• “It was during the miners strike when electricity was rationed so, we couldn’t play under the floodlights “

    After last week’s successful part 1 of ‘players choice’, welcome back for part 2 of our look back at current and former Magpies favourite games and memories. When we say successful, we mean better received than a summary of a depressing day out in suburban London documenting another away defeat. This weeks instalment sees us go back to 1972 when the miners strike impacted kick off times, a pair of strikers who were written off by Weymouth managers who would respond in predicable yet memorable fashion, and one game where the player choosing it actually ended up getting sent off.…

  • “Any win against Weymouth was amazing as I hated them!”

    As fans of top flight clubs get ready for the return of football in front of no fans, we at TSOF are less bothered by this. Having seen Dorch lose in front of gates of less than 70 at places such as Hayes and Yeading or the salubrious surrounds of Dunstable, football in soulless places with no one around to see it is nothing new to us. Au contraire, we are far happier looking back at times of success, memories of past victories and discovering a bit more about the history of the club. It has brought back some great…

  • “I thought we’d won 1-0. It wasn’t until I got to the bus and everyone was miserable that I realised the goal had been disallowed.”

    FA Cup final day, or at least what should be, seems an apt time for the first and probably last ever TSOF three part blog to finish as we look at our most recent cup exploits. And there is plenty to cover. We have a trip to an at the time almost brand new £30 million stadium, a trip to one of the worst league grounds in England, our first ever televised tie, and a game one fan thought we’d won until he got to the minibus to find out a goal had been disallowed. The cup run in the…

  • “I couldn’t make the replay though, I already had tickets for Duran Duran at the Poole Arts Centre that night.”

    Today should be eve of the FA Cup final day. One of the most momentous occasions in the footballing calendar. Could it have been our year? We’ll never know now as the season has been voided. And yes, we are totally ignoring the fact that were knocked out in the early qualifying rounds by Blackfield and Langley. But in lieu of there being no final to watch, we here at TSOF aim to provide you with an adequate substitute with part two of the FA Cup review. Now when we finished part one, we had just had our most successful…

  • A 10 hour journey to Norwich, Dinky Curtis’ goals, Ron Cox’s forehead and the Dorset Regiment Band. Part one of the FA Cup files.

    It’s FA Cup final week! Or at least it should be anyway. What was previously one of my favourite sporting days of the year when growing up is now seen as almost an inconvenience by many of the bigger sides. The obvious attraction of finishing fourth in the premier league being far preferable to an actual cup final win not being helped by having such crunch games as Fleetwood vs Portsmouth in round three moved to a 1735 kick off time on a Saturday by the FA for overseas television. I’m not entirely sure that people in either Fleetwood or…

  • “It wasn’t until I got home and checked Ceefax that I realised we’d won it.“

    I’ll be honest, this lockdown is slightly tedious, but given the whole of the 2019-20 season has now been expunged, we’re now undefeated in over a year and our last league game at home was a 6-0 win over Tivvy. Teams will need to treat us with the respect our undefeated streak deserves when football resumes. But that won’t be soon, so the archive trawl continues and we now focus on a time we were legitimately a good side. This year and month marks the 40 year anniversary of one of our last league title wins. The start of the…

  • “Lovely guy. He pointed out the high rise flat where his mum had lived.”

    As the lockdown continues and people find more curious ways to amuse themselves, we at TSOF have continued our tour through the archives and are pleased to confirm we shall be partaking in no fucking TikTok or lip syncing videos. Necking pints and baking bread remain open options at the time of writing. With the current wrangling over when and how to finish the premier league season getting a lot of media coverage despite hundreds of people literally dying every day (we are strong advocates of the null and void method for reasons unknown…), we got thinking about our own…

  • Don Roper: One of the most decorated Dorchester players you’ve probably never heard of.

    Lockdown is impacting people in different ways. The increased spare time has seen some people take up new hobbies with a vast percentage of the population now artisan bakers with an excellent line in banana bread and sourdough with seemingly little else on the menu. There have been Mensa levels of IQ exhibited in the family quiz on Zoom; that mate from school on Facebook who added you as a friend 11 years ago and never spoke to you has become a political analyst, a doctor and a prick all inside a three week period. Others have taken to running…