Hopefully this’ll be a valuable point at the end of the season.”His captain Gareth Southgate will bear the scars of battle into the last three games after needing 10 stitches in a head wound following an accidental clash with Shearer “It’s a hell of a gash,” McClaren revealed. Given the team we had out, I’m pleased because I couldn’t have asked for any more from them.”Szilard Nemeth and Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink spurned presentable second-half openings for Middlesbrough, who missed the cutting edge provided by Stewart Downing, restricted to a cameo role.Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren said: “We matched Newcastle and had two glorious moments at the start of the second half. Graeme Souness has much to address in the summer after his necessarily young side, dubbed the teen army, failed to paper over the cracks of an unravelling season. In fairness, the hosts came closest to a seventh Premiership victory in nine attempts at home to their near neighbours, as the contest belatedly came to life in the final 15 minutes.During that time, goalkeeper Brad Jones pulled off a stunning save to deny James Milner’s powerful drive, but the Middlesbrough goalkeeper could do little as Charles N’Zogbia skied a point-blank chance in the fifth minute of stoppage time.”We were the better side,” Souness insisted “We found another gear and bossed the second-half.
In short, there’s not been much competition for the title.
The Teesside club edged closer to securing a Uefa Cup place after playing a full part in a festival of ineptitude which underlines the current malaise the game in this region endures.Sunderland have heard nothing but dire warnings of the Herculean task which awaits next season after securing their Premiership return. Kieron Dyer refused to play in the corresponding fixture eight months ago. After the midfielder had exited early with the latest in a litany of injury problems, it appeared his 21 peers had followed suit.A pair of Ryan Giggs-endorsed black tights clearly failed to hold Dyer’s suspect hamstring together, and Graeme Souness, the Newcastle manager, admitted Dyer is unlikely to be seen again this season.Souness said: “Kieron thinks he’s damaged his hamstring properly this time and, if that’s the case, we won’t see him again this season.”Newcastle are without a League win since 5 March, and remain six points shy of bettering their lowest- ever Premiership haul. They will sleep a little easier after seeing their neighbours’ limitations laid bare. A choice between working in Woolworths in Great Yarmouth or mopping up baby sick in Chelsea? No contest. The success of the Supernanny TV series and book just shows how thousands of mothers need help combining a family and the demands of work. And many nurseries are only open from 8am until 2pm and won’t take children if they are snuffling or sick Nannies take the strain.
But, no matter how young, they have to understand where privacy starts and ends.And it’s not just about working for the well known. I suggest she starts retraining now.These days, more women work longer hours than ever before. Many share nannies, and it is a well paid job, with day nannies earning £400 a week after tax – around £28,000 a year Those who live in will still get £20,000. To meet the increased demand, nanny recruitment agencies scour the country looking for trustworthy young girls and it seems that Lincolnshire is a particularly productive area – rural, with high unemployment.
It’s not surprising that the job sounds seductive, even though you can be on call for 12 to 13 hours a day, five days a week, and may have to sleep in a room with your charges. With the kind of dubious honour that might accompany winning a House of Commons sincerity competition, or first place in a Royston Vasey beauty contest, Middlesbrough confirmed their eminence in North-east football last night. With the kind of tainted kudos that might accompany winning a House of Commons sincerity competition, or first place in a Royston Vasey beauty contest, Middlesbrough rubber-stamped their position as the eminent club in north-east football In short, there has not been much competition for the title. If, in such a case, the title holders come from an association entitled to enter four teams for the Uefa Champions’ League, the fourth-placed club in the top domestic league championship has to be entered for the Uefa Cup.”Uefa’s communications director, William Gaillard, said: “Should those circumstances arise it is up to the FA to make a decision.”Incidentally, the FA’s chief executive Brian Barwick, who is a Liverpool fan, does not have a voting role on the board.. All sensitive topics on which committees of specially chosen experts are still working their way towards draft proposals, none of which will be ready until the end of the year, well after polling day.So I am being asked to vote for a group of people who have not got answers to some big questions of policy, don’t want to meet real voters, other than in laboratory-controlled conditions, who can’t be interviewed on the radio each morning without spouting a lorry-load of waffle, and certainly don’t want cheeky journalists invading their contrived photo-opportunities. Yet I could probably answer Mastermind on the subject of David Beckham’s alleged infidelities and Victoria’s bouts of weeping between shopping sprees, because it “is in the public interest”.Many newspaper readers know more about the domestic arrangements at casa Beckham and David’s tanning sessions in the middle of the night than could ever fill in a questionnaire on Tory spending plans, the Lib Dems replacement for council tax or Mr Blair’s future relationship with Europe.We might have a media industry obsessed with the trivia of celebrity culture, but we also have a judiciary who seem to regard the famous as upstarts who have to be put in their place.
A High Court judge has ruled the story was in the public interest, when quite clearly it is nothing of the sort. In the final stages of an election campaign, there are so many subjects which are in the public’s interest to know more about; for example, Labour’s plans for dealing with unfair council tax, for solving the pension crisis and whether to use nuclear power for our energy needs. Hey, I’ve got a thick skin, I am a journalist, and I pocketed a big fee (as well as raising £80,000 for charity). I can live with media intrusion.In terms of fame, however, I am a minnow – the big fish, who have no right to any kind of private life or seclusion as far as the popular press are concerned, are undoubtedly the Beckhams and Princes Harry and William.Only this week, a car bearing paparazzi photographers nearly collided with Prince Harry’s jeep on a remote dirt track in Botswana, and fellow guests at the game reserve where he is staying phoned reports of his meal-time conversations through to expectant journalists.Meanwhile the News of the World plans a second instalment of reminiscences by the Beckhams’ nanny this Sunday, as the couple have lost their legal action to prevent publication. Like Robin Cook with his irritatingly garrulous ex-wife, I have weathered the storm. As long as I don’t look too gnarled and cross in the pictures, so what? I don’t have children (although my ex does, and presumably doesn’t care what his son thinks) and both my parents are dead, and so any embarrassment has been limited to catcalls from builders and a lot of nudging between punters when I pass in the street.
