Search: ' Terry Venables'

Tuesday 2 West Brom drop down to fourth in Division One after losing 1-0 at home to (gasp) Man City while Sheffield Utd move above them following a 3-2 over Stoke. In Division Three a League record is equalled at Wigan where Bristol Rovers have four players sent off, together with one from the home side. Three go after a mass brawl triggered by the first dismissal, of Rovers defender David Pritchard. "It was atrocious, abysmal and an absolute disgrace," says Rovers manager Ian Holloway, talking of the refereeing rather than the fighting. Doncaster get their first win of the season, 2-1 v Chester, to take them to within six points of Brighton.

Wednesday 3 West Ham beat Crystal Palace 4-1 in a restaging of the match abandoned due to floodlight failure last month. The game is watched by officials from Juventus said to be considering investing in Palace for reasons that remain obscure, possibly some form of collective madness.

Thursday 4 So-so World Cup draw for England who'll be playing Tunisia, Romania and Colombia, harder for Scotland, up against Brazil in the opening match of the tournament (traditionally a low-scoring game, though) then Norway and Morocco. Ray Harford resigns as manager of West Brom as a prelude to taking up the QPR job, saying "At times there were problems with the travelling. A chance came that was going to be better geographically." Did he fly home from Blackburn every day then?.

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Dear WSC
As a student of Romanian language and literature (no, there aren’t many of us) I spend a lot of time in Romania and have become rather fond of Steaua as a result. Unfortunately, I was not in Bucharest for the visit of Aston Villa, and therefore had to watch the game on Channel 5. I spent it counting cliches. They started immediately after the opening titles ceased – cue shot of the Câsa Poprilor, which is not where Ceaucescu lived as Channel 5 told us; cue orphans; cue interview with a taxi driver (and I hoped he ripped Channel 5 off as Bucharest taxi drivers do most foreigners). Even worse was the predictably awful pronunciation of Romanian names. For the eight thousandth time, ‘Steaua’ is pronounced ‘Ste-au-wa”. As for the attempts by all involved to pronounce ‘Ciocoiu; (which should be ‘Chock-oi-oo’), I’m still laughing. Villa themselves must also be berated for their patronising ‘gifts’ of food and bobble hats to a Bucharest orphanage, thereby reinforcing all the stereotypes that Britons have vis a vis Romania, sure to be repeated during the World Cup . The Romanians’ economy is not as strong as our own, but the populace is not starving, and does not need charity.  But perhaps Villa have now set a precedent, whereby teams from strong economic powers should bring donations for their poorer hosts. So, if Villa go on to play a German team later in the competition, maybe their opponents should bring food and clothes for the homeless of Birmingham?
Craig Turp, London SW20

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A very basic run-down of the 32 teams at this summer's World Cup

Worried that your lack of knowledge of international football will leave you exposed when conversation turns to the World Cup draw? Fear no more. Our cut-out-and-throwaway guide gives a thoroughly researched journalistic fact about every team, sure to be repeated umpteen times on television from now until the moment ITV show slow motion footage of Romario to the accompaniment of Santana’s Black Magic Woman.

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Australia have once again failed to qualify for the World Cup. Mike Ticher questions what will become of football in the country after their latest elimination

Australia have lost to some curious teams in their efforts to qualify for previous World Cups – Kuwait, Indonesia, Fiji – but France ’98 was surely the worst beating they had ever handed out to themselves.

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Monday 3 For the second time this season a Premiership match is abandoned due to floodlight failure: West Ham have just equalized after being two down at home to Palace when Upton Park is plunged into darkness. "The electricans said they just couldn't get to the bottom of it," says Harry Redknapp, looking even more perplexed than usual.

Tuesday 4 Goals from Ian Taylor and Dwight Yorke take Aston Villa on to the Third Round of the UEFA Cup. Opponents Bilbao pull one back twenty minutes from time but fail to force the draw that would have taken them through. "Now we can look forward to going on our travels again before Christmas," says Brian Little. (And that was the best quote too. God, he's boring.) "We just didn't stick the ball in the net enough times," says Roy Evans, flashing that marvellous old boot room wisdom as Liverpool beat Strasbourg 2-0 but go out 3-2 on aggregate. 

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