WHAT’S HOT WHAT’S NOT
HOT KEVIN DAVIES
THE former Bolton striker chose Southport as his first management job and is on a roll. The club were 21st in National League North at the start of 2018 but six straight wins, where they have scored three goals in each, have taken them to within a point of the play-offs. Davies only joined the club in October and has had quite an impact.
ALEKSANDAR MITROVIC
SEVEN goals in five games has fired Fulham’s dart towards promotion. But those who say Rafa Benitez missed a trick by not using him at Newcastle and sending him on loan are wrong. Benitez thinks Mitrovic is a Championship striker and is being proved exactly right.
RYAN GIGGS
THE new Wales boss could have filled his staff with former team-mates but instead has made two very shrewd appointments. Osian Roberts represents all that is progressive about the Football Association of Wales, while Tony Strudwick is a brilliant conditioning coach, too hastily sidelined at Manchester United. Giggs has also appointed a member of Louis van Gaal’s failed United regime, assistant manager Albert Stuivenberg. That in itself takes courage.
NOT TIGER TALK
GREAT to see Tiger Woods (right) back, even if his efforts in Florida overshadowed the brilliance of the winner, Paul Casey. But before you throw your money at a Woods triumph at the Masters, keep in mind how moderate his putting was last Sunday. Anything under 12 feet was always his great strength and without that he hasn’t a prayer of winning at Augusta.
SPONSOR SNITCHES
NO SOONER had Jamie Carragher finished with his apologies than it was the turn of Eddie Jones. But while Carragher was turned in by a member of the public, Jones (above) had his collar felt by someone at a private sponsor’s event. The next time a prominent sporting personality says no to a speaking engagement we will know who to blame.
SPANISH POLICE
UEFA have charged Besiktas for allowing a cat on the pitch against Bayern Munich, but of greater concern should be another example of heavy-handed police outside the Nou Camp. Time and again English football fans are treated poorly on Spanish soil yet nothing changes. On the pitch, Spain is a great place for football. Off it, not so much.