Pakistan are in charge of the third Test and England are facing a whitewash after Younus Khan scored a brilliant century

Good morning, good morning. Seconds out, round 25, and this fight is as fascinating now as it was way back on January 17 when the series started. England, we can assume, are going to come out swinging. They have five wickets in hand, but only three batsmen among them. As Jimmy Anderson has just said "hopefully Straussy and I will set a platform and then Broady and Swanny will come out and be at their destructive best." This, ladies and gents, is going to entertaining to watch.

And that, it seems is all the preamble we are going to have time for, because here come the players.

44th over: England 106-6 (Strauss 41, Anderson 3) Rehman will bowl the first delivery of the day, to Jimmy Anderson. He promised earlier this week that today's IPL auction "would not be a distraction for the team". Little did he know how right he was - Jimmy attracted no bids, and has not been bought. He has though been bowled...

WICKET! Anderson 4 b Rehman (England 106-7) Well, I guess you good say he did his job in that he got through the night, but so far as night watches go, Anderson's effort here was no Rembrandt. He rashly decided to drive against the spin, but the ball landed in the footmarks and span back through the gate into the stumps.

45th over: England 109-7 (Strauss 43, Broad 2) This is the key partnership of the morning. Ajmal is on now, bowling around the wicket to Broadm and Strauss immediately gives him the strike by taking a single off the first ball. Broad paddle-sweeps two runs away fine, surviving an optimistic LBW appeal as he does so.

46th over: England 110-7 (Strauss 44, Broad 2) "My american cricket-loving girlfriend who will be keeping YOU company while I go to bed in a few overs, has just asked me: "is this how it feels to be an England fan, cherishing every run without a wi... oh - damn, Jimmy'." You're leaving me alone with your cricket-loving girlfriend, Simon Bereton? Oh, mercy. It's a good thing you've got the married OBO writer doing the first shift, rather than the single (and devastatingly seductive) Mr Robert Smyth. Hack-hack-hack, ahem. Excuse me, I've something tickling the back of my throat. Just a single from Rehman's second over.

47th over: England 112-7 (Strauss 44, Broad 3) The score is on Nelson, and the old curse almost strikes as Broad is forced to dive full-length into the crease, bat stretched out in front of him, to beat a throw from the outfield and complete a quick single.

48th over: England 114-7 (Strauss 46, Broad 4) "I've got a Mexican, cricket-hating wife," says James Gordon. "You're safe with her Andy. Not a cat in hell's chance." Somehow this riff seems to be stumbling blindly into territory I have no desire to go near. I'm not sure the world is ready for an OBO Readers' Spouses special just yet, hard as times are at the grauniad. Here's Gary Naylor, steering us in an altogether more wholesome direction: Waqar seems as classy with mic in hand as he was with ball in hand. "I"m still ill though, so I could be hallucinating all this."

49th over: England 116-7 (Strauss 46, Broad 4) England's lead grows a little more, up to 17, as Strauss cuts two runs to deep point. Here's Ian Forth, who I can't help but notice seems to be emailing from his wife's account, with a Smyth-esque piece of statgazzary: "Had a quick fossick through statsguru today. A side batting first and scoring less than 100 has only gone on to win in 4 test matches. The last time it happened was 1907. So there really is almost nothing whatsoever to worry about." A quick fossick? What a delightful turn of phrase. As for your conclusions, well, I'm sure Disraeli would have something to say about lies, damned lies, and emails from optimistic OBO readers.

50th over: England 121-7 (Strauss 53, Broad 4) Four! And, more important still, fifty! Well played Andrew Strauss. It has taken all of 141 balls, ands has been quite the ugliest half-ton he has scored in Test cricket, if also one of the most useful. It is only his second fifty in his last 15 Test innings, a run stretching back over 12 months.

REFERRAL! Broad 4 LBW Ajmal Pakistan have one review left, and they have decided to spend it on this LBW appeal. The on-field decision was not out.

WICKET! Broad 4 LBW Ajmal (England 121-8) Oh dear, England. Broad has to go, though he's not all that happy about it. The delivery that did for him was a doosra, and despite what most people who saw it seemed to think when they saw the size of the stride he took down the pitch, Hawkeye shows it hit him in line, and would have gone on to hit the middle of middle stump.

52nd over: England 122-8 (Strauss 53, Swann 0) Swann has come out to bat in a baseball cap. His choice of headgear is, I'd guess, a portent of how he intends to play. Mike Selvey is gobsmacked by that decision against Broad. "How can that be out? It's hit him outside the line. And I would hazard beyond the 2.5 m mark too." Hawkeye says otherwise, but other than that I'm not sure you'll find many people who'll disagree with you about how wicket that looked.

53rd over: England 125-8 (Strauss 55, Swann 3) I have to say I find it a little hard to reason my way through all the permutations and complications of the DRS when I've had so little sleep, and the decisions come so thick and fast. It irritates me though that in this Test it has become such a regular feature of the play. Every other over seems to include a review of one sort or another, and, at the risk of sounding very fogeyish, it rather disruptes the rhythm of the play. "Watching proceedings this morning it's looking good - England looking likely to build a healthy first innings lead of at least 35," says Luke Ballard. "With that sort of monster to overhaul, what sort of target could pakistan conceivably set that would be out of England's reach? Do you think they would need to reach triple figures in their second innings?" After their performances in the last two innings, who could say? Anything more than 150 would be intimidating.

54th over: England 129-8 (Strauss 55, Swann 7) Swann flicks four runs away to fine leg. It's going to be interesting to see how he plays this - and as I type this he has just executed a dapper forward defensive. It has irritated me for years that he squanders his batting talent by giving himself licence to play shots and then brushing his dismissals off as "just the way I play."

WICKET! Strauss 56 st Akmal b Rehman (England 133-9) Strauss goes! He was trying to slog away towards the leg side, but missed the ball and was stumped by Akmal. It was good 'keeping from him, and a rather embarrassing end to a fantastic innings by England's skipper. And Rehman has his fifth wicket. He'd never had a five-wicket haul in Test cricket before this series, now he has two in two matches. Well, scratch what I said about Swann trying to play sensibly, he has to hit out now.

55th over: England 137-9 (Swann 11, Panesar 0) Swann sweeps four more away to fine leg, and then...

REFERRAL! Swann 11 LBW Ajmal Steve Davis shakes his head, and though Hawkeye shows the ball would have knocked over off-stump, it's not so very sure of itself that the third umpire thinks he can overturn the on-field decision. So it is not out and Swann bats on.

WICKET! Swann 16 c Rehman b Ajmal (England 141 all out) Well, it only costs them four runs. Swann sweeps one more four, and then lofts a catch out to the deep. England are all out with a lead of 42.

The game, as they say, is afoot. I'll be back in five minutes for the start of the penultimate chapter.

1st over: Pakistan 0-0 (Mohammad Hafeez 0, Taufeeq Umar 0) Goodness me this is all starting to feel a little familiar. Hafeez is taking strike, and Anderson has the ball. "So once again, England's bowlers have to drag the team out of a batsmen-induced mire," writes Chris Langmead. "I wonder, despite all the bland clichés about team spirit in press conferences, whether Messrs Broad, Anderson, Swann and Panesar aren't getting just a bit ticked off that the batting line up isn't pulling its weight, especially as it's the bowlers who seem to get ultimately dropped as a result? I'm sure Matthew Hoggard would agree." I suspect you are right. There were some rather pointed comments about the apparent innocuousness of the pitch made by both Broad and Anderson yesterday. (Note: Somebody needs to silence the folk singing Jerusalem. Silence them permanently.)

2nd over: Pakistan 0-0 (Mohammad Hafeez 0, Taufeeq Umar 0) trail England by 42 Taufeeq takes strike, knowing he's one good ball or bad shot away from bagging a pair. There's plenty of carry off the pitch for England's opening pair, and Baroad rips a short ball past Taufeeq's dangling bat, but you still wonder whether Bumble has a point when he says "there's nothing at all in this surface". A batsman who can master this pitch and score the first hundred of the series would win his team the match.

3rd over: Pakistan 0-0 (Mohammad Hafeez 0, Taufeeq Umar 0) trail England by 42 on the first innings A little swing for Anderson, whos is bowling quite beautifully. "Tough old game this cricket," sasy Ken Danbury. "Strauss is top scorer in the match so far. If you listen to Boycott you would think he had cost England the game." Did you mean to say "Tough old game this cricket," Ken? Or would "miserable old bugger this Boycott," have been more accurate?

4th over: Pakistan 5-0 (Mohammad Hafeez 4, Taufeeq Umar 1) trail England by 42 on the first innings At last, a run. Five of them, in fact. Taufeeq pushes a single to the on side, and Hafeez flicks four to fine leg. Compared to the slapdash approach of the opening overs of the first innings, the openers are looking altogether more resolute here. As Rameez Raja has just said, only half in jest, "even a partnership of six looks pretty substantial." If Pakistan can muster 200 between them, they will be well on their way to a whitewash.

5th over: Pakistan 7-0 (Mohammad Hafeez 5, Taufeeq Umar 2) trail England by 42 on the first innings "No wickets so far," harrumphs Bumble. "Why not?"

6th over: Pakistan 11-0 (Mohammad Hafeez 9, Taufeeq Umar 2) trail England by 42 on the first innings An lbw appeal from England, lead by Broad. Of course he thinks it is out, but Strauss decides not to refer it, rightly pointing out that the ball hit Hafeez so high up on the pads that it would have gone over the top. Broad's line drifts out well wide of off-stump, and Hafeez pounces on the rare opportunity to score some easy run. He creams a drive away square for four so thunderous that the sound should reach me here in the office any second now.

7th over: Pakistan 11-0 (Mohammad Hafeez 9, Taufeeq Umar 6) trail England by 42 on the first innings Another terrific shot, as Taufeeq latches on to a similarly loose delivery to the one that Broad gifted to Hafeez in the last over. Anderson's bad ball was a little shorter and a little wider, and Tauffeq cut it away for four off the back foot. England appeal for off the next ball, but Anderson has drifted so wide on the crease that it is a no ball.

WICKET! Taufeeq 6 c Strauss b Anderson (Pakistan 16-1) That's not a no ball though, it's a brilliant piece of bowling by Anderson, who has been using the width of the crease to cause the batsmen different, difficult problems. This ball, as Bumble points out, was delivered from a little closer in, and Taufeeq edged the ball through to first slip.

8th over: Pakistan 17-1 (Mohammad Hafeez 10, Azhar Ali 0) Strauss brings Monty into the attack, and he hurries through six balls for the cost of just a single.

9th over: Pakistan 18-1 (Mohammad Hafeez 10, Azhar Ali 0) "What's wrong Andy? Dreaming of bed at 6:30 on a lovely sunny Saturday evening," asks Peter Kunzli, who is seemingly oblivious to the fact that it is 7.30am on Saturday morning, but still... "I thought you OBO'ers went to bed at 8pm ready for the off next day." Indeed we do, Peter, that's exactly right. And then when we get there we lie awake all night torturing ourselves with thoughts of the little typos and miscalculations in the scores we made during that day's play. After all these years Smyth and myself are still searching of the perfect OBO, a little like Patrick Swayze with his wave in Point Break. Of course we'll never find it, but the pursuit of the ideal is what keeps us sharp, on the edge, where we need to be, if you'll excuse me mixing my movie references.

10th over: Pakistan 24-1 (Mohammad Hafeez 21, Azhar Ali 0) "That stroke excited you, didn't it?" says Aamer Sohail to his viewers, in a way that makes it sound very much like an order rather than a question. And he's right, it did. What a duel this is between Hafeez and Monty. Monty lunges out and lands a glancing blow, as Hafeez survives an LBW appeal. He then counters, stepping out and slashing a six down the ground over Monty's head. Having won the advantage, Hafeez makes another thrust, steering four through third man.

WICKET! Hafeez 21 LBW (Pakistan 28-2) But Monty wins in the end, landing the killer blow with a faster, flatter delivery that broke off the pitch just enough to slide past Hafeez's attempted sweep shot and hit him on the pad in front of off-stump. Touché. That was an enthralling little spell of cricket.

11th over: Pakistan 28-2 (Ali 0 Younus 0) Azhar Ali plays out a maiden against Anderson. "They just used Ian Forth's stat on the telly and gave no credit! Shameful plagiarism! "They just used Ian Forth's stat on the telly and gave no credit!" points out Andrew Hulbert. "Shameful plagiarism!" They did indeed. But then, to be fair, we crib an awful lot off them in return here on the OBO. Including, you know, the footage of the cricket.

12th over: Pakistan 30-2 (Ali 1 Younus 1) Two singles off Monty's latest over, but I'm lagging behind the over-rate, so if you'll excuse me we'll move swiftly on.

13th over: Pakistan 30-2 (Ali 1 Younus 1) Stuart Broad replaces Anderson, for a final little spell before the break. Ali continues to bat with admirable circumspection, and it is another maiden. He now has one run off 23 balls.

14th over: Pakistan 30-2 (Ali 1 Younus 1) Another maiden, the third in the last four overs as these two try to draw the sting from England's bowling.

15th over: Pakistan 30-2 (Ali 1 Younus 1) The last over of the morning is, perhaps unsurprisingly, another quiet one. Azhar Ali has played a dogged little innings here, blocking out another maiden.

So, at lunch Pakistan still trail by 12 runs. Rob Smyth will be here from 8.30am or so for the afternoon session. Send your emails to him now, please, on rob.smythl@guardian.co.uk.

LUNCH

Morning. The Decision Review Series hurtles towards its conclusion. There were six more wickets in the morning session, with Pakistan tucking into their innocent smoothies on 30 for two, 12 runs behind England. This match will probably be over before grandma's put the roast in the crock pot. The ghost of India v England 1981-82 is weeping at this crazy series. I've given up trying to explain it, so will settle purely for description in this session. This will, if the rest of this match is anything to go by, largely entail use of a six-letter word beginning with W.

16th over: Pakistan 30-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 1, Younis 1) It would be interesting to know the mindset of the Pakistan batsmen just now Logically in this situation you'd think, bat carefully and get to around 300. But lurking deep in their subconscious, just alongside the bit about wanting to sexually possess their mothers, must be the thought, we can set any target against this lot and win; we could declare now FFS. Maybe not the FFS bit. Anyway, it's Monty Panesar to bowl the first over after lunch. "Fun in the sun here lads!" says Matt Prior. It's a maiden to Younis Khan. "So, Rob," says John Starbuck, "if you had a hatful of money would you have bought anyone for an IPL side from The Best Test Team In The World?" I could barely care less, although it seems a bit surprising. Isn't it simply because they are only available for a small window?

17th over: Pakistan 31-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 2, Younis 1) Stuart Broad's second ball brings a huge shout for LBW against Azhar Ali. I said 'out' instinctively, but Simon Taufel said not out and he is a marginally better umpire than I am. Replays show the thinnest of inside edges, and that's an exceptional piece of umpiring. "Though there are few unplayable deliveries, the bowlers have found the way to get wickets and have stuck to their plans with great discipline," says Gary Naylor. "I don't know if it's great cricket, but it is great bowling, and an example of how shorter Tests offer so much more than Tests that go the distance on shirtfronts." Can't argue with that, although scarcity is a significant factor in the joy of these Tests. We'd not want them to become the norm.

18th over: Pakistan 31-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 2, Younis 1) Panesar has a lovely rhythm here, and is working on Azhar Ali. Another maiden. "I am a bit confused about some of these reviews," says Andy Moore. "I thought that if a batsmen is struck more than 2.5m from the stumps then a not out decision should not be overturned, yet in all the reviews in this series I haven't seen this looked at once. Stuart Broad's dismissal this morning was clearly a case in point. I'm all for DRS but the anomalies in the system are undermining it, and this seems to be another. Surprised it's been forgotten about really." You won't be surprised to hear me say that I don't know. I thought the 2.5m rule was simply another thing for the on-field umpires to consider and reject if they wish. But I'm not sure. Certainly Broad's dismissal left a feeling of unease, and for the first time yesterday there was a sense that maybe DRS has created a monster. I don't know.

19th over: Pakistan 41-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 5, Younis 8) Younis Khan eases Broad through mid-on for four, a gorgeous stroke. He has been struggling like an Englishman all series but he could take the game away from England with 70 or 80 here. Azhar Ali completes a good over for Pakistan – 10 from it – with a flowing cover drive for three. Cook saved four with a brilliant dive on the boundary, although he is now feeling his knee as a result. "I am not sure what all the commotion is about regarding the number of LBW decisions in this series," says Brian Rafferty. "Padding a ball away is now risky business, no matter where it pitches or how big the batsman's stride. Perhaps, just perhaps, it might be an idea to learn how to consistently get bat on ball." I know what you mean, but that feels like a glib thing to say: it is bloody hard if you have been a brilliant batsman for years and suddenly you find that everything you know is wrong. Pietersen's ongoing radge on the balcony yesterday felt much more significant than a batsman whinging about a dismissal.

