Scotland in dreamland – Football Weekly

25:50Anyway, Wales 7, North Macedonia 1. What a night, man. After Craig Bellamy's first game against Turkey, he said, right, watch that, remember that, that's the worst we're going to play. That hasn't proven to be the case. And the thing with Bellamy, he's a very, very inspiring, engaging talker, the way he speaks about football. And if you run with it, and I have run with it, I find it quite motivating, right? But eventually, after some quite poor performances Or after some, how shall I say, unorthodox selection decisions You think, okay, what's really going on here? Everything he kind of promised It all came true in one game Now I was really worried about Northamastonia I was in Lichtenstein on Saturday And we were absolutely abject against I think literally the worst team in the world and we huffed and we puffed and we ended up winning 1-0.

26:53And he played one holding mid against Belgium and he plays two against Lichtenstein, who were a team made up of students. They both get booked. So we're without our first choice midfield against North Mastonia, who hadn't lost a game in the campaign, had only conceded three calls, taken points off Belgium. And you're like poor Josh Ian in midfield on his own and you're worrying about when we played Armenia and to Page in qualification for Euro 2024. And we just got absolutely overran in midfield. And I thought, we're going to get, this could be bad. And he chooses, he goes for all out attacks.

27:31We've got Dan James, Brendan Johnson, Harry Wilson and David Brooks. And we just purred from the first minute. I mean, Harry Wilson was exceptional. And Bale himself has said, you know, there is no other Gareth Bale. and so the responsibility for scoring goals is going to have to be spread across the team he is the talisman though Wilson, when he's not fit we really, really miss him and if he scored a hat-trick I mean he was just fantastic but we haven't scored seven goals against anyone since before I was born so that was against Malta in 1978 and you know, it's the playoffs we haven't qualified outright Playoffs are very, very difficult to negotiate Obviously we qualified for the last World Cup Via the playoffs, beating Ukraine in the final Having beaten Austria in the semi We failed to qualify for Euro 2024 In the playoff route because we lost to Poland on penalties So now, being in pot 2 Which is what last night guaranteed As opposed to pot 4 Does make things easier So we're either going to play Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, the Republic of Ireland in Cardiff and that's huge for us because we do seem to find another gear when we're playing at the Cardiff City Stadium under the lights.

28:52I mean, the final is daunting. It could be Italy, it could be Denmark, Turkey, Ukraine, I mean, or one of the top four teams, Northern Ireland, North Macedonia, Romania or Sweden. But then Ashley Williams, he said on the telly last night, he said, who's going to fancy playing us after we've scored seven goals? Because I'm childish and nervous and superstitious, I read once that Donald Trump thinks that every human body is a sort of finite amount of heartbeats, and so that if you do exercise and you raise your heart rate, you're actually shortening your life because you're going to run out of heartbeats.

29:32I feel like that about Welsh goals. I feel like we've scored our goals now. We've had our seven, and we're probably not going to score until 2028. The one thing I would say is I wish we could carry on. I wish we were playing next week and we could carry this momentum on because I've never seen anything like it. And I am on cloud nine. Thank you, Ellis James. And I hadn't heard the finite heartbeats of Donald Trump. But I agree with you about using up your goals. Never win 7-1 when you only need to win 2-1. But still 7-1 all the same. And Ali, it was, I mean, Ellis has summed it up pretty well, but it was a great performance.

30:11They played unbelievably well, Wales, and this is really significant for them for a few reasons. But after what Ireland did the other night, which was clearly more dramatic, more memorable, and obviously what Scotland did last night, clearly more dramatic, more memorable, and secured them a spot of the World Cup rather than a slightly more beneficial draw in a playoff. Wales sort of end up yeah down the pecking order in terms of stories but I think it's worth pointing out that this was their best performance by miles under Craig Bellamy at a point where they really really needed it against a North Macedonia side that had only conceded three goals in seven qualifying games they scored seven against them and a bit like with the Scotland goals albeit in a different way you're finding it hard to work out which is the best of the goals that Wales scored because some of the passing and movement and speed in front of the ball, speed of passing, interplay, finishing was excellent.

31:12Brennan Johnson had his best game in a Welsh shirt for a long time, has not necessarily been the superstar that maybe fans would want him to be for them, but was brilliant and set up Brooks for the second goal, scored a rasper from 20 yards himself into the top corner for the third. The fourth goal was a beautiful team move that involved Johnson and Wilson and Dan James finishing it off. And then Harry Wilson, who ends up with a hat-trick, two of them from the penalty spot and one of them a trademark Harry Wilson free kick. It's just a brilliant, brilliant night, I think. As you say, all Wales fans that I spoke to were expecting a cagey affair because even the games against the minnows of the group, they've been like pulling teeth, really.

31:51Bellamy made some pretty big calls here. Left out Sorba Thomas, who, albeit he's not as big a name as some of the attackers that started ahead of him, has been clearly Wales' best player under Bellamy in the last year or so. Kiefer Moore's injured for this one. And I worried that, you know, it was going to be one of those games where they were going to be against a deep block, slinging a lot of crosses in and without big Kiefer to head them in. But they didn't. They just took a different approach and sliced through North Macedonia. So yeah, big players stepping up when they needed to for Wales.

32:19And I think Bellamy as well justified with, he's been very clear that he's trying to raise the ceiling of the team. And in his eyes, that means playing in a different way, in a much more attacking, technical fluid attacking style which isn't necessarily what's defined the best Wales teams before and I think there's been some scepticism because frankly the results particularly in the last well in the last three months he hasn't had much to show for it he hasn't had much justification for what he's trying to do and he absolutely has that now so still work to do of course and it is a more favourable draw than it could have been but there's still some teams that they would probably prefer to avoid out of the four that they could be drawn against I would put Albania at the top of the list for them to avoid having seen them play England twice recently they're a pretty strong team and I think they can play Ireland as well can't they so that would be pretty lively Italy, Denmark, Turkey Ukraine will be at home to one of Romania, Sweden North Macedonia Northern Ireland and then Poland, Wales Czechia, Slovakia will be at home to Republic of Ireland Albania, Bosnia or Kosovo Austria went through automatically they got a late equaliser at home to Bosnia they haven't been for the World Cup since 1998 the glory days of Tony Polster.

33:31Was Polster still playing in 98? Still the only Austrian player that everyone knows apart from Marko Arnortovic. Northern Ireland beat Luxembourg 1-0. First international goal for Spurs' Jamie Donnelly. That was on Monday there in the playoffs, of course. Germany thrashed Slovakia 6-0. Some of their goals were absolutely brilliant, by the way. Netherlands put four past Lithuania. So that's sort of Europe done. We've got Paul Watson on tomorrow to steer us through the big international headlines. But you did point out, Ali, So, you know, Curaçao will be the smallest ever side to qualify for a World Cup.

34:04They got a draw in Jamaica. And those scenes as well, if you've seen the full-time whistle. I just love watching just grown-ups get so invested in this thing. It's just amazing. And it's a wonderful moment for them, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely incredible. Obviously, with the US and Mexico and Canada automatically qualifying as hosts, that kind of opened the door in the CONCACAF region. And the expanded tournament, of course, as well. Just delighted for the Bakuna brothers who represent Curacao. And I've seen play a lot of football in the English football pyramid, both of them based out in Turkey now.

34:41But, you know, they will be absolute heroes, glorified forever, as they should be. The previous smallest country to qualify for the tournament was Iceland. So Curacao now have that. And their manager, improbably to me anyway, is Dick Advocat, who I did not realise were still managing at any level. And then Haiti as well. A drink managing a drink, isn't that? That is good, isn't it? A drink managing a drink to take them to the World Cup. That's really impressive. Well, as Barca Jim pointed out earlier, last night we had two drinks and a hat qualifying for the World Cup. Panama, Curacao and Scotch.

35:20The sad news, if you like, is that he beat or they beat Steve McLaren's Jamaica sending them into a playoff. It's fair to say the reaction in Jamaica has been pretty angry and Steve McLaren swiftly resigned, so we'll not be taking them into the playoffs and nor to the World Cup if they get there. His quote was, leadership is a service. Tonight, I think the best thing I can do is stepping aside. They will succeed in March. Thank you, Jamaica. It's been an honour. One love to you all. That is a direct quote as reported by Laurie Whitwell. And then lastly, the other big story, which I know you'll hear more about tomorrow, but is Haiti, who have qualified for the World Cup.

36:00It's not their first, but they have qualified. And they did so playing their home game, as it was, in Curaçao, because they haven't played a home game in four years as the country is under cartel rule. And they've got some amazing stories in that squad as well. So, yeah, really, what a few days it has been for international football. And, yeah, could not have loved it anymore. Reno Gattuso must be absolutely raging to see all these countries qualify after his trade on Friday about the injustice of it all. Everyone conspiring to keep Italy out by letting these riffraff into the competition. Well, we will never complain about an international break again because it has been absolutely brilliant.

