Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
FARKE PRAISE FOR STYLISH STRUGGLERS
’Twist’ star set to put rivals in a spin VALUE SCOPE Two 8-1 winners in last two weeks. See who Steve Jones is tipping today.
Championship: Tomorrow, 12pm
DANIEL FARKE hailed the style of Wycombe and manager Gareth Ainsworth as top meet bottom tomorrow.
Norwich will aim to take a step closer to a top-flight return but they visit a Wycome side who have lost only one of their last four matches, winning two.
Farke (above) said: “I really do like them. I like what Gareth is doing.
“He has delivered for years and they go with their style.
“They always want to bring their style on the pitch, try to bring their offence and I like this, I like this bravery.
“It is a sign of their fighting spirit that they go into their games with a lot of bravery and togetherness.
“It is fantastic what they are doing. I would like them to stay in this League because it is good to have these characters.”
SOMETIMES the answer to a problem is staring you in the face – or in Jose Mourinho’s case, sitting in tracksuits behind him.
Tottenham fans were heartened in their last two games at West Ham and in the Europa League that the perennial substitutes Gareth Bale and Dele Alli were finally given a proper run and were showing their form of old.
Bale, particularly, seems to have found that swagger and cutting edge to his game that made him a world-beater for Real Madrid.
Against a stubborn Burnley defence tomorrow, Spurs will need a bit of invention and pace, so the Special One will surely play Bale from the start.
The Welsh wizard is a tempting 11/2 with Betfred to open the scoring for Spurs and 2/1 with Skybet to notch at any time against Sean Dyche’s side.
AL DANCER should thrive when given the chance to tackle three miles for the first time in the Close Brothers Handicap Chase (3.35, ITV4) at Kempton today.
A high-class chaser in the novice ranks last season,
Nigel Twistondavies’s (right) grey returned with a victory at Newton Abbot in October.
Ridden by the trainer’s son Sam, Al Dancer was strong at the finish when third to all-the-way winner Coole Cody in the two-anda-half-mile Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham the following month.
My selection had no luck in the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup at the home of jump racing four weeks later, losing all chance when hampered by a faller at the fifth fence and coming home ninth.
The key to Al Dancer’s chance is the step up in distance. He runs as if the extra yardage will bring out further progress, and the eight-year-old is fancied to net the £42,713 first prize.