The middle of the line

I didn’t even get to listen to the game, as I had to work late and it wasn’t on any radio stations I could get in the Midlands.

I did get the updates from TalkSport as they gave them, and was relieved to hear that the end result was a convincing win for the Whites. Zamora opened the scoring before half-time. Danny Murphy converted a penalty and Seol Kyi-Heong scored the last shortly after coming on as a substitute.

The game at the Cottage next week will probably be fairly lucklustre – as long as the defence don’t mess up, they should be able to hold Vectra, and there’s no point pushing players too hard just before the season starts.

Turns out that when I wondered why Zamora was still starting games, I’d missed that while Hull’s offer of £5M has been accepted, the player has not agreed terms, and may well want to stay. Roy Hodgson does want to keep Zamora, even though he only scored two league goals last season.

Also today, the England Under-19 team got to the final of the European Championships after beating France 3-1 after extra time. Defender  Matthew Briggs of Fulham has started every game and scored in the 7-1 demolition of Slovenia on Monday. He did come on as a sub for Fulham in a game against Middlesborough in 2007, and set a record as the youngest Premiership player. He’s still got another year in which to play for the U19s, and hopefully we have a real talent on our hands for the future.