Just a referee again

MARK Halsey gave an interview to The Independent recently. “When I cross that white line,” he said, “I am not Mark Halsey the cancer patient. I am Mark Halsey the referee.”

Last on MOTD: Brief encounter

TELEVISION interviews with Everton manager David Moyes are always a fascinating watch – as much for the demands they make on his interrogator as for his answers.

Sign of the Thames

CRIKEY, where did spring suddenly come from? Twenty-four hours after watching my hands turn a strange bluish-purple at Doncaster, I was positively sweltering in the sun at Fulham. Mind you, I was wearing a winter coat, a jumper and a shirt.

Last on MOTD: Timeshifting

THE clocks go forward next weekend by an hour. I sometimes wonder if it might be to Everton’s benefit if someone put them forward about two months.

Kes, computers, cosmetic surgery and Kevin Keegan

HOW does one prepare for a trip to Doncaster these days? If you’re Sheffield United manager Kevin Blackwell, you watch 20 minutes of Kes. Which scene? Oh, come on.

There once was a young man named Beckham

INTERACTIVITY is great, isn’t it? Actually, maybe it is. Here it is, popping up at the bottom of the BBC website’s report on the Poet Laureate’s poem about David Beckham:

Played 29, Won one

EVEN the worst runs come to an end eventually. So congratulations to Durham City. After 28 consecutive defeats, they picked up their first UniBond League win of the season on Saturday – a 2-1 victory over FC United at Gigg Lane.

The front page of Durham’s official website sums things up beautifully.

Last on MOTD: One hand or two?

IN a letter to When Saturday Comes magazine recently, a Bristol-based sports historian called David Bull recounted a tale which loosely relates to the long-throw wizardry of Stoke’s Rory Delap.

That’s entertainment

IT was the warm-up. Something about Nottingham Forest’s warm-up wasn’t right. In the words of Billy Davies: “Our warm-up was atrocious. And I said that to them at half-time. Having watched it, I was a little bit concerned, because it looked sloppy and it looked slack.”

A Knight to remember?

“SO David, would you consider becoming one of the Red Knights?” The question must have occurred to those who had access to David Beckham at Old Trafford last night. Manchester United are still a big part of his life, nearly seven years after he left. The green and gold scarf around his neck at full time removed any doubt about that.