We all love a football mascot don’t we.  They are basically pointless, serving no purpose but to look silly.  But we are for some reason drawn to them, watching closely as they go about their business.  But who are the best?  We haven’t got a clue but here are our top three of 2011.

3rd Place- A rabbit with a pan on his head
The date – April 2011; the place – The Råsunda, Stockholm; the occasion – the high octane AIK/Djurgården derby.  Acrid smoke from the hundreds of flares fills the stadium.  Hate spills down from the stands.  And all amongst the chaos is a 6 foot person in a rabbit costume with a tin pan on upside down as a hat walking around the ground trying to calm things down with a wiggle of his little tail and a shake of a hand.  Of course there is.  That is just logical.

2nd – I really do not know what
I have tried to describe this “thing” the best I can but I really do not know where to start.  Essentially it is a club badge on legs, but with big hands in blue gloves…and white tights.  And “it” walks around the pitch basically waving and doing very little else..apart from when “it” strays a bit too close to the pitch during the warm up when the players use it for target practice.

1st – The Coxyde Seal
There are not many people who can say they went to see a game abroad simply because they were launching a new mascot.  Not any old mascot either, but a big blue seal.

But that is what happened to us last month when we headed across the Channel to Coxyde, literally a stone’s through from the French/Belgium border, to meet the new seal on the block.  A Blue Seal in a landlocked town in Belgium.  I am sure there was some logic in there, but I am damned if I can work it out.

We love a good photo here at TBIR.  After all, a picture paints a thousand words apparently.  At an average match we will take around 100 pictures, which we then reduce down to a set of about 20 which we store here.  But for every top award winning, Time Magazine cover quality picture, there are those that just leave you wondering what on earth the game is all about.  This award is for those pictures and subjects therein.

3rd place – The world’s most exclusive VIP area
Danish 2nd division is not known for its trappings of luxury but those fine chaps at Ballerup Sports Klub know how to treat the likes of Beyoncé, the Beckhams and President Obama when they decided to pay a flying visit to the suburbs of Copenhagen.  After all who needs fine wine, caviar, luxury leather seats and top drawer hostesses when you can have a roped off bit of concrete next to the pitch and a couple of bar tables with wonky legs.

2nd – When times are hard
With fit players at a premium you have to look at all options within the club.  So when Tooting and Mitcham United hit an injury streak in the run up to kick off last season before the game against Harrow Borough they recruited the only spare man they could – the mascot. I am sure that the FA will have had something to say about the white tiger legs cycling shorts.

1st – Make your option caption up here
Being invited to take pictures at the new American Express Community Stadium was one of my high points of the year.  Being given an access all areas pass meant I took hundreds of pictures.  Apart from the ones of Gullies Girls, the best of the bunch had to be this one.  I waited for nearly 2 minutes for Harry to get into the right pose but it is worth it.  The guilty look, the hands being “restrained” behind his back, the intense look from the policeman.  This is simply a caption writers dream….

This is a new catagory for us this year but we decided to include this based on the reason that we seem to always end up in the bar at a club when we go to a game.  Unfortunately, too many are tied to deals from mass market brewers and the only excitement we get is adding a slice of lime to our flat Carlsberg or Fosters.  However, this award is for the clubs that break the mould and reach out into the brave new world of beer.

3rd Place – Brains Black Ale
Want a reason to go to Neath FC’s The Gnoll ground?  Well how about a smooth, malty Brain’s Black Ale?  With the look and texture of a Guinness but with that smooth silky ale taste this is one reason why every year the Fuller Family decamp to the Welsh valleys.  That and so I can stalk Catherine Zeta Jones of course.

2nd Place – Shepherd Neame Kentish Ale
Only found so far at Faversham Town’s Salter Lane ground, this is a smooth and creamy variation of the famous Shepherd Neame brewery that deserves full marks in any tasting test and is probably the only reason why I would return to Faversham to see the club play.

1st Place – Harvey’s Best
No real surprise on this one based on our allegiance to Lewes FC, the home town of Harvey’s brewery.  There are a number of variations on the Harvey’s in the Rook Inn at Lewes FC including the fantastic Blue Label and the Old Ale.  Twice a year there is also the beer festival held at the club when they “experiment” on us unsuspecting drinkers.  So good is the beer that wherever Lewes play now they take a free 72 pint Polypin with them to donate to the home club.

