Rooney's Replacement

Originally uploaded by destinyuk*.

Is this the man to win us the World Cup? If the worst comes to the worst will it be Peter Crouch who steps into Wayne Rooney's boots. The problem England has now, is that neither of its first choice strikers are fit. So when you look past the top two, who is there. The answer is not obvious but the person who has shown the most consistency this season is Peter Crouch. A year ago you would have argued Vassell or Defoe, but both have really struggled this season and Defoe's performance yesterday against Bolton was at best, poor.

So Mr. Crouch its time for you to put your scoring boots on and make the most of what is a golden opportunity for you. The advantage he will have to start with is that most international teams will not have played against anyone like him. England need to capitalise on this and try and find an in form forward to play up front along side him picking up all the second ball that will come our way. It will benefit both Gerrard and Lampard in the midfield, but once we start to play the better sides it will become harder and harder. What is becoming obvious is that our secret weapon for the last twenty minutes may now be the lead striker for ninety minutes. Lets hope that the team and Peter can cope with that

Wayne Rooney - will we see this at the World Cup?

Wayne Rooney - will we see this at the World Cup?

Four years on and yet again the metatarsal bone is a subject us football fans will start to learn about. This time its Rooney and just like the Japan and South Korea World Cup England's best player is in a race for fitness. The difference this time is that we have no chance of winning without Rooney.

According to the papers it take six weeks to get over the injury, but it can be done in four or five. Some players are back playing in six weeks some aren't. The big question that England have to answer is will they be able to get enough point from the group stages so they can give him the time to recover properly. It is no secret that one of the main reason we failed in the last World Cup was the lack of fitness of Beckham and Owen. It will be down to the manager as to whether or not he makes the same mistake again. There is no doubt that he has to take him, it will all be about when he can be risked and when he can't. I would hope that Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago are easily beaten to give him that extra week before the Sweden game. If we have already qualified for the second round I would not even risk him then, just save him up for the Germany game and then march onto the quarter finals.

In the short term it is time to break out the cotton wool, wrap him up in it and then ensure he gets the best treatment possible to make the quickest recovery he can.

Weekend Review - Football

Cambridge United

Cambridge's season came to a disappointing end with a home defeat to Dagenham and Redbridge. It was a bit of a nothing game with neither side having anything to play for. The first half will go down as one of the worst this season, and it was only when the referee gave a penalty in the second half that things got interesting. It was an interesting team selection that was put out on the field and probably had more to do with getting a last look at some of the fringe players before putting out some contract offers next month.

All in all this has been a good season of consolidation , that has shown that given a bit of time and patience Rob Newman may well be able to build a team capable of challenging for promotion next season. He will be looking to build a squad of around 20 instead of the 40 players that have been used this season. There is continuing calls for him to try to sign Jamie Guy for next year and whilst he has a lot of energy and runs all game he has still only scored two goals in twelve games and you want better than that from your strike force. The absence of Westcarr yesterday makes you think he will be offered a contract but I fear for top scorer Fola Onibuje. He seems to have lost all confidence in his ability and it will be touch and go if we see him next season.

As for the close season, it will be a time to get some much needed fund raising, a time to prepare for next year and a time to build a team. The cavalier performance of five up front in the second half will not be repeated and I think I speak for every United fan when I say for once we will be looking forward to a new season with optimism not pessimism

Weekend Ahead - My teams

Cambridge United

Cambridge United close their season this Saturday with a home game against Dagenham and Redbridge. This has been a season of re-building for them and I am very pleased that they can finish no worse than 12th position and will qualify to take part in the Football League trophy next year. They will look to continue their excellent home form and finish this season on a high by winning comfortably. If this is to happen that will be five wins in six games and will be the perfect platform for next season. The question now will be who will stay and who will go over the close season. There are still a lot of key players that are out of contract, who may even fancy a move North of the river should Histon make the play offs. I would hope that Rob Newman has done enough over this season to instil some team spirit and loyalty into the team to give him every chance of signing the players he needs for next season. Team news for tomorrow see’s us struggling with centre backs with Davies, Peters and Duncan all likely to be missing. Whoever he plays will need to ensure they play a solid game to ensure they are here next year and to give the team a good basis for securing a win.

