One of Britain's best-ever goalkeepers is now a striker for a pub side. Mark Winter relates the latest unlikely chapter in the Neville Southall story
If a pin could make a noise when it drops on mud, you would have heard it. Even the pied wagtail that was hopping up and down the touchline seemed to stop to watch the penalty being taken. The score was 1-1 midway through the second half and the outcome of the Second Division championship race could have depended on a successful conversion.
Sergei Rebrov is off to Istanbul – and his former translator, Dan Brennan, hopes the Ukranian will be better looked after at Fenerbache than at Tottenham
And so, finally, the Sergei Rebrov saga has drawn to a close. Just as it seemed he would be playing his football in West London, he has bid the Premiership a sad farewell and opted for Istanbul. It has been two wasted years for the player, and an opportunity missed for Spurs and English football.
Sunday 1 A Jerzy Dudek howler allows goal-machine Diego Forlan to score the first of his two as Man Utd win 2-1 at Anfield. “It seems that every time we make a mistake, we pay for it,” says a disgruntled Gérard. Yet more trouble for Tel as Leeds crash to their fifth successive league defeat at home, 2-1 against Charlton, who score twice in the last ten minutes. “When the players Terry has are fit, they should be too good to go down,” says Alan Curbishley encouragingly. David Batty is said to be considering legal action over comments allegedly made by Peter Ridsdale at the Leeds AGM to the effect that knee injuries have effectively ended his career. Everton’s run of wins comes to an end at Newcastle, who come from behind with two late goals, after Joseph Yobo is sent off early in the game. David Moyes has an unusual criticism to make of the officials: “Too many referees hide behind the laws
Dear WSC
It’s hard not to be impressed by the awful judgment displayed by the Football League. First the ITV Digital fiasco and now the appointment of a failed politician as their new chairman. Apparently Brian Mawhinney’s credentials are that he “has been an MP for 23 years and has served as Secretary of State for Transport and as Northern Ireland Sports Minister”. Also that he has “contacts in the corridors of power”. Oh, and he’s been a keen supporter of Peterborough United for 25 years! Let’s look at a few facts. He is an MP for buggery’s sake! The new “family friendly” working hours introduced in Westminster in January are shifting an MP’s work to the daytime. Are all Football League board meetings going to be shifted to the evening to accommodate Mr Mawhinney’s day job? In the register of members’ interests, he already has four other part-time jobs. Plus, he is a trustee of Boston University (that’s Boston Massachussetts, not Boston Lincs, by the way). Is he going to carry on with them while providing “strategic planning” for the Football League? A keen supporter of Peterborough United? Indeed, so keen a supporter, that when it looked like he was sure to lose the Peterborough constituency at the 1997 General Election, he joined the Tory “chicken-run” and legged it to north-west Cambridgeshire in search of a safe seat. What’s more, on the Peterborough fans’ website, it was claimed that, yes, he had a season ticket – but sadly it was at Arsenal. Good news for lower league clubs, then. He wasn’t specifically the “sports minister” for Northern Ireland. He was a Northern Ireland minister and, because at that time there was no devolution, he as a minister would have had hundreds of areas of responsibilities, only one of which would have been sport. The biggest joke is about him having contacts within government. Picture the scene: Mawhinney asks a Labour minister for a meeting to discuss football. Labour minister thinks: “Hmm, it’s the man whose greatest achievement was to come up with the idea of rail privatisation and he is still a Tory MP to boot.” Says to secretary: “See if you can squeeze Mr Mawhinney into the diary for July 2009.” I don’t live in north-west Cambs and its not my business to slag off their MP, but as a football fan, I simply cannot believe this is a good appointment.
Niall Duffy, Worthing
Having a bad season? Worried that things couldn't be much worse? Cheer yourself up with some schadenfreude as Chris Lynham looks back on Gillingham's darkest hour
In 1993, Gillingham celebrated 100 years of chronic underachievement with a campaign so inept it even failed to meet the very limited expectations of our band of world-weary supporters. Having put up with five years of steady decline, we could all cope with the boredom of inoffensively squatting in the lower half of the old Fourth Division, but the eternal agony of the 1992-93 season was a step too far.