We love a ball picture here at TBIR.  After all, we named our website after the spherical bringer of such joy to our lives.  But which is our favourite?  We have seen all sorts of colours – the traditional white, the Ryman League Surridge red/white look-a-like, the yellow winter ball, the orange ball used when all of the white ones have sailed out of the ground, the purple one at Hyde and of course a retro tango or two.  I still have no idea what the rules are on when which one can be used – when does the Orange ball need to be used over the Yellow one?  What about the black one kept for very special occasions?  It is a minefield out there for club secretaries to regulate and stop being fined by the league.

So here are our three favourites from the year.

3rd – The Ryman Red/White
Let me take you back to the League Cup final in 1979 when Nottingham Forest took on Southampton.  The most talked about white shiny thing on the pitch wasn’t David Armstrong’s bald head but the new Stuart Surridge red and white ball.  Despite holding iconic status it was soon replaced by the latest Nike/Adidas/Mitre offering.  But the Isthmian/Ryman League decided to honour its impact on the history of football by having their own take on the ball, used up and down the south east every week.

2nd – The Tango Europe
Surely the best ball ever made when it debuted in 1978 for the World Cup Finals in Argentina (The “River Plate”).  At the time the ball cost a massive $78 (today around  £170) and went on to be the iconic symbol of the World Cup through to 2002 in various colours/patterns before it was replaced by the Adidas Fevernova.  However, the good times are about to return as the new version, the Tango 12, will be the official ball for the Euro2012 Championships.

1st – The Yellow Ball
We can’t wait for the 1st November every season because that is when the yellow ball is dusted down and thrown onto the pitch.  When the nights start drawing in, there is nothing better than the yellow ball against a dark sky. When the yellow ball is used there seems to be a crackle of magic spreading around the ground.  We count down the days until the end of February, knowing that the balls will be locked away in that special secret place for another eight months, and woe betide any clubs who dare to use them inbetween.

Love them or hate them, blogs are here to stay.  What is the difference between a “blog” and a “website”?  Well, we think that the former is a site put together for the love of writing rather than for profit.  We could have put together a list of at least twenty high quality sites that we read on a daily basis.  So please do not be offended if you are not on the list.

Last year’s winners included European Football Weekends, The Real FA Cup and Two Hundred Percent and many may have accused me of a bit of biased with Danny Last, Damon Threadgold and Ian King on speed-dial on my phone so I excluded them from my thoughts this year.

The sites below are in our opinions “game changers”.  They have set the bar as high as possible in their respective fields, and continue to be an inspiration to all of us writers.  So I give you our top three for 2011:-

3rd – Swiss Ramble
Voted Blogger of the Year by the Football Supporters Federation, a group of chaps who really know their football onions and we cannot disagree. I am privileged to have spent time with Kieron this year, travelling around Switzerland talking football, life, music and strange tactical formations.

There is no writer who can analyse the finances of football better than Kieron and his insight into the workings of a club have gained fans across the game including a certain John W Henry, owner of Liverpool FC no less! 

2nd – In Bed With Maradona
Now where do we start with In Bed With Maradona?  A site that caters for everyone, everything, everytime.  It is slick, sexy (in a masculine football way of course), smooth and sensational.

I’m lucky enough to have been a regular contributor on the site – whether it has been my passion for Lego Stadiums, the Civil Service team taking on Real Madrid and my photo gallery on the extra-ordinary fate of the Tehelne Pole Stadion in Bratislava.  That is the beauty of the site – you never know what you will find there, but whatever it is, it will be groundbreaking.  Winner of the NOPA Best Blog (bastards!), as well as When Saturday Comes Gold award this year.  Fully deserved.

1st – 500 Reasons to love football
OK I admit – I am biased, I admit it.  When Dave Hartrick from In Bed With Maradona gave me a call and suggested a site to put the “beautiful” back in the game who was I to refuse?  Along with Danny Last, Kenny Legg and Damon Threadgold we formed the dream team to put a smile back on everyones face with an irrelevant look back at things that have made us smile about football in the past.  Donny the Doncaster Dog mascot having a pee?  Too right!  A young Nigel Clough sitting on Brian Moore’s knee?  Too right.  A Bayern Munich Christmas plastic duck?  Of course.  Nothing is sacred.  And before anyone asks, we have no idea what will happen when we reach 500.