20th over: Pakistan 41-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 5, Younis 8) "So," says Ken Danbury, "is Monty our number one spinner now? Swanny doesn't seem to be getting much of a look in on a spin friendly wicket. Pakistan seemed to have done alright with their spin twins. Or is that spin triplets?" Monty is bowling better at the moment, but Swann is definitely still No1. Swann's form is a slight worry, though. He has lost a little of his joie de vivre in the last 12 months.

21st over: Pakistan 47-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 6, Younis 13) Here's Swann, to bowl only his second over of the match. Younus tickles him very fine for four. Pakistan are in the lead now, and Misbah-ul-Haq declares safe in the knowledge that England's batsmen have the yips and the only thing they can chase is their own tail. "Just so as we are clear," says Mike Selvey. "ICC have increased the 2.5 m limit in UDRS to 3m. So rather than address the more fundamental issue of ridiculously anomalous reviewed decisions according to whether or not the batsman was given out, they have actually increased the way a batsman can be out." It's a problem, for sure. Yesterday you had one batsman (KP) given out after a review when 0.00001 per cent of the ball was hitting stumps, and another (Umar Gul) given not out after a review when 30th over: Pakistan 67-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 21, Younis 18)99999 per cent of the ball was hitting the stumps.

22nd over: Pakistan 53-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 12, Younis 13) Azhar Ali, having scored six from his first 51 balls, scores six from his 52nd ball with a lovely on-the-run drive over long-off off the bowling of Panesar. I was half-joking at this point yesterday when I said that England were going to lose. I'm not joking now. England are up a notorious creek, and they don't got no paddle. "I have recently admitted defeat and joined the gym," apologises Duncan Haskell. "Is it generally accepted that people are allowed to fill up the lockers with their stuff but not put their (refundable) pound in? It drives me Larry David insane, I am tempted to start locking the offending units myself and charging a hefty ransom/getting beat up." You're asking me about gym etiquette. You'd be better off asking Kojak about shampoo.

23rd over: Pakistan 58-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 16, Younis 14) Cook is still struggling a little with his knee. England are struggling a little with their bowling; Azhar Ali takes a half step forward and then rocks back to cut Swann for four. The mood of the match has changed in the last 10 minutes.

24th over: Pakistan 59-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 16, Younis 15) "When Lara broke Sobers' record, Sir Garfield said he was the only batsman who played with his bat," says Gary Naylor. "Though an overstatement, his point was substantiated a few years later in that SL series when Lara was a one-man batting unit. If DRS makes more batsmen play like Lara, that'll be fantastic." True. But imagine having to change your entire game mid-career.

25th over: Pakistan 60-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 16, Younis 16) Pakistan were 39 for six in this game as well. They look ominously comfortable just now, relative to the rest of the match/series at least. Younis touches Swann to fine leg for a single. "It has got to be worth a quid of anyone's money to have a bit of locker fun in the gym changing room," says Mike Selvey. You can have your beefcake and eat it. Honk.

26th over: Pakistan 62-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 17, Younis 17) A couple of runs in that Panesar over. There have been no centuries in this series. If it ends that way, it'll be the first instance in a series of three Tests or more since the rain-affected India v NZ series in 1995-96, when Lee Germon did a Tony Lewis and made his Test debut as captain. "The UDRS is writing cheques that Test cricket can't cash," writes Tom Marlow. "Maybe to balance the odds of getting out the next thing will be to make the wickets smaller."

27th over: Pakistan 65-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 18, Younis 17) The Sky chaps point out that Swann is bowling a DRS line – much straighter – rather than his usual line. Mind you, the moment I typed that he tossed two up outside off stump, the second of which was driven for a single by Azhar Ali. "Re His Selveness' point, I understand it depends if you are struck in line or not," says Andy Moore. "Nonetheless I haven't seen this aspect of the review laws taken into consideration since the World Cup, and I think Broad could have been 3m forward in any case." In happier news, have a look at this.

28th over: Pakistan 65-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 18, Younis 17) "Matter of time here Pan, matter of time," says Matt Prior during another Panesar maiden, but the issue here is not the tick of the clock so much as the tick of the scoreboard. Pakistan are 23 ahead; it feels quite absurd to say that if they get another 150 they will probably be favourites. "The Beard Liberation Front reviewing the third day of the third Test note an intriguing battle between ball, bald and beard," says Keith Flett. "Strauss lacked the follicles to detect the flight of a ball in the first session and was stumped. However Panesar's beard is not fully aligned in the second session. BLF Organiser Keith Flett said 'despite discussion about whethe Geoffrey Boycott may stand for Parliament on TMS we can confirm that he is not eligible to be a BLF candidate'."

29th over: Pakistan 67-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 21, Younis 18) England are in trouble here. Nothing is happening. You'd have got long odds on Pakistan 3-0 England before this series. "Morning Rob, morning everybody," says Guy Hornsby. "I have just finished the magnificent A Confederacy Of Dunces, which surely should be an apt title for the batsmen in this series, with Pakistan's recklessness and England's cluelessness. Any other literary titles that the OBO faithful would advocate for these two fine teams? To be honest, I'd be happy with anything to keep out the cold today." It sure wouldn't be 766 And All That, unless you're talking about the number of stiff brandies that were necked in disgust around England in the 15 minutes after last Saturday's collapse.

30th over: Pakistan 67-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 21, Younis 18) Panesar. Maiden. You know the drill. "If Pakistan declared now, England would still lose, right?" says Sara Torvalds, proving that being Finnish is no barrier to a deep awareness of the essential nature of English cricket.

31st over: Pakistan 69-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 22, Younis 19) Two spinners are on, the OBOers' Kryptonite. That and Saturday mornings. I can't really keep up, but rest assured that little is happening. The odd single here and there but, ominously for England, no oohs, aaahs or false strokes. I suppose the old Boycott mantra (No12 on here) applies in these conditions. Talking of Geoffrey... "There must be a picture somewhere of Bearded Boycott," says John Starbuck. "In the late 70s-early 80s, especially under Brearley, you stood out as a freak if you didn't grow a set. The Aussies, even more so." A set of beards? Brearley's Ayatollah phase was wonderful. You can even get a T-shirt of it. "I'd actually quite like that..." mutters Bull.

32nd over: Pakistan 71-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 23, Younis 20) Yesterday we were looking up when a team last lost after bowling the opposition out in double figures on the first day. (It was 1907.) Now I'm tempted to look up the heaviest defeats after bowling the opposition out in double figures on the first day. (It's 210 runs.) This is weirdly dispiriting. England are only 29 runs behind, but it's all starting to feel a bit futile. Futility, like gravity, always wins.

33rd over: Pakistan 73-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 24, Younis 21) Swann goes around the wicket. This is the kind of cricket we expected: England's spinners sitting in the game, Pakistan manoeuvring the ball around for the occasional single. There are two more in that over.

34th over: Pakistan 74-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 25, Younis 21) Prior appeals for a stumping against Younis Khan off the bowling of Panesar, but the back foot did not leave the crease at any stage. "Morning Smyth, morning everybody," says Josh Robinson. "I reckon Pakistan should declare to set England a target of 73. That'd teach even Steve Waugh a few things about mental disintegration."

35th over: Pakistan 75-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 26, Younis 21) With nothing happening for the spinners, Andrew Strauss returns to the excellent Jimmy Anderson (6-2-8-1). What a bittersweet tour it has been for Anderson and Stuart Broad, who have bowled quite beautifully throughout. I wonder when a pair of seamers last bowled so well when their team was whitewashed. Richard Ellison and Greg Thomas in 1985-86? Paul Jarvis and Paul Taylor in 1992-93? A decent over and it's time for drinks. I can't even be bothered to go to the loo. I'm fed up.

36th over: Pakistan 77-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 27, Younis 22) Panesar continues after the drinks break. He's bowling fairly quickly, too quickly for the liking of some of the Sky commentators. Azhar Ali comes down the track to drive a single to deep mid-off, and then Younus sweeps another. Pakistan are playing well here, just taking the odd single here and there. It's like the Boring Middle Overs of an ODI on downers. "England tour of 1898-99 – Lord Hawke," says Owen Rees, throwing random words into the mix in the hope they will magically resolve this sorry mess. "He batted No11 and did not bowl in that Test match. In for his captaincy. Brilliant." On that subject, I love this story. It's a bit like the Guardian employing Tom Lutz not for his writing or his sub-editing but for his jaunty presence about the place.

37th over: Pakistan 78-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 27, Younis 23) Younis pulls Anderson round the corner to bring up the fifty partnership, only the second of the match. They've played with an admirably even heartbeat. "As an expat Aussie who has been on the wrong side of English crickets supposed dominance recently, it's quite gratifying to see it returning to its roots," says Andrew Wright. We'd heard about this 'regression to the mean' thing, but nobody expected this. Mind you, as depressing as this is, we shouldn't get carried away. England are a lot better than this, and they will show that over the next few years. They've just had a bit of a shocker with the bat. It happens.*

*It'd better not bloody happen in Sri Lanka, mind, with the mania-inducing 4am starts, or I'll put one in the brain of my monitor.

38th over: Pakistan 79-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 27, Younis 24) Younis misses a sweep at Panesar, prompting a huge LBW appeal. He was outside the line. Monty has DRS fever and wants thie review, but Strauss is one of the better DRS captains (what a perverse thing to type) and decides against it.

39th over: Pakistan 80-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 27, Younis 25) Pakistan are in no hurry. It's quite endearing to see a team choose to bat time. It's one of cricket's dying arts. Younis steals another single off Anderson. They have dealt exclusively in single since the 27th over. "Talking of 'the type of cricket we expected'," says Jo Davis, "I can't think of another occasion where everyone's got the likely nature of the matches so wildly wrong." I know. I'm still haunted by the words 'with their depth of batting England shouldn't lose a Test' on the pre-series Cricinfo podcast.

40th over: Pakistan 81-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 27, Younis 26) Panesar continues to wheel away. He's bowled 30 overs in this Test to Swann's eight, and 101.2 to Swann's 53 in the two Tests they have played together. "Looks like England are in for some Hard Times if these two keep going," says Gary Naylor. "With all these LBWs in this series, there's no chance for the keepers to Catch 22. And if Pakistan can pull off a whitewash, will that count as Atonement for the Lord's shenanigans last time round?"

41st over: Pakistan 82-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 27, Younis 27) Giles Clarke is sat in the stand. He's wearing a shiny suit. Somebody needs to tell him he's not Ryan Gosling. Anyway, Pakistan's scoring rate in this series is 2.48 runs per over – their lowest in a Test series since 1989-90. That's quantitative confirmation of their intriguing approach under Misbah-ul-Haq.

42nd over: Pakistan 88-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 32, Younis 28) The run of singles is broken when Azhar Ali works Panesar for two to fine leg and three more through midwicket. England are in trouble here; Pakistan have a lead of 46.

43rd over: Pakistan 88-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 32, Younis 28) My colleague Simon Burnton has discovered this gem. I don't really know what to say. Anderson continues, and as ever he is showing supreme discipline. Azhar Ali, trying to work to leg, gets a leading edge just short of extra cover. It's another maiden, and Anderson's figures are 11-4-12-1. Shades of Adelaide 2003.

44th over: Pakistan 93-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 32, Younis 33) Swann replaces Panesar, who has bowled well for figures of 18-6-35-1. His second ball is a touch short, kicks up off the pitch and is pulled extravagantly for four by Younis. That's the first boundary for 21 overs. "I doff my cap to Mr Naylor for breathing life into my dead-before-it-began riff," says Guy Hornsby. "Desperate times and all that. This is soporific, life-draining stuff. We need to do something. I think we should take out The Third Man and attack a bit more, give Monty a rest. He's been a real Warhorse this match. Otherwise our chances of victory will reach a Vanishing Point."

45th over: Pakistan 96-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 32, Younis 36) "The Pakistan supporters sound in fine voice and confident," says Ken Danbury. "Probably rightly so. The pitch has been blameless without being a road. There have been so many low scores we are becoming disheartened by any sort of partnership developing. Is it really still only Day 2?" Only? It feels like Day 47 at the moment. (But yes, it does mess with the brain when Tests start on day other than Thursday, particularly a Friday. It also messes with the brain when 22 wickets fall in the first four sessions.)

46th over: Pakistan 97-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 32, Younis 37) Almost a wicket for England. Azhar Ali was sent back by Younis Khan and would have been run out by a direct hit from the England fielder at point. He missed. Of course he did. These two have added 69 now. Staggeringly, it's the fifth highest partnership of the series.
"I rather liked that link in over 43," says John Starbuck. "The guy's name being Toothman it almost seemed a case of nominative determinism. You have to wonder how many people attempt to act out their names."

47th over: Pakistan 104-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 33, Younis 43) Jonathan Trott comes on for Jimmy Anderson. He picked up Younis in the first Test, of course, a day of optimism that seems a long time ago. His first ball is a piece of filth that Younis pulls round the corner for four. That takes Pakistan into three figures and past their first-innings total. It's a daft thing to say when the lead is only 59, but it's increasingly hard to see how England can win this game. "If it's any consolation am at work too and have been since 8am and got up at 6 to walk the dog (was -5)," says Darryl Short. "Am really worried now think any lead over 175 and we are doomed to a humiliating white wash from a reasonable team who,back in England we would beat easily." Yes they would, and it's hard to recall the last time the top end of Test cricket was dominated quite so much by teams playing at home.

48th over: Pakistan 108-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 34, Younis 47) Younis, who is playing with increasing authority and aggression, sweeps Swann hard for four. "There was a lot of talk earlier in this series about how Bresnan's value was growing with each abject performance but this seems to have tailed off in the wake of such abject performances," says Dan Lucas. "Seems to me at the moment that Pakistan are able to take singles that bit too easily, and it'd be interesting to see if his tight line, the relief he'd offer as a fifth bowler, and the extra runs with the bat would actually make that much of a difference. Thoughts?" He's better than a fifth bowler, but I know what you mean. Before I didn't think they would play five bowlers but I reckon they will in Sri Lanka. Bresnan is gold, I'd pick him every time in all formats of the game. But England would be 2-0 down even if he was here.

49th over: Pakistan 115-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 34, Younis 53) Younis reaches his first fifty of the series with a lovely stroke, gliding Trott to third man for four. He has played really well, and you wouldn't be at all surprised if he went on to get the first hundred of the series. Few players are as accomplished at batting for long periods of time.

50th over: Pakistan 118-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 37, Younis 53) Azhar Ali forces Swann against the spin for a couple.

51st over: Pakistan 120-2 (trailed by 42 on first innings; Azhar 38, Younis 54) Panesar replaces Trott for the last over before tea, which passes without incident. It's been a dispiriting session for England, only the second wicketless session of the series. England didn't yield, and none of this is the bowlers' fault, but the game is slipping away from them. Pakistan lead by 78. Andy will be with you after tea; he's on andy.bull@guardian.co.uk. See you tomorrow.

TEA

Well, that was desperate. Can England's bowlers rouse themselves for one last final effort to save their team from the ignominy of a 3-0 whitewash? And can your flagging and broken OBO team struggle through one more gruelling session? Here come the Pakistani batsmen, so we're about to find out...

52nd over: Pakistan 126-2 (Azhar Ali 38 Younus Khan 60) Younus opens the evening session with an emphatic drive down the ground for two runs. Two balls later, he flicks four runs through the leg-side. This loss - and it feels very much like England are heading for a loss - is even more dispiriting in its way than the one England suffered in the second Test. England's players were so adamant that they had a point to prove in this match, so strident in their statements about the lessons they had learned and the injured pride they were to trying to heal, and they've still, somehow, contrived to play themselves into a losing position after bowling the opposition out for 99 on the first morning.

53rd over: Pakistan 130-2 (Azhar Ali 42 Younus Khan 60) Monty starts at the other end, and concedes a couple of couples. By the end of the over Pakistan's lead is 88, and this partnership is worth 102, which makes it the fourth-best of the series so far.

54th over: Pakistan 135-2 (Azhar Ali 46 Younus Khan 61) It's Bonnie Tyler time.