36:46As I said, Paul Watson on tomorrow to flesh out those stories. And that'll do for part two. Felix White will join us in just a second. He's written a book called Whatever Will Be, Will Be, and he'll tell us all about it in just a second.

37:06Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. Let's welcome Felix White of the Maccabees, Tailenders, books, amongst many other things. How are you, Felix? Very good. Very happy to be on Guardian Football Weekly, guys. I've been listening for years. I've been even accosting Barry in pubs years ago in Brixton. So, yeah, I'm very flattered to be on the show. Thank you, guys. You're one of those, what's Barry like in real life, people? As he told the story. As he told you that story, Barry, have you told everyone that story? I just saw him. I was the other side of a bar in Brixton, and I saw a personality glowing from the other side of that said bar.

37:45And then I was trying to work out what that charisma was. I was like, oh, my God, it's Barry Glenn Denning. so I sort of shuffled over and I think we had two or three pints and we talked about Gaza and something else we talked about, oh Dean Windus have you just done a Dean Windus documentary Barry I think you've done this really good documentary I would say documentary is pushing it a bit but yes interview but what happened was Felix asked me if I was Barry Glendening and we got chatting and then just to be polite I feigned interest in him. And I said, oh, so what do you do? And he said, I'm a musician.

38:23And I went, oh, right, OK. Are you in a band or anything? And he said, yeah, yeah, I'm in a band. And I said, what would I have heard of this band? And he went, I'm in the Maccabees. And I just sort of went, oh, right, OK. Although, to be fair, Felix, you know, he did have a pint with Kylie Minogue and Michael Hutchins once and didn't know who they were either. so you know so you're in pretty good company that's so good about your book um your book is called whatever will be will be um it is i've i think it's brilliant thank you beautifully written uh how would you describe it what what what is it yeah uh well yeah like that's a good question actually it's something i didn't think about writing until last year when i was on tour a little bit lost felt like i needed somewhere to be and i realized penriff were playing down the road and it turned out that it was the extra preliminary round of the FA Cup.

39:20And the thing that you might be aware of if you go and watch very lower league football or non-league football is sometimes when you're in the middle of nowhere, you cannot get Ubers or cars. So I couldn't get out of Penrith to the festival and I had an hour to do it to get to stage. And I ended up begging for a lift with the chairman of Penrith, Billy Williams, who got me in his car and got me to stage. And when I was in his car, I suddenly thought, this is the beginning of a road trip adventure. And I'm at the very first round of the FA Cup. And it suddenly became sort of interesting to me that you could tell the entire story of English football in 15 rounds.

39:57It's something we all know it and we all do the trope quite often that the FA Cup, anyone can win it. But actually, there is something profound about the fact that the FA Cup starts somewhere like Penrith that ends at Palace. so that ended up becoming the scope of the story and then finding, trying to not, almost not write about the football at all. There's the odd description of the odd goal but it's more an articulation about the stories behind the places, what football means, why we love what we love and trying to accurately describe what it's like going to watch football in all these places.

40:28I mean, there's so many moments in this book. There's a moment where you are, you know, you talk about football management games in a way that I feel totally seen. Really? way that you you bond with this guy jake over reading out the wikipedia of a footballer and guessing who it is and it's linvoid primus and i'm like oh my this is literally sort of my existence on a page do you know what i mean oh my god when i saw the list of clubs i knew it was linvoid primus before it was revealed to be linvoid primus but this is the thing like i think with a certain type of person as you well know you don't need to know any you could base an entire friendship for like 40 years on just saying things like Linvoy Primus.

41:09You might not even need to know that much about their life. So I became a realisation of me and Jake that if we didn't have Linvoy Primus, I'm not sure we would have been such close friends. That sounds insane. But we used to, with the lights out in buses, we used to just name clubs and footballs. That's sort of become popularised since, hasn't it? Again, there's even a podcast where you do that. but yeah there's so many things like that football play play by mail football manager I don't know if you guys remember the play by mail is amazing I have a vague recollection of play by mail where literally you had people's phone numbers and you would just ring up you were the manager of what part like this or you'd ring up somebody another human and buy a footballer like Max I was I was eight I was eight and I had access to the phone numbers of all these people across the country assuming they managed Man United or Levski Sofia or whoever it is.

