THE week in which Terry Venables restored some self-belief and
credibility to English football also became a week in which Kevin Keegan
still managed to have the last word.
Within three days of the national team's new coach prompting talk of a
golden era -- talk to be taken at this earliest of stages with a
barrow-load of salt -- Keegan, the original people's choice for the job,
had coaxed out of Newcastle United the most devastating result of the
premier league season.
Three sucessive defeats, a first dressing-room crisis, and then
elimination from the FA Cup had begun to cast a few doubts about
Keegan's abilities as a leader of men and football teams. Victories over
Coventry and Sheffield Wednesday, followed by a 7-1 drubbing of poor
Swindon Town, might just have stifled them for while.
What Saturday's game and Wednesday night's 1-0 victory over Denmark
had in common, apart from a similar exposition of passing and movement,
was one hunched up little striker Graham Taylor decided had passed his
sell-by date. At Wembley, Peter Beardsley, despite playing unexpectedly
wide on the left, showed quite enough touches to merit his return to
international football after two years. At St James's Park he was more
central, in every sense, to success and even finished with a couple of
goals himself.
It was good to hear him giving so much credit to Keegan, who had
wagered on the day of his signing that a fiftieth England cap would
materialise. The player genuinely did not believe it and was, therefore,
all the more charmed when Venables bestowed the honour upon him.
Like all attackers, he would surely love to play every week against
Swindon, who have now conceded an astonishing 80 goals -- 60% more than
any other Premiership side. With nine games to play, they must be
fancied to reach three figures.
Almost equally bizarre is the fact that, even with only four victories
and so many heavy defeats, they are still bottom of the table only on
goal difference. One win in the past three weeks could have left both
Sheffield United and Oldham beneath them and rekindled a light that,
realistically, should have been extinguished some time ago.
If there was any good news at all for Wiltshire at the weekend, it
came with Manchester City's home defeat by Wimbledon, pooping the party
this time for City's new signing, Paul Walsh, from Portsmouth.
Southampton's recovery to draw at home against Sheffield Wednesday
suggested that they will maintain enough momentum from Alan Ball's
arrival to keep clear of the relegation rocks over the next month.
Ipswich's victory at Aston Villa, an unlikely event for all those who
had seen them crumble 5-1 at home to Arsenal the previous week, has
suddenly left the East Anglians looking comparatively healthy, too, at
least in relation to the bottom four and Tottenham, who have played more
games than most and need desperately to start winning.
Spurs were among those kept idle on Saturday by the FA Cup, though not
their own involvement in it, which ended long ago. Their
fellow-strugglers Chelsea and Oldham were still involved, Oldham
achieving what was spoken of, only half in jest, as a shock by beating
first division side Bolton Wanderers, the conquerors in earlier rounds
of Everton, Liverpool, and Arsenal.
Darren Beckford, once of Norwich, ended Bolton's fine run and hopes of
a first semi-final place since the days of Nat Lofthouse.
For Charlton to have won away to Manchester United would also have
been taking the season's long-running FA Cup joke too far. At half-time,
with no goals and Peter Schmeichel having been sent off, a smile was
still playing around the Londoners' lips. Mark Hughes and Andrei
Kanchelskis wiped it off and inspired the bookmakers to cut United to
11-10 for the domestic treble.
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