55th over: Pakistan 137-2 (Azhar Ali 46 Younus Khan 63) This pitch has turned into a real heartbreaker. The ball isn't doing much, and what it is doing it is doing very slowly. Younus chops two runs out to cover, where Jon Trott makes a good stop to save a boundary. "Loss?" says Gary Naylor, who has, apparently, not seen any of this series up till now, "300 would be a steep ask but Pakistan are a long way off that yet. England are in the game until then." Honestly, the way England's middle order has been batting I wouldn't back them to make 200 against this attack, never mind 300.

56th over: Pakistan 139-2 (Azhar Ali 48 Younus Khan 63) "You know what's confusing?" asks Ken Danbury. Umm, life, the universe and everything? "These wickets seem to be the exact opposite to what we expect in a Test match. They encourage spin in the first days then become flatter as the match goes on. No wonder that no-one has called it right." Azhar, who looks such a tidy little player, takes two runs off the sixth ball of Broad's over. knocking a straight ball out mid-wicket way.

57th over: Pakistan 141-2 (Azhar Ali 49 Younus Khan 64) Two more, this time in singles. "Any ideas where I can get a DRS from?" asks Dan Smith. "My decision-making has been p!ss-poor lately and would probably benefit from a third umpire review. The decision to get up this morning and follow the cricket, for example."

58th over: Pakistan 142-2 (Azhar Ali 50 Younus Khan 64) Broad traps a straight drive with his foot in his follow-through. He's look hot and bothered right now. And he doesn't get any happier when Ali knocks his next ball away for asingle to the leg side to bring up his fifty. It's taken him 165 balls, so has come at a strike rate of just 30.3. It also means that Pakistan's lead is now an even 100.

59th over: Pakistan 142-2 (Azhar Ali 50 Younus Khan 64) Graeme Swann comes into the attack, at the exact same time as Scott Murray saunters into the office. It's difficult to say who has the jauntier demeanour: Swann, after 11 fruitless overs in the hot sun on a thankless pitch, or Murray, after his stroll through the freezing streets of King's Cross to return to the thankless task of helming the grauniad's live sports coverage.

60th over: Pakistan 143-2 (Azhar Ali 50 Younus Khan 65) "Historically, many specialist inventions have seeped into the domestic sphere from industry (dishwashers, for instance, or really big cordless drills if you want something more macho)," says John Starbuck. "So it's only a matter of time before the DRS starts turning up on Xmas shopping lists. They'd be great as an app for TV mystery dramas and would save a great deal of argument. Or, of course, will generate more debate/rows." Mmmhmm.

61st over: Pakistan 143-2 (Azhar Ali 50 Younus Khan 65) A maiden from Swann.

62nd over: Pakistan 143-2 (Azhar Ali 50 Younus Khan 65) We've had two runs from the last 30 balls. No really. Someone have mercy on me and send an email, quick, before my eyes start to bleed.

63rd over: Pakistan 148-2 (Azhar Ali 54 Younus Khan 66) Younis snaps out of his torpor, sweeping a single away square. Inspired by this audacity, Ali lashes a pull away for four through mid-wicket.

64th over: Pakistan 151-2 (Azhar Ali 56 Younus Khan 67) Azhar sweeps two runs away square. He collapses with cramp at the end of the over. England take advantage of the break to send out Bunny Onions with a bunch of bananas to offer the bowlers.

65th over: Pakistan 157-2 (Azhar Ali 56 Younus Khan 73) Waqar is wondering whatever happened to Ajmal Shahzad, "he had talent, and seemed a very strong boy." Well you may ask, Waqar. Nasser explains that Shahzad has rather lost his way. Then Waqar slightly spoils his point by saying that "Saj Mahmood was another one, he had real talent and could reverse the ball." A lovely shot from Younus, a dainty reverse-sweep for four.

66th over: Pakistan 163-2 (Azhar Ali 62 Younus Khan 73) Azhar pads away another ball from Monty. "I've really missed that," sighs Selve. "The sight of a batsman kicking the ball away. Welcome back."

67th over: Pakistan 170-2 (Azhar Ali 62 Younus Khan 80) Strauss runs his hand over his face in embarrassment as he watches Younus take a quick two-step down the pitch and heave a six over to cow corner. Salt in the wound.

68th over: Pakistan 180-2 (Azhar Ali 65 Younus Khan 87) A beautiful ball from Monty, turning past Younus' outside edge. But that's the only glimmer of hope England can take from this over - from this session in fact. Younus is batting quite brilliantly now, and he sweeps four away to deep backward square. England are flustered. Later in the over there are two overthrows, to Strauss' huge irritation. This over cost ten, and Swann's 16 in this innings have cost 52.

69th over: Pakistan 180-2 (Azhar Ali 65 Younus Khan 87) James Anderson is going to come back into the attack now, with Pakistan's lead on 138. Anderson has been miserly so far, his 12 overs costing just 15 runs. "Got the family out to do the shopping using the negotiating skills of Henry Kissinger only to be out through this misery," says a mopey-sounding Nigel Smith. "I think all the enamel had come off my teeth in clenched abject misery."

70th over: Pakistan 189-2 (Azhar Ali 65 Younus Khan 96) Younus swats another four away square. He's moved into the 90s now, we may yet see a century in this series. Monty has, sadly, lost the plot a little bit. That delivery was fast and flat, and then he follows it up with as bad a ball as he has delivered this series, a short, loopy half-tracker that Younus dispatches through mid-wicket for four with utmost contempt. Younus takes a single off the sixth ball, which makes it nine off the over.

71st over: Pakistan 192-2 (Azhar Ali 65 Younus Khan 96) Younus eases two runs behind point, then knocks a single out to cover. He's now on 99.

72nd over: Pakistan 196-2 (Azhar Ali 65 Younus Khan 103) Younus takes off his helmet and hold his bat aloft in celebration of his century. He has played quite superbly, mastering the conditions and the bowlers in a way that no one else has been able to do in this series. Andy Strauss is enough of a sportsman to offer up a round of applause. Younus' second fifty runs have come off just 60 balls, as opposed to the 106 he took to make the first half of his hundred.

73rd over: Pakistan 200-2 (Azhar Ali 67 Younus Khan 105) That's Younus' 20th Test century, which puts him fourth on Pakistan's all-time list. Nothing about this is getting any cheerier for England. In the last ten overs Pakistan have been scoring at over five runs an over, which is almost double that of their innings as a whole. What can I offer England's fans by way of encouragement? Well, the new ball is six overs away.

74th over: Pakistan 201-2 (Azhar Ali 67 Younus Khan 105) Matt Prior has a relentless enthusiasm which, personally, I would find terribly grating, but I imagine is hugely appreciated by his colleagues on days like these. "Oh! There we go!" he shouts in excitement as Azhar Ali pads away another delivery from Monty.

75th over: Pakistan 202-2 (Azhar Ali 68 Younus Khan 108) Swann is back into the attack now. You have to wonder if there is ever going to a be time when anyone considers him to be the best spin-bowler in the world against after this series, given the emergence of Saeed Ajmal. In fact he's been out-bowled by Monty Panesar and Abdur Rehman in the last two Tests as well. He's still a fine bowler, of course, but his form has fallen away a little over the last 12 months.

76th over: Pakistan 205-2 (Azhar Ali 68 Younus Khan 109) Monty, I'm sorry to say, is bowling some real filth now, flat and fruitless from over the wicket.

77th over: Pakistan 206-2 (Azhar Ali 68 Younus Khan 110) Swann fields a return drive in his follow through and then throws down the stumps as Azhar Ali turns back into his ground. England appeal, and the decision gets sent up to the third umpire. It's not out. "Two positives to take from this situation: firstly there is now a big enough target for Strauss to get a century in his match-winning captain's innings chasing it down. Then he can start the next series with that monkey removed from his back. Second, err... it might make this afternoon's loss of the Calcutta Cup a bit less humiliating if the cricketers have been thrashed more soundly than the egg-chasers. Bit desperate that one though." There is a third as well, Robin: unlike Rob, I have tomorrow off.

78th over: Pakistan 210-2 (Azhar Ali 70 Younus Khan 111) Azhar Ali finally moves out of the 70s, where he seems to have been stuck since time immemorial. Younus immediately puts him back on strike by taking a single, and Azhar then contents himself with kicking away the rest of Monty's over.

79th over: Pakistan 210-2 (Azhar Ali 70 Younus Khan 111) A huge appeal from Swann and Prior, the bowler swivelling on his heels and dropping into a crouch as he roars question of the umpire. He's met with a shake of the head, but Strauss decides to review it.

REFERRAL! Azhar Ali 70 lbw Swann The ball was sailing well over the top of the stumps, by three inches and more. Not out. Next!

80th over: Pakistan 216-2 (Azhar 70 Younus 112) Monty tosses four byes down the leg side, turns on his heel and walks back to his mark in disgust. That about sums it all up for England.

81st over: Pakistan 218-2 (Azhar Ali 72 Younus 114) Strauss takes the new ball. He's betting his house on it, having already lost the shirt off his back. Broad and Anderson will get an over each. "This is still more fun than Premier League transfer deadline day," says Dan Smith. "Also, on balance, rupturing my spleen on New Year's Day was marginally more gruelling. Do those count as 'positives'?" Ah, I'm feeling a little better now it is all almost over. The sight of Azhar padding away yet more over the wicket filth from Monty was pretty rough work, but Younus has batted brilliantly, and England have got more and more ragged as the afternoon has worn on. Their bowlers can be allowed a bad session - which this has been - given how the batsmen have performed in the last two-and-a-half Tests.

82nd over: Pakistan 222-2 (Azhar Ali 75 Younus 115) One over for Broad then, and the curtain will come down on this sorry show. "I think Azhar Ali might be becoming one of my new favourites," says Alan Robertson. "Who cares if he bats like, er, treacle's too fast? Lava maybe? Underwater lava? And so what he doesn't score many 100s? He's remarkably consistent in his contribution and with the spate of 4 day tests recently a lot of teams could use him. Plus, I like a grafter." Aye, well the lad is certainly one of those. He and Asad Shafiq have both been very impressive in this series. Prior and Strauss both shoot Broad a filthy look as he asks them to consider referring a very unconvincing LBW appeal. Ali ends the day by punching three runs out to cover, a piece of punctuation accompanied by Smyth's droll announcement that "this partnership is now higher than any of England's three innings on this ground.

Younus walks off to a well-deserved standing ovation, and gets a kiss on each cheek from Mo Hafeez as a reward for his toil. He is on 115, Azhar, who gets a rather more manly handshake from Hafeez, is on 75. This partnership is worth 195 and Pakistan lead by 180. That's all from me folks. Cheerio.

2/4/2012 7:05:00 AM

• Chelsea star stripped of England captaincy for second time
• Senior players unhappy before autumn friendlies

The Football Association's decision to remove the England captaincy from John Terry has left him contemplating whether to quit international football in protest and comes at a time when he is facing a potential mutiny within Fabio Capello's squad. Terry's demotion was confirmed in a 10am phone call on Friday after David Bernstein, the FA chairman, informed Capello he was being overruled because the FA could not allow the Chelsea player to continue in the role after his trial for allegedly racially abusing Anton Ferdinand was scheduled to begin on 9 July, eight days after the European Championship final.

Capello opposed the decision and is almost as angry as Terry, not least because it leaves the manager with a dilemma about who to choose as England's captain for the tournament. Rio Ferdinand immediately made it clear he did not want to be considered and, while Steven Gerrard is the obvious candidate, the Liverpool player's injury issues mean Capello will make backup plans, potentially including Gareth Barry and Scott Parker.

One key requirement will be to reunite what is increasingly looking like a fractured squad after it emerged Terry was cold-shouldered by a small but influential group of players when the squad were last together for the friendlies against Sweden and Spain.

Terry, who denies the charge and is determined to clear his name, became aware other players had a problem with him and the issue was never fully resolved before all returned to their clubs. Rio Ferdinand, Anton's older brother, was not involved but his own relationship with Terry is fragile, to say the least. These are two of the more influential players in the England dressing room and, for Capello, it is threatening to become a serious issue. Jason Roberts, the Reading striker and Kick It Out campaigner, has predicted the mood will be "toxic" and Capello will almost certainly have to address it when the players reconvene for the Wembley friendly against Holland on 29 February.

Before then, Capello will offer Terry private backing amid suggestions from the player's camp that he is aggrieved enough to consider withdrawing from contention. Terry believes the FA has reacted under pressure from the media. There is also a sense he was already considering ending his England career after Euro 2012.

Capello had wanted to keep Terry as captain in keeping with his previous statements of considering him innocent until proven guilty. He reiterated this to Terry this week and had visited him at Chelsea's training ground, again to reassure him of his position.

Capello must now reflect on a gamble that badly misfired given that it was his decision to depose Ferdinand and reinstate Terry for his second spell as captain, having initially demoted the Chelsea player because of the Wayne Bridge controversy. The manager's annoyance is exacerbated by the fact the decision was taken while he was out of the country. The FA released a statement confirming that Bernstein had "spoken to both John Terry and Fabio Capello to explain the facts. Fabio Capello has not been involved in the discussions … but understands that the FA board has authority to make this decision."

The decision was based on the fact "the FA board expected the trial to be concluded prior to the European Championship" and "the higher profile nature of the England captaincy, on and off the pitch, and additional demands and requirements expected of the captain". The FA added: "This in no way infers [sic] any suggestion of guilt in relation to the charge made against John Terry."

Terry was later offered Chelsea's backing. "It's the FA's decision," André Villas-Boas said. "I don't agree with it. John will continue to be our captain. It's the club's and the manager's decision to support the player up to the moment of the court.

"I have spoken to John. He was disappointed but John is a person of great mental strength and personal convictions. He has to move on. He's been through a period like this before when he was stripped of the captaincy and he came back to a level of great individual performances."

Capello's next captain would ideally be Gerrard but he also has to weigh up the fact the Liverpool player has started only eight games this season. Frank Lampard may not be in the team this summer and the same goes for Barry if Gerrard and Parker are available and Jack Wilshere is back from injury. Ashley Cole has also been mentioned but only briefly because the England management know he is not keen. Otherwise, Joe Hart is ruled out because he is deemed too young, at 24, while appointing Wayne Rooney would not make sense when he is banned for the first two matches of Euro 2012.

Terry has a knee injury and will miss Sunday's home game against Manchester United, sparing him the distinct possibility of being blanked by Rio Ferdinand, and potentially several other players, in the pre-match handshakes.

Ferdinand said on Twitter that he did not want to be England captain because of "the last episode". He also does not want the vice-captaincy and a spokesman for his management company, New Era, said: "Rio just wants to concentrate on playing football."

2/3/2012 5:02:01 PM

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40 min: Cole - who let's not forget would now be playing for Liverpool had Roy Hodgson not been sent skittering down Walton Breck Road on the bones of his breeches - tries to create something out of nothing on the edge of the Millwall area. He holds the ball up, turns, and drags a low shot wide right of the target.

39 min: Sam Allardyce is still chewing his gum. He goes through six packets per match. That can't be healthy. All that gastric acid.

37 min: Henderson is causing a bit of bother in the West Ham area. A couple of minutes ago, he made a half-arsed claim for a penalty after only just failing to meet a high ball from the right. Now he wins a corner after causing some bedlam from another right-wing cross. The set piece causes a minor scramble in the home side's box, but eventually play is stopped for some minor infringement or other. "What about Daniel Day Lewis as a celebrity Millwall fan?" asks David Ashley. "A hard man. Apparently for role in Gangs of N York he used his experiences at the Den as inspiration."

35 min: Another ball from the left by McCartney, who is in a determined mood, it seems. His low fizzer is met by Faubert, sliding in, but he doesn't connect well, only managing to help the ball on out of play on the right. But this is better from West Ham, who are beginning to apply some pressure despite their numerical disadvantage.

32 min: West Ham enjoy a couple of minutes in the Millwall half, Noble orchestrating from the middle of the park. He strokes it this way and that, eventually releasing McCartney down the left. McCartney's low ball is eventually met by Collison, whose shot is blocked. After another phase, Noble is upended 30 yards from goal, allowing West Ham to make a proper show of themselves with the free kick. Isn't anyone practicing these things?

30 min: O'Brien cuts inside from the right and whacks a rising shot goalwards. For a second, it looks like finding the top-right corner, and Forde is not certain to meet it, but the ball rises over the bar anyway.

29 min: A lovely strong run down the middle by Abdou, who strokes the ball wide right to Keogh. Keogh clips a first-time pass back into the centre, with the hope of releasing Feeney into the box. He's this close to finding his man, but Green is off his line quickly to smother. A fine flowing break by Millwall.

27 min: Finally, a shot in anger. Millwall ping it around just outside the West Ham area. Feeney, his back to goal, just outside the left-hand post, drops a shoulder, turns inside, and unleashes one from the edge of the box. Green is behind it all the way.

