5 To Watch - Last Gasp

Last gasp footie in 5 to Watch



The English domestic football season is usually a long drawn out affair with play-offs, finals, news of next season’s friendlies and transfer talk. Sometimes you just want to say: enough, already.


This Saturday sees the last domestic issue resolved: who joins surprise package Norwich and scrappers Leeds in the Championship.


• In the Red corner we have Danny Wilson’s Swindon – all West country “lovely and bunkum”. The Blue corner contains Kenny Jackett’s self-confessed hard nuts of “East Laarndon” Millwall going head-to-head at Wembley for the privilege. A week before the end of the season I’d have said –like most folk – that Leeds had blown it and Millwall were going up with the Canaries. But Millwall blew it at Tranmere and 10-man Leeds, as we know, stuttered to a 2-1 win over Bristol Rovers. Millwall or Swindon is close. But on the Blackpool principle that the unlikely is always likely to happen let’s go for Swindon.


• Bigger than Millwall v Swindon this weekend is the final of the Guinness Premiership between Saracens and Leicester. The final has added spice because Brendan Venter, the Sarries coach, is banned from the Twickenham match for being nasty – allegedly – to Leicester fans in a recent league game that Sarries won. It’s tempting to go with the Saracens momentum but I think the wily men of Leicester will prevail.


• Aussie Mark Webber is the man of the moment in F1. Two wins in a row make him hot favourite for the drivers’ title even though there is a long way to go but his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel is stuttering and Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton are not yet making much impression. Shall we go for three in a row and tempt fate? Why not. Webber to win.


• The law of averages in golf says that whoever leads after round one in any tournament can kiss goodbye to the title by day four. I’m tempted to write off Luke Donald at the Madrid Open in similar fashion but it’s still about time he won so let’s go for the baby-faced swinger to keep the momentum going and reign in Spain.


• One of the most intriguing games in the last 32 of the women’s section of the French Open tennis is Maria Sharapova, the not-so-young grunter, and Justine Henin, the Belgian waif. They will meet over the weekend to decide the dubious pleasure of taking on Serena Williams in the last 16. Henin has the game to upset the volatile Russian beauty (sorry – sexist) and so should win comfortably.