It’s impossible for the players to fall out over something like that
Posted in General on 03. Sep, 2010
It’s impossible for the players to fall out over something like that. There have always been card schools in football, certainly in every team I’ve played in, but there is no problem and there never has been.” Concerns over the effect on morale were first raised when it was suggested Wayne Rooney owed a bookmaker, introduced to him by Michael Owen, £700,000 It was claimed the pair had fallen out over the debt But Beckham believes there is no rift. Despite stories of rifts over betting and card schools the national captain insisted it was more a case of happy families under Sven Goran Eriksson and revealed that the only game he had ever played was Snap.
Beckham said: “The banter and the togetherness of the England team is too strong to be affected by card schools. David Beckham has dismissed claims that card schools and gambling debts in the England squad are causing divisions ahead of the World Cup finals.
Substitutes not used: Al Habsi (gk), Campo, Pedersen, Borgetti.Referee: D Gallagher (Oxfordshire).. Substitutes not used: Albrechtsen, Carter, Inamoto.Bolton Wanderers (4-5-1): Jaaskelainen; Hunt, N’Gotty, Faye, Gardner; Okocha, Nakata, Speed, Giannakopoulos (Vaz Te, 83), Nolan; Davies. Campbell, rising at the back post, was unable to make a connection.West Bromwich Albion (4-4-2): Kuszczak; Watson, Davies, Clement, Robinson; Gera, Quashie, Johnson, Greening; Campbell (Kanu, 73), Kamara (Nicholson, 75). Jonathan Greening strove to supply guile to their attacks from an unaccustomed central role.
He is invariably more dangerous in a wide berth, however, and one beautifully flighted centre from the left deserved to be met by a header of the ball of the calibre of the late Jeff Astle, whose image adorned the cover of the match programme. By contrast, the gap between Albion’s midfield and the front two was often conspicuous. Kamara, in particular, prompted groans for failing to take a swing at the ball as Steve Watson lifted an inviting pass across the six-yard box.Bolton were repeatedly pushed back, yet when they did send the ball forward to Kevin Davies they were quick to support the lone striker. Jussi Jaaskelainen parried at point-blank range and Nicky Hunt hacked clear as Andy Johnson lunged in.Albion’s normally partisan followers grew increasingly restless as half chances went begging during an equally scrappy second half. Kevin Campbell’s back-header was met by a thrust of Gera’s forehead.
Steve Watson’s long throw-in, which landed five yards beyond the goal-line, seemed to sum up the poverty of Albion’s first-half efforts.Undaunted, Watson launched another throw in the 37th minute, and this time it almost produced a breakthrough. Nigel Quashie let fly from 35 yards, only to see the ball sail into a swathe of empty blue seats. Jay-Jay Okocha was close to giving them a 13th-minute lead with a free-kick that was bound for the top-right corner of the net until it clipped Kamara in the wall and went for a corner.More than half an hour passed before Albion so much as mustered a shot. Unhappily for West Bromwich and their manager, they have forgotten how to win. Last night’s grim stalemate with a Bolton side afflicted by a similar malaise leaves them three points from safety with just three games left, only one of them at The Hawthorns. Diomansy Kamara wasted the best of few opportunities, slicing wide as Zoltan Gera’s pass landed at his feet in front of goal with 18 minutes remaining.
His wastefulness condemned Albion to a solitary point, only their third in a calamitous 10-match sequence, and it would have been worse had Kevin Nolan not side-footed over with the goal at his mercy in stoppage time.
At 4.30pm, when Portsmouth led at Charlton, Albion had looked likely to start the match seven points adrift of safety. Pompey’s late collapse created fresh optimism, but even against a side that had lost its previous five games, there was abundant early evidence as to why Robson’s side lost their way after beating Blackburn in early February.Bolton looked the more cohesive unit and swiftly doused the fervour of the home crowd. Substitutes not used: Ashdown (gk), Koroman.Referee: H Webb (S Yorkshire).. Bryan Robson billed it as a must-win match. Substitutes not used: Andersen (gk), Euell.Portsmouth (4-4-2): Kiely; Priske, Primus, Pamarot, Taylor; O’Neil, Dvis, Hughes (Routledge, 85), D’Allesandro; Todorov (Karadas, 79), Mwaruwari. But I’m not going to talk about it any more.”Charlton Athletic (4-4-2): Myhre; Spector (Sankofa, 40min), Sorondo, Hreidarsson, Powell; Kishishev, Holland, Hughes, Thomas (Ambrose, h-t); D Bent, M Bent (Bothroyd, 25). Bent, previously anonymous, flared into vivid life, inspired it seemed by the prompting of half-time substitute Darren Ambrose.”We were awful in the first half, but I thought that at 1-0 up they dropped off the pace a little bit,” said the Charlton manager Alan Curbishley, who believes Bent can make his mark in this summer’s World Cup.As for the question of whether he might make his own mark on England, post-World Cup, Curbishley – who has criticised the Football Association’s drawn-out process of choosing the next England manager – was resolutely unforthcoming “It think it’s a bizarre situation at the moment.