25 min: A high ball into the Millwall area from the left by Collison causes mild panic. Nobody in a white shirt can get their head to the ball, and after a fashion Cole tries to guide a header into the top left from ten yards, just to the right of goal. He can't get enough on the effort, though, and Forde collects without fuss or ceremony.

23 min: That red card has really jiggered this match. After a really bright end-to-end beginning, there's a whole load of nothing going on at the moment. Both sets of fans try to whip something up - the home support with a rendition of Bubbles, the away crowd with their No-One Likes Us number - but nothing catches on.

20 min: Millwall are seeing the majority of the ball, as you'd imagine with their extra man. They're not doing a lot with it, though, as you'd imagine with their away record.

16 min: Smith is getting pelters from the home crowd. No surprise there, but he really did nothing wrong. He didn't even do much in the way of writhing about. Nolan was sent packing as a result of his own rank stupidity.

14 min: Millwall ping some pretty triangles down the inside-right channel. Eventually Henderson earns a bit of space down the right, and zips a low cross into the middle for Feeney. West Ham hack clear for a corner, which is easily cleared. "Dear old Scott, the best weekend in sport would be one in which there was no sport, leaving me free to sit and stew in my own juices (ingredients include: hair grease, sweat, and my children's tears of parental neglect)." Regular readers will already know that was Mac Millings.

12 min: A strangely subdued atmosphere at the Boleyn, given the teams involved and what's just happened. Cole zips down the right and tries to find Faubert at the near post, but Forde is quick to flop on the ball like a fire blanket. "Surely fitba's supremacy now is such that golf, cricket etc only suffer if they are up against its showpieces?" asks Ryan Dunne, putting his finger on why modern sport is broken. "That said, am personally old enough to remember when Madonna was attractive/produced good music, so am looking forward to the Superbowl. As for this game, are there any celebrity cockernees like Ray Winstone or Danny Pwoppa Nawty Dyer in the stands? They might come in handy if it all, as they say, kicks off. In contrast, the only celebrity Millwall fans I can think of are Rod Liddle and the great Danny Baker. Can't really picture them in a fight." Which is fair enough. But the implication being that you can picture Dyer in one?! Not the face! It's his living!

9 min: RED CARD!!! West Ham captain Kevin Nolan is sent off for a two-footed studs-in lunge on Smith. It isn't the most aggressive tackle of all time, but he is flying through the air, out of control, and the studs on his right boot connect with the shin of the Millwall man. He can have no complaints whatsoever, especially in the current climate, also known as the Kompany Klimate. Nolan stomps off down the tunnel as his manager makes a big show of frowning and chewing gum.

8 min: It's Millwall's turn for a corner, of course. This one comes in from the right. Lowry tries a backheel at the near post, Trotter nearly gets a shot away, but Green steps in to gather.

5 min: Head tennis down the other end now. A corner for West Ham, swung in from the left, and Tomkins and Faye cause no little bother in the area, eyebrowing it hither and yon. Eventually Faubert attempts to Mark Hughes it into the top left corner with a spectacular scissor kick, but can't get any purchase on the ball and it wafts away from danger. The dictionary definition of end-to-end, is this game so far. Keep it up, please, chaps.

4 min: A bit of head tennis in the Hammers box. The ball falls to Smith on the edge of the area; the Millwall midfield man drags a low shot well wide left. This is a lively start by both sides.

3 min: A corner for West Ham now, a lovely open beginning to this game. Cole meets a corner from the right, looping a header over the bar from 12 yards. "Glad to see that Big Fat Sam has finally realised the soporific qualities of playing his usual 4-5-1 and instead gone for a rip-roaring, goal-scoring 4-2-4 for today's match against Millwall," writes Richard Neal. "Oh . . . er . . . hang on a minute . . . wake me up when it's done, mate."

And we're off! Millwall are gifted a corner within the first 20 seconds, Green risibly spilling a 1mph dribbler by Henderson over the dead ball line. From the right, Barron fizzes a corner straight through the six-yard box, a lovely delivery, but nobody can get on the end of it.

The teams are out! West Ham in their famous claret and blue, Millwall in their not so famous one-time home strip of white. Former Hammers keeper Ernie Gregory has passed away aged 90, and there's a minute's applause. Then a burst of the 1975 FA Cup final song, with that bouncing bubbly bassline, and we'll soon be under way.

SAM ALLARDYCE WET DREAM DEPT. "Here's a bunch of players available for any club that missed out in the transfer window," writes Paul Taylor.

"Ever seen a group keep their shape better than these little fellas? Check out this 'tower structure' link to see how well they can move it upfield." Enjoy the crisp formations while you can, folks; the impending arrival of Ravel Morrison should turn this into an ersatz version of that Craig Charles programme.

Referee: Mike Jones (Cheshire)

Millwall: Forde, Smith, Dunne, Ward, Barron, Feeney, Trotter, Abdou, Lowry, Henderson, Keogh.
Subs: Allsop, N'Guessan, Mason, Kane, Wright.

West Ham United: Green, Faye, Reid, Tomkins, McCartney, O'Brien, Noble, Collison, Faubert, Cole, Nolan.
Subs: Baldock, Maynard, Vaz Te, Taylor, O'Neil.

Kick off: 12.30pm.

Danger for Millwall: West Ham were skelped 5-1 at Ipswich during the week.

Hope for Millwall: West Ham were skelped 5-1 at Ipswich during the week.

West Ham United versus Millwall, then. It's a rare old affair at the best of times, but emotions are likely to be heightened thanks to the current position of the two sides: Sam Allardyce's entertainers the Hammers are on top of the table, while Millwall hover one place above the relegation zone. This should be a home banker, with West Ham winning four of their last five at home, and Millwall losing four of their last five on the road. But this is football, et cetera, and so on, and so forth, and so you never know. Classic, please! Without any fisticuffs on or off the pitch, please!

Well, will this one do? This weekend we've got Chelsea versus Manchester United in the Premier League, some good old-school Test humiliation in the cricket, Scottish Cup fitba, the start of the Six Nations, the Super Bowl from 2008, and last but not least this glorious stramash in the Championship.

Back in the day, the best weekend in sport used to come in early April. You remember, that one with the FA Cup semi-finals, the Grand National, and the Masters from Augusta in it. Bliss. But over the years, The Man's buggered around with the calendar, and those events no longer all fall in the same weekend any more. So we're on the hunt for another Best Weekend In Sport.

2/4/2012 7:13:10 AM

A new generation and new hope but the new coach, Stuart Lancaster, may not be around long enough to build on his promising start

As they assembled for their departure to Edinburgh this week, the young hopefuls of Stuart Lancaster's New England found themselves in surroundings familiar to followers of the red-rose saga through the turbulence of recent years.

Filing out of Pennyhill Park, a five-star hotel set in wooded grounds outside Bagshot in Surrey, to board the waiting coach, the squad – including the eight uncapped players who will be among the 22 against Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday afternoon – passed through an environment unmistakably redolent of Old England: not just in the mahogany panelling, the marble tiles, the bronze lions, the rooms named Blenheim, Sandringham and Balmoral, and the hunting landscapes and portraits of noblemen and Pre-Raphaelite nymphs that are features of the converted 19th century country house, but in a framed set of photographs presented to the hotel's owners by Lancaster's most famous predecessor.

Below the images of England's moment of triumph in the 2003 World Cup final, and the dedication to innkeepers Giuseppe and Danny Pecorelli, lie the signature of Sir Clive Woodward, the mastermind of that victory, and a list of the team's results at Twickenham between 2000 and 2003, when Pennyhill Park, with its specially created practice pitches, was their home: played 18, won 18, lost 0. Those figures represent the sunlit uplands towards which the new interim coach is attempting, in the limited time that may be available to him, to steer a path.

There is no attempt to put a gloss on the events of October and November, when Martin Johnson's players were deemed to have disgraced themselves while failing to progress beyond the quarter-final stage in New Zealand. Even Graham Rowntree, the only coach to survive that tabloid-friendly fiasco, was moved to use unvarnished language this week, describing it as "the unspeakable past".

After Woodward stepped aside eight years ago, his successors attempted to remove the lingering vapour of past glories by moving the squad to pastures on which they themselves felt comfortable. Andy Robinson, Woodward's assistant, who is Lancaster's direct opponent this afternoon, stepped in to the breach in 2004 and made a very clear break with the past when he switched the centre of physical preparation to Bisham Abbey. Brian Ashton, who replaced Robinson in 2007, shifted the whole circus to Bath, where he had coached at the Recreation Ground and run England's academy.

Martin Johnson, who presided over the events in New Zealand, joked about moving the operation closer to his home in Market Harborough when he took over after the 2008 Six Nations, but in the end he decided on a return to Bagshot, the place from which he had led the 2003 campaign. Having watched Woodward at close quarters, however, did not mean that he was equipped to emulate his old head coach's achievements, and the statistical summary of England's results at Twickenham during his three-year runup to the World Cup would not be something to emblazon in a commemorative panel on anyone's wall: played 20, won 12, lost 8.

Unlike Johnson, and despite this week's rendezvous in Surrey, Lancaster has yanked the squad out of an environment familiar to them and into one in which he feels comfortable. Leeds, where the Cumbria-born coach worked as an academy director and as the director of rugby, was the location chosen for the nine days of intensive work with his group of players before heading, via Bagshot, to Edinburgh. The move was part of his plan to get them breathing fresh air and to give them a slightly different perspective on the business of putting on the white shirt, however abbreviated his own tenure may turn out to be.

At 42, Lancaster is a voracious reader of coaching manuals. His press conferences bristle with the positive jargon of sports psychology, and a glimpse of his modus operandi was provided this week when it became known that he had invited his players' parents, schoolteachers and early coaches to write expressions of support in letters which were then presented to the squad, as a means of dramatising the wider responsibilities that come with the chance to play for England.

"It's not something I expected to go public," he said, having learnt a quick and relatively painless lesson about the realities of running such a closely scrutinised organism as the England rugby team. Imaginative strategies can look foolish when things go wrong on the pitch, and Lancaster has taken enough chances with his selection to make success against Robinson's highly motivated Scots by no means a probability.

But his boldness also means that he has given himself a licence to fail in the short term if it can be demonstrated that he has laid down promising foundations for the future – whether his own or that of another man, following the Rugby Football Union's selection process, which is expected to deliver the announcement of a permanent head coach before the end of the Six Nations tournament.

By swiftly suspending Danny Care – his own protege – and Delon Armitage for misbehaviour off the pitch, Lancaster demonstrated a welcome readiness to distance himself, and his remaining players, from the sort of unsightly incidents that marred the last World Cup campaign. If a stale culture of entitlement can be banished in a matter of weeks, despite the retention of some of the individuals who were implicated in behaviour that inflicted significant collateral damage on Johnson's previously unassailable reputation, then he could be said to have made a promising start.

There was something distinctly appealing, too, about the atmosphere in the camp before their departure for Murrayfield, created not just by Lancaster's professional optimism but by the openness, good humour and common sense of such players as David Strettle, the 28-year-old Saracens wing, winning his eighth cap five years after his debut, and Phil Dowson, Northampton's youthful 30-year-old back-row, scheduled to make his international debut at No8. Both are typical of the generation nurtured by Lancaster in the England Saxons squad, a group including Chris Robshaw, captaining the side at the age of 25, in only his second senior appearance.

Dowson's assessment of Robshaw's capabilities, and the task facing the Harlequins flanker, was delivered with equal measures of warmth and thoughtfulness. "He speaks very well," he said, "but he also plays very well. Tactically he's very aware, and he's got Charlie Hodgson there to help him out, and Dylan Hartley and Tom Croft. He's not going to be alone."

There were pleasant surprises in the players' encounters with the media. The eloquent Dowson used the word "sanguine" in connection with his long struggle for senior international recognition. Brad Barritt, the 25-year-old South Africa-born centre, walked into a room full of journalists and insisted on shaking every hand before sitting down to discuss his debut. Owen Farrell, the 20-year-old prodigy due to share the playmaking duties with his Sarries team-mate Hodgson, who is 11 years his senior, was a little more reticent, but the light in his eye suggested that he and his goal-kicking nerve will withstand the extra burden of being the son of one of Lancaster's assistant coaches.

Strettle summed up the unusual appeal of Saturday's challenge. "I think what's got the public really interested is that there'll be a lot of young guys going out there, trying to show what they can do," he said. When Farrell was asked, a few minutes later, if he was familiar with the sound of bagpipes, the youngest of the young guys gave a little smile and a nod of assent.

A fresh breeze was indeed blowing through the mock-baronial corridors, dispelling the odours of surliness and cynicism left over from the previous regime. Lancaster may not get the chance to finish the job, but at least he has made a start.

2/3/2012 5:01:35 PM

• Investigation centred on allegations of doping
• Seven-times Tour de France winner denied taking drugs

United States federal prosecutors say they are closing a criminal investigation of Lance Armstrong, the seven-times Tour de France winner, and will not charge him over allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs.

The US attorney Andre Birotte Jr said the case had been closed but did not give the reason. Investigators looked at whether a doping programme was created to keep Armstrong and his team-mates running at the head of the pack while, at least part of the time, they received government sponsorship from the US Postal Service.

Armstrong's attorney Mark Fabiani welcomed the decision in a statement. "This is great news," he said. "Lance is pleased that the United States attorney made the right decision, and he is more determined than ever to devote his time and energy to Livestrong and to the causes that have defined his career."

However the US Anti Doping Agency CEO Travis T Tygart has said that the matter is not over. "Unlike the US Attorney, Usada's job is to protect clean sport rather than enforce specific criminal laws," he indicated in a statement. "Our investigation into doping in the sport of cycling is continuing and we look forward to obtaining the information developed during the federal investigation."

Armstrong won the Tour de France every year from 1999-2005 and has always fiercely denied doping.

The investigation, anchored in Los Angeles where a grand jury was presented evidence by federal prosecutors and heard testimony from Armstrong's former teammates and associates, began with a separate investigation of Rock Racing, a cycling team owned by the fashion entrepreneur Michael Ball.

Birotte Jr announced that his office "is closing an investigation into allegations of federal criminal conduct by members and associates of a professional bicycle racing team owned in part by Lance Armstrong".

The Armstrong probe was led by the federal agent Jeff Novitzky. US authorities sought assistance overseas, requesting urine samples of US Postal riders from France's anti-doping agency and also meeting officials from Belgium, Spain and Italy.

Prosecutors also subpoenaed Armstrong supporters and former team-mates to testify in Los Angeles. Among them were the Ukrainian cyclist Yaroslav Popovych, who rode on three Armstrong teams dating back to 2005; Allen Lim, an exercise physiologist for Team Radioshack; and the long-time Armstrong friend Stephanie McIlvain.

The investigation was spurred by the disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis, who claims Armstrong had a long-running doping system in place while they were team-mates. Landis, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title for drug use, acknowledged in 2010 he used performance-enhancing drugs after years of denying he cheated.

One of the most serious accusations came during a "60 Minutes" interview last May when another former team-mate, Tyler Hamilton, said he saw Armstrong use EPO during the 1999 Tour de France and in preparation for the 2000 and 2001 tours.

As the investigation progressed, Armstrong assembled a legal team, hired a spokesman and briefly created a website to address any of the allegations reported.

2/3/2012 4:45:16 PM

• Umpire Decision Review System subject of a Cambridge study
• ICC admit surprise at how system has changed cricket

The heavily criticised Umpire Decision Review System is to undergo a review in May with the International Cricket Council hoping that a Cambridge University study will help persuade India that its use can be beneficial rather than detrimental to the game.

At the moment India are refusing to use it because of doubts concerning the predictive element of the tracking system Hawkeye and its derivatives, and of the heat-monitoring HotSpot. Against that, the current three match Test series between England and Pakistan has already produced a record number of lbw decisions fast approaching the most for a series of any length, many of these a product of use of UDRS.

In Dubai yesterday, the ICC general manager of cricket, Dave Richardson, the former South African wicketkeeper, whose baby UDRS is (developed, with some irony it can be seen now, from an idea presented by the current India coach Duncan Fletcher) said that he has been surprised by the impact that UDRS has had on Test cricket, admitting that he had never expected to see such a change in the way the game was being played. In particular, he feels that it has overturned a convention of the game, not enshrined in the laws, that the batsman rather than bowler is entitled to the benefit of the doubt.

"I think it's not a bad thing," Richardson has said. "We were keen to make sure there was a better balance between bat and ball. I think there was a feeling it had gone too much the other way and batsmen were getting too much of an easy ride in Test cricket. Wickets were too flat and the balance had shifted too far in favour of the batsmen."

