Real test coming up for Tresco
Trapped Toon fans desperate to be free of Bruce and Ashley
CAN we all come together and wish Marcus Trescothick good luck?
He’s going to need lots of the stuff following his appointment as England’s new elite batting coach.
There is nothing ‘elite’ about the shower currently on show in India, where England’s batsmen have continued to fail in the final Test in Ahmedabad.
Here we were thinking the pitches were to blame, when it turns out that those wielding the willow are nowhere near good enough all along.
Having won the toss and chosen to bat,
England were bowled out for just
205 yesterday.
This is after captain Joe Root had called on his batsmen to be “full of confidence” and to play in a “controlled but fearless” manner.
The win in the first Test now feels like a lifetime ago and the wounds of recent weeks will have to heal quickly, because England face a huge period of cricket between now and the end of 2021, which culminates in an Ashes series Down Under.
It remains to be seen how much Trescothick (above) is getting paid in his new role – but whatever it is, it won’t be enough.
NEWCASTLE are trapped in a Mike Ashley and Steve Bruce nightmare – and won’t be happy again until both are gone.
Many rival fans and pundits don’t understand Newcastle and their supporters.
A common criticism is that Geordies are always moaning, measure everything against the glory days of Kevin Keegan’s ‘Entertainers,’ hate Ashley because he’s a “cockney”, and that nothing will ever be good enough.
But in the 14 years before Ashley bought the club in 2007, Newcastle had eight top-seven finishes in the Premier League.
They had 10 European campaigns, including three in the Champions League, reached a UEFA Cup semifinal and two quarter-finals.
In the domestic cup competitions, they were in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup seven times, including runners-up at Wembley twice.
In the 14 years since Ashley (below) paid £133m to be owner, to “have some fun”, there’s only been one good season – when Alan Pardew led the club to fifth in 2012 after a run to the Europa League quarter-finals.
There have been two relegations, balanced by two Championship promotions, and nine times finishing 10th or below in the top flight. An amazing 23 domestic cup campaigns out of 28 have ended in the fourth round or earlier.
Not to mention the disrespect shown to legends like Keegan and Alan Shearer, the renaming of St James’ Park to the Sports Direct Arena, bringing in pay-day loan sharks Wonga as shirt sponsors, among many other controversies.
Clubs can’t live off past glories, and many fall further from the pinnacle than Newcastle have, but this is a club that has been trapped in unhappy relationships at every level. It is little wonder that Newcastle had to give away 10,000 season tickets last season because empty seats were starting to look embarrassing on TV, as long-serving fans concluded there was no joy in it any more. Newcastle just try to exist in the Premier League. The pain of the decline has broken many a loyalist.
In the summer, there was the cruel, lockdown saga of the failed takeover.
One month Newcastle were about to become the richest club in the world backed by Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund.
But they were led on by misplaced confidence from Amanda Staveley and her consortium, as TV sports rights piracy, and murder, derailed the £340m bid, and left Geordies stuck with a regime they want rid of at all levels.
It has been tormenting. Unpleasant. So little to cling to.
Now relegation is on the cards for a third time under Ashley, unless Bruce can galvanise his players in one last 12-game push.
WEST BROM EVERTON 0 1 CARLO ANCELOTTI called up the man from Iceland and had to wait only 43 seconds for his delivery.
That’s service you can’t fault and substitute Gylfi Sigurdsson reckons there’s no reason why Everton can’t clinch a Champions League spot come the end of the season.
The Iceland star took less than a minute to come up with the goods when he curled in a pinpoint ball for Richarlison to head home the 66th-minute winner.
That’s six goals in as many games for the Brazilian forward as Everton made it three wins on the bounce to boost their push for a top-four finish.
But it was West Brom boss Sam Allardyce who was left feeling frozen out as he saw his side denied a stoppage-time equaliser when Mbaye Diagne was ruled offside by the narrowest of margins.
Sigurdsson said: “That’s two 1-0 wins in which Richarlison has scored the goals in the last two games, which has been worth six points.
“He’s doing a great job for us but I said to him as we made our way into the dressing room that it was all about the delivery.
“We’ve just got to keep things going and if we do we’ll have a very good chance of finishing in the top four.”
It was cruel on West Brom, who really had put up a determined performance from the off and were only denied a point by that late VAR decision.
With just three minutes gone, the visitors were left thanking keeper Jordan Pickford for keeping them on level terms.
The England No.1 acrobatically flung himself to his right at full stretch and somehow managed to flick away a looping header from Diagne that looked in all the way.
The Baggies were equipping themselves extremely well right up until the break when their resistance was broken and they should have paid the price for it.