Warrington Wolves

Warrington get an extended break as they do not play until Monday afternoon when they take on the Leeds Rhinos. This give an indication as to whether or not they can push on and challenge for a top four finish this season. They had a massive win over the Bradford Bulls last week so confidence will be very high. This will however be a tough match so they will need to forget about last week and concentrate on getting the basics right from the start. Last week they managed to hold Bradford to just four points and will need a defensive effort along the same lines as this one again. They are more than capable of creating chances for themselves, what they have to concentrate on is stopping Leeds doing the same. Leeds will want to win to keep the pressure on St. Helens at the top of the table, this could be to Warrington’s advantage if they can establish an early lead as they did against Bradford. If they can force Leeds onto the back foot they will have a good chance of winning.

New Zealand Warriors

The Warriors hauled themselves of the bottom of the table last week with a good win over their wooden spoon rivals the Rabittohs, and now they need to carry on the good work with a decent performance against the Bulldogs. The Warriors would be higher up the league if not for their four point deduction at the start of the season and there is a chance that they could win this game if they put up a decent performance. As always they will need to do the basics, make sure that they complete their sets of six and put pressure on the game line when the Bulldogs have the ball. The boys over at www.rleague.com are split 2-1 on a Warriors victory. If they can continue their win 2 lose 2 performance this year then its a win, to break the pattern would mean the Bulldogs score their fourth successive victory. I’ll be optimistic and say they can gain confidence from last week and squeeze out an unlikely victory.

Wellington Hurricanes.

It is an important week for the Hurricanes as they take on the Chiefs hoping to get over their hiccup last week to the Brumbies. It will be interesting to see what team turns out on Saturday morning as last week the backs did very little to support the forwards and were often caught static by the Brumbies defence. The one thing they will have to make sure is that they don’t concede an early try and this was their un-doing last week. David Holwell started the game but his distribution was slow and things only picked up when Gopperth came on. However his kicking two weeks ago can best be described as rubbish so there is a lot of work needed here. The Chiefs are not the team they were three years ago and cannot be taken lightly, the Hurricanes will need to produce an all round performance to make sure they don’t slip up. They have two tricky games left to end the season and a nice tidy five point victory here will help them cement their place in the top four, a loss would open up a whole can of worms. Lets keep the faith and hope the back spring to life and delight the Wellington crowd with an easy victory.

Northampton Saints.

It’s a crucial time for the Northampton Saints, as they look to secure a place in the Heineken Cup next year. They currently sit in 6th place which will do it for them. They take on Bristol knowing that a five point victory and a loss by Saracens will see this place guaranteed and them returning to top class European Rugby next year. The question will be can they beat Bristol with four trys. The answer most definitely has to be yes to this, why wouldn’t they. They have something to play for and Bristol don’t, the question really should be will Saracens lose? The Saints will know the answer to this as Saracen host the Tigers on Friday night, and it is about time their East Midland neighbours did them a favour. If they don’t there will be a lot of pressure to beat Sale the following weekend and they will be playing for the title, and will be going all out for a win. A strong performance this week will see them home and then they will just need to celebrate a return to the Heineken Cup in style at Sale.

Weekend Review - Football

Cambridge United

The end of season for shown by Cambridge United is giving everyone confidence of a good season next year. They got their fourth win in five games over a struggling Scarborough side yesterday. This will almost certainly seal a 10th position finish for them something we all would have taken at the start of this season. Two goals from Rob Wolleaston sealed a come from behind victory and now with just one home game left the team can look back on a satisfactory season.

This is their fourth away win of the season and easily gives us opur best away form for five years. What is looking more impressive is that as a team we are starting to play well. Rob Newman has always talked about having a squad of around 18 for next season, and in this 16 plus a couple of others he may have found it. A new goalkeeper would not go amiss but the standard of keeping throughout the conference has not been great. What is needed now is a good hokme performance next Saturday to finish the season in style.

