Owls need to wise up
6 PAGES OF FANTASTIC PUZZLES AND YOUR CHANCE TO WIN
READING boss Veljko Paunovic watched this win with his arm in a sling – but it was far more painful for 10-man Sheffield Wednesday.
The Royals maintained their promotion push with an easy victory secured by a Michael Olise penalty, a 21st goal of the season from ex-owl Lucas Joao and a late Andy Yiadom strike.
A sixth straight defeat in the Championship for Darren Moore’s side looked a foregone conclusion from the 29th minute when Julian Borner was sent off after fouling George Puscas in the area.
And relegation to League One for the first time in nine years is creeping ever closer.
Paunovic, who injured his collarbone in a freak training fall last week, has now seen his side claim nine points in a week without conceding a goal.
He said: “I tore ligaments in my collarbone from an awkward fall and it is pretty nasty, but I have had the best medical care and must now recover.
“We started this game very well and controlled the game. Obviously, the red card and the penalty came in the first half after the run from George Puscas.
“And once Lucas said he was no longer comfortable taking them after recent problems, Michael was very keen.”
Wednesday had the first good chance, Tom Lees’ header hitting the bar from Kadeem Harris’ corner.
The game-changing moment arrived almost on the half-hour, as Borner brought down Puscas.
James Linington showed Borner red for denying a goalscoring opportunity, the seventh sending off of Wednesday’s season.
And in a change of penalty taker after Joao’s three misses out of seven, Olise coolly scored.
Joao hit the bar from an Olise corner, before picking his spot after being teed up by Yiadom on 65 minutes. And Yiadom helped himself to a first goal of the season with an angled strike with two minutes left.
Wednesday have also had a red card in each of the last four league matches against Reading.
Moore, after two games and two defeats in charge, said: “We were in the game until the penalty and the sending off.
“Another suspension for a player is a blow, and the odds are stacked against us. But it essential that everyone sticks together after a very tough week.”
ST JAMES’ PARK resembles a sporting war zone.
Shots are being fired in all directions – and no one is being spared as the spectre of relegation hangs heavy over Tyneside.
On social media, the airwaves and in the commentary and press boxes, downright anger is bubbling under the surface.
The targets?
Pretty much anyone who has anything to do with the management of Newcastle United FC.
Owner Mike Ashley for still being in charge of a club going nowhere.
Chief executive Lee Charnley for being Ashley’s representative of a club going nowhere.
Steve Bruce for being the manager of a club going nowhere.
As for the players, they’re the moving targets who never get hit.
The truth is that the failed takeover attempt – still bubbling away under the surface – has left a pot of gold tantalisingly out of reach at the end of the rainbow.
And this has fermented into a cocktail of bitterness, recrimination and, in Bruce’s case, downright spite – particularly in cyberspace.
Imagine now if that was allowed freedom to express itself inside the stadia?
The punters would be torn – half of them would be supporting those wearing the black and white shirt, others would be just spewing bile from minute one.
The latest negativity came when Matt Ritchie accused Bruce of cowardice after a bust-up over Ruben Neves’ equaliser last week.
Like us all, the Geordie has his faults, but cowardice? Nah.
He wouldn’t have been captain of Manchester United’s Doublewinning side in 1995/96 and played for Sir Alex Ferguson for a decade if that accusation had merit. In Bruce’s defence, he was holed below the waterline – as were assistants Steve Agnew and Stephen Clemence – with Graeme Jones’ arrival.
If the powers-that-be thought the addition of another voice on the training pitch would improve the situation, it’s made matters worse.
Jones’ only frontline job was at Luton where he sucked the momentum out of a team that romped League One.
They were in 23rd place when he left. Nathan Jones, his replacement, engineered a Lazarus-like recovery. It wasn’t the players, then.
In another respect too, Bruce has been unfortunate. Injuries have piled up. It’s not an excuse, it’s a legitimate reason.
Also, the manager is going nowhere. He’s certainly not going to give the supporters the satisfaction of reaching for the exit door. Quite right, too. I’d want to be sacked – given something for my troubles if I’d had undiluted muck poured on my head from a great height.
Why would anybody turn their back on a few million quid?
So, there we have it. An almighty mess.
The fact is that if Ashley was going to make a change, he would have done so by now.
The manager won’t fall on his sword. The players and fans can park their grievances and get behind the side or keep waging war.
Unless a truce is called, this allout conflict is going to leave a bloody mess behind.
Yes, one that will see the manager depart but any hope of a takeover will be plunged into greater doubt and Newcastle United compete in the Championship next season. Again.
So, guys, what’s it to be?
As a successful actress, with a decade-long run on Eastenders followed by roles on the West End stage, Rita Simons appeared to have it all – but behind the scenes in recent years, she was secretly falling apart. The star was dealing with the end of her 14-year marriage to hairdresser Theo Silveston, working non-stop and battling depression and insomnia.
So it’s no wonder Rita, 43, who played Roxy Mitchell in the BBC soap, describes the period as “one of the worst times” of her life.
After doing I’m A Celeb in 2018 and throwing herself into work, things came to a head. In 2019, while starring in play The House On Cold Hill, she had a nervous breakdown. “My mind went to some major dark places,” admits Rita.
When we ask about her new partner Ben Harlow, even though we are talking on the phone it’s clear Rita has broken into a smile. “He’s very good for me,” she says of the 45-year-old actor, who she met on a touring production of Legally Blonde: The Musical in 2017.
