The Watto Booze Challenge!

I am no alcoholic!  My wife may well disagree!  When we take one of our legendary short breaks, it is always me who will finish the night in a quaint English Country Pub enjoying a fine Real Ale.  As for Mrs Wife, more often than not she is back in the Tent or B & B reading a book or magazine..

The Andy Watto Real Ale Experience Blog illustrates my efforts in embracing various Cask Ales from all over the land.  I will also be honest, and state that one of the reasons I decided it was time to end this particular blog was that I clearly developed a pattern of preference towards certain ales.

My wife has until a few days ago gone several weeks without any alcohol.  I reckon if she can do it, then I can certainly do something similar.  I have decided I will drink no alcohol for whole month of February 2015.  So why February?

February being the smallest month is part of my thinking of course.  But there are other personal reasons surrounding social occasions.  There are too many occasions in December.  January is out due to the possibility of some Christmas presents I may need to consume.  As for March, it is the month of my birthday.  And believe you me, 2015 is no ordinary birthday for yours truly!

Once midnight strikes to take me into the small hours of Sunday 1st February, I will feel a mixed sense of excitement and apprehension.  With February being a bit chilly, I will say that it will be a bit strange from time to time having a look at my whisky bottles in our seattle unit!

I retain a view that I will continue to enjoy Real Ales and Whisky in moderation.  Achieving potential benefits such as weight loss, does give me a sense of motivation.  What I hope February 2015 will do is give me is a new sense of direction in my future relationship with alcohol.  Cheers.

Hopefully a weekend that will inspire future trips to the Cotswolds...

I have been in the Cotswolds over the weekend, due to attending a family wedding in the quiet town of Minchinhampton.  My wife and I have also used the occasion to explore an area we have never explored together previously.

I can confirm we both would like to visit this wonderful corner of England at some point again.  We have seen a few various attractions signposted from the road which will have to wait for a future visit.

As for this weekend, we took a look around Stow-On-The-Wold and Moreton-In-Marsh.  I had previously visited Moreton-In-Marsh as a child over 30 years ago.

STOW-ON-THE-WOLD

MORETON-IN-MARSH

Tour de France can only be positive for Yorkshire Dales!

The Tour de France will hit the Yorkshire Dales National Park this weekend.  From my own personal experiences of visiting this wonderful National Park, I would be surprised if this Dales exposure to the world will be anything other than positive.  Here are a selection of my own Dales memories.

Is African Football at a crossroads?

I have always taken an interest in the football progress of African nations, ever since Morocco surprisingly won England's group in the Mexico World Cup of 1986.  I was eleven years of age then.  Four years later, much to the dismay of my Dad and brothers, I was even supporting Cameroon in their World Cup Quarter-Final against the Three Lions.

I have always supported my home country England ever since.  Although I make no apologies in stating my main football passion is in the club game.  My support for Cameroon that night twenty four years ago is difficult to explain in some quarters.  Maybe my heart was not completely with England due to the number of non-Liverpool players in the set up.

I can certainly say that what that Cameroon team did do was cement a love of the African game I still retain to this very day.  Decent African teams since the Cameroon class of 1990 have always tried to play football positively.  Going back to that  Cameroon team, there was never a dull moment.  I would also here point to the Cameroonian indiscipline as well as Roger Milla's brilliance!

In every World Cup since 1986, an African side has always progressed to the second round.  That record continued in Brazil 2014 courtesy of Nigeria's progress from Group F.  In fact Algeria's qualification means this is the first time in which two African nations have made the last 16.  Should the Super Eagles of Nigeria beat the French and the Desert Foxes of Algeria overcome the Germans, then there will be an all African Quarter-Final.

Realistically, Nigeria are defensively well organised.  That is a credit to their Coach Stephen Keshi, who appears to be attracting interest from other national sides.  Although the Super Eagles will benefit from a lack of expectation with many commentators fancying the French, I would be pleasantly surprised if either team can become the fourth African World Cup Quarter-Finalist in 2014.

I am finding more and more that African sides will deliver when expectations are low, with Algeria this year being a case in point.   But they don't deliver when they suddenly become the fancied side, as illustrated by Nigeria's exit in the last 16 of France 98 at the hands of Denmark.  In watching this World Cup and the previous two, I have found myself wondering nervously if any African teams will even get past the group stage!