Although some top umpires are thought to have doubts, Richardson believes the majority of umpires have found it beneficial. "I think the general view is supportive," he added. "I think they acknowledge it can be to their benefit. Any mistake can be rectified while still giving them margin for error. They don't need to change the way they umpire and the system will support them more often than not."

2/4/2012 5:41:44 AM

• Portsmouth v Hull and Doncaster v Reading off
• Multiple games in League One and League Two off

Freezing conditions across the country have forced the postponement of a vast number of games in the Football League this weekend.

The most high-profile games to have been called off are the Championship fixture between Portsmouth and Hull City at Fratton Park and Reading's match at Doncaster Rovers.

The match referee at Portsmouth, Darren Sheldrake, said: "After looking at the pitch this morning the area in front of the south stand was significantly frozen. You couldn't get a key in the ground.

"With that area in shade for the whole of the day, in my opinion it's not going to defrost enough for the pitch to be playable and I have to keep player safety in mind."

In League One, Bournemouth v Exeter, Bury v Hartlepool, Charlton v Rochdale, Colchester v Sheffield United, Notts County v Stevenage, Oldham v Leyton Orient, Preston v Brentford and Scunthorpe v Walsall have all been postponed too. Bournemouth v Exeter has been rescheduled for Tuesday 7 February at 7.45pm, while Bury v Hartlepool will now be played on Tuesday 28 February, also at 7.45pm.

In League Two, the following matches have been postponed: Aldershot v Bristol Rovers, Bradford v Crawley, Cheltenham v AFC Wimbledon (rescheduled for Tuesday 21 February at 7.45pm), Crewe v Accrington Stanley, Gillingham v Hereford United, Morecambe v Dagenham & Redbridge, Northampton v Macclesfield, Oxford United v Barnet, Rotherham United v Torquay United, Shrewsbury Town v Port Vale (rescheduled for Tuesday 27 March at 7.45pm) and Swindon Town v Burton Albion.

2/4/2012 5:17:00 AM

No British professional footballer has come out as gay since my uncle, Justin Fashanu. Hopefully this charter will change that

After what feels like an eternity since the tragic death of my uncle, Justin Fashanu, almost 14 years ago, there are signs that the football authorities may finally be taking a stand. Or is this just a public front amid growing concerns about their lack of effort to tackle homophobia and transphobia in sport?

Last Monday, I presented a BBC3 documentary asking why none of the 5,000-or-so professional footballers currently playing in Britain has come out publicly as gay.

Maybe the programme had some effect, because on Thursday it emerged that Premier League clubs are now expected to sign the Sports Charter, which includes a pledge to combat homophobia.

For me, the Sports Charter is long overdue. It begins by saying that "everyone should be able to participate in and enjoy sport – whoever they are and whatever their background". That seems to be such basic common sense it's amazing it had to be written down. Nonetheless, it should not detract from the charter's importance in pushing towards a welcoming environment for football players of all sexualities.

Maybe what John Amaechi, the gay basketball player, said to me in the documentary is no longer entirely accurate. Maybe the "white men in boardrooms" (as he described Britain's football elite) have, in fact, realised that the game is no longer played in the realms of the dark ages.

I am constantly reminded of a vivid statement my dad, John Fashanu, made during the documentary. In the most assured voice he stated that there was more chance of a black pope than of a football player "coming out" as homosexual.

Yes, the Sports Charter shines a welcome light on this long-standing taboo, but whether or not it will reassure any players wanting to reveal their true identity and having a safe environment in which to do so is another matter – a matter I feel the English game is still a very long way from laying to rest.

The lack of players who are willing to speak on the issue of homophobia shows that turning the charter into reality is still going to be a struggle – though it has the potential to act as the much-needed catalyst to encourage the game's high-profile stars to address the subject.

For the documentary, I did find some Millwall players who were prepared to talk about it – which is a positive sign, even if many more are still reluctant to do so.

Without sounding like a cynical heartbroken niece, I welcome the Sports Charter and above all hope it will finally bring tolerance and change in one of the most loved games in the world.

• Follow Comment is free on Twitter @commentisfree

2/4/2012 4:59:01 AM

The latest news and best bets in our daily horse racing blog

If Ffos Las should prove able to stage the first jump racing in Britain since Wednesday [see update below], conditions will surely prove extremely testing, since the going was already heavy and will be heavier once frost has melted into it. The West Wales National may therefore turn into an unattractive slog but Rey Nacarado has as good a chance of coping as any.

The seven-year-old, whose name is Spanish for pearly king, slogged through the mud to win the Mandarin at Newbury on New Year's Eve but, even on his new mark, he gets in here below 11st. On his previous outing, he was outbattled only by Giles Cross, who then put up a sensational front-running display in the Welsh National itself before tiring into second.

From the in-form yard of Charlie Longsdon (four winners from his last 10 runners), Rey Nacarado (3.20) may have too much quality for Our Island, who could nonetheless cope better than when a distant sixth in the Chepstow equivalent. Mohayer should also handle the conditions well but proved little with his most recent victory here in December.

Ffos Las 2.10 Dai Walters, owner of both the racecourse and Oscar Whisky, doesn't just want to win the Welsh Champion Hurdle. His other runners on the card include Mountainous, who is unbeaten in two handicaps, both on very soggy ground at this course.

Lingfield 2.30 Having failed to win since he was a juvenile, Diamond Vine has hit form with his last two starts over this course and distance and can make it two wins in a row despite a 3lb rise.

Ffos Las 2.45 As with last year's race, Oscar Whisky looks about a stone ahead of all his rivals. Outside the Cheltenham Festival, his only defeat came when he fell at Ascot and the hurdles are probably the biggest danger.

Lingfield 3.00 Blinkers have produced serious improvement in Prince Of Burma, who seems well up to the hat-trick after pulling two and a half lengths clear on his most recent run.

Lingfield 3.35 So long as Status Symbol sets the decent pace that he needs, Art Scholar is up to defying the extra 6lb he earned when winning at Kempton last time. Exemplary's recent win came in a claimer for which he was sent off at 2-7, whereas this will be much harder.

Update

Unfortunately, Saturday will be Britain's third consecutive day without jump racing, officials at Ffos Las having abandoned the Welsh Champion Hurdle card shortly before 8am. Other race-meetings at Sandown and Wetherby had been called off a full day in advance.

A 9am inspection had been arranged at Ffos Las but the clerk of the course, Tim Long, said there had been no need to wait that long before making his decision. "We got down to -1C overnight and it is zero at the moment, but there is a fierce wind chill and we are actually freezing now.

For the full story, click here.

2/4/2012 4:16:00 AM

• No jump racing for third consecutive day in Britain
• Sunday nspections due at Fontwell and Musselburgh

Saturday will be Britain's third consecutive day without jump racing, officials at Ffos Las having abandoned the Welsh Champion Hurdle card shortly before 8am. Other race-meetings at Sandown and Wetherby had been called off a full day in advance.

A 9am inspection had been arranged at Ffos Las but the clerk of the course, Tim Long, said there had been no need to wait that long before making his decision. "We got down to -1C overnight and it is zero at the moment, but there is a fierce wind chill and we are actually freezing now.

"Temperatures are forecast to creep up, but only by a degree or two and it won't be enough. On Thursday night, temperatures got down to -6C and that is what has really done the damage. We're absolutely devastated as the team has worked incredibly hard."

The British Horseracing Authority clarified on Saturday morning that there would be no objection to Ffos Las staging the card on Sunday, but Long said this was "not possible logistically".

All-weather cards are scheduled to take place on Saturday at Lingfield and Wolverhampton, while there is still the possibility of jump racing in Ireland at Fairyhouse. The track there remained unraceable when inspected at 8am but temperatures were rising and a final decision has been postponed until 10.30am.

Prospects are not good for a resumption of jump racing in Britain this weekend. Both Fontwell and Musselburgh, which have fixtures on Sunday, are frozen in places, though overnight temperatures did not drop below -1C at the Scottish course. Fontwell will be inspected at 12.30pm on Saturday, Musselburgh at 7am on Sunday.

About a third of the circuit is frozen at Ayr, the only track where jump racing is arranged for Monday, but officials say they are "confident" of racing if the forecast is correct. The local temperature was 6C at 8am on Saturday and is not supposed to drop below freezing this weekend.

Hopes are also said to be high at Punchestown, due to stage quite a valuable card on Sunday, with Big Zeb and Sizing Europe lined up against each other in the Tied Cottage Chase. A "slight frost" is expected for Saturday night but covers have been in place since Tuesday.

2/4/2012 4:06:11 AM

• Judy Murray's squad complete 3-0 win over hosts
• Keothavong and Baltacha shine in singles wins

Great Britain's Fed Cup team celebrated booking their place in a World Group promotion play-off by whitewashing the hosts, Israel, 3-0 on Friday night in Eilat.

Portugal's earlier victory over the Netherlands had already ensured Great Britain's progress into Saturday's match with Austria but Judy Murray's team were intent on finishing the round-robin stage in style.

Anne Keothavong got Great Britain off to a fine start with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Julia Glushko and Elena Baltacha confirmed victory with a superb 6-4, 6-3 win over the world No37, Shahar Peer.

The doubles pairing, Laura Robson and Heather Watson, wrapped up the dead rubber 6-2, 6-1 over Glushko and Keren Shlomo, completing a third straight win after previous successes over Portugal and the Netherlands.

"All our girls have played every day and they've proved now that they're a winning team," said Murray. "Again today they showed some fantastic competitive spirit and have done tremendously well to get through as group winners."

Baltacha reeled off six consecutive games to win the second set and her match against Peer and admitted: "Once I'd won the match point tears came to my eyes. It was such an amazing evening and one I will remember for a long time."

2/3/2012 7:20:00 PM

Answer a simple question and you could be off to White Hart Lane for this enticing Premier League fixture

2/3/2012 6:06:00 PM

A first marathon attempt at 58 years old wasn't enough. He had to run the entire distance wearing a cape. Then again, Michael Cox has never done things by halves

^"DO YOU WANT TO WATCH ME RUN AROUND THE FIELD?" said my dad (who is in the top 10 loudest men in the East Midlands). It was a curious question to be asked by a man in late middle-age, clad in slippers and baggy cords stained with brinjal pickle, and I wasn't quite sure how to answer it.

Earlier that day, in his north Nottinghamshire kitchen, as 1960s Nigerian pop blasted from his stereo, he'd made a surprise announcement: the following spring, almost two decades after last doing anything vaguely athletic, he would be running the London marathon. "These have come in really handy," he added, pointing to a pair of trainers he'd bought me 19 years earlier for school PE from the cut-price shoe shop Jonathan James.

During my sporty adolescence, my dad had always been supportive. We'd attended Nottingham Forest football matches, and he'd given me lifts to countless junior golf tournaments, sitting on an umbrella seat in the corner of my eye as I lined up my shots. I know, though, that ultimately he would have rather been at home with his head in a book or painting a snowy landscape. The country of sport – my country – was a foreign one to him.

But now – a time when I'd become less sporty, when my interests (animals, music, the countryside, history) had intersected with his – he'd thrown me a curveball. "I've been training around the village," he explained. I couldn't help picturing the comedy run he had done to entertain my friends and me when I was young: an action where he pulled his knees up high, and frantically pumped his arms while grinning maniacally. I'd seen him run only a handful of times in recent years and he'd used the same action, presumably no longer for my entertainment. Could it be that, as an entertainer "becomes the mask", my dad had "become the jog"? And what would his fellow London marathon competitors think about it?

Over the next few months, reports of my dad's training became a regular feature of my phone calls to my parents. It was clear that he was serious about his marathon plans. There would also be an extra element: he would run in a superhero suit. A superhero suit, moreover, belonging to his own superhero, Johnny Catbiscuit, from the latest of his children's books, Johnny Catbiscuit and the Abominable Snotmen. During the marathon, Johnny would hand out copies of the book to children in the crowd from a rucksack.

"I'm a bit worried he's being overambitious," said my mum. "It's going to be very heavy."

"I'll be fine," interjected my dad.

My phone calls to my mum are ostensibly one-to-one affairs, but they're really dysfunctional conference calls, in which my dad will pick up the phone upstairs at various points and add his freestyle jazz input to the conversation. One moment, I'll be telling my mum about how a thatched cottage near me had caught fire. The next, we'll both be stunned into silence by a booming voice from nowhere asking, "DOES THAT MEAN IT WAS SEMI-DETHATCHED?"

My dad had always seemed a bit invincible to me: he'd never been subject to headaches like my mum and me. While it was the loudest I have ever witnessed, he has only to my knowledge ever had one cold. But now I suddenly felt aware of his mortality in a new way. Twenty-six miles over hard ground was a big undertaking for a man whose principal recent form of exercise had been throwing his arms about in fury at the heron that ate his koi carp. I asked him if he'd been pacing himself, but he waved the question away. The doctor had told him that it was advisable for someone of his age, with his cholesterol levels, to wear a heart monitor when he ran, and he had promised my mum that he would. "Do you mean it, or are you saying that to keep her quiet?" I asked.

With this latest venture, my dad had ushered in the final stage in a metamorphosis I'd been undergoing for the last couple of years in which I stopped being his son and became his disapproving maiden aunt. I could hear the killjoy nag in my voice as I warned him about overexerting himself, but I couldn't help it. I was well aware of the all-or-nothing element to his character.

It could have been worse: running wasn't as risky as potholing or white-water rafting. But my dad's peculiar brand of hedonism has never manifested itself in the obvious. No drugs, excessive drink or fast cars for him. He prefers the everyday and apparently harmless, and in this way he's very clever. If you try to sit someone down and tell them that you're worried that they've got a chutney problem, you're just going to look like a lunatic. Equally, it's unlikely that anyone has ever successfully staged a salt intervention, and I know I'd be unlikely to break the trend.

I reminded him about the author Douglas Adams, and how he died of a heart-attack on a treadmill, arguably because he had thrust himself so vigorously into exercise after a long hiatus. My dad waved me away. "I'm as fit as a flea. I did 22 miles round the field today! Bloomin' brilliant it was. I was listening to some Tanzanian hip-hop."

My worries were exacerbated when my dad fell off a stepladder, sustaining a deep cut and bruises on his leg. That he only sustained these was remarkable, considering that he was wielding a set of whirring hedge clippers and not wearing any form of protective clothing.

"He thinks he's 26 again right now," said my mum.

On the day of the marathon, I decided not to join my dad for the start in Greenwich, feeling that he'd be better served by as few distractions as possible. Instead I met my mum near Embankment, for the final stretch.

When I caught up with her, she admitted she was a bit cross. As they'd come up the hill towards Greenwich Observatory, my dad had spotted some people in bibs running, shouted "OH NO! THEY'RE STARTING!" and hoofed it away from her, not giving her time to give him his water bottle, towel or banana. In truth, these people had been running towards the starter's line, rather than away from it. Panicked, my mum had searched for my dad among hundreds of competitors, and, by an extreme stroke of luck, found him, 10 minutes later, necking a free can of Red Bull.

"Oh, hiya!" he'd said. "I've never heard of this stuff before but it's great. and they're giving it away free!"

"How many of those have you had?" she'd asked him.

"This is only my fourth!"

"Do you know what's actually in it?"

"No. What?"

"Well, lots of caffeine, for starters."

"Oh."

My mum had next seen him around the 19-mile mark, near Millwall. "How did he look?" I asked. "Kind of out of it," she said. Since then, she'd tried to contact him on his mobile, to no avail. From Embankment, we watched runners of all shapes and sizes pass us, but no Johnny Catbiscuit. As we waited, my mum told me about the fire alarm going off at 6am in their hotel that morning, the guests having to stand in the car park: everyone in their pyjamas, my dad in a bright orange superhero suit.

And then we saw him. His run was more of a stagger now, not the high-kneed action I'd expected. It had a slight "pretend flying" element to it. This was the home stretch, and, in his own way, he was soaring down it. "Mick!" we shouted, but he was off in some other place. I thought of shouting "Dad!" but the word somehow seemed too puny. Instead, I decided to use the only name that fitted: the one written on his suit. A few other spectators had spotted it too, and now we joined in a chorus. "Come on, Johnny!" we shouted. I considered adding a "You can do it!" but it was clear from the angle of his cape, the far-off, unwavering look in his eyes and his track record as a man of action among the everyday citizenry, that I would merely have been stating the obvious.

• Tom Cox's latest book, Talk to the Tail, is published by Simon & Schuster.

Fitter, Faster, Funnier Olympics: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Olympics But Were Afraid to Ask by Michael Cox is published by A&C Black on 16 February

2/3/2012 6:05:24 PM

• Arsenal manager expects Russian midfielder to stay at club
• 'There is a difference between frustration and lack of respect'

Arsène Wenger has told Arsenal fans to show some respect to Andrey Arshavin after the midfielder was booed when he came on for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the 2-1 league defeat by Manchester United last week.

Wenger, whose side have lost three of their last five league games, backed the under-fire Russian, who has been vilified by some fans for his inconsistent form this season.

He said: "At the moment we play a little bit under difficult circumstances but we have to realise that we have to support our players. I personally have a huge respect for Andrey Arshavin and if you would see him behave every day you would have one as well. I understand everybody's frustrations because I'm quite tolerant – but there is still a difference between frustration and lack of respect.

"I am here to make all of the fans happy and when I do not manage to do it I am, of course, not happy. But what is most important is that we have our fans happy at the end of the season."

With the Russian transfer window still open Wenger was asked if there is a chance Arshavin may still leave for a club in his homeland. "For me, no," he said. Pressed if anyone else has a say in that decision, Wenger said: "Andrey Arshavin." Has the playmaker, then, intimated that he wants to leave? "No."

Arshavin will captain Russia at Euro 2012 but Wenger does not think he will leave to get regular football ahead of the tournament. "Things can change quickly – villain today, hero tomorrow, it is like that nowadays. But when you are a good football player like he is you can always come back," the Frenchman said.

Wenger is also facing a demonstration at the Emirates on Saturday when Arsenal play Blackburn Rovers from disgruntled fans who plan to place bin bags over empty seats to highlight falling attendances.

But Wenger said: "I would not like to make any comment on that. I feel we have to be above that and show our quality on the football pitch and not respond to every individual provocation."

Under Wenger Arsenal have qualified for the Champions League in every season since he took over in September 1996. He has drawn criticism for his financial prudence in the transfer market and, asked if he might spend big if Arsenal fail to finish in the top four, Wenger said: "We'll make that analysis at the end of the season."

Is the target now to avoid defeat until the end of the season? "Unbeaten, certainly, ideally you want to be unbeaten," he said. "Is it possible? To prove that it is possible is just to win on Saturday. For the rest, I believe that we have played some great football this season and we have to continue to improve the way we play and focus on that. Football has to be a happy moment that you want to share with people who come to the game. We always try to behave like that.

"I believe we played 15 years on the trot in the Champions League and we play in 10 days in the last 16 of the Champions League. We want to come back in the Champions League position in the league, we want to prepare properly for the next round of the FA Cup and I wish that in the next 16 years it will be exactly the same for the club and that the fans will be happy. After that what can I say? Ideally I want everybody to be completely happy and over the moon but we live in a world where you have to accept that not everybody reacts the same."

While Wenger said he may rotate against Blackburn, Oxlade-Chamberlain's participation is in doubt: "We have a little problem that we have to check today because his knee jarred a little bit and we will see how he has recovered from it. All of the other players look all right."

2/3/2012 5:02:02 PM

Midfielder has become focal point for angry supporters seeking to make sense of struggling Blackburn's owners

As David Dunn considers the questions put to him inside Blackburn Rovers' Brockhall training ground in the Ribble Valley, and gives more consideration to the answers, a couple of supporters are waiting to meet Rovers' new signings in the cold outside. Dunn expresses a hope that the tide is turning on and off the pitch for Steve Kean.

The supporters are not standing at the gates with autograph books and camera phones at the ready but to explain to new arrivals why they view the club's owners, Venky's, with such disdain. As a fellow supporter, resident and employee, there is no escape for Dunn from the dilemma at the heart of Blackburn's struggle to survive in the Premier League. Nor does he seek one.

The 32-year-old experienced relegation in his first full season as a Blackburn player but nothing prepared him for the trials of the club's first full season under the control of the Indian poultry company, who have united a town and fanbase in protest at decisions and appointments made in absentia. For fellow members of the elder statesmen corps, Chris Samba, Ryan Nelsen, Jason Roberts and Keith Andrews, the club has been run to breaking point. Three left in the transfer window and only Samba, who claimed Venky's "don't understand football in this country" as he demanded to leave over "broken promises", remains, though with his head so turned he was not considered for Wednesday's home defeat by Newcastle United or Saturday's trip to Arsenal.

Dunn has not only stayed, he last week extended his contract with Blackburn until 2013. The deal involves a coaching role with the club's younger players as the midfielder works towards his Uefa pro licence and a possible career in management. The treatment of Kean has not deterred him.

"This is the football club I know better than most and I still feel I've got a lot to give both in terms of playing and helping the young players. There were options but this is where I am comfortable. I have left before and it didn't work out," says Dunn, who signed for Birmingham City for £5.5m in 2003 but made only 58 appearances during an injury-plagued four-year spell. "With living in the area and seeing and hearing what everyone feels, it is special in a way. It can be difficult. I am not just a fan, I am a player here as well and I have been here for a long time. It is very important to have our identity at the club. We have always been known as a family-orientated club and it is important to keep the people involved. We don't want to lose too much of that."

Many supporters would argue the damage has been done and that the club's identity has been compromised. Dunn diplomatically sees two sides to the argument, praising fans for heeding calls to take their massed protests outside Ewood Park. "When you have taken a stance it is very difficult to turn back but they have done for the good of the team," he says. "The atmosphere inside the stadium in recent weeks has been as good as I have ever felt it in my whole career." But he also accepts the owners' right to govern as they see fit. "I'm a footballer, not a businessman and I don't like getting involved in that side. There needs to be a little bit more communication from people but if someone has spent £30m on a club they have a right to run it how they want."

Dunn has found himself in an unenviable position as the fans have turned on the owners and manager – though not the team – and looked to him for explanations. He accepts it comes with the territory. "When things are going well then I get quite a lot of plaudits because I am local," he says. "When we beat Burnley twice two seasons ago and I scored, then I probably got more cheers than most because I am from Blackburn. But when things aren't going great you get the other side. I hear and see everything and sometimes I take too much on my shoulders. I want to explain everything. When I'm out for a walk or out shopping then I'll probably have 20 different conversations a day with people about Blackburn Rovers. You can't really escape from it. I am still really proud to come from Blackburn. It is a place I still hold very dear to my heart, which is why I want to stay here.

"The club is very important to people and not just to the staff here. If the worst did happen I am sure a lot of people would lose their jobs. It wouldn't just be people losing jobs either, it would have an effect on the whole community. The town is known for its football club. If you mentioned Blackburn to anyone they would always associate it with Jack Walker, Alan Shearer and Blackburn Rovers; that's how it is. The business the club generates for other companies in the area is huge and so it is very important that we do our utmost to keep us in the Premier League."

Blackburn remain third from bottom following Wednesday's 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle, when several chances were spurned including a penalty by Dunn, and despite a marked improvement in form. But results have never been the sole cause of the disenchantment at Rovers and with the owners invisible at Ewood and as a Venky's appointment, it has fallen on Kean to take the criticism as he drastically lowers the average age of the squad and works to a modest budget.

In 2011 the January transfer window opened amid talk of Ronaldinho and David Beckham from the owners, promises that remain their millstones. The reality in this window, the players met by protesters at the gates of Brockhall, was Marcus Olsson and Bradley Orr. Venky's gave further credence to Samba's assertion of not understanding the game this week when Nelsen, the club captain who has been a commanding influence for over six years, had his contract paid up and cancelled in order to join third-placed Tottenham Hotspur on a free. Nelsen has been troubled by a knee injury all season admittedly but there is no question which club need him more – he is fit for Monday's game at Anfield say Spurs – and that he deserved a finer farewell to the Blackburn public.

Dunn says: "I have sympathy for the manager because I think there are a lot of things he has had to deal with that he maybe shouldn't have had to deal with. That is not me having a go at anyone, I just feel that at one stage he was trying to sort everything out. The one thing you can say about him is how his dignity and ability to handle things while stood on that line has come through. I'm not sure how I would react if I was getting that much abuse from my own fans. Hopefully that tide has changed a little bit now.

"In the last couple of weeks the performances have been very good. We were very unlucky not to come away with three points from Everton. We had the youngest team ever to go to Old Trafford and win, we got a point against Liverpool at Anfield and beat Fulham who are also a very good team. Things have picked up and the fans can see that. They know how much effort we are putting in but we are still in a battle."

The midfielder has no doubt that, should Blackburn survive, the next year of his contract will be spent among a stronger unit. "It has not been easy. There have been certain atmospheres at Ewood Park this season but, having said that, the fans pay good, hard money and are entitled to their opinion. It has been difficult for the young lads and the senior players. I had it the other week when I heard some fan in the stand shouting off at me. This particular one doesn't know football, if I'm being honest, but everyone has an opinion on football. It has made everyone mentally strong. I'm sure if you can play in front of some home fans who are venting their frustrations at the owner, manager and players you will be much stronger for it."

2/3/2012 5:02:00 PM

• Wolves manager unimpressed with dressing-room rant
• 'Steve Morgan knows my views,' says McCarthy

Mick McCarthy has had talks with Steve Morgan after being left unimpressed by the Wolverhampton Wanderers owner's decision to enter the dressing room and lambast his players this week.

Morgan made his intervention in the aftermath of Tuesday's 3-0 home defeat to Liverpool, which left the club heading into Saturday's game at Queens Park Rangers second bottom in the Premier League, having won two of their last 21 matches.

It was the first time in his managerial career, according to McCarthy, that his chairman had entered the dressing room to deliver such a rebuke and, although the manager approached the sensitive subject with caution, there was little doubt a line had been crossed.

"I've spoken to him, Steve knows my views," he said. "That's where it lies, it's not for public consumption, you can derive from that whatever you like. If I was delighted with it I suppose I would say that."

McCarthy was at pains to point out that he and Morgan had settled matters. "I saw Steve on Wednesday and sorted everything out," he said. "I've not had my authority undermined – the players are all right behind me.

"Am I concerned about my relationship with Steve Morgan? No, not from my perspective. Once I've said my bit I'm happy to move on. If other people aren't then that's not good, but Steve is.

"I was out with him on Thursday night at the club's annual do, he was fine, there's no problem.

"If it's points on the board that's a problem, I understand that. I live and die by what my team do. But what happened the other night is finished with. There's no animosity from me now."

McCarthy desperately needs something from Wolves' visit to QPR but dismissed suggestions his team were failing to give 100 per cent. "Never ever, ever would I have that said about them," he said. "It's ingrained in us, that's tattooed on them."

Although he made no excuses for his team's position, his message was one of defiance. "I'm not going to try to justify it. There's no magic formula. I've had a magic formula here for five years – I got us up, kept us up. But you can't just flick your fingers and change it completely.

"We are going to go down there to try to get a performance and a win. If I had an instant remedy it would have been used. We need a response, the club need a response from me, the team, the group of players who can get the result."

2/3/2012 5:01:40 PM

The capacity of clubs such as Portsmouth to carry on in apparently hopeless positions is one of the game's phenomena

In football perspectives have obviously changed. There was a time when the merest hint of a famous old club threatened with extinction would have been regarded as a major crisis within the game. Now the news of Portsmouth being issued with a winding-up order by HM Revenue and Customs for unpaid taxes is greeted with a shrug.

So what. Portsmouth have been this way before, HMRC having filed a similar petition in December 2009 which was eventually withdrawn, leaving the club to face a nine-point penalty for going into administration.

Pompey have experienced a series of financial crises since the late 90s which have usually involved last-minute rescues by foreign investors, though with mixed results. Harry Redknapp's two spells as manager between 2002 and 2008 saw them gain promotion to the Premier League and win the FA Cup but their cash problems have only ever been put on hold.

Now Portsmouth's bank accounts have been frozen following HMRC's latest wind-up. The tax man is owed £1.6m which may seem trifling compared to the sums being paid to Premier League players and the debts run up by their clubs as a result, but is posing yet one more threat to the club's future.

The winding-up petition is due to be heard on 20 February. Portsmouth are seeking a validation from the court to have their accounts unfrozen so that wages and money owed to suppliers can be paid. Meanwhile their supporters will be wondering who will take over the club next, always assuming that there is anyone left out there likely to show an interest.

Elsewhere life goes on. The season's issues continue to grab the headlines … the Mancunian arm-wrestling contest at the top and the struggles of the rest to keep up, John Terry, Carlos Tevez, red cards that should or should not have been shown, two-footed tackles … and so on and so forth. Winding-ups are not big news.

Portsmouth will probably live to be wound up another day. The capacity of football clubs in apparently hopeless positions to carry on somehow is one of the game's phenomena.

In the mid-80s Middlesbrough were broke and had to borrow £30,000 from the Professional Footballers' Association to pay the wages. The gates at Ayresome Park were padlocked and Boro, then in the old Third Division, kicked off the 1986-87 season with a home game against Port Vale except that "home" on that day was at Hartlepool.

Ten minutes before the deadline for registering with the Football League, at a cost of £350,000 which up to that point Middlesbrough did not have, Steve Gibson, the present chairman, led a consortium to the rescue and Boro ended up winning promotion. In the early 80s Derek Dougan headed a similar salvage operation to bail out Wolverhampton Wanderers, again with minutes to spare.

Broadly speaking, football clubs live on so long as the will to live is strong. For Halifax Town read FC Halifax, riding high in the Blue Square Premier. Cast a glance through the Evo-Stik North Premier and there are Bradford Park Avenue, a point ahead of FC United of Manchester. Darlington's financial woes may have cost them 10 points in the Blue Square Premier but at least they are still there, the fans having rallied round to keep them going.

Older followers of Leyton Orient will remember Arthur Page, then the chairman, walking around the running track at Brisbane Road with a plastic bucket into which supporters were invited to drop contributions to ease a cash crisis. The will of the fans to ensure that their team stays in existence should never be underestimated.

The restoration of Brighton and Hove Albion as a serious footballing force, epitomised by the way Gus Poyet's side have just swept Newcastle United out of the FA Cup, owes much to the energy and vision of Dick Knight. But if Albion supporters had given up when, the Goldstone Ground having been sold from under them for development, they were asked to travel to the ends of the earth, otherwise known as Gillingham, to watch home games, the club might have faded away.

Maybe a franchise system, requiring those who would own a football team to stick to an agreed set of practices or lose control, might save clubs from themselves. At present the tendency is to apply the Billy Bunter principle in matters of finance : the Owl of the Remove was forever expecting a postal order. Either this or hope that the figure shimmering in the heat haze of an Arabian desert is Omar Sharif with oil wells and not merely a mirage.

2/3/2012 5:01:30 PM

Barry McGuigan found the lifting and twisting of farm work set him up for his boxing career

Where I grew up, in Ireland, my mother had a grocery business and vegetables were a large part of it: carrots, brussels sprouts, cabbages, turnips, you name it. Various trader fellows would regularly pass through and one of them, Roy Rusk, grew vegetables that sold in all the local markets. When I was about 14 or 15, my mother asked him if I could have a job and I ended up working with his sons, Cyril and Freddy, who was something of a horticulturalist.

It was hard, physical work: cleaning the farmyard, mucking out horses, cultivating, planting and picking crops. We had cabbages, potatoes, broad beans and cauliflowers and they all had to be picked at the end of the year, loaded and taken to market.

It was a really active and fairly constant job. It started as a Saturday job but then became a summer job and more. I did it for a good two or three years and really enjoyed it right up until boxing began to take up more of my time. In the end Freddy got annoyed because I couldn't commit to it because of the boxing – and there was school work to do as well.

I loved the country and being out there, sometimes driving the tractor, sometimes putting fertiliser down and spraying insecticide. The sprouts were particularly vulnerable to pests ruining the crop and I remember myself with a knapsack-sprayer – I'd be thrown in jail for spraying insecticide like that these days, but there I was spraying it everywhere.

I remember one bad winter when we had to move the cattle and I ended up clearing out the stables – that was really hard, very physical work. I was a little powerhouse back then, and all that hard work helped me stay strong. All that lifting and twisting added to my speed and, even though I already had a strong back, it really helped my lats. It definitely helped strength-wise.

There was banter too. Freddy had a dry wit, and I'm sure the banter with him led someone to eventually say of me, "Why say five words when 25 will do, Barry?" It gave me a good grounding and I've never forgotten it. It's what I tell young people when I meet them now – I'm enabling kids to get back into education through boxing and I'm telling them that even if they are a top amateur or have turned professional, learning how to do a day's work will help them in the long run.

Knowing what it is to do a physical day's work will help them understand the effort involved and how important it is to learn a trade or vocation and why using your brain is so important. A boxing career is over quickly and by having something like a trade or a vocational qualification you'll have something else to do. If these troubled kids and boxers put the amount of hard work they do in training into a normal job, they'd fit 10 days' work into one.