Here, Rita, who has twin daughters Maiya and Jaimee, 15, with Theo, opens up about her mental health struggles, her new relationship and how lockdown helped her get over her divorce…
How have you found this past year of lockdowns?
If anyone needed a mental and physical break, it was me. Just before [the first] lockdown, I was properly broken. I was three days into rehearsals for Hairspray and it was my sixth job on the trot with no break. Doing all that while trying to process a divorce is just crazy. The pandemic is awful and I’m nervous to say this, but in a way I was selfishly pleased. I’ve been able to be at home with my kids, who I haven’t spent any proper time with for three years.
Has it allowed you to process your divorce?
So much. I really have come out the other side. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I was working non-stop and doing well, but I was desperately unhappy – not that anyone would have known. I had so much going on at home, I was driving myself mad working to try to forget about everything else. I was physically ill every other week and I lost loads of weight.
Did you seek any help?
I’ve had therapy for my OCD since I was 14 and the same psychologist has helped me. I’ve also seen a therapist. The jungle [producers] were amazing and I also saw their psychologist. I knew in the jungle that I was getting divorced and no one else did. I had cameras on me all day – that did my head in. You don’t know what’s going on in the outside world. I don’t think I’d have survived without help. There were days where, I wouldn’t say I was suicidal, because I’ve never got to that point and I would never do it, but I was aware life would be better dead than alive, because I couldn’t see my kids and I was so far from home. My mind went to some major dark places. When I was on tour with a Peter James play I’d enter stage from a tall flight of stairs and I’d think, “If I just accidentally fall I could go to hospital and someone can look after me.” Then I’d snap out of it and think, “You’re an idiot.” It was scary to even have those thoughts. I can say it was one of the worst times of my life.
Did anyone know at the time?
No one. I’d go to the stage door and be as bubbly as I always am, as that’s what we do as show people. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the jungle, but there were times when John Barrowman or James [Mcvey] would talk about their other halves and say they couldn’t wait to get home, and I’d be thinking, “Oh my God, this is horrific and now I’ve got to eat a crocodile’s anus.”
Why did things end with Theo?
We met when we were 19 and you change. People look at you and think,
“You need to make it work,” but I didn’t want to because I’d changed so much as all humans do. Because I come from quite a big Jewish community, you feel you shouldn’t go against the grain and make decisions like getting divorced. I always felt I was judged a little bit. We both realised in the end we were mates and we could be happier elsewhere. Theo didn’t agree at first but he did understand in the end. I’ve always been the sort who wants more in terms of happiness and I was never content at home. It wasn’t until I left Eastenders and I was always away working that I realised every time I came home this depression would hit again.
Was it a relief when your divorce was finalised earlier this year?
Yes. I’m still friends with Theo and we have no animosity, but anyone who thinks they’ll have a friendly divorce could be deluded. It’s very impersonal and harsh. It definitely became fraught but when I got the final letter it was a massive weight off my shoulders. I didn’t get emotional because I’ve done so much crying over this whole thing – I used all my tears up when I was having my breakdown. There was always this niggle that it’s not done until I get that letter and I presumed Theo felt the same. We’ve not discussed how we’ve felt about receiving each other’s decree absolutes. I don’t think we’ll ever be bitter towards each other. We drop the kids off and they love to see we’re still having a laugh and that we still care about each other.
‘The weird
thing is we’re trying
to take it slowly but he’s living here’
When did Theo move out?
In March 2020, just before lockdown, which quite honestly was a stroke of luck or we might have killed each other!
How have the kids adjusted?
It’s hard to differentiate what is divorce and what is lockdown because the kids have been in such an unnatural situation. I’d say they’re happier now as they have two happy parents and they didn’t have for a long time. They
Rita and
Maiya
spend a week with me and a week with him. Maiya is super-social and missing her friends and Jaimee is shy and retreating into herself more as she’s a quiet and reserved young lady. I can’t wait for them to go back to school but I’m also nervous. Maiya is deaf and she has a hearing aid and a cochlear implant and her hearing aid amplifies all sound at a level playing field. When she went back to school before, I had calls from her really upset as she gets tinnitus if her hearing is overloaded. She’s been sat in a room quietly learning and then is back in school and her ears have to adjust.
‘If it wasn’t for Sam and a handful of close friends, I would have gone mad’
How are things going with Ben?
I’m very happy. We were just friends after Legally Blonde – a group of us stayed in touch. We went for lunch for my birthday and it wasn’t a date but I realised I really liked him and wanted to see him again, then we got locked down. We spoke a lot and then saw each other a lot between lockdowns. But this time he has come to stay with me because I didn’t want to not see him again. The weird thing is we’re trying to take it slowly but he’s living here. As soon as lockdown is lifted, Ben will go back to his place.
What do you like most about him?
He is the sweetest, kindest man I’ve ever met. Anything I might get upset about, he manages to calm me down. He was one of the friends that had it not been for him, during all of my insanity, I wouldn’t have made it through.
Your co-star Samantha Womack also revealed last year her marriage had ended. Have you leaned on each other?
Eastenders
Sam and I go through everything at the same time. If it wasn’t for Sam and a handful of close friends, I’d have gone mad. Sam has been my rock and I think she’d tell you I’ve been hers.
Do you miss Eastenders?
I miss my friends there terribly. I loved it. It’d be fabulous to go back – but I’m dead [her character Roxy] and
I’m OK with that!