Most of you probably wont have heard of the name, Unless of course you support Hull or Scunthorpe, Or are the most ardent of football geeks. But over the last 10 years Andy Dawson has been the first name on the teamsheet throughtout Hull City's rise through the football league. Rareley the headline maker Andy's consistent, strong and dogged displays have earnt the left back legendary status amongs Tigers fans.
Signed by Peter Taylor on a free transfer from local rivals Scunthorpe fans could, Initially be forgiven for thinking Dawson's time at city would be largely unspectacular. In fact I imagine very few would have thought we'd be talking about him 10 years on. Dawson came to city when they were the proverbial 'sleeping giants' in Division 3, Taylor was building his team for success on the pitch, Adam Pearson building for success off it. Andy Dawson was to play a major part in All of the resulting achievments.
For 10 years Dawson has been a rock as part of a team which has changed around him. In that time players have donned the tiger stripes who have made the fans uncomfortable when on the ball, Junior Lewis, Ibrahima Sonko, Peter Gulacsi etc. But the fans faith in 'Daws' has been unwaiverin. It was clear to see that Andy was more than capable at playing in Division 3, And when City won promotion to league 1 Dawson again stepped up, with more outstanding defending. Then another promotion this time to the Championship, Now we were playing with the Big Boys, City no longer had the bigger budget, The best stadium or the better players, We were going to be up against it. But again Andy stepped up with more effortless defensive displays. A few seasons of fighting relegation were followed by possibly the most amazing thing to happen to City to date, Promotion, To the Premier League, With Dawson playing a major part in the promotion season. Surely though, The veteran Left back couldn't step up once more to face the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Rooney, and Torres. But yet again he silenced the doubters,To become one of a select few of players to have played for their club in all 4 divisions. And became an essential part of the Tigers team for their 2 seasons in the top flight.
But don't go thinking Andy's talents end at defending, He has (to date) scored 8 times for city, Most of which from sublime free kicks, He can cross (A rareity amongst modern full backs), His determination to never lose an individual battle really shines through on the pitch, and often leads to the arguably 'more talented' players failing to achieve, Just ask Theo Walcott, In the Tigers first season in the Premier League The young england winger barely got out of Andy's pocket all game.
I think one of the most telling tributes to Andy's performances is the lack of any real challengers for his position, Each of the 7 managers he's played under has fully trusted his abilities, and any challengers to his position didn't last long, Damien Delaney had a few cracks, but his delivery was nowhere near the standard of Andy's, Who could forget (Or even remember Roland Edge) Alan Rogers stepped in when 'Daws' suffered an injury in 2007. Kevin Kilbane got pretty close and Stephen Mouyakolo might even have tried, But No one has got close to moving Andy Dawson from the left back slot.
Daws has played behind many players at city, Eliott, Ellison,Fagan, Hughes, Halmosi, Geovanni, Stewart the list goes on, He's provided the crosses for Allsopp, Burgess, Parkin, Duffy, Campbell, Windass, King, Cousin, Manucho and Fryatt. He's partnered the likes of Delaney, Cort, Turner, Brown, Hobbs and Chester. And survived 7 different managers, The success of Taylor, The short lived disaster of Phil Parkinson, the ups and downs of Phil Brown, Ian Dowie, The needed clearout by Nigel Pearson, He's played under his friend and teammate Nick Barmby and currently Steve Bruce.
Windass is the local goalscoring hero, Ash was a hard tackling fans favourite, But Daws, well, 10 years on He's still here, and still Playing to the highest standard.
Andy Dawson, Thank You - From A city fan.
Tuesday 13 November 2012
Saturday 3 November 2012
Swimming, Halloween and Derek Acorah
Well, We've recently had Halloween, which is one of my favourite celebrations of the year, It's definately up there just behind Christmas, Birthday, Bonfire Night, New Year, Easter, and the little known East African tribal celebration of Umpaktu. It also means everyone gets to dress up as Witches, Vampires, Zombies or Youths and Knock on peoples doors and demand treats, With the threat of some form of trick. There are a few things I dont 'get' about that whole procedure, 1) At no other point in the year is it acceptable to do that and 2) At no other point in the year is it acceptable to hand sweets out to childeren. So why do it on October 31st? It also means ghosts have to start making appearences and live up to their reputation. Step Forward.....Derek Acorah.
Derek Acorah For those of you who dont know, is a man from Liverpool, Who has a husky smokes 20 hamlets a day type scouse accent. Not a talent in itself, However his talent lies in his ability to speak to the dead. He's a spiritulist Medium. Or Liar to you and me. He's most famous for plying his trade on former Hit TV show Most Haunted, In which Derek, His invisible spirit guide Sam, and a film crew would go to a old building, talk to ghosts, scream and leave again, with no concrete evidence whatsoever. The crew would be exploring a 500 year old castle and he'd stop, raise his hand and say something like, "Im sensing the spirit of a man" The crew would all gasp in awe, of his genius, Another raise of the Arm of Acorah would be met with another pearl of wisdom "I feel, This man has passed away" the crew look more and more shocked, and ask Derek for a name, He then turns into some sort of Liverpudlian porn actor and in a low, sensual voice he would contact his spirit guide (A mediums equivalent of Yoda I believe) " Come on Sam, Give it to me, Give it too me Sam, Give me the name, Who's the daddy, Give it to Sam you dirty girl" The crew now looking more and more alarmed, Derek comes up with a name, The big moment, He raises his finger once more, And In mid air spells out the name, 'ALAN' At the same time as saying "Joseph, The mans name is Joseph" At which point a factual banner comes up at the bottom of screen saying 'No Record of Joseph can be found at this castle' So to Summarise Dereks contribution to the show so far, He's found that a man has lived in a 500 year old castle, and is now dead, This man is called Joseph (Or Alan) and has absolutley NO connection with the building whatsoever. Oh yeah and He's had imaginary ghost sex with his spirit guide. Thats how he made his living, He may well be a fraud, But he's Filthy rich and a genius for it.
There are as you know if youve read my previous blogs, Many things that annoy me, Religion, Supermarkets, Pensioners, Cats, Farmers, Derek Acorahs etc. But Nothing annoys me, quite as much as swimming. There are some things people are naturally good at, Some things people learn and improve at, And others that people just cannot, not for want of trying do. Swimming is mine. For 9 years at school I did swimming lessons and to this day can swim no more than a legnth, In the shallow end. With a standing stop. I dont know why im cack at it I do everything the swimming teachers tell me, Wave my hands around, kick my feet. But I just cant do it. Then again, I have no interest in doing it. I have no interest in walking through the gammy, mucky, gritty footwash things, I can see no fun in spending any amount of time swimming in straight lines in water full of bleach, urine, plasters, disease and childeren. and to top it all off, The one thing I have learnt in swimming has never come in of use to me, Never In my 21 years existance have I been walking past a crystal clear canal, in my Pyjamas, and see, a rubber brick struggling to stay afloat. It really does take the piss. But each to their own, If you are the type of person who likes taking a bite out of them polystyrene floats and swalling large amounts of nasty water then be my guest.
Derek Acorah For those of you who dont know, is a man from Liverpool, Who has a husky smokes 20 hamlets a day type scouse accent. Not a talent in itself, However his talent lies in his ability to speak to the dead. He's a spiritulist Medium. Or Liar to you and me. He's most famous for plying his trade on former Hit TV show Most Haunted, In which Derek, His invisible spirit guide Sam, and a film crew would go to a old building, talk to ghosts, scream and leave again, with no concrete evidence whatsoever. The crew would be exploring a 500 year old castle and he'd stop, raise his hand and say something like, "Im sensing the spirit of a man" The crew would all gasp in awe, of his genius, Another raise of the Arm of Acorah would be met with another pearl of wisdom "I feel, This man has passed away" the crew look more and more shocked, and ask Derek for a name, He then turns into some sort of Liverpudlian porn actor and in a low, sensual voice he would contact his spirit guide (A mediums equivalent of Yoda I believe) " Come on Sam, Give it to me, Give it too me Sam, Give me the name, Who's the daddy, Give it to Sam you dirty girl" The crew now looking more and more alarmed, Derek comes up with a name, The big moment, He raises his finger once more, And In mid air spells out the name, 'ALAN' At the same time as saying "Joseph, The mans name is Joseph" At which point a factual banner comes up at the bottom of screen saying 'No Record of Joseph can be found at this castle' So to Summarise Dereks contribution to the show so far, He's found that a man has lived in a 500 year old castle, and is now dead, This man is called Joseph (Or Alan) and has absolutley NO connection with the building whatsoever. Oh yeah and He's had imaginary ghost sex with his spirit guide. Thats how he made his living, He may well be a fraud, But he's Filthy rich and a genius for it.
There are as you know if youve read my previous blogs, Many things that annoy me, Religion, Supermarkets, Pensioners, Cats, Farmers, Derek Acorahs etc. But Nothing annoys me, quite as much as swimming. There are some things people are naturally good at, Some things people learn and improve at, And others that people just cannot, not for want of trying do. Swimming is mine. For 9 years at school I did swimming lessons and to this day can swim no more than a legnth, In the shallow end. With a standing stop. I dont know why im cack at it I do everything the swimming teachers tell me, Wave my hands around, kick my feet. But I just cant do it. Then again, I have no interest in doing it. I have no interest in walking through the gammy, mucky, gritty footwash things, I can see no fun in spending any amount of time swimming in straight lines in water full of bleach, urine, plasters, disease and childeren. and to top it all off, The one thing I have learnt in swimming has never come in of use to me, Never In my 21 years existance have I been walking past a crystal clear canal, in my Pyjamas, and see, a rubber brick struggling to stay afloat. It really does take the piss. But each to their own, If you are the type of person who likes taking a bite out of them polystyrene floats and swalling large amounts of nasty water then be my guest.
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