Barry McGuigan is an ambassador for Laureus Sport for Good

2/3/2012 5:00:21 PM

Scotland A 35-0 England Saxons

Scotland A showed their senior counterparts the way before the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield on Saturday as they emphatically beat England Saxons 35-0 in Galashiels on Friday night.

Tries from Duncan Weir, who finished with a personal haul of 20 points, Stuart Hogg, Rory Lawson and Matt Scott saw the home side pile on the agony at a sub-zero Netherdale.

A crowd of 4,124 enjoyed a feast of rugby from the Scots who were for the most part a real force and dominated the first half to be well worth their 13-0 lead at the break.

The Scotland A coach, Michael Bradley, had called for the local crowd to get behind the team and he was not disappointed.

The Scots were full of running and, when England were penalised for not rolling away, Weir kicked the penalty to give the hosts a start on the scoreboard after three minutes.

England were unable to stretch the Scotland defensive line and the Glasgow full-back Hogg stormed home over 60 metres for the game's first try, which Weir converted for a 10-0 lead.

Scotland tackled aggressively and denied the Saxons any scoring opportunities and the visitors were short of ideas beyond the Scottish 22.

Scotland missed an opportunity to add to their lead with a penalty as Weir pulled his kick wide but then the England lock James Gaskell fell foul of the referee, Leighton Hodges, after 37 minutes and was sin-binned for a high tackle on Scott. Scotland started to make the extra man count and, when England were caught offside, Weir kicked his second penalty for a 13-0 interval lead.

Scotland were well on top and Weir ran in his try in the 52nd minute as he sped from a scrum to score under the posts before converting his own score. And when Ed Slater was the second Englishman to be sent to the sin-bin, Weir stretched the home lead.

It was all Scotland in the closing moments as Lawson and Scott added further tries and Weir converted one to complete England's misery.

2/3/2012 4:38:46 PM

• Gamble on injury-cursed Manchester City midfielder fails
• Mancini: 'I hope eventually he will be able to play all the time'

Roberto Mancini has admitted that the gamble on signing Owen Hargreaves has not paid off, confirming what many suspected to be the case, when David Pizarro was brought in from Italy as cover, that the midfielder is still not fit enough to resume his career and now seems unlikely to find a significant role with the club.

The injury-plagued former England player has made only four appearances since signing on a one-year deal last summer, his two starts both coming in the Carling Cup. "We took a gamble on Owen because he was such a fantastic player," the City manager said. "We thought we could try to get him fit in two or three months and then he would be able to play. But it hasn't worked out quite like that.

"When you have a player who hasn't played for two years and he starts to train every day there are small problems all the time. Problems in the knees or the hamstrings. So Owen hasn't been able to play when we have needed him. He may play again this season but he is not ready now. I hope eventually he will be able to play all the time. He deserves to, because he is a really nice guy."

Pizarro, an experienced 32-year-old on loan from Roma until the end of the season, is ready to play whenever asked. "David is not a gamble, he's a top player," Mancini, whose side host Fulham on Saturday evening, said of the Chile international. "He can play as defensive midfielder or he can play in the Yaya Touré position. We need cover at the moment because we have players away in Africa, and also because when the Europa League starts we will be back to playing every three days."

The pair worked with each other during Mancini's time as manager of Internazionale, and Pizarro admitted his decision to come to England had been influenced by his relationship with the Italian. "I was also talking with Juventus," he said. "But as soon as there was contact from Manchester City I was interested. I enjoyed working with Roberto at Inter, his leadership and personality are great strengths."

Pizarro's family will remain in Italy for the moment, though the player does not rule out an extended stay in England if things go well. "I have been in this situation before," he said. "I only went to Roma on loan and I ended up staying for six years." Having been a member of the Roma side battered 7-1 by Manchester United in the Champions League five years ago, Pizarro is keenly aware of the strength of his new neighbours and rivals. "That wasn't a defeat, it was a massacre," he said. "All I saw of Cristiano Ronaldo was the back of his shirt."

Mancini was relaxed about news that Carlos Tevez may feature in a testimonial game in Argentina this weekend, suggesting that it was in the player's best interests to keep himself fit. The striker has been named in City's squad of 25 for the second half of the season after seeing another transfer window pass without a move, and Mancini conceded it was not inconceivable that he could play for City again in the coming months, though he was not expecting any such development.

"Carlos is not an option at the moment, but if he comes back, and if he is fit, then anything is possible in the future," he said. "I hope he has been training in the last three months to help his condition, but right now that situation is not as important as the situation in the Premier League. We didn't play very well in our last game at Everton, and I didn't do my job very well in explaining the tactics to the players, but we always knew January was going to be a hard month and we are still on top. I don't think there is any reason to feel under pressure, because you don't win the title in January or February."

2/3/2012 4:30:02 PM

• Manchester United manager leaves decision to full-back
• United and Liverpool meet for first time since FA ban

Sir Alex Ferguson will recommend Patrice Evra does not ignore Luis Suaárez in the pre-match handshake when they come face to face for the first time since the Football Association found the Liverpool striker guilty of racially abusing the Manchester United player and banned him for eight matches.

Ferguson intends to leave the decision to Evra when the two teams meet at Old Trafford next weekend but believes the Frenchman should not prolong the argument. "He should be applauded for what he did [reporting Suárez], standing up to it," Ferguson said. "There is no shame for him. The matter is over. He can rise above that [ignoring the handshake]."

Evra was booed and subjected to chants branding him a liar when he played at Anfield last weekend and one supporter was arrested afterwards for allegedly making monkey gestures. "Patrice handled it OK," Ferguson continued. "I don't think he enjoyed it but he handled it OK. Patrice has already shown the courage to fight it, so he has nothing to be ashamed of. I don't think it's a problem shaking hands."

John Terry's absence with a knee injury means Ferguson will not have to speak to Rio Ferdinand to ascertain whether he is planning to shun the Chelsea captain in the pre-match handshakes at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Ferdinand had told friends he did not want to accept Terry's hand but Ferguson planned to advise him to go through with it. He said: "Rio has been fighting the racism issue for years. I've seen that in all the time I've known the lad. But there is a moment when he maybe has to rise above that."

United's injury concerns are easing, with Wayne Rooney, Ashley Young, Nani and Tom Cleverley all in the squad, while David de Gea should return in goal after missing the midweek win over Stoke City. Anders Lindegaard has an ankle injury that will rule him out for up to six weeks, meaning Ferguson will persist with a 21-year-old who has looked worryingly vulnerable at times this season. "The boy has got a great talent," Ferguson said of De Gea. "He has made two or three mistakes but in two or three years we won't be discussing that at all because he will have matured.

"At the moment he has found it difficult coming into the English game. It is highlighted when you make a mistake at United. It can be exaggerated. But there are mistakes and he wants to address it himself. He will do, through maturity and the understanding of the English game. It is hard when you are replacing someone like Edwin van der Sar and Peter Schmeichel because they are probably two of the greatest goalkeepers in European football over the last 40 years."

Ferguson was less charitable when it came to Alan Hansen's recent criticisms of United on Match of the Day, once again turning on the former Liverpool player. "He has tried to change it by saying he was talking about our away form but I have read his transcript and he said we were woeful for the last year and a half. He didn't mention away games. So he's dug himself into a grave really.

"He's in a responsible position and it's obvious to me he has said it the week before we played Liverpool. I can understand it because he's a former Liverpool player and Kenny [Dalglish] is his pal, so he's maybe tried to jack it up a little bit but he should be more responsible.

"When you think about it, we've played in a European Cup final, the semi-final of the FA Cup and won the league by nine points, so we couldn't have been that woeful. Jesus Christ! Maybe he's not got very good grammar."

2/3/2012 4:30:00 PM

• Widnes 14-32 Wakefield

Widnes stumbled to an opening defeat on Super League's first artificial pitch as Wakefield overcame their doubts about the surface to score five unanswered tries in the second half. Several Wakefield players complained about grazes after sliding or landing heavily on the surface but departed happy enough after taking the points from a game that may not have gone ahead on a freezing night that left all the other pitches in the region rock hard.

Trinity trailed 10-4 at half-time but their greater quality told as Widnes tired and lost their discipline, with the former England wing Peter Fox scoring two clinical tries after Widnes' Australian prop Ben Cross was sent to the sin-bin.

Super League's opening night resembled a debutants' ball, with the artificial "iPitch" (the 'i' stands for intelligence) that Widnes have installed providing a fancy new dancefloor. The Cheshire club, who were returning to the elite after a six-year absence, included nine of their 13 new signings, with another couple of players making their second debuts. But they were a model of calm and continuity compared with Wakefield, who fielded only two survivors from the 2011 squad who finished 13th out of 14. Their new coach Richard Agar included 15 of his 17 winter recruits.

It was to be one of the few familiar faces who opened the scoring. Danny Craven, a young Widnesian, who would almost certainly have been squeezed out of the full-back position he filled in the Championship last season had Cameron Phelps received a work visa, spotted a gap behind Wakefield's defensive line, and touched down his own delicate chip while the Trinity full-back Richie Mathers unwisely hoped the ball would dribble dead on the new surface.

That score came completely against the run of play. Wakefield had dominated the opening exchanges with their wing Ben Cockayne denied twice by desperate cover tackles in the first five minutes. They continued to look the classier side, so it was no surprise when Ali Lauitiiti, the skilful Samoan who has joined them from Leeds, surged over in the 21st minute.

But Widnes ended their first half back in the big time on a high, the former Wakefield forward Frank Winterstein releasing the ball in a tackle to allow Willie Isa to send Patrick Ah Van in at the left corner.

Their 10-4 lead lasted less than two minutes of the second half. Andy Raleigh touched down Tim Smith's grubber kick towards the posts and Isaac John kicked a simple equalising conversion, having fluffed his earlier attempt. The scores remained locked for the next 14 minutes – but only because Widnes were denied for the second time by the video referee, who spotted that Ah Van had held back Peter Fox to allow Isa to touch down.

Widnes did go ahead again when Hep Cahill, a New Zealander who played for the Crusaders last season, charged down a Kyle Wood kick and held off the cover on a 60-metre gallop but they lacked the composure to consolidate. Indiscipline gifted Wakefield the position from which Mathers made amends for his earlier error with a cool finish, John converting to put them ahead for the first time.

Within five minutes, as the penalties continued to mount up against Widnes, Tim Smith dummied over to establish some breathing space between the teams for the first time.

Cross, who has been around long enough to know better, paid the penalty for persistent offending, and Fox capitalised gleefully to take Trinity joint top of the opening night Super League table – the champions Leeds matching their winning margin with a 34-16 win against Hull KR at Headingley.

Widnes Vikings Craven; Dean, Marsh, Isa, Ah Van; Clarke (capt), Hanbury; Cross, Moore, Kavanagh, Winterstein, Allen, Cahill. Interchange White, Pickersgill, Haggerty, Mullally.

Wakefield Trinity Mathers; Fox, Collis, Mellars, Cockayne; John, Smith; Amor, Aiton, Southern (capt), Lauitiiti, Kirmond, Washbrook. Interchange Wood, Wilkes, Raleigh, Johnson.

Referee B Thaler (Wakefield). Attendance 8,120.

2/3/2012 4:12:39 PM

Nürnberg 0-2 Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund piled the pressure on their Bundesliga title rivals on Friday with a hard-fought 2-0 win away to Nürnberg to move three points clear before the rest of the weekend's games.

Sebastian Kehl fired the defending champions ahead in the 48th minute after Moritz Leitner split the Nürnberg defence and Lukasz Piszczek pulled the ball back for the Dortmund captain to drive in.

Lucas Barrios sealed the win in the 82nd minute, following up on a rebound to score his first goal of an injury-plagued season as Dortmund stretched their unbeaten run to 14 games.

Bayern Munich can reclaim the lead on goal difference with a win at Hamburg on Saturday, when Schalke can also move level on 43 points at the top with a win at home to Mainz.

2/3/2012 4:03:56 PM

• New signing in line for debut in Alan Pardew's side
• Senegal team-mate Demba Ba returns for Magpies

A key subplot of Newcastle United v Aston Villa on Sunday will involve an attacking beauty contest featuring Papiss Demba Cissé, Demba Ba and Darren Bent.

While Alan Pardew, Newcastle's manager, is looking forward to fielding Cissé, his new £9m signing from Freiburg, alongside Ba he will be wary of the threat posed by Villa's Bent, a player he managed at Charlton Athletic.

"I know Darren very well and he is similar to Cissé. They are two good No9s," said Pardew. "Both play off the shoulder, are good in the air and can finish with the right foot and the left foot. They are very similar. I like Darren. He's a good pro and we have to be careful of him. We have worked out that Villa are one of the Premier League's fastest teams on the break, so we will have to be on our guard. We don't want to expose ourselves in terms of committing too many players forward."

Bent's critics argue that the England forward does not always contribute sufficiently outside the box. Pardew demurred. "You don't carry Darren Bent," he said. "No team carries Darren Bent. His link-up play may not be his number one asset but he can do it. Anyway you want him at the top of the pitch scoring goals, you don't want him linking play. I have no problem with the way he plays."

Newcastle's manager is similarly positive about Cissé. "He will be direct and he is single-minded about goal-scoring," enthused Pardew. "He takes shots early, his hold-up play is good and he is an all-round good player. And with Demba [Ba]also being from Senegal it ticked a lot of boxes for us."

Cissé trained at his new home for the first time on Friday. "The mood on the training ground was one of expectation this morning," said Pardew. "You could see a few of our players having a close look at Papiss. Some of them did a light session but still stuck around for a nosey at him."

The new boy has been handed Newcastle's iconic No9 shirt and Pardew is confident he will fill it with distinction. "There are certain shirts," he said. "No7 at Liverpool, No10 at Manchester United, No10 at Arsenal, No9 here. It is very important that the players wearing those shirts know about the different legends and traditions running through their clubs but I am sure Papiss will do the No9 shirt justice."

Meanwhile Shola Ameobi is understood to be unperturbed by the racist abuse he has received via Facebook which has resulted in a Northumbria police investigation.

"It is one silly person not a cascade of abuse," said Pardew. "It will not affect Shola. It's a two-edged sword. There's one side of that that you don't want to see. But on the other side it highlights the issue, that it needs to be eradicated from our society.

"Shola's far too big and strong to be affected by that. But it's good to have it in the public spotlight and to say it's wrong so young people realise that, when they are going on Facebook or social networking sites, they have a responsibility."

2/3/2012 4:00:02 PM

In my day being stripped naked and covered in boot polish was what a young pro could expect, not Rolexes and gold earrings

Of all the transfer activity in the January window, Ravel Morrison's move from Manchester United to West Ham United is one that caught my eye. West Ham are reputed to have paid an 18-year‑old, with three Carling Cup substitute appearances to his name, Premier League wages, which raises the question: is Morrison that talented or are gifted teenagers simply much harder to find these days?

On the back of the homegrown rule and the introduction of Uefa's financial fair play rules, there certainly seems to be a premium for the very best and the top clubs have no qualms about paying it. Take a look at the £1.5m Chelsea have just handed over to Nottingham Forest for Patrick Bamford, an 18-year‑old striker who has played 12 minutes of first-team football. "We used to be able to hold on to players for a couple of years into the first team," said Frank Clark, Forest's chairman. "But now the real big clubs are paying fortunes for kids of 13, 14, 15, 16."

The race to discover tomorrow's superstars is big business and in order to find a special talent, clubs, aided by the controversial elite player performance plan, are casting their nets further afield than ever before. It also seems the best are only too aware of their worth.

At the risk of sounding like an embittered old pro, it wasn't always like this. When I started playing, the youth-team players routinely fell prey to the senior pros looking to point-score among their peers. Many would call it "character building". Many in the football industry, that is. Anyone else would call it bullying.

Early in my career I witnessed initiation ceremonies in which the subject was stripped naked and doused with expandable foam from a fire extinguisher or covered head to toe in boot polish before having to run around the training pitch. To illustrate how life has changed, if first-team players tried to do the same thing today, the youngster in question would probably have to remove his diamond earrings and Rolex beforehand.

I'm not advocating a return to those antics of the past but, in my opinion, it wouldn't do any harm to bring back a few things. Once upon a time the YTS lads had to clean the first-team players' boots, something almost everybody in the game feels ought to be reintroduced, not because it is demeaning but because, in its own little way, it encourages responsibility, professionalism and respect.