Good and Bad

Two Jekyll and Hide performances at the weekend. Step up first

Cambridge United

An outstanding display on Friday saw them ruin York’s chances of making the end of season play offs. A hard fought and well earned victory showed that at home it does not matter who we play they will find it tough. Their was very little to choose between the entire team to single anyone out, though a special mention must go to Scott Howie who produced and outstanding piece of goalkeeping just after we scored to stop York getting straight back in the game. Rob Newman looks like he may have made his mind up about some of the players he intends to keep next year, and this, with the addition of a couple of defenders could be the basis of a promotion chasing team next season.

The along came the Kidderminster game, which by all accounts was a dull affair, and ended up in yet another away defeat to a team that we should be beating on a regular basis. This means that not only did we have the double done on us for the only time this season but that we now have the worst away record of the conference teams. If we cannot improve on this then we will never be anything more than the mid-table team we are now. The reason for this will be that next season teams will realise that its tough to come to the Abbey and win and will play accordingly, if we can’ break them down then out home form will suffer and without the away form to back it up then 10th -12th position is the best we can hope for. What we need now are two victories to end the season and they are more than achievable, this will keep us in the top 12 and mean we qualify for the Football League trophy next season. First target for Rob Newman over the summer is to find a way to break the away day blues.

Now please take a bow

Warrington Wolves

Another defeat to Salford means that this season it looks like we will be battling it out with Hull and Huddersfield for 5th, 6th and 7th position. Coming off the back of beating Bradford, a better display was called for. The gap between the top four is starting to grow so games over these teams will give added pressure to Warrington. The real team turned up on Monday and comfortably despatched Castleford, as they should and now have three tough games to come with Bradford, Leeds and St. Helens all on the horizon. On current form Warrington should be looking at losing all these games, however they currently have the Indian sign over Bradford so they may get a win there. They have also pushed St. Helens harder than any other team this year. If they can avoid the basic errors and take the game to each of these teams then there is no doubt that they have chances in all the games. What I wish is that they would save their good performances for the team like Hull and Huddersfield, and play some of their rubbish rugby against Leeds and Bradford. It’s all very well playing well in defeat, but that performance would destroy a Catalans Dragons, instead of putting in a mediocre performance and getting caught with their pants down in the final minutes. So my challenge to the Wolves is simple, either make them all Jekyll performances or save the Jekyll performances for your closest rivals to ensure you are part of the end of season play off picture.

Good Friday Feast

It's a feast of good sport over the next 4 days as the Easter programme kicks off on Good Friday with football, Rugby Union and Rugby League games. Cambridge United entertain another team looking for promotion when York City come to the Abbey Stadium on Friday night. They come into the game buoyed by the fact that not only have the manager and assistant manager signed new contracts, but key players Richie Hanlon and Jon Brady have also put pen to paper. I hope that they will be in the mood to celebrate and that some of our other key players will soon be signing. The bad news is that Matt Bloomer, who has played in just about every defensive position, has been recalled by Lincoln. It will be interesting to see who the manager elects to play at centre back, or whether he will go to a three at the back option.

The other added pressure is that this will be the third time this season that we have tried to win three games on the bounce. This has not been achieved for nearly eight years and to get that monkey off our back will mean that we have made huge strides this season. York will come into the game looking for three points and are another team for whom a draw is not good enough. This will hopefully play into our hands and we will be able to catch them on the break. If we can continue where we left off in the Aldershot game then there is a very good chance we will win this.

