Archives for December 2009

I almost crashed the car when I heard on the radio that Preston had sacked manager Alan Irvine.

Striker Neil Mellor said of the news: "I'm in a state of shock, as are all of the players that I have spoken to. It comes as a major surprise and I think we're all disappointed."

Preston's local newspaper, the Lancashire Evening Post, reported that their North End correspondent spent 30 minutes talking on the phone to Irvine on Tuesday morning without detecting the slightest hint of what was to follow.

The sacking just seems so out of kilter for a club that has become a watchword for common sense; one that has managed to consistently punch above its weight in the Championship season after season precisely because it has avoided the sort of rash short-term decision-making that has undermined so many other clubs.

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Rochdale might be perennial Christmas turkeys but I reckon their supporters might just be the happiest in the Football League right now.

The Dale have been in the basement division since 1974 but it has been a cracker of a season so far, with Keith Hill's side top of League Two and 10 points clear of the play-off zone.

Hill has done a terrific job and, after reaching the play-offs for the last two seasons, his team are well placed to go one better this time.

Their fixture against Shrewsbury last weekend was the only League two match to survive the weather and plenty of rival managers were at the chilly surrounds of Spotland to watch Rochdale's 4-0 demolition of Shrewsbury.

Hill sounded bullish afterwards, throwing down the classic 'catch us if you can' challenge - but much could depend on what happens during the January transfer window.

Chris Dagnall, for example, has 12 league goals and could yet become a belated present for a club from a higher division.

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The northern footballing outpost of Brunton Park might seem a remote destination for a striker born in Cameroon and raised in France to rebuild his faltering career.

But that is what Vincent Pericard is doing after a spate of injuries, a dramatic loss of form and a spell in prison derailed a journey that had started at Italian giants Juventus.

The 27-year-old found himself without a club in the summer and went on trial at Cardiff and Bristol City, but they both opted against offering the striker a contract.

The current season started with Pericard still looking for a new home. He was training with Sheffield United to try to maintain his fitness when a scout recommended him to League One side Carlisle.

Pericard headed north in early October to an area he could not remember visiting before to watch the team in action.

Afterwards he signed a three-month deal - the Big V was back.

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I reckon that at the start of the season many people thought Newcastle would find the task of hauling themselves out of the quagmire of the Championship a very sticky proposition.

It doesn't look that way at the moment as the Magpies are seven points clear of second and 10 ahead of third place in the table.

There are a number of reasons for their healthy situation.

Among them is the dignified and reasoned management of Chris Hughton, the reinvention of Alan Smith as a holding midfielder, the Magpies' defensive resolve and organisation away from home and the fact they still have a squad that elicits envious glances from many rival clubs.

But central to Newcastle's success so far this season has been the form of attacking midfielder Kevin Nolan.

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Take a look around the Sheffield Wednesday 606 message board and you will find a remarkable level of goodwill towards Brian Laws, who parted company with the south Yorkshire club on Sunday.

Gloucester Owl "wanted BL to be the man to take us back to the Premier League", while StealthyOwl simply wrote "thanks for the memories Brian".

Those memories included a rare league double over Sheffield rivals United last season and a decent push for a play-off place at the end of the 2006-07 campaign.

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Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney plays for arguably the biggest football club in the world and at a stadium that holds more than 76,000.

A shade over 23 miles down the road from Old Trafford, Rooney's younger brother, John, is carving out a career of his own at the rather more modest surrounds of Moss Rose, the home of League Two side Macclesfield Town.

The potential of the 18-year-old, who turns 19 on 17 December, has not gone unnoticed this season, with scouts flooding in great numbers to watch the youngster with the famous surname.

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At Vicarage Road

Two starkly contrasting emotions at Vicarage Road on Monday evening spoke volumes about the current state of Watford and QPR.

There were the scenes of unbridled joy after Hornets defender Lloyd Doyley, who joined the club as an 11-year-old, scored his first senior goal for the club on his 269th appearance..

The 27-year-old did not know which way to run, taking advice from his team-mates before finally heading to the home fans, who chanted: "We were there when Doyley scored".

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Moments after Bahrain goalkeeper Sayed Mohammed Jaffar saved his goalbound header, New Zealand striker Rory Fallon asked a companion he always turns to for another opportunity.

"When I'm on the pitch I always talk to Jesus," Fallon told me. "I said 'Lord, give me one more chance'."

Shortly before half-time at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington on 14 November it arrived - and the Plymouth striker headed the goal that secured the All Whites a place at the World Cup finals for the first time since 1982.

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