A couple of years ago, Frank Lampard complained: "The lads are forgetting the hard work that needs to be done to earn this sort of lifestyle. Not enough of them have the same dedication and it's something I feel very strongly about. They think they have made it already." Don't get me wrong, cleaning boots is no substitute for talent but it certainly helps to keep you grounded and, arguably, appreciate the trappings that hard work and dedication can bring.

Years ago, kids were caught in the headlights around first-team players. They looked up to them and, by and large, respected what they had achieved to "make it". But today that relationship has changed. There is a degree of arrogance among an increasing number of youngsters, which could be argued is indicative of society in general, although it seems strange in many respects when it comes to football, because the chances of making it have never been slimmer. Research shows that five out of every six scholars will not be playing football by the age of 21. Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the PFA, went so far as to say: "If it was a university of football, with our success rate, we'd have been closed down by now."

Lampard's frustration has a solid foundation, and with his club the track record is particularly poor. So far Chelsea's academy points to John Terry as its only real success story (it is difficult to count Josh McEachran, who is a precocious talent but has started only one Premier League game), which is a poor showing for a club that trawls for youngsters so heavily.

It always amuses me when I hear parents taking such delight that their 10-year-old has been "taken in" by one of the top clubs. Should my son ever express a real desire to play football, God forbid, I would be looking at the number of players that have come through a club's youth system, not the number of trophies in the cabinet. Knocking on the door of a club like Southampton might be an idea. Here, away from the limelight, Saints' academy has produced, in recent years, Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, Leon Best, Andrew Surman, Wayne Bridge, Nathan Dyer, Chris Baird and Alex Oxlade‑Chamberlain to name but a few.

It is modelled on Barcelona's famous La Masía academy and run at a cost of £2.3m a year, and Southampton have now produced players valued at more than £100m. Geography generally plays a big part in where a youngster will initially start out but it certainly isn't just the kids that are "taken in" by the big names of English football. Some parents like the complimentary tickets at Premier League clubs.

This is not to say that the coaching at the top clubs is poor, far from it. Much has been done in recent years to educate players and expose them to what is expected relative to their age. One of the best examples in recent times is the excellent NextGen series, an under‑19s tournament that is essentially a youth-team version of the Champions League. What better way to prepare the next generation of players than by exposing them to their counterparts across Europe at a key stage in their own development?

All of this, of course, is preparation for the real thing and, needless to say, the step up to the first team is a big moment in the career of a young professional, yet it is by no means plain sailing. First‑year professionals, unless they are supremely talented, are shouted at (for miscontrolling the ball or playing a bad pass in training), ordered around (by the management to get teas and food on the bus), kicked (to make the physical players feel good about themselves), and generally made to feel pretty worthless most of the time. That stops, not once they have played a few games and gained some confidence, but when the next kid comes along to take his place.

The bittersweet nature of youth development is that, whether the best way to produce the next generation of players is with a pair of kid gloves or a scrubbing brush and a pair of boots, there will always be somebody in football willing to throw money at it.

Follow the Secret Footballer on Twitter @TSFguardian

2/3/2012 4:00:01 PM

• Martin O'Neill tips James McClean for Ireland's Euro squad
• Stéphane Sessègnon forces manager to revive his French

Nicklas Bendtner has been fitted with a custom-made mask which should permit him to return to playing centre-forward for Sunderland by the middle of February.

The Denmark forward, on loan from Arsenal, had been expected to be sidelined for several weeks with a broken nose and other facial injuries but, thanks to a new face guard, his return has now been accelerated.

"Nicklas is definitely going to get a mask fitted," Martin O'Neill said. "He's seen a specialist down in London and we're hoping to have the go-ahead to start him running next week."

When Bendtner does come back O'Neill must contrive to squeeze the Dane into a forward line currently comprising Stéphane Sessègnon and Fraizer Campbell, who has scored two goals in two games since returning from 18 months out with two cruciate ligament injuries.

The latter pair have benefited from the service of James McClean. Introduced to the first team when O'Neill replaced Steve Bruce as Sunderland's manager, the young left-winger has made a huge impact and his manager suggested Ireland should consider taking him to Euro 2012.

Although McClean is from Derry and represented Northern Ireland at Under-21 level, he has now opted to represent the republic. "I think James is more than capable of going to Euro 2012," said O'Neill.

"He could absolutely go there on merit. I think the Irish coaches have been to watch him. He's making such an impact they couldn't fail to be impressed by him.

"I wasn't aware of James until I watched him in our reserve game against Manchester United when I first took over and since then he's made more of an impact than any of us could have imagined. It's great to see the way he's come on."

O'Neill also had warm words for Sessègnon, a Benin international. "He's been brilliant with great control of the ball," he said. "He has so many different aspects to his game. Sometimes he'll overdo things but he does see the game around him, the bigger picture."

The only problem is communication. A lack of it has necessitated O'Neill trying to remember his schoolboy French. "I've dug my dictionary from my old French O-level and checked a couple of words and written them down and showed it to Stéphane," O'Neill said. "I wrote 'you have not paid your fine' for being late. I had to go to the dictionary to find the word fine. He knew what I was saying, though, even if he hasn't gone to the bank and paid the fine yet."

O'Neill has also taken time to discuss with Ahmed Elmohamady, his Egypt right-winger, Wednesday night's outbreak of football-related violence in his home country.

"I spoke to him last night about it," said Sunderland's manager. "Ahmed's obviously saddened by what's gone on in Egypt. It's probably not the right word but he was astonished. He was pretty appalled by it all."

2/3/2012 3:59:01 PM

School-age athletes being subjected to potentially fatal brain trauma in sports like football, hockey and soccer, experts warn

Experts on repetitive brain trauma suffered by players of sports such as football, ice hockey and soccer have drawn up radical new proposals designed to limit the risk of potentially fatal brain injury in child athletes.

The proposals, presented in a white paper by the Sports Legacy Institute, come in response to growing alarm about the exposure to brain injuries of thousands of American schoolkids. The youngest identified of case of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to blows to the head, was recently discovered in a high-school football player, Nathan Stiles, who collapsed on the field and died aged 17.

The institute calls for a limit to be imposed on the number of hits to the head in school and college sports, with the aim being to reduce by more than a half the risk of developing major brain damage. It launches its white paper just two days before the annual showcase of football at the Super Bowl.

The timing of the announcement was intentional, and designed to highlight a glaring paradox – that the dangers of sports-induced brain damage are now taken far more seriously at a professional adult level in America than they are for children.

The growing body of evidence of a connection between concussions and CTE has convinced the National Football League and the NFL Players Association to reduce the number of full-contact practices in the professional game to 14 each year in an attempt to limit the trauma on players' brains. Yet there are no such restrictions in youth football, and some teams are known to scrimmage four times a week on top of two competitive matches at weekends.

Chris Nowinski, a co-founder of the Sports Legacy Institute, said they had used the Super Bowl to highlight the issue because of the leading role taken by the NFL in discussing reforms. "If the NFL and NFL Players Association are smart enough to do this, why wouldn't we want this for our children?"

Studies cited by the white paper have shown that high school football players can suffer almost 2,500 blows to the head per season, each one exceeding a force of 10g. In ice hockey, the peak figure is almost 800 per season.

Brain scientists working at Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy have built up a brain bank of more than 100 brains of athletes, most of them football players, where CTE has been diagnosed upon autopsy. Every case of CTE that has been identified involved a person with a history of extraordinary, and usually repetitive, brain trauma.

CTE, which used to be known as punch-drunk syndrome in boxers, is now understood to cause memory loss, impaired thinking, loss of sensation, communication difficulties and emotional disorders. It can also cause epilepsy and increase risks of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

There have also been a number of suicides of players later diagnosed with having CTE, such as the legendary Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson.

Under its proposals, the institute wants to reduce the number of hits inflicted on school and college athletes by more than half. In the case of football, that would involve limiting the number of blows to the head to no more than 1,000 per season.

The institute's experts recognise that scientific understanding of CTE is still in its infancy, and that the technology to measure accurately the number and force of blows to the head in football does not yet exist. But it wants to see investment in developing the technology, as well as an immediate injection of new rules that would restrict the most dangerous routines, and limit the number of youth practices where many of the repetitive blows occur.

The white paper points to the example of baseball, where children under 10 already have a "pitch count", where they are limited to a maximum number of pitches they can throw in a day in order to prevent damage to their ulnar collateral ligament. The institute says a new "hit count" should be introduced for football and other sports, to limit the number of head blows in a similar way.

"If we go to such great lengths to protect the elbows of baseball players then heck, don't you think we ought to set limits to the number of times we allow a child to be hit in the head in sports?" said Robert Cantu, clinical professor of neurosurgery at Boston University's medical school.

Statistical information is less readily available for soccer, though experts are convinced that repetitive heading of the ball in practices and matches can cause the same sub-concussions that are believed over the long term to cause CTE. They suggest that restrictions on school-age soccer would also be sensible.

2/3/2012 3:07:00 PM

The country's reaction to the stadium disaster shows that the desire to finish what started a year ago is as strong as ever

One of the many features which made Egypt's deadliest night of football different from similar stadium disasters at Hillsborough or Heysel is the widespread belief that the violence was planned. There is circumstantial evidence for this view: from Port Said stadium itself, where knives and swords were smuggled into the stadium, exit gates were locked, gates on to the pitch mysteriously opened, and riot police remained uncharacteristically static; and from the wider political context, just one week after the military partially lifted the state of emergency.

The deep state has previous form. Anyone who can release convicted criminals to terrify the middle class into rejecting calls for Mubarak's resignation, or who opens fire on Coptic Christians to increase sectarian tensions in the runup to elections, is more than capable of organising a knife fight between rival football fans. Whatever the truth, the tragedy in Port Said stadium has sparked two days of rioting and renewed demands for an immediate transfer of power from military to civilian rule. It feels like groundhog day, as the streets around the interior ministry fill with teargas. The difference this time is that a parliament exists, and this has become its baptism of fire.

The chaos of the first anniversary of the uprising in Egypt has given rise to gleeful attempts to declare its premature demise: the Arab spring is in midwinter; soaring hope has turned sour and disillusion now reigns; the economy of a country where 40% live below the poverty line is on its knees. All partially true. But consider the scale of the change being demanded in the post-Mubarak transition. From a paternalist dictatorship to a society stripped bare, where every social contract has to be renegotiated and there are no rules, let alone a functioning police force and justice system. A huge, and perhaps unbearable, weight of expectation rests on the Muslim Brotherhood, whose Freedom and Justice party controls 46% of the new parliament and is in a position to call the terms on which the military hand over power. Before the deaths in the stadium, the Brotherhood, along with the Salafi Islamists, stuck to the military's preferred date in June. Parliament has debated forming a government of national salvation. If the social chaos in Egypt is being choreographed from a bunker in the bowels of SCAF, the ruling military council, it is having the opposite of its intended political effect. It is speeding, rather than slowing, demands for an immediate transfer of power.

The Arab spring should not be so speedily written off. The reaction to the tragedy in the stadium shows that the desire to finish what started a year ago is as strong as ever.

2/3/2012 3:00:05 PM

The football captaincy is a role less significant than regimental goat. By obsessing over it we keep setting ourselves up for a fall

For possibly only the second time in its history, the England football captaincy has become fleetingly relevant. You'll have guessed the dateline and details of the single other occasion on which it has been worthy of discussion on Moral Maze (Bogotá, 1970, Bobby Moore and the "stolen" bracelet). But back in the present day, John Terry has been stripped of the armband for a second time, with the Football Association board taking the decision to stand him down until his trial on charges of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand is over.

The first thing to say to anyone remotely disquieted by the loss is: don't worry. England will be just as hopelessly flawed without Captain Fantastic.

The second is to acknowledge that the FA board were placed in a position that even competent people would find difficult, so you can only imagine what a brain-melt it must have been for the likes of them. The blazers were required to balance two grave but conflicting moral issues: the presumption of innocence, and the need to treat allegations of racism with the utmost gravity. Alas, the fact that Terry had been stripped of the captaincy once before, over his apparent affair with Wayne Bridge's former girlfriend, muddied the waters in the most unfortunate of ways. The Bridge situation was a pathetic bros-before-hos farce which would have been funny had it not been taken so excruciatingly seriously by much of the media and the powers that be – and for some, this latest sacking will imply an equivalence for a public figure between alleged racism and alleged shagging your mate's ex.

At least on this occasion the FA were right, though mostly for the wrong reasons. John Terry shouldn't be captain because these days he almost always shouldn't assume his place in the starting line-up. His myth-making about being a big-game player is bewilderingly successful, particularly given that he didn't seem to even be in shot for a good 75 minutes of England's last major tournament match, when they lost 4-1 to Germany in Bloemfontein in 2010.

But the most wrong thing about the FA's right decision is the part of their statement that says it all. "This decision has been taken due to the higher profile nature of the England captaincy, on and off the pitch," it runs, "and the additional demands and requirements expected of the captain leading into and during a tournament."

Thus they set themselves up for the next fall, which will be the same as all the other falls.

Forgive the return to a wearingly familiar furrow, but nothing ever changes. The England cricket captaincy is of immense importance, given the operational nature of the role. The England football captaincy is a position marginally less significant than that of regimental goat. Actual responsibilities include wearing a dress harness – the armband – and not making any malodorous deposits while on parade.

Other, more successful, footballing nations realise this. The last time Terry lost the captaincy, there was a Newsnight discussion about it all – obviously – in which the wise former Chelsea player Pat Nevin pointed out that club football is very different from international football, and in the latter there should be plenty of leaders on the field. But, as he lamented: "We've got this extreme thing about the captaincy."

Can't we just give it to the oldest player on the pitch? When Italy won the 1982 World Cup, the captain was the 40-year-old goalkeeper, Dino Zoff. How much invaluable influence Zoff could have had on upfield play is a matter for your own judgment, but somehow the Italians managed to muddle their way through to holding the Jules Rimet trophy aloft for that third time, when England have spent almost half a century failing to come close.

Since 1870, England's ratio of trophies-won to man-hours-expended-on-discussions-about-who-would-technically-be-the-bloke-to-receive-said-trophy is approximately 1:eleventy million. It is sport's most insane displacement activity, and the self-regarding refusal to realise that is one of England's many systemic problems.

Even apparently rational foreign managers, hailing from countries where a fraction of the emphasis is placed on the captaincy, find themselves in thrall to it the minute they cross the Channel. David Beckham's England captaincy is forever being eulogised for his Herculean performance in a World Cup qualifier against Greece in 2001, when the captains of properly successful teams can draw on heroic tales from rather bigger games than that. Similarly, Terry's Spartacus moment was a bottled mutiny against Fabio Capello in South Africa, which he appeared to trail in a press conference. Players echoing "No, I'm Terricus" were conspicuous by their absence, and within a few hours he was issuing a humiliating apology. It was left to France to show England how to do an absurd mutiny – but then, of course, the French know how to revolt.

Back and back it comes to a question of national character, with attitudes to the England captaincy apparently defined by the weirdo idea that the leader should personify the traits which this septic isle would like to project. Terry's bulldog physiognomy was desirable until it looked like people might think we were racists. Presumably now it'll be the turn of Steven "don't worry Dad, I'll bring the harvest in myself" Gerrard – at least until someone declines to play Phil Collins for him. See you back here then.

Twitter: @marina_hyde

2/3/2012 2:45:00 PM

The Guardian runs the rule over players who could potentially succeed John Terry as captain of England

Steven Gerrard

Age 31 Caps 89

The obvious choice in terms of experience. Has captained England before and has been an inspirational leader at Liverpool for years. But at 32, and after a year in which he has been plagued by injuries, his fitness and form would make him a risky choice

Wayne Rooney

Age 26 Caps 73

Has the strength of character required of a captain but his propensity to combust at critical moments makes him a liability. The red card he received against Montenegro, ruling him out of the first two Euro 2012 matches, is an obvious example. A risky choice but at 26 – and as England's most talented player – he could be worth the risk as a long-term choice

Scott Parker

Age 31 Caps 10

A player whose leadership qualities, level-headedness and ability to find the best form of his career at an advanced age make him an outside candidate. He has been outstanding for Tottenham Hotspur and is a player who could do the rarest of things and make England seem almost likable

Joe Hart

Age 24 Caps 16

A goalkeeper in great form who is now a hugely influential figure in the Manchester City squad at only 24. He has made the England No1 jersey his. A cool head on young shoulders, by making him captain now, England could solve the problem for the long term

Gareth Barry

Age 30 Caps 51

Holding players often make good captains. He has become a key player for Manchester City and Fabio Capello will likely trust him as England's midfield anchor at Euro 2012. He has experience of captaining Aston Villa and, turning 31 this month, he is a wise and steady influence

2/3/2012 2:38:09 PM