Rugby League

In Rugby League, Warrington get the chance to avenge their opening day defeat to Salford Reds and should be boosted by last weeks tough win over the Bulls. The coach has named an unchanged line up and will demand that his team put Salford under the same kind of pressure that they put Bradford under last week. Keep it simple and the turn the pressure on when you get the opportunities. They will not be getting the same lenient referee as last week, so will need to make sure that they keep it disciplined from the start and play out their sets of six. Salford currently sit on the top three so a win here will help the Wolves to bridge the gap to the top, not only against Salford, but with Leeds and Bradford playing tonight a win could see them back on the road to a top four finish

Rugby Union

The Northampton Saints will play their biggest game of the season when they take on Leicester in a local derby. The Saints have been in good form of late, and will need to be at their very best to get even one bonus point out of this game. A five point win, though unlikely, will actually put them level on points with Leicester. Now that they know that finishing fifth will give them a place in next years Heineken Cup, it will be interesting to see the tactics that they adopt. Carlos Spencer will need to be on top of his game and the Saints will need to make sure that they take every opportunity that is put in front of them. They know that Leicester will be without Harry Ellis and should put pressure on whoever fills in at scrum half. If they fail to win there will be a lot of Saints fans cheering on Bath in the HC as if they win their next game finishing 6th should see them qualify as well. As good as they can be I still think the Tigers will nick this by 5 points

At last a Win

Finally at the sixth time of asking the England cricket team managed to record a one day victory in India. This was a very hard earned win in a searing 43 degree heat, and it was also achieved without Andrew Flintoff as well. Andrew Strauss captained today and can now boast a perfect record. He led from the from as well, literally ending up being carried off after giving his all in the field and with the bat. It was shrewd captaincy to spread the bowling out among 8 players as the heat really took its toll on everyone.

There were still some questions about the batting as there was a mini collapse at one point, but Blackwell came out and for once lived up to his big hitting label by tonking the winning runs over the boundary for 6. He also bowled a good containing spell of 10 overs for 33 runs. You still can't help but think that he will need to start hitting some big scores with the bat though to help improve his world cup prospects. it will be interesting in the final one dayer on Saturday how the game will play out. With the heat expected to be worse, it would be a good bet that a game such as this one will be played out, and if England can sneak another win, who will know what the papers will say!

Aussie Rules Weekend Review

Sydney Swans season tool another disastrous turn when they were defeated by Port Adelaide at the weekend. Now you can get them at $21 to win back to back premierships and even that seems a decent price. Confidence is being reported as low, and something will need to be done before the game against Carlton next week. The biggest problem seems to be a lack of getting to grips with the new rules, this is supported by the lopsided penalty count of the last two games. The coach will really have his work cut out to raise the teams game, but he remains in a confident mood pointing to the now traditional slow start to the season. He is confident of a win next week and I will judge his performance as a team motivator on the back of that. So for now the punters may stay away, but in a few weeks time that may well have been a price we all would have liked to take.

Weekend Review - Rugby League

What a great win for the Warrington Wolves away to one of the super league favorites, Bradford Bulls. On what was a truly awful night they managed to come back from conceding an early try to run out four point winners. The message they got from their coach the other week of doing the basics right and continuing to play out their sets has really hit home. They were able to take the best of what Bradford had to offer and were able to counter it and bring out the best in their players.

Their coach will be really proud of the way they played but will surely have words with them about their decision making when they could easily have killed of the game. The Bulls will point to the referee who had a truly awful game, but on the balance of play he was rubbish for both sides. Lee Briers is going from strength to strength and is pushing really hard to be included in the Tri-nations squad at the end of the season. As for now, the real Warrington Wolves have stepped up to the plate and they need to keep stepping, but make no mistake this victory will help them in their quest for a top four finish.

The NZ Warriors were unable to keep up their recent form and fell to a defeat to Manly. Pure and simply in the NRL you cannot afford to go 20 points behind before half time and expect to win. Manly didn't need to score in the second half and managed to only concede two tries. The Warriors will feel this loss as two crucial try scores were wiped out unnecessarily by the video judge and touch judge. However there should be no need to point to these as the reason for losing. Given their form over the last couple of weeks they need to get back into that zone and start to defend better from the first whistle. If they can do that they will get more wins, if they don't we can expect more days like today.

