Last on MOTD: From Harry Redknapp to Coleen Nolan

WEST Ham’s last two matches could hardly have contrasted more. One featured levels of violence so frightening that everyone from Harry Redknapp to Coleen Nolan expressed justified condemnation. The other was so boring that it sent a baby to sleep.

Davey departs

SIMON Davey had been under pressure before. Indeed, it seemed as though he had been under pressure from the moment he took charge of Barnsley in November 2006.

Even when he led them to the FA Cup semi-final two seasons ago – with victories over Liverpool and Chelsea along the way – the pressure didn’t ease up that much.

As of tonight, though, Davey no longer has to worry about Barnsley.

I love the Ashes

THERE was much to enjoy about the Test which sealed Ashes victory for England – Stuart Broad’s flurry of wickets on Friday, Ricky Ponting’s run out on Sunday, Andrew Flintoff’s surprising – and genuine – insistence that he was going to reign in his post-match celebrations this time around. But I particularly enjoyed a curious radio exchange between Geoffrey Boycott and Steve Bruce on Saturday afternoon.

Last on MOTD: Back to Birmingham, Jonathan

I’VE got a load of old football programmes at home that I’m thinking of chucking out. I never read them, and they take up too much space in the back room. Yet when I mentioned this to a couple of work colleagues the other day, they looked at me as if I was mad.

A Supple change of direction

SHANE Supple’s decision to retire from football this week at the age of 22 was surprising enough. (Even Roy Keane seemed to be caught off-guard.) But the story has taken a new twist with the suggestion that the now ex-Ipswich Town goalkeeper has plans to become a chef.

Last on MOTD: Nineteen Eighty-Four

WHEN Wolves clinched promotion to the Premier League in April with a nervy victory over QPR at Molineux, manager Mick McCarthy was brutally frank about what they would need to survive – money.

You’d better not mess with Ginger Tom

THERE’S something reassuring about a trip to Oakwell. About an hour after Barnsley’s match with Coventry on Saturday, a handful of journalists were finishing off their reports in the press room when a ginger tom cat sauntered in, leapt up on a chair and made itself right at home.

Last on MOTD: That would be an ecumenical matter

Deep inside a wardrobe, halfway to Narnia, I recently discovered a 1987 Saint and Greavsie annual gathering dust. Inside (the book, not the wardrobe), Martin Tyler tells of the perils of trying to interview the Uruguayan footballer Enzo Francescoli.

Any glove left for the League Cup?

MY one chance of becoming a professional footballer came and went on a sunny April Sunday morning when I was 12.

There was a Manchester United scout watching our local junior league game that day, and it was my big chance to impress. But I had a nightmare. I was so bad, that I was taken off at half-time. Not too embarrassing, you might think. Except that I was the goalkeeper.

One day, you’ll look back on this and laugh

LEICESTER City captain Matt Oakley has a cruel sense of humour. The subject of the ‘player profile’ questionnaire in the match programme for yesterday’s game against Swansea, Oakley was asked to name his funniest moment in football.

“Our sports scientist choking on his first presentation to the first team,” came Oakley’s reply.