No smoke without fire

Muffwatch: I was browsing through the Weymouth official site today, keeping half an eye on our old rivals as you do, when I came across the following gem, written on the blog section of the site, where the club's directors and webmaster post updates to fans. This was written by one of WFC's directors, Paul Cocks:

Thursday, August 13, 2009
LIFE AT WFC
Yes folks, its your very own dysfunctional football club soap opera.

We have a story which includes being shafted by an asset stripper; a club within 24 hours of extinction pulling back from the brink, and trying to do the decent thing by paying off its creditors rather than taking the easy option of administration; a young ambitious and highly talented manager trying to put a side together from scratch, overnight, on a shoestring.

These could all be great story lines, but fortunately the "fans" of Weymouth Football Club are discerning, and know a really important issue when they see one:- smoking!!!!

Yes folks, the real issue for today and no doubt weeks to come is the evil actions of WFC in allowing its own safety officer to do his job and comply with the requirements of the clubs safety certificates by requiring smokers to move a few yards for the duration of their fag.

Total bloody disgrace innit, never suppport them again.

PS this is not a joke.
Posted by PAUL COCKS at 11:05 PM

Apparently the problem is that the designated smoking area at the Wessex has been moved a few yards from its position last season, and, unsurprisingly, this has caused great alarm and confusion to the simple Dorset folk who call themselves Muff fans. Of course, football league supporters will be unfamiliar with the concept of smoking while watching football as the habit has been banned at proper grounds for a while now, but it takes a while for the customs of the civilised world to percolate down as far as deepest Dorset. What is particularly amusing is to see how seriously the Muff fans are taking the subject on their forum, with high horses being galloped all over the place and the infamous Matty (long-time Muff watchers will recall his "we'll wave at you when we pass you!" boast directed at the Glovers when the Muff had a multi-millionaire owner and (snigger) Steve Claridge as manager a few years ago) reinstating his self-imposed boycott of the Wessex. Mr Cocks (snigger) may have been undiplomatic at best in posting the above rant, but this interested observer can understand his frustration. With friends, fans and creditors like they've got, the Muff really don't need any more enemies. I mean, don't they have enough to worry about without kicking off about the position of a smoking area? Give it up boys.

Back to the normal world and the good news is that Spurs loanees Steven Caulker and Ryan Mason have extended their loan durations to 3 months each. I'll be happier still to hear they've extended them until the new year or better still the end of the season, but this is a good start and brings them in line with striker Jonathan Obika, who signed a 3-month deal earlier this week. Skivo is looking to make one more loan signing, a midfielder, not necessarily another Tottenham player. The bad news is that striker Dean Bowditch, so impressive against Tranmere and throughout the pre-season, could be out for as long as 4 months, though obviously everyone is hoping that he'll be back fit before then.

Colchester away tomorrow and it will be interesting to see if the Glovers can bounce back from their defeat at home to Norwich on Tuesday, the team that tomorrow's opponents mullered 7-1 last weekend. The bookies have the U's as odds-on favourites at 8-11, the draw is quoted at 11/4 and a Yeovil win at 7/2. Given Colchester's abysmal home form last season and the fact they lost at home again in the League Cup in midweek, I'm tempted by the 7/2 for the Glovers win, but in the end have decided to play safe - my fiver's going on the draw. Running total: +7.50p

Gunn but not forgotten: Norwich manager Bryan Gunn's reward for overseeing the Canaries 4-0 win at Huish Park has been... the sack. We are quite used to seeing opposition manager's bite the dust after being on the end of beatings by ourselves - at one stage while we were in League Two it seemed to be happening on a regular basis, almost as if being beaten by what a lot of long-established league clubs regarded as a pub team was an instant dismissal offence - but this is the first time that I can remember that a manager's been sacked after his team has thrashed us. Bad luck Bryan - you should have won 8-0, you might have been safe then.

Just read: Piece of My Heart by Peter Robinson. Part of the very readable Inspector Banks series. Two timelines, two different murders and both strands are cleverly brought together. The final revelations are genuinely shocking (well, I was quite surprised) and all in all a bloody good read.