Weekend Review - Rugby Union

No game for the Hurricanes this week as they take a well deserved rest, however the Northampton Saints scored a very good three point victory over Bath. They also got the elusive four try bonus point that now takes them within two points of finishing fifth. This was a very important victory that means they now go into next weeks derby with Leicester Tigers. Having passed up on the opportunity for a Heineken cup place last weekend it was important they pushed on in the lead and if they can come away from next weeks game with any points they will be doing very well.

The best thing to come out of this performance was the performance of Ben Cohen, a try and a try saving tackle certainly helped a lot, and with Carlos Spencer finally starting to find his feet in English rugby things are looking good for next season. Now what is needed is a big finish to this season to try and secure the European place, add to the team in the close season for a bug push to challenge the big guns next season

Weekend Review - Football

Cambridge United stretched their winning run to two games with an excellent 3-1 away win over Aldershot on Saturday afternoon. What made this a sweeter victory was the fact that we went in at half time one nil behind. In the last few seasons going a goal behind would almost certainly mean that we would lose the game. It looks like the two substitutions made at half time by Rob Newman paid dividends. One thing that the manager has demonstrated over the last few weeks is that he is not afraid to shake things up when we look to be in trouble.

So what's next, that is now three away wins this season, can we take this form into Friday night and get that elusive third victory in a row. This would give us a good platform to try to finish in the top 12 this year, this will mean that we get to play in the Football League trophy next year, which has been a good confidence builder for us this year. The positives from this game will be another goal for Westcarr, this time a real poachers goal, and another great performance from Jamie Guy. Fola is starting to look out of sorts and although our top scorer I think he will be lucky to come back next year. So on Friday let's take the positivity around the last two results and take the game to York City and finish this season with a real flourish

Huge Praise for Cambridge United

Yes, there is no amount of praise that can be heaped upon the physio, doctor and St. John's Ambulance staff who were at last nights game between Cambridge United and Exeter City, for without them Adam Davies would almost certainly not be here today. There is no point in discussing the performance or celebrating this victory. Today we should all be grateful that someone who puts themselves physically out there to entertain us is OK and will return to fight another day.

I would personally like to wish Adam all the very best in his recovery and hope to see him back soon. I would like to thank the medical staff who made sure that he got the best attention possible and I would like to thank the referee who made the right decision in taking the players off the pitch last night.

Tuesday night Preview

It's a midweek game against Exeter, which I hate as I find it difficult to attend and end up having to watch the game on the Internet via the Sporting Life website. There is only so much of their stock phrases I can take, though sometimes it makes me laugh when it says neither side can gain an advantage and the key player is our goalkeeper. It's 18:20 now and still no team news is available so I will expect another five changes to cover for those people who disappointed on Saturday.

Make no mistake about this Exeter will be a hard team to beat and if they play Steve Flack upfront our defenders will know they have been in a game tonight. I hope that he doesn't play Adam Davies as he looked to be a weak link on Saturday, hopefully we will see the return of Andy Duncan, but these days you never know who will come out in the yellow and black. We will definitely need to go at them from the start and press for an early goal. They are in a position much like Morecombe and a draw will not suit them and that should play into our hands. However if our players don't respond we will be lucky to get anything out of the game. Even optimistically I have this down as a draw 1-1.

AFL season kicks off

The Aussie Rules football season kicked of this past weekend and my personal favourite team and defending premiership champions, the Sydney Swans, opened the season with a loss to the Essendon Bombers. I have to say this is slightly disappointing given the fact they won last season but the Bombers are a team that always force you to play. If anyone has an off game you know that you will be in trouble. It also does not help conceding nine goals in the opening quarter.

The website is reporting this as an ambush, but in reality its a game where Sydney were always playing catch up and ended up 27 points short of where they needed to be. In the grand scheme of things this season this is not a massive defeat, however they will not want to lose when they play in front of their own fans next week and unveil the flag fro all to see. Lets just hope they make a quicker start out of the blocks and don't make a habit out of this.