42:05And you could just randomly phone them up and have these very private conversations with grown men who tell me, in future, can you not refer to yourself as manager of Partick Thistle because my wife doesn't approve of the game? Say you're a work colleague. So I have all these covert conversations with men. But then again, that became like sort of articulation about how football does communicate something between a child and an adult and reverse. And there was something quite sweet about that as well, which sort of goes throughout the book. Felix, you didn't do the traditional thing of sticking with a winning team all the way to the final and following whoever beat them and so on and so on.

42:46You just picked a collection of random matches for each round. I thought you captured the essence of Dolich Hamlet beautifully, by the way. I'm a reasonably regular visitor there. but was there a particular reason for that? Was it just a logistics thing or? Yeah, no, I had the classic idea that everyone does, but I'll follow the winner. But then when I did a few rounds and realised, oh, this is a book and a publisher, I'll speak to a publisher, they were like, well, if you get Man City in the third round, then it's not going to be a very good book, is it? And I thought, oh. So at the risk, so it just became an exercise in just finding the right stories in each round.

43:28When you say, Barry, when you say I've got the essence of Dunwich Hamlet, do you mean that? Because I felt it's so easy with Dunwich Hamlet to sort of write it off as a sort of fashionista thing. And I tried to write that in a little bit, but there was like almost, because in that lower league football, there's like something amazing about football at that level, where because the crowds aren't as big, you're a bit more isolated to the actual experience of who's watching it. And I think in lots of grounds at that space, you realise, oh, it's a bit of a community centre of a place for people to go that don't have anywhere else to go, a sort of collection of people.

44:03I know Hamlet has become a bit sort of cooler than that, but it sort of has all the mergings of all that stuff together, doesn't it, Hamlet? Yeah, I love it up there. It's like a 25-minute walk to Champion Hill for me. But it is quite a funny place because there's loads of young couples with Tarquin is in tow in his big off-road buggy and there's the various sections. But as you point out, they have the big sign up, everyone in our house is equal. I think that's what it says. But yeah, it's a top place. Hi Felix. I've never been so sure that almost every listener of Football Weekly will enjoy a book and specifically this one, having read it yesterday, They hoovered it up, no less, on the train.

44:56I think the structure of it, I was reflecting on why I was so desperate to whiz through it. The writing itself and the stories, the vulnerability is incredible. But I think the structure of it really helps as well, because I think a lot of people like me will be reading it, kind of knowing what happened to various teams involved in last year's FA Cup, but sort of can't quite remember. and so you really want to get through it and get to the next chapter and get to the end of the current one. The way that you wrote about loving football as a child, the way that you wrote about loving football and what it means to you now as an adult is incredible and I know a lot of people listening will resonate with that.

45:34The Championship Manager stuff, as Max said, really could not have been more a reflection of my childhood. Steve Claridge, race is clear. It's a friendship. He rounds the keeper but somehow misses. You're like, how's that happen? And it'd wait for 10 minutes, wouldn't it? Yeah, but also, you know my mum died when I was young and the way that you wrote about the specifics of childhood grief and its kind of long tail into adulthood I think was just incredible so it did kind of yeah not the stuffing out of me but in a good way and to top it all off written by a guy that my brother and I practically worship because the Maccabees have been our favourite band since 2007 and still are to this day who we listen to every time we're in the car together including over the weekend uh whose farewell gig i went to we went to and and the recent comeback as well at all points east so yeah a lot a lot of feelings nice to meet you i want to nice to meet you too i want to clip that all up and put it on the back of the paperback actually ali if that's all right everything you just said that is so sweet joe that's so lovely man and yet especially just quickly about the um about my mum though when i was young that became a sort of exploration on why i support fulham and that was something that i really wasn't sure i was going to say in the book because I do genuinely have still quite a lot of shame and guilt that I supported Chelsea when I was about seven, eight, nine.

46:55And I made a conscious decision, having been told by football that the original sin, the only sin is that you cannot change clubs. Once you have a club, you have a club. But because my mum was from Palestine and my dad not really interested in football from the Isle of Wight I hadn't been handed a football team but my mum and uncle were from Palestine and moved a lot around in the Middle East and my uncle had decided because realizing as we all sort of do that football communicates more than most other things this is who I am this is where I belong this is where I'm from and he was desperate to be from a place so he just decided for no reason like pinning a tail on a donkey type thing that he supported wolves never being he's from Palestine and then and then my mum because she had because she uh had heard that her dad now lived in Bromley West said that she supported West Brom because she thought they were the same thing and like even though obviously that's like really funny it also spoke to their total displacement and not being from a place so then it became interesting to me that when I was young, they hadn't handed me a club and my uncle took me to Chelsea and I'd felt like I sported Chelsea, but something didn't feel right.

