And relax. So England won quite comfortably in Adelaide in the end and perfectly timed before the rain came down. From a selfish point of view I would have liked it to have lasted a few more hours just so that I could hear the winning moment on the journey to work in my car instead of going to bed before any play started full of nervous excitement and running downstairs to put the radio on whilst I had my breakfast at about 4:45am. Seeing the score displayed as I listened on freeview TV I gave a little punch of delight followed by a slightly hollow, anticlimactic feeling that I had missed all the action.
   Typically after an earlier post where I stated how our bowling attack looked stronger than the batting line up which lacks strength in depth and individuals took it turns to get a big score... well lets just say I hope we haven't used our quota up for the next year. The natural pessimist in me now looks at the bowling attack with some trepidation with Stuart Broad now ruled out for the rest of the tour. We may have plenty of bowlers with some experience but they are all injured and the next test will see Anderson being supported by two rookies in Finn and whoever. For all Anderson's recent form the doubt still persists that if the ball is not swinging then he can be ineffective making us over reliant on Swann. This is hard earned pessimism from watching England for the past 25 years but is softened by the performances in the last test and a half where we look more focused and professional than I have seen before. The confidence gained from this win is a good time to introduce a new player as opposed to Australia making changes based on form and introducing new players to a losing team. This lack of consistency can only dent their confidence further but the other lesson I've learned is to never underestimate Australia and to be wary of them when they look down.

   Why is everybody so surprised by the treatment meted out to football managers / coaches following the uproar when Ray Wilkins was sacked by Chelsea we now have general condemnation for Mike Ashley's sacking of Chris