 years due to a really nasty ankle ligament injury that took years to heal without help from fancy surgeons like the pros get. That's the same ankle I still have to strap up, 11 years after the injury. Why do we do it? For the love of the game. And the beers. Don't forget the beers.
19 Feb 2026 13:37:07
You are all light weights. I did it from 19 to 41 every weekend. Then, wife and kids came along. ? ?
19 Feb 2026 13:49:07
My wife had a word with me, MK, but it was when I went working away for 6 months with no football at all. Then, when I came back, I signed for a load of lads I've known for years, played a preseason friendly, came on after about 30 minutes, and everywhere the ball was, I was not. I've always been really fit, but my legs had gone. I could have probably got a lot of the fitness back, but I just didn't have it in me to be that far off the pace, so after about 15 minutes I told them to sub me off and said, "That's it for me, I'm retiring," lol.
I always played for the love of the game, but I could not stand losing and did not like not being able to do what I used to. It's why I never got into golf, tried it but was crap, and could not be bothered to learn when lots of my mates were already very good.
19 Feb 2026 14:41:44
Great conversation, lads! I'm like you, Grino. I played since the age of 9, but when I got into my mid 30s I'd gone from a marauding, goal-scoring right winger to a bit-part, limping left back, with the 18-year-old right wingers running rings around me. That was enough for me. I can't stand losing, and the frustration of having players who, in my mind, were nowhere near as good as I had been in my pomp, running me ragged caused me to call it a day.
I tried golf too and got frustrated, so packed it in, but I came back to it about 5 years ago and am now a single handicapper. You should persevere, mate. It's definitely worth it, and helps with that competitive nature we all have as ex-footballers.
19 Feb 2026 16:52:43
Let's all meet up and have a kick about on Maiden Lane Field on Townsend Lane.
19 Feb 2026 18:16:34
Kick off on Saturday afternoon was 3 o'clock, not 2. After a 10-minute interval, most games finished around 20 to 5. There was no massive added time, as time wasting was hardly a thing back then.
19 Feb 2026 20:47:27
We need to have a golf day for us old codgers.
{Ed025's Note - im in Ron, can we make it Texas scramble though so us lesser lights dont make a show of ourselves mate?.. :)
19 Feb 2026 21:10:45
I'm now 57 and still play 2, sometimes 3 times a week, 6 aside and 8 aside on a bigger pitch. Throw in the odd charity game, on a full-size pitch. The competition is good, ex NIFL, ex amateur league players and police, with a smattering of younger lads for the running.
A very healthy kitty for at least 4 free nights out a year. I always say it's not the playing that kills you, it's when you stop.
{Ed025's Note - you are a better man than me Irish, my old legs are gone mate so i could only do the Jan Molby role nowadays.. :)
20 Feb 2026 03:44:59
Bringing me back, lads. The pints after were just as important! I'm 50 in March. I stopped playing about 8 years ago, when the 2 older kids started doing stuff on weekends (4 now), and work left no time! Still telling myself I'll go back!
20 Feb 2026 05:56:22
I used to play Saturday and Sunday league matches (pub would register me as a diff player ;) on the Sunday). Regularly included a 4 mile bike ride to the games and back. I stopped playing when my eyesight deteriorated (computers/shortsighted) - if you can't judge the flight of the ball within a second or two from kick-off. Then, as a central midfielder, you're 10 yards away from the challenge.
If I couldn't be competitive, then I wasn't prepared to play. :). Played 5 a side until I was mid 40. Won a few things, loved playing against the younger teams. My football "brain" versus their legs. 58 now, knees shot and about 3 stone over where I'd like to be. So miss those days playing. :(
20 Feb 2026 08:53:33
I miss those days playing Sunday league football in my team's 3rds, then played Saturday league football for the 2nds if they needed an extra player. I wasn't great, but just loved playing. Playing a game, at half-time the guys would have a drink of water and a smoke, then back into the second half.
Usually a few arguments, rough tackles, and some threats that I would have my legs broken if I went past an opposition player. Then into the pub for some food and drink, then home for Sunday dinner. I did that from 16 to 34, but like others, my knees are shot now. I wouldn't have changed it for the world though.
20 Feb 2026 10:26:56
I played at thirteen in youth league, and had a break after injury. I came back at 17, playing until my last game at 50. Paying for it now, though, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I was picked for a league representative side at 39; could get a look in when in my teens or 20s.
I met some great lads from all around the area I live, and I am still mates with them to this day. The biggest thing I miss most is the banter in the changing rooms and a bevy after the match. Great times. YNWA
{Ed025's Note - i was playing in the Bootle Joc at 15 Albey and take it from me them players took no prisoners then mate, played Saturday and Sunday every season and trained midweek but when i look back i was very selfish as it was to the detriment of my young family, there was a very strong social side and in the summer i played cricket weekends and midweek and of course it always ended with a drinking session, a great time for me but not so much my wife and kids..
20 Feb 2026 10:57:16
I'm lucky enough to still be playing and have had the privilege of sharing the pitch with my 16-year-old son 6 times this season for the seconds team. Unfortunately, he's excelled and is now playing first-team football, so my playing days are now mostly following around, watching him.