BELGIUM’S JONES TEMPTED TO BREAK INTO SONG

GRAEME JONES, the Englishman inside Belgium’s cosmopolitan coaching team, has wrestled with these emotions before. When God Save the Queen plays in Kaliningrad tomorrow night, the Belgian flag will be on his chest but he will have to fight his instinct not to sing out loud. ‘When the draw for the World Cup was made, I was absolutely delighted,’ said the 48-year-old former St Johnstone and Hamilton striker. ‘As a kid, I wanted to play for England, then one day you obviously hope to work for them. That hasn’t happened, so to compete against them is going to be great fun instead. ‘But it’s also going to be difficult as I’m a proud Englishman. I love the national anthem and, the minute I hear that, I’m going to want to join in!’ Almost like the time he first stood in the dugout at St James’ Park and his spine tingled to Blaydon Races, but his job was to plot the downfall of his beloved Newcastle United as Wigan coach in 2009. The Toon scored in the 94th minute to rescue a 2-2 draw. Jones was raised on Tyneside, where his father Ray was a committed Newcastle supporter. Released at 18 by Millwall, where as an apprentice he had cleaned boots for Teddy Sheringham, Jones relaunched his playing career in non-league with Newcastle Blue Star and Bridlington Town. He did shifts as a postman until his break in the professional game came with Doncaster, and then at Wigan in 1996, where he first met Roberto Martinez. The pair struck an instant bond. Jones scored 31 goals in his first season with many chances created by the Spaniard. The chemistry was rekindled when they came back together as a coaching team at Swansea in 2007 — after Jones had spells as a player in Scotland — and they have stayed together at Wigan, Everton and, for the last two years, Belgium. So, can this golden generation of players he is guiding with Martinez finally go all the way in the World Cup? ‘Why not?’ said Jones. ‘But, remember, Belgium have never been there before, so we are going to have to take steps into the unknown. ‘We are going to have to go beyond the quarters, where this group of players have been in the last two major tournaments. ‘Then the momentum will grow — and confidence will grow with that. The one thing for sure is that we have the ability.’