Weekend Review - Rugby League

Well it looks like miracles really do happen as the NZ Warriors upset the table leading Newcastle Knights by 26-22 at the weekend. What makes this more remarkable is that it was away from home. Many people including myself were predicting an exercise in damage limitation for the Warriors. It must be said that the Knights were missing the inspirational Andrew Johns but as they say one man does not make a team. This result must give them a massive confidence boost and finally wipes out the four point penalty that was imposed on them at the start of the season. There was an excellent kicking performance from Tony Martin who scored all that was asked of him.

The big question is what next for the Warriors because surely after a performance like this they will want to go onto bigger and better things. The back to basics talk they had two weeks ago has done the trick, they managed to complete 29 out of 35 sets, a huge improvement on three weeks ago. They are now one off the bottom of the NRL, and unbelievably only four point of a play off spot. If they can continue defending and attacking like this then this really could be a season of dreams.

As for Warrington, as predicted they are on course for the next round of the Challenge Cup without any issues whatsoever, they will however need to pick up their league form next week.

Weekend Review - Football

Cambridge United were able to salvage a 2-2 draw at home to Morecombe yesterday afternoon. Whilst their league positions will indicate this as being a good result, it was in fact a little disappointing given the nature of Morecombe's second goal. Ayden Duffy making his debut in goal let in an absolute howler at his near post and will be glad that Stephen Smith hit an equalizer soon after. In all honesty after that Cambridge did look like the only team who would go onto win.

For me this match had many disappointments. Five changes, yep five changes were made to the team that played last weekend including changing the center back partnership. I can appreciate what it is Rob Newman is trying to do but five changes is to excessive. In addition to this if these players are playing for a contract next season you would expect to see a bit more passion in the play. Onibuje, Smith (apart from his goal), Bridges, Davies and Brady all looked like they were going through the motions, and with the exception of Bridges the others are going to have to do a lot in the last few games to be back her next year. We also failed to defend our lead, scoring a decent goal playing into the wind we got caught cold too quickly when a period of consolidation was required.

Positive to come out of the game. A good performance by Pitt, who had not really been visible in the last few home games. Rob Newman, being prepared to change formation to try and win the game. It was a brave move to switch to three at the back, but it was validated just two minutes after it was made by the equalizer. He now has a choice to make as to what formation he plays on Tuesday night against Exeter, but then again we may see five more changes again. I hope he gives the new keeper another chance his confidence will be absolutely crippled should he be dropped now. Lets hope for another attacking performance and a nice win.

Weekend Review - Rugby Union

Two disappointing results this week as the Hurricanes went down to the Crusaders in the Super 14 and the Saints crashed out of Europe to Worcester. The Hurricanes played a good match but unfortunately let the Crusaders get too big a lead in the first half and were always playing catch up football. Unlike the last few weeks they were unable to get close in what was an absolute cracker of an end to end match. They should learn a lesson from this and have a good rest in their bye week next week to come back fresh to take on the Highlanders in two weeks time. Once again their second half performance highlighted their defensive capabilities, but the 17 point lead that the Crusaders has was always going to be tough to break. However if they continue to put in these kind of performances they are going to be a hard team to beat. Three more wins will see them to the semi-final and they are more than capable of getting them.

The Saints however will only make it into the Heineken cup through the league now. It was a disappointing defeat to take but ultimately in this tight game Worcester just had to much for them. The disappointing thing about this game was the inability of the Saints to hold onto a lead. On three occasions they took the lead only to concede tries very shortly afterwards. There is an old saying in sport that says a team are at their most vulnerable after they score. This applied to the Saints who had they managed to defend better after they scored may well have found themselves winning this game. Unlike the Saints however once Worcester got ahead they were able to push on and create a lead that would prove to be too much for the Saints. It's difficult to pinpoint where things went wrong, but as the Coach Paul Grayson said, we got what we deserved, and if that's the case then things really need to improve before a crucial game against Bath next weekend