Some Finney advice

BURNLEY’S Jack Cork has run 200 miles this season ( Mail), but is that what football should be about?

In the Seventies, I worked as a clerk at Preston magistrates’ court where the great footballer Sir Tom Finney was on the bench.

I mentioned to him that I sometimes ran the ten miles to work from Blackburn to Preston to keep fit to play in local Sunday League.

Finney, who was arguably the greatest footballer to play for England, told me politely I was wasting my time. He advised me that for ten minutes I should jog between lamp-posts, running slightly faster between the second and third lamp-post and as fast as I could between the third and fourth.

Then for 30 minutes I should run as fast as possible for just five yards, with two-minute breaks. I discovered that five yards of sprinting when you felt the defender’s breath on your neck would beat any player; being able to run a marathon week after week beats no one in football. PETER POMFRET, Ilford, Essex.