Pete Barrow: Thanks, but no thanks

Sep 25 2009 by Peter Barrow, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

I DON’T know if too many of you have taken the trek to Morecambe’s Christie Park, but I always thought it was quite a homely little ground.

So it may only hold 6,400 when full, but with three covered sides and nicely compact, it has always struck me as a ground that has a good atmosphere.

The fans of the Shrimps understandably are proud of their home, and when you go to a game there you can always take time out before the match to have a wander down to the seafront and have your picture taken with the statue of comedy legend Eric Morecambe.

So why has Sol Campbell taken against the place with such a passion?

Campbell’s future as a Notts County player is over after only one game.

The 34-year-old agreed a five-year deal at Meadow Lane at the start of this month for a reported £40,000 a week after leaving Portsmouth at the end of last season, with the former England defender being the most high-profile recruit to the Magpies playing staff following County’s takeover by Munto Finance and Sven-Goran Eriksson’s arrival as director of football.

But after just one outing at League II level the former Arsenal and Tottenham defender was saying his goodbyes to teammates after asking to leave the club.

Suggestions are that Campbell had a change of heart as the Football League moved in to investigate the takeover of the club.

But maybe his debut in last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Morecambe might just have proved as big a shock to Campbell as the result probably was to the Christie Park faithful.

Chances are he was not overly impressed by the pie and Bovril provided at half-time!

THE passion of the Welsh for rugby is totally understandable.

The fact that a nation so small has ruled the world in the 15-a-side code more than once is amazing – but why is there so much angst over the possible retirement of Gavin Henson?

Henson may be a bit of an icon, but to me he comes into the category marked ‘enigma’.

That is an enigma in the manner in the way that former Celtic star Paul McStay gained the same tag North of the border with the definition being ‘Paul McStay is an enigma ... he has played one good game for Scotland and we have waited ages for another one’.

Possibly that is a little bit hard on Henson, as he has had more than a couple of good games for the red-shirted ones, but all the same, he is hardly of the same calibre as JPR Williams, Phil Bennett, Gareth Edwards – and probably most apposite – Barry John.