|
PHIL AGIUS |
Weblog: Sports editor's view
Refreshing that Great Scott tells it like it is
IT'S not often that managers say anything very interesting in their post-match interviews, so hats off to Brentford boss Andy Scott for his forthright views on opposite numberMark Wright after his side's 3-0 win over Chester.
Scott, who clearly didn't enjoy his time as a player under Wright at Oxford, took the opportunity to get closure on the situation.
"It was nice to get one over on one of my former managers. I didn’t have the best of times under his stewardship at Oxford and that is down to him and what he did to me," said Scott.
"In my opinion he couldn’t manage the players. I’ve probably taken a lot out of that managerial regime and done everything the opposite way and that is why it is working for me and not for him.
"What goes around comes around and I have been waiting for today, big time."
Scott is one of those people in sport who makes me feel old - during my first job as a journalist in the early 1990s I had the pleasure of covering Sutton United, and he was the young star of the side at Gander Green Lane at the time.
Every mention of his career since - stopping off at Sheffield United, Brentford, Oxford and Leyton Orient - has taken me back to the little wooden press box at the back of the stand and flashbacks to Diadora League Cup ties against Chalfont St Peter.
Anyway, given that I'm on Brentford for League Two, I thank Mark Wright for everything Scott learned from him.
A much less entertaining interview came from Jermaine Beckford of Leeds when questioned about whether he might have been lucky to escape with a yellow card after an incident with Millwall keeper David Forde on Monday night.
The reason he escaped with a yellow card is that referee Alan Wiley saw only the scuffle afterwards, rather than the sharp elbow Beckford appeared to deliver to the keeper's chin as they lined up for a corner.
"Nothing happened!" insisted Beckford afterwards.
The FA clearly thought differentlyand have charged him with violent conduct.
Super Bowl star Big Ben X-ray mystery is solved
Well who'd have thought it?
There was Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin a couple of days before the Super Bowl insisting that reports that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had undergone X-rays to his back after a heavy hit in their AFC Championship win over Baltimore were news to him.
"Ben's health is often the subject of inaccurate reports. He's fine," said Tomlin.
And yet this week, after Big Ben had led the Steelers to a thrilling victory over Arizona, it turns out that he played with two broken ribs and had an X-ray "somewhere" before the game.
The NFL pride themselves on the transparency of their official injury reports (teams must state whether a player has any injury and rate their chances of playing on a sliding scale) but says no action will be taken against the Steelers as Roethlisberger's back injury was mentioned on their bye week report - he wasn't even on the list before the Super Bowl.
So there you go - punters can put their faith in the injury reports ...unless it's a big game and the team don't want the opposition to know how vulnerable their key player may be.
Too many Cooks?
It's an unusual approach, I'll grant you, but eyebrows were rightly raised when England batsman Alastair Cook offered his solution to their batting woes after their Sabina Park humiliation - more of the same.
"'If you don't perform then you know what is going to happen. But it is not a time for rushed decisions," said Cook.
"When things go like that we have to hold our hands up."
If you tried holding your bat up, it might be a start, Al.
Comments