Albion were caught out when a seemingly innocuous through ball from Andre Gomes cannoned off a couple of players and ended up falling into a gaping hole in the centre of the home defence where Dominic Calvert-lewin was lurking.
Credit to keeper Sam Johnstone for making a superb block but he really shouldn’t have been given a chance.
It was agony right at the end when Diagne sent the ball crashing into the roof of the net only to see the linesman’s flag up and VAR confirm his decision by a whisker.
Everton boss Ancelotti had good reason to smile. He said: “I feel really good. If I look at the table I’m a very happy man. Unfortunately the
season isn’t finished. The Champions League would be a fantastic dream.”
Allardyce was still smarting about the late call and said: “I should be smiling but I’m unhappy for my players.
“We feel hard done by, it’s not a blatant offside. We scored a great goal and it was half a toenail offside.”
WEST BROM (4-1-4-1): Johnstone 7; Furlong 7, O’shea 8, Bartley 8, Townsend 7; Yokuslu 7; Maitland-niles 7, Gallagher 7 (Robson-kanu 76), Phillips 7 (Snodgrass 76), Pereira 6; Diagne 7.
EVERTON (4-3-3): Pickford 7; Holgate 7, Keane 7, Godfrey 7, Digne 7; Bernard 7 (King 84), Doucoure 6 (Sigurdsson 65, 7), Gomes 7; Iwobi 6 (Allan 58, 6), RICHARLISON 8, Calvert-lewin 7.
REFEREE: Darren England 7.
DELE ALLI celebrated his return to the fold to help Tottenham keep alive their hopes of a top-four finish.
Starting his first Premier League game since the opening day of the season, the Spurs misfit thought he had scored his first goal in almost a year too.
It was his strike that put Jose Mourinho’s men in front early in the match, but it went down as an own goal after Fulham’s Tosin Adarabioyo got the final touch.
The Cottagers can rightly feel upset they didn’t take at least a point after having a Josh Maja (inset) equaliser ruled out by VAR for handball.
There was absolutely nothing Mario Lemina could do when the ball hit his arm, which was by his side, but the letter of the law was applied by referee David Coote.
Mourinho named an attackinglooking line-up, handing Alli just his second league start of the season.
Gareth Bale also kept his place after scoring twice against Burnley as Spurs went in search of goals.
Mourinho’s men had lost their previous three away games in the league, managing to score only once.
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But they were ahead inside 20 minutes in this one when Alli sprung Heungmin Son on the break and then raced into the box.
A Son stepover allowed the South Korean star to swing in a dangerous low cross and
Alli was there to flick it home off Adarabioyo.
A 1-1 draw between the sides in January ended Spurs’ run of five straight victories against Fulham in all competitions.
But the early goal gave the Cottagers a mountain to climb in this one and they could have been further behind if Harry Kane hadn’t wasted decent headers. Right at the end of the half,
Antonee Robinson weaved his way into the box to find Maja, who set up Lemina for a chance he skied.
But that was as close as Fulham came, until Joachim Andersen forced Hugo Lloris to tip his header from Ivan Cavaleiro’s free-kick off the top of the crossbar.
From the resulting corner, taken by Ademola Lookman, Adarabioyo fired a virtually free header straight at the grateful Spurs keeper. Spurs suddenly looked content to sit back and try to hit Fulham on the counter, with Kane dropping deep and looking to spring Son and Bale.
But only a bad first touch from Ruben Loftus-cheek prevented the Chelsea loanee a free shot on goal as the home side sensed an opening.
And Spurs didn’t heed the warning, as Maja hit the net after a terrible clearance from Davinson Sanchez hit
Lemina and fell right to his feet. The only trouble was, VAR Jarred Gillett spotted that the ball had actually hit Lemina’s arm and the goal was ruled out.
It was so harsh on the Fulham player, who could do little to get out of the way at that range and whose arm was by his side. But those are the current rules.
With time running out, Alphonse Areola made himself big to rob Kane after some good work by Spurs sub Erik Lamela.
But Fulham had their moments too and there were more than a few Spurs hearts in mouths before it was over.
FULHAM (4-2-3-1): Areola 6; Aina 6, Andersen 6, Adarabioyo 6, Robinson 6 (Bryan 75); Reed 6, Lemina 6; Cavaleiro 6 (Mitrovic 72), Loftus-cheek 7 (Anguissa 64, 6), Lookman 6; Maja 6
TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Lloris 6; Doherty 6, Sanchez 6, Alderweireld 6, Davies 6; Ndombele 6 (Lamela 75), Hojbjerg 6; Bale 6 (Moura 67, 6), ALLI 8 (Sissoko 67, 6), Son 7; Kane 6.
REFEREE: David Coote 6.