Despite our love for the beautiful game we realise that there is more to life than football.  Well, we only say that when the football season in England has finished and we cannot get to anywhere abroad to watch a game. So we have to take our hat off and take a bow to those other sports that have kept us entertained in 2011.

3rd – New York Jets 16 New England Patriots 37
“Stu…how do you fancy four hours of drinking, eating and occasionally watching some sport?” Said Luge Pravda to me back in October when I had booked my work trip to New York.  How could I say no?  So just a few hours after touching down we climbed to the top of the MetLife Stadium, with a beer (BudLite of course),a foot-long Nathan’s hot dog and a smile a mile wide on our faces.  American football is actually a good game – if you take out the bloody pointless stoppages in play.

2nd – Castleford Tigers v Leeds Rhinos
I’d been to a few Rugby League games in my life but they had been of the London Bronco/Harlequins variety, and never a local derby.  Castleford is a small town of 30-odd thousand people and when Leeds Rhinos came to town, the locals all came out in force.  A capacity crowd saw a real humdinger of a game which saw the Rhinos eventually run out winners.    It was a passionate, full bloodied affair played on the part by local players who cared for the shirt.  Beer flowed, food that would have Jamie Oliver tongue-tied was being served and we left with a big northern smile on our faces.

1st – Surrey Lions v Hampshire
Cricket is really hit or miss as a day out.  If the weather is good, the teams are in form and the crowd are in good voice it cannot be beaten.  Last year at the Whitgift School in Croydon we had one of those days.  For just £10 we saw 586 runs, 16 sixes and 17 wickets whilst sitting on the boundaries edge supping cold pints of Spitfire.  On a day when you needed to keep an eye on where the ball was heading you could could not have asked for better entertainment at one of the finest natural cricket grounds in the country.  Without any permanent seating, spectators laid out on the grass bank or simply sat cross-legged on the boundary rope.

With over a hundred games to chose from in 2011 we have seem some brilliant games…and some utter dross.  We have a saying at GTC Towers – “A great day out spoilt by 90 minutes of football” which is nearer the truth on most occasions. We drew inspiration from those games that made us smile, that when we got home and CMF said to me, “how was the game?” I would enthuse about my afternoon/evening.    So here we go.

3rd – Götland 2 Isle of Man 4
We’ve already mentioned that one of the best away days of the year was the Island Games and this was the first game in our festival of football.  The tournament kicked off at 2.15pm.  At 2.15pm and 8 seconds Götland were one nil up.  What followed was a festival of football where Isle of Man raced into the lead and could quite easily been four or five goals to the good by half time.  Neither team had defence in mind as they threw everything forward in sweltering conditions.  The only downside?  No beer.

2nd – Whyteleafe 4 North Greenford United 3
This was one of those classic cup ties full of incident.  The cup in question was the FA Trophy, the two teams from respective levels in the Isthmian and Southern Leagues.   When we pitched up at South Whyteleafe and wandered the country lanes looking for the ground little did we know we would be on the end of a seven goal 34 minute cracker.  At half time when we supped our beer in the club bar, looking back at a relatively dull scoreless first half, little did we know that a monster of a game would be unleashed in the second period. North Greenford raced into a 3-1 lead only for Whyteleafe to pull level and then they were awarded a controversial last minute penalty.  With tension mounting in the 50 or so crowd, Whyteleafe scored and took the prize money and a place in the next round.

1st - Neath 0 Real Betis 8
In years to come people will talk about the 4th August 2011 and the events at The Gnoll in Neath.  I will sit down my Grandchildren in thirty years and tell them the tail of Jonathan Periera Rodriguez who arrived in the small town of Neath in the Welsh valleys as a mere squad player for La Liga’s Real Betis, and left a hero.  When he left the pitch after sixty five minutes he had scored all seven goals for the Spanish side in the most one-man performance I have ever seen.  He literally was the difference between the two sides and the stats after the game showed that he had seven chances in his time on the pitch.  Quite how a La Liga side came to be playing against a Welsh Premier League side is in itself a mystery especially as they rolled into town in their branded coach.  Just for the night…

Who doesn’t love a football away day.  Bunch of mates, a few beers, being beaten senseless by the police, stones thrown at you by local yobs, missing the last train home and paying £200 for a cab.  Bloody brilliant.  Last year we rated our top three away days as Neath, Spakenburg and Malta.  This year the decision was much tougher but after looking at the pictures from all of the places we went to we came up with the following top away days of 2011.