48:16And I begged my dad to go somewhere. And when Fulham were in the bottom tier, he took me to Fulham just because I was begging him to go to a place. And he thought, oh, it's an inverted commas, nice club. And something about Fulham Football Club and Craven Cottage when I went there, I genuinely think the place spoke to me and it said this is a place that will hold your loss disappointment hurts this is a place that you can come and do your feeling and you will not be judged and it's going to be a sort of safe spot for you and then that has become really interesting to me decades later that my mum was seriously ill when she was about to die of having MS and I would have moments when I would go to Fulham and I would be actually hoping that they'd lose I wouldn't be telling anyone but I'd have this weird guilty thing but I would be like almost like an addict thinking god I hope we can see the last minute win a loser here sort of things they score and then I realized after after time that Fulham was giving me a sort of very um digestible version of the feeling that I was trying to process the feeling of loss that like funereal feeling or that that kind of sense of everyone aligning with your insides.

49:30So that became really interesting to me that I chose Fulham because I needed it at that time. And I think more often than not, we get told that we get given clubs and lots of people do by families, but actually often people are choosing a club for a certain reason. And I think there are subconscious reasons those clubs speak to you in different ways for things you're looking for as a child. And I genuinely think that's what Fulham gave me. Felix you got in early to give your nephew to lumber him with Fulham as well and there's a beautiful line in the book so I think he must be 8 now but one of the games he went to last season was Fulham getting beaten by Palace in the quarter final of the cup and you gave your nephew Jett a Fulham jersey every year of his life and you have a line in the book He said, instead of giving Jet Fulham shirts, I should have just handed him a big box of sadness.

50:31Fantastic. A pre-packaged one, just have it all now. Yeah, that was like... And then when they lost against Palace, that seemed to be young Jet's first real encounter with genuine crushing disappointment. And there'll be plenty more of that for him, I'm sure in the years to come. Oh, yeah, there will be. Yeah. But when that happened, he was really staring into the void. And as you know, because we got beat 3-0, there was like about 10 minutes to really process the reality of what happened. So just watching him, watching him deal with it for the first time, the way football tells you, something's going to happen in front of you that you are going to feel very betrayed by, but there's nothing you're going to be able to do to affect it.

51:16You'll just have to sit there and watch it. And how football does that again and again against you and the first time it happens to you as a child, it's really like you're sort of looking around going like, what, is no one going to, I don't understand. Like no one's going to change that for me type thing. You can't believe that it's played out as it has. But the thing with Jett was it became interesting to me is that because he doesn't have the reasons for choosing Fulham that I did and he's just been handed it, he desperately wants Fulham to win. So suddenly now I find watching Fulham unbearable because I need Fulham to win for Jett.

51:49Do you know what I mean? I need him to be happy. So it made me feel a bit like, oh, this must be what it's like being a parent or almost witnessing your own wants. Because actually, that's what happens so often in relationships or whatever, especially people, you know, people that become islands a little bit. They don't necessarily commit to more domesticised situations or relationships because they say, oh, I don't want it. It's not, you know, X, Y and Z is wrong with it. But actually, they probably want it so badly. so I started thinking about my my want for Fulham to lose and thinking actually that was probably because it was unbearable to me to need them to win in fact so I'm getting psychoanalytical now but yeah that's sort of all these trails the book takes Felix um I haven't read the book yet but just based on what you were saying there did you did you kind of let on what you were doing like as you got through the rounds like because you know I do a lot of lower league and non-league stuff and it's always a bit of a sell when I'm trying to like get something for sky for example because you know we're all premier league but then you go and you see so much heart and you see what a football club means and the belonging there and then you you get you get the red carpet I get a little bit you know and you you get to meet everyone really easily and stuff and you meet all these crazy characters did you kind of go in completely blind and not tell anyone or did you kind of go hey guys I'm gonna be here I'm doing this I would I would do you know what I had that experience this year when I went to Brackley because BBC had me at half time to do something and that was amazing like having the red carpet thing for that but um no I think the whole purpose of the book was that I was trying to be almost anonymous so I was trying to really just watch people and like tell what the experience was so there's nothing there's none of that like as the rounds went on it was tempting to be like oh so I'll see if I can get press for x-rays but you want to sort of be in the mix and seeing it so especially in those low like a lot of those low league games I'm almost trying to like hide myself in a corner and just watch these sort of strange interactions that play out and people that don't know each other at the start of a game and then at 4.45 they've got this whole history of complex interactions between each other and or like dislike or like for whatever like the thing I always think about in Penrith is there was this in the second half of the game between Penrith and Pickering even though it's playing out the two dugouts just became obsessed um with who had possession of a spare ball so you'd have like so the assistant would be like holding the ball behind his back and then the other manager was sent his assistant to go and try and knock the ball out of that assistant's hand to get it back and they were having this sort of like scrabble for the ball so i didn't have the red carpet uh like you sanny but um maybe maybe we can go to lower league in the future we can you can show me the smoked salmon sandwiches.

