The Blame Game

‘JAMES Beattie earned himself an England call-up and the thanks of half the country when his goal inflicted on Manchester United their first league defeat since Boxing Day 2002.

Beattie heads the wrong kind of ball into the right kind of net

The Southampton striker heaped more gloom on Sir Alex Ferguson with his headed goal two minutes from time and, says the Star, “fired his way into the England squad”.

But elsewhere there are worries for coach Sven Goran Eriksson, with the Mail suggesting that Paul Scholes could miss all three of England’s remaining 2004 qualifiers.

The Star says Rio Ferdinand could miss the games against Macedonia and Liechtenstein with a kidney problem, although its sister paper the Express insists the Manchester United centre-half will report fit.

Goalkeeper David Seaman’s international days are now firmly behind him and, judging by yesterday’s performance against his old club Arsenal, it is not before time.

The Mail watches the 39-year-old beaten twice as Arsenal recorded their fourth win out of four – a 2-1 success at Manchester City.

“What began with Lauren scoring a quite extraordinary own goal concluded with Seaman making the mistake that allowed his former Arsenal colleagues to secure another three points in pursuit of championship glory,” it says.

Not so successful were the British athletics team, who returned home from the World Championships in Paris without a single gold medal to their name.

In fact, we only managed a haul of four medals altogether – two more than last time, admittedly, but still a pathetic tally with all the lottery money that was supposed to boost the sport.

The Express says it is the worst performance by British athletes since the event began in 1983. Ten years ago, we won ten medals, including three golds.

And the Sun is quick to blame Dwain Chambers, who lost a three-yard lead in the last leg of the 4x100m relay to snatch silver from the jaws of gold.

Bizarrely, Chambers blamed his lead, saying: “Ideally, I would have preferred to be level with the American because I was running blind and did not know where he was.”

But it is the culture of blame that is ruining cricket, according to Gloucester supremo John Bracewell – and he blames England coach Duncan Fletcher.

“You must eliminate in England cricket what Clive Woodward has eliminated in rugby – and that’s the excuse environment,” he says.

No doubt Fergie, who once claimed that his Manchester United side lost because they were wearing the wrong colour shirt, would agree.’

Posted: 1st, September 2003 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink