Ten from 2010: Nine and ten

9) There are all sorts of contenders for best team performance of 2010: Europe’s Ryder Cup golfers, England’s Ashes cricketers, Inter Milan’s Champions League winners, Fulham’s Europa League finalists or the Barcelona side who thump Real Madrid 5-0. But perhaps the most moving team performance comes on an overcast March afternoon at Edgar Street.

Ten from 2010: Seven and eight

7) Nobody, except the squad themselves and Clive Tyldesley, seriously believes England can win the World Cup in South Africa. The best the nation can hope for is one really convincing group stage victory and an heroic penalty shoot-out defeat against the first decent team they come across. In the end, England get the World Cup campaign all Scotland fans were hoping for.

Last on MOTD: Bastard motorway junctions of the North of England

I SPEND a lot of my life on motorways. (Bolton West Services? Dreadful.) And there’s one motorway junction that gives me more nightmares than any other. Please welcome the spaghetti-like one-way mess that is junction 5 of the M60.

Ten from 2010: Five and six

5) In September, Andrew Flintoff announces his retirement, inadvertently ensuring that Nottinghamshire’s County Championship title win on the same day gets next to no publicity. Three months later, England prove they can win, or at least retain, the Ashes without him.

Ten from 2010: Three and four

3) There’s a passage in Candida Crewe’s 1998 novel The Last To Know, about an Oxford GP who abandons his job, wife and family and disappears for no apparent reason, in which February is described as “the month of few solutions”. May is this year’s February, forcing us to wait for answers.

Ten from 2010: One and two

1) Two minutes to go at Bloomfield Road, the January thaw complete, and Blackpool are somehow losing 2-1 at home to Watford. Sunday tabloid headline writers are preparing their best puns on the surname of Tom Cleverley, whose goal looks like winning it, although all the nearly-written reports have Watford’s goalkeeper Scott Loach down as man of the match.

Last on MOTD: Made in Scotland from girders

A COUPLE of weeks ago, this blog touched on Ray Wilkins’ brief yet glorious alternative career as an advertising voiceover artist for Tango. But it should be pointed out that he’s not the only football manager to be associated with a orange-coloured soft drink.

Last on MOTD: The new Roque Santa Cruz

ASK any tabloid newspaper headline writer for their favourite footballer, and I reckon they would go for Roque Santa Cruz, because his name provides vast potential for any number of terrible puns.

Here is the news

GREAT news for Leeds United yesterday: Not only did they beat leaders QPR to go second in the Championship, their highest position since dropping out of the Premier League in 2004, but top scorer Luciano Becchio signed a three-and-a-half-year contract.

Not such great news for those of us with Sunday newspaper deadlines to meet: Leeds announced it at 6.30pm last night.

The cup tie they couldn’t finish

“IT will come as no surprise to you to learn that our Scottish Cup third-round replay against Threave Rovers has been cancelled yet again for this week,” states the Stenhousemuir website with notable weariness.