54:36Yeah, I should say, by the way, that the red carpet in Lower League, there isn't even a carpet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not red. The sponsor's lounge at best might be just a random porter cabin with a little, like, electric heater. Love it. I mean, you're also not a rock star, Sanny. I hate to say it. It's true. That Sky Sports microphone, you're a great car, great responsibility. That's true. I mean, I don't know, like, if you feel lucky about this, but like for the FA Cup final to be what it was and to be Palace winning it. And, you know, we started this pod with just talking about that half of us were in tears and I'm not even a Scot, I'm not Scottish at all, but you know, I'm sitting in a cafe in Melbourne, like crying when Kenny McLean scored that the same.

55:19I've watched, I've watched so many videos of that full-time whistle when Palace win, just to see what it means. This whole generate, this whole fan base who've never won anything before and just seeing the disbelief. Like, and at the time, and like when you write about it, you're clearly just there going, this is amazing. I don't know if part of you is going, God, that is great for the book, that City haven't, you know, Man City haven't beaten Liverpool 2-0. You know, like, it's perfect for you, right? Well, yeah, do you know what? It was like, it's so, it's interesting, because at the time I wasn't, I was just so jealous.

55:51But then when I reflected on it, I was like, oh, that, the book would have not been, like, it wouldn't have been a very good book if Man City had won it, because the whole essence of the book is like searching for that magic. So if Palace hadn't won that tournament, it would have been a very flat ending to the book. And honestly, being inside with those Palace fans, that is the most supernatural thing I've ever seen in my life. When I think back to it, you know, when you see old American videos of like gospel churches and people were just weeping or like wailing, shouting Jesus. And they're all in their own little private universes.

56:27But together, like, you know, like these exorcisms. like when I think about it it was like that but in a very sort of southeast London way people um not knowing what having a feeling but not only they had never had before in their lives but their parents their grandparents etc had never had before and simultaneously not knowing what to do with it but being completely overwhelmed um with feeling so uh yeah that was that when I think about that and it's a trope that gets used a lot but it was it did make you think oh football is religious it genuinely was a religious experience where they were almost communicating with all the people that hadn't seen that and especially because that Palestine was so good and they looked like for some weird reason I don't know because the kits at the moment are sort of throwbacks in a way but because of what they were and they looked like the 1990 team to me it looks like you're watching Ian Wright and Mark Bright a little bit it's almost like do you know what I mean?

57:26You could put a sketch over them and they looked, felt very similar. So there was all kinds of like synergies that that was, yeah, yeah, beautiful day. I mean, I haven't forgiven that 99 team for knocking Cambridge out of the quarterfinals unjustly. A Jeff Thomas mishit. Worse than his chip. Worse than that chip that went wide, but it's okay, you know. Was that on that run? Cambridge got a quarterfinals in that run. Because Cambridge were quite, was that Dion Dublin? Two years running. That was the John Beck. Wow. It was. John Beck, Dion Dublin's Cambridge. You know, I've talked about that enough, Felix.

57:55we don't the listeners don't need this again hey the book is called whatever will be will be wherever you buy your books but thank you so much Felix it's a great read and I encourage everyone to go and buy it and read it thank you Felix thank you and just quickly to say I love your show it's incredible so I listen to it all the time without fail so yeah nice one which one which one yeah I normally do the previews this one we're doing right now you can listen to all the other ones as well if you like Felix but that is great we appreciate it it's nice it's nice to it's nice to hear that and that'll do for everyone as well so thank you Felix thank you Barry thank you thank you Ali thank you very much cheers Sani cheers thank you Football Weekly is produced by Tayo Papula our executive producer is Phil Maynard we'll be back tomorrow

58:56Thank you.