Lucky Wednesday?

It looks like Sheffield Wednesday will get away with a fine from the Football League after naming six loan signings in their sixteen-man squad for the game against Stoke on Saturday.

There can be absolutely no excuses from Brian Laws or anyone at Hillsborough. Everybody knows the rules, and the fact that Wednesday failed to adhere to them should cost them dearly.

I’m Club Secretary for a local Sunday League team and although you can hardly compare the standard of football between the two leagues (we play to a much higher standard ) the same rules should apply.

In our league if you play an ineligible player you are given a hefty fine, deducted two points (we have two points for a win), the other club is rewarded maximum points on a 0-0 basis and the game is usually re-played, schedule permitting, at the expense of the club who did wrong.

Last season Leeds were found guilty of the same thing and were fined £2,000, so it would be a real surprise if Wednesday were deducted points, which once again highlights the differences between the top of the game – where you would think this sort of “mistake” would be much less likely – and the grass roots level.

It’s all very frustrating – and not just because a point deduction for Wednesday would help the Canary cause.

Pattison gets Mercy from Magistrates

It was good (if that is the right word) to hear the facts surrounding Matty Pattison’s drink-driving arrest after he had been fined £2,300 and banned from driving for 20 months – as well as being ordered to pay £60 court costs and a £15 victim surcharge by Magistrates.

What happened looks to be pretty straight forward. Pattison went out in the City to Mercy after the 2-0 defeat at Sheffield United, had a few drinks and got back to Dunston Hall late (ok, very late). He got up in the morning and decided to drive to work even though he “still felt drunk” when he woke up.

In the meantime, hotel worked Ben Lee got on the blower to the police to say that he thought Pattison’s “speech was slurred” and breath smelt “intoxicated”. Police arrived at Colney and breathalysed him where he was found to have just over double the legal amount of alcohol in his system to drive.

You can’t defend Pattison for his actions, but now would be as good a time as any to remind anyone who does not know that he is a South African who has spent many years living in Newcastle. I’ve never heard him speak, but I know a few South Africans and a few Geordies, and their speech is slurred at the best of times so I can’t imagine how they would mix!

After the case, he said in a statement:

I sincerely regret the actions which have led to me coming to court today. I fully accept the sentence handed to me by the magistrates and I am determined to learn from my mistake. I would like to say sorry to the magistrates and the police for taking up their time.

The club released their own statement:

Matty genuinely and sincerely regrets his behaviour and the club will support his determination to learn from this serious breach of his position of responsibility as a Norwich City player.

The club is committed to working with police and other relevant local authorities and welfare groups to promote responsible citizenship – and this includes a very firm stance against drink-driving and other forms of irresponsible or anti-social behaviour.

We will continue to drive this message home during the programme of development in place to educate young players in our Academy and to support local initiatives aimed at driving home these messages to the wider community.

Perhaps Pattison should take a leaf out of Ipswich’s Danny Haynes’ book?

Championship Predictions: 31st March 2008

It’s getting harder and harder to predict how the Championship will finish, so for this week I’ve abandoned the BBC predictor and have taken a leaf out of Luke Skywalker’s book by trusting my instincts.

I’m not interested in the play-off picture or automatic promotion at the moment. The only thing that concerns me are the relegation places, where there are as many as seven clubs realistically fighting it out to not be the one that bags the third and final relegation place (For the purpose of this exercise I am assuming that Colchester and Scunthorpe are already down and that Preston in 15^thon 53 points are safe, so apologies any U’s or Irons fans who may be reading this).

After the weekend’s round of matches the bottom of the Championship table looks like this:

1. Blackpool (50pts)
2. Norwich City (49pts)
3. Coventry City (48pts)
4. Leicester City (47pts)
5. Barnsley (46pts)
6. Southampton (46pts)
7. Sheffield Wednesday (45pts)
8. Scunthorpe United (38pts)
9. Colchester United (33pts)