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In one of the most important weeks for English sport in recent history, things have so far gone badly wrong, the effective deciding match of Five Nations has been lost and one of our remaining three football teams in European competition has thrown it away.
Saturday completed a pretty miserable week for Phil de Glanville, omitted from the preliminary British Lions squad, he captained an England side that saw it’s ambition go up in smoke. England had the French reeling after Grayson’s drop goal - but sat back as they for once they had a sizeable league in the early stages. Twickenham went silent apart from the French contingent as it was suddenly realised that it was the opponents who would win the Five Nations.
And then last night possibly our best hope of a European trophy was extinguished. I then had to listen to some demented Geordie telling me exactly how unfortunate Newcastle were on Tuesday night . He seemed to think that the absence of Shearer, Ferdinand and Asprilla was a valid excuse for losing the home leg of this tie. Every other side in England has a reserve team so that should such an eventuality occur, you don’t have to stick a midfielder up front on his own. Well poor old Newcastle, sorry - poor old rich old Newcastle. This club has spent more than everyone else put together, creating a gutless bunch of talented individual players who cannot play as a team to save their lives. They could not even field a decent side for one of the most important games of the season. It has been shown that any team that goes to St. James’s Park with the belief that they can neutralise the attack, such as Southampton, will come away with a result. Tottenham missed their first three choice strikers earlier in the season but at least they kept their heads above water. Had Newcastle not been so confident to let Huckerby and Kitson go they might have mustered a goal. For a team of supposed quality, their defence was ripped to shreds a little too often for comfort. The remarkable ease with which Ipkeba and Anderson were able to trouble Hislop was verging on embarrassing. This all goes to confirm that the club won’t win anything - ever, as long as they adopt such a cavalier attitude to every aspect of the game. It can only be hoped that both Manchester United and Liverpool put up more staunch resistance against continental opposition.
The FA has finally accepted that England can play home internationals away from Wembley. England’s first match against South Africa - holders of the African Nation’s Cup - will be played at Old Trafford. Given the lack of interest shown in friendlies before the European Championships, this has come too late. Unfortunately the only reason for the shift is that Wembley will be in use for the Nationwide League play offs. The idea could certainly be taken further, the crowds proximity to the pitch at some older grounds is guaranteed to increase home advantage, 55,000 Mancunian Neanderthal’s screaming at the opposition is bound to put them off.