3rd – KV Oostende
Did you know that Ostend is actually nearer and quicker to reach by car from London than Birmingham is?  Nor did we until we decided to take a day trip there in April for the game versus Royal Antwerp.  Sure, it was a “bubble” game, and OK there was a bit of water canon action on stand-by but we also have beers on the white sandy beach, saw Jack Nicholson (or someone who looked like him), had our photo with Miss Belgium (North Coast) 2011 and saw a football match with enough action to keep any euro-sceptic happy.  For £60 and an hour in the car Ostend is a cracking day out.

2nd – The Island Games
When we stumbled on the fact that the Island Games would be held on the Isle of Wight we were literally checking every day for when the fixtures came out.  We booked up as soon as we could and on a foggy June day we boarded the ferry from Portsmouth with four games on our agenda.  As soon as we docked and made our way to Cowes, the sun was shining for the opening game of the tournament with Isle of Man taking on Götland.  Our day then took us to Brading for Greenland v Rhodes, East Cowes for Ålund v Samareema and finally to Newport for the Isle of Wight’s comprehensive win over Ynys Môns.  Four games in one day for the price of a beer at City Airport.  Days like these only come around once every blue moon.

1st – Wakefield FC
Let me take you back in time to Friday 29th April.  The day the world turned on their TV’s to watch the Royal Wedding we headed north.  At the moment the happy couple said “I do” we were parked up in a service station near Doncaster on the A1. Even when Big Deaksy shed a tear when he caught a glimpse of her dress on the TV we carried on regardless.  For our venue was Wakefield FC in their last ever game at their College Grove ground.  Ever since we had declared the day Royal Wedding Avoidance Day we had gained a number of followers who also wanted to share the day with us.  So in a small corner of West Yorkshire, in a stand made of scaffolding and polythene some of the most influential football writers met, chatted, oogled the best looking physio in the non leagues and then slapped ourselves on the back for avoiding all of the patriotic drivel.

More pictures from a fantastic day out can be found here.

This was a toughie.  We saw games in forty new grounds in 2011 and so to pick three was very difficult because all had endeering factors.  Whyteleafe’s Church Road ground was idyllic in the Indian Summer, coupled with an seven goal thriller, but visit it in the dead of winter with a nil-nil draw and it may seem like the worst place on earth.  So we based it on our pure gut instinct of what it would be like all year round. Last year the honours went to Spartak Trnava in Slovakia. This year the winners are:-

3rd – The Bosuilstadion – Royal Antwerp
Antwerp had to be in the top three after one of those post game night’s out when you cannot remember getting home, but you did so with more money than you went out with, a half eaten Marmite crepe by your side and a pair of big girls pants in your pocket.  ”We are the great old” they sung at the Bosuilstadion both during the game and in the bar afterwards where the players freely mix with the fans.  A mixture of old and new, old-fashion benches alongside glassed in executive boxes.  Oh, and they serve strong Belgium beer!

2nd – The American Express Community Stadium – Brighton & Hove Albion
This was a tough one not to put top.  My first visit here was as a photographer on a baking hot day in July and so I had an all-access pass.  The stadium is magnificent and first time visitors approaching along the A27 from Brighton will be hard pressed to not swerve off the road when they first see the gleaming roof.  The stadium is perfect in so many ways.  Excellent site lines, a roof that seems to keep the noise of the fans in the stadium, pride in the heritage of the club around the edge of the ground and facilities that encourage fans to hang around after the game for a beer.

1st – Espelunde – BK Avarta
Who?  Where? I hear you say.  The Who is a Danish 2nd Division East side.  The Where is the western suburbs of Copenhagen.  So why has this topped the other thirty nine grounds?  Let me set the scene.  The sun is shining, the beer is cold and the sausages on the grill and sizzling.  The teams run out of an actual tunnel, made out of one of those huge concrete pipes set into the grassy hill. Fans sit on blankets on the grassy knolls watching the game fly by.  Even the home team bench sit on directors chairs, knowing that their ground is a cut above the rest.  See for yourself here.