As the group stage of Brazil 2014 drew to a close on 26 June, Africa could have seen three of it's representatives progress ahead of the final matches involving Ghana and Algeria.  The historic success of Algeria progressing for the first time in their history must not mask the fact that both Nigeria this year and Ghana in 2010 lost their final group matches, and only progressed when results elsewhere went their way.

At this moment in time out of all the continental football confederations, Africa is only performing better than Asia and Oceania.  The decision by CAF to alter it's football calendar to ensure that the African Cup of Nations no longer takes place in a World Cup year is positive.  But more stability is needed from national associations.  This business of African teams turning up at tournaments with outstanding matters of a monetary nature, must quite frankly stop.

As I have said, any further progression from Nigeria or Algeria in Brazil 2014 would be a pleasant surprise.  But there is the more important debate the whole world has now gone quiet on.  That debate is of course if an African team can at some stage win the World Cup?  My answer would still be a potential yes.  If this continent can produce players of the calibre of Yaya Toure and Samuel Eto'o, and then see all it's teams struggle at a World Cup, then this continent is I am afraid underachieving!

A lovely weekend around Derwentwater and Keswick

I have just enjoyed a lovely weekend experiencing the lake of Derwentwater in the English Lake District, as well as the principal town on the lake's shore, Keswick.

I had the pleasures of walking a part of the circular walk around the lake, a failed attempt at canoeing, watching the World Cup in a couple of the town's pubs, and a magnificent barbecue on the shore.

I will now share a selection of the views I enjoyed.

Is County Durham a hidden English treasure?

Since one of my brothers moved to County Durham a decade ago, I have been a fairly regular visitor to the county.  I have slowly come to realise that there is much more to the Land of the Prince Bishops than the quaint City that is Durham.

The following pictures will highlight a selection of the beautiful rural scenery which County Durham can offer, most notably the High Force Waterfall.

"You can't go from 7th to 1st in a season!" But...

I was travelling on a train in December, heading into Liverpool to watch the Reds' home match against Norwich City.  I got talking to a fellow Red on various Liverpool FC related stuff, past and present.

The conversation moved to the expectation levels of sections of our support, who put it this way, had expectations we both felt to be unrealistic.  The guy stated, "You can't go from 7th to 1st in a season!"

By looking more closely at the Reds' fortunes prior to this season, it is not so much that Liverpool finished 7th the previous campaign, the first season under the Management of Brendan Rodgers.  The average league position of Liverpool's three campaigns prior to Rodgers' tenure was in fact also 7th!

The match against Norwich saw a memorable performance, best remembered for Luis Suarez scoring 4 goals in a 5-1 win, most notably the Uruguayan's 40 yard lob which started the scoring.  That night for me also marked the moment when the SAS became SASAS.  Suarez had formed an almost telepathic relationship on the field with Daniel Sturridge, who was injured that night.

Raheem Sterling meanwhile was simply showing few signs of the promise he had shown on breaking into the first team just over a year ago, and there had been rumours circulating that he may be going out on loan to a Championship side in January.  He certainly finished this match on a high, getting the Reds' fifth in a comprehensive win, and has been in excellent form throughout the second half of the season.

I always said at the start of the season that a good progression would be to be within a mathematical chance of finishing in the top four going into the final couple of games of the season, or breaking through the 70 point mark.  Ironically that was a feat achieved by our neighbours across Stanley Park.

The excellent run we have been on, which has seen comprehensive victories over the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United, put Liverpool FC in a position I am sure very few would have expected.  The dropped points against Chelsea and Crystal Palace, highlight just how brutal a game football can be.

After the collapse against Palace, my wife hardly got a word out of me for best part of the next hour.  I noticed the usual silly remarks on various social network sites from some fans of rival clubs lapping it up, thinking in their anti-Liverpool bias that our season is a disaster, and that we will not challenge for the title again for many years.  Well that is their affair.

The reality is that Liverpool have finished runners-up on three occasions since last being crowned English Champions in 1990.  On not one of those occasions did we enter the final game of the season with a mathematical chance of winning the league.  I consider being in the position we are in, to be a huge step forward.

So on the point of not going from 7th to 1st in a season, the big BUT is the worst that can now happen is we finish 5 points behind the champions.  If someone had told me this could happen at the start of the season, I just don't think I could have taken that person seriously.

With the lure of Champions League football next season, I am hopeful there will be no repeats of the recent transfer sagas which have seen us fail to secure the likes of Diego Costa, and that Ukrainian fella in January.  If Brendan Rodgers can now get his real targets over the line, the future could be very bright indeed.

