Aidan Green

Live in Exeter. Work in IT. Football, cricket and real ale fan. He/Him.

[Match of the Day @BBCMOTD]

As first goals go...

19-year-old George Birch's first senior goal was a stunner.

[Aidan Green @aidangreen]

@drmikekeil Great to hear from Grace and Maddie on this episode. They have inspired us to try Water Night this Thursday.

https://t.co/4XB0hfZXUL

[rob tibbles @robtibbles]

Just a normal evening in North Devon.

[Aidan Green @aidangreen]

@CharlotteR_22 @FansAgainstVAR_ I’ve never met a fan who likes VAR.
Goal line Technology is fine. It works. VAR just adds delays mistakes, controversy and cost.
I’d love to see solidarity between football fans to say no to VAR, and drive it out of the sport. #scrapVAR ✊🏼

[Aidan Green @aidangreen]

@drmikekeil @AVWFCOfficial Talking of departing Villa goalkeepers, did you spot that @VSinisalo01 who was on loan at @OfficialECFC last season (and was player of the season) has signed for Celtic on a 5 year deal?

[Met Office Science @MetOffice_Sci]

Climate change is having a significant impact on sport at all levels, including competitive matches, training spaces and athletes’ health 🏃‍♀️

In a recent blog, Met Office scientist @JamesPope10 discusses the effect of climate change on cricket 🏏

Read here ⤵

[Ellis Platten - AwayDays @ellis_platten]

Oh fucking hell

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Just a regular reminder that #ENG three strikers at #EURO2024, Kane (3 goals), Toney (1 assist, 1 no-look pen) & Watkins (1 goal for the ages), made a combined 500 appearances in the Championship, League One and League Two. The pyramid matters. Elite clubs benefit from the EFL.

[Exeter City FC @OfficialECFC]

Anything is possible if you believe ❤️

[🎸 Rock History 🎸 @historyrock_]

A rock band is performing and the singer sees a kid with a banner asking to play guitar with them. The singer asks him:

- Do you really know how to play guitar?
- Yeah!
- What's your favorite band?
- Guns N' Roses

What happens next is incredible.

[Tim Bolton @TimBolton1981]

Who made this? 😂

[England Cricket @englandcricket]

A photo from every year Jimmy Anderson has played Test cricket for England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

A thread 🧵

[Exeter City Women FC @ExeterCityWFC]

FULL TIME

🥺 History Makers

❤️ We ARE Going UP

#ECFC

[Nick Allen @NickAllen224]

I don't think VAR is intentionally corrupt.

I do, however, think that VAR is a joyless, broken, pedantic, inaccurate, dull, demoralising and poisonous product of modern football that needs to be destroyed as soon as humanly possible.

It is the ruin of football. #WWFC

[Jeremy Vine | Here, on Tiktok, Insta & Facebook @theJeremyVine]

I agree with this. #VAR destroyed the #FACupsemifinal. There was no “clear and obvious error” by the officials on the pitch and the 4-3 goal by heroic @Coventry_City should have stood. Instead of being remembered as one of the greatest FA Cup matches in history, it's yet another VAR washout. The offside rule was brought in to stop goalhanging, not to disallow a run by a striker whose big toe is further forward than the last defender. Absolutely gutting for everyone watching.

[Geoff Pearson @Geoff_Pearson]

Another staggeringly bad weekend for #VAR. It has somehow managed to retain the inconsistency of pre-VAR refereeing decisions, but add an additional layer of inconsistency in the application of VAR to them. It's simply ruining the sport.

[Name cannot be blank @baltipiesmugglr]

Laughable tbf

VAR just stole what would have been one of the best moments in FA Cup history.

It's a cancer on the game. #MUNCOV

[Stan Collymore @StanCollymore]

The Football Association Challenge Cup. A long read.

The World's Oldest Association Football Competition. Let that sink in.Something to be proud of as a part of English football and cultural life.

Changes to it? Yes, with one caveat. That every club who takes part in it has an equal vote as to what those changes are. Too simple eh?

But no, several high profile managers ( who'll be fucking long gone and won't give a fuck when our beloved competition has finally been finished off) and several owners will be gleeful today, another victory for maybe 6 of 100+ pro clubs, another concession to the greed, while relegating a national instution to an annoyance.

I've played for Stafford Rangers in a Cup 1st round against Burnley, hoping desperately to get a replay at Turf Moor.

I've played in an FA Cup Final between England's 2 biggest clubs.

At Hillsborough, I ran out wearing the yellow of Southend United, with 6000 travelling Shrimpers and what seemed like a million yellow balloons. The game where I felt I belonged in that esteemed company.

Playing in the back garden, bewildered as Alan Sunderland scored the winner when Arsenal beat United in a game that epitomised the beguiling spectacle of this famous old trophy.

Yeovil, Altrincham, Hereford, Sutton, Blyth Spartans, Chasetown. Names that maybe only ever pop up once in a football lifetime for the nation but to the fans of those clubs, ask them about their Cup memories and see their faces.

We're being diddled, had over, fucked about, taken the piss out of. By who? Managers who " desperately need fewer games", by owners bemoaning having to gamble their precious boys against Rochdale instead of resting up for Real Madrid, something understandable if it weren't for the luxury of 30 pros costing a billion pounds plus an academy of cherry picked youth from around the world. How many fucking players do these clubs need to play one replay every 5 years?

If the Football Association had any arsehole it would have put any decision that fundementally changes a 153 year old tournament to a vote of all participating clubs. It won't though , because it's scared to say a word to the all conquering Premier League. If you didn't believe before today that the FA wasn't fit for purpose, now you know because the organisation that administers the most professional clubs in the land, the EFL have effectively called them liars. That alone should ensure investigation by an independent regulator, along with any number of other decisions, changes and ideas the all conquering Premier League want implemented.

Fuck you to every manager who's come to these shores wanting U-21 teams and B teams playing in the EFL. This isn't Spain where they can't populate more than 2 divisions with quality teams from across the nation, this is England where we have over 100 pro clubs over 5 divisions, where a town of 40,000 like Burnley can proudly compete in the top 2 divisions regularly for over 100 years.

Fuck you to the big name managers crying about too many games. Use your fucking 30 man squads better and play the 15 you hardly use but cost more money on wages in a year than clubs competing in the Champions League from other nations operate a whole club on! And that's without the star boys who you steal from clubs for a pittance from clubs in the pyramid and overseas that you love the idea of playing but won't because " they're not ready quite yet". Bullshit!

Unless you, reading this, do something, anything by way of protesting this obscene and constant tidal wave of changes to the English game that is ruining the fabric of a delicate pyramid ecosystem, the your children simply will never get to afford to watch what we have.

A sport for everyone, not for an elite few.

It's time to fight back. Enough changes, enough greed, English football worked well for 150 years, trust it, trust those in it and those who support it.

[Simon Evans @sgevans]

Those old FA Cup finals, when it was the biggest day of the season - and the last day of the season - with tv coverage starting on the kids shows in the morning. Everyone watching the game. Then afterwards rushing outside to play football with your mates. Felt like the official start of summer. Long gone. People remembered the Cup finalists and winners more than they remembered who won the league in a given year. It was a culturally significant event. But its long gone.

[@thecoldend @thecoldend]

RESTORE THE FA CUP TO IT'S FORMER GLORY

* Bring back replays in all rounds
* Semi-Finals to be played at neutral grounds like Old Trafford, Villa Park etc NOT Wembley
* Showpeice Final on the last day of the season at 3pm on Saturday - no other games played on that day.