Man Utd's 2013 Charity Shield Winning Coach!

When David Moyes became the Manager of Everton FC, I found his suggestion that the majority of the people you meet on the streets of Liverpool to be Evertonians, just a touch laughable.  As a Liverpool supporter, sure I was not born in the City.  I was in fact born on the Wirral, and mainly grew up in the Borough of Sefton.  Yet my family roots are clearly scouse, and I have spent more than enough time in the City to know Moyes' claims were inaccurate.

Everton are a football club with fine historical achievements, supported by the fact that they have been English Champions more times than Chelsea and Manchester City combined.  When Moyes arrived at Goodison in 2002, the Toffees had spent too many seasons in recent times in the botttom half of the Premier League Table.  The Blues even had two seasons during the previous decade which required results on the final day of the season to go their way, to preserve their Premier League status.  Everton were clearly punching below their weight.

The fact that the Blues only finished twice in the bottom half under 11 years of Moyes' management, is an achievement I certainly admire.  Moyes left Goodison to attempt what many people felt to be the "impossible job" in succeeding Manchester United's most successful ever manager.  That is indeed how it turned out to be with the news this week that the Red Devils had dispensed with Moyes' services after just 10 months.

If we look more closely at what Moyes did at Everton, he became widely regarded as a defensive manager.  His successor Roberto Martinez (like Brendan Rodgers across the park) is seen as part of a new breed of managers.  Whilst there can be no doubt that Martinez has benefited from the solid defensive foundations laid by Moyes, it is also pretty clear that Martinez has also put his own stamp on the Toffees' style during a season which has seen Everton attain their highest ever points total of the Premier League era.

Despite a satisfactory start at Old Trafford by winning silverware in the form of the Charity Shield in August 2013, Moyes was probably not the right man to lead Manchester United.  This is due in part to the defensive mentality many observers would say his teams possess.  Manchester United is a football club who have not only had sustainable periods of success down the years, but who have generally produced teams that have been pleasing to the eye.

People have been debating the decisions Moyes made with regards to the backroom team he inherited from Sir Alex Ferguson.  No doubt people will continue to talk about the significance of such decisions whenever his Old Trafford tenure comes up for discussion.  Other people would defend Moyes on the grounds that with limited financial resources at Everton, it is more realistic to build teams up that are difficult to beat than go out and spend big money on the flair players to play champagne football.  Roberto Martinez may well have torn that argument to shreds!

Moyes has proven himself to be more than a capable manager at both Everton and Preston North End.  I believe he can resurrect his managerial career given time.  But the worst thing he could do in the short term is return to another Premier League managerial post.  He could be best advised to take some time out from the Premier League, and possibly spend time observing coaching methods from around the world.  Should he succumb to the temptation of a quick Premier League return, then I feel he could well be remembered forever as "Man Utd's 2013 Charity Shield winning Coach!"

Red Men certainly not over the line!

This afternoon's victory against Norwich City will no doubt enhance the belief of some Liverpool fans across the globe, that the wait for that 19th league title could be over.  I was certainly expecting a tough match against the Canaries, particularly after the spirit shown by Norwich's fellow strugglers Sunderland during their last two matches against Manchester City and Chelsea, which earned the Black Cats 4 points.

The Reds certainly had to overcome a Norwich side which showed great desire after we raced into a 2-0 lead inside the first eleven minutes.  Simon Mignolet's error for the Canaries' first goal is another reminder of the pressure Liverpool will now face over the next three matches.

Our neighbours Everton have also had a good solid first season under the management of Roberto Martinez.  It would appear that the blues will at least have a mathematical chance of a top four finish going into the final couple of matches.  I would have settled with that for Liverpool at the start of the season, as a sign of solid progresss.  How times have changed!

For now the aim must not go beyond the next match.  We must not get trapped into negative thoughts about how Liverpool can draw next week against Chelsea, and still win the league provided we beat Crystal Palace and Newcastle United.

Brendan Rodgers is a Manager with a positive mentality, unlike two of his recent Anfield predecessors in Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez.  A win next Sunday against Chelsea will see the Londoners eliminated from the title race.  That is the important next step.

Why I love the English Lake District!

Sometimes words aren't the best means of expression!

The walk between Ambleside and Grasmere takes in views of two of Lakeland's smaller lakes, Rydal Water and Grasmere.

Coniston Water is so tranquil.

And Ullswater is the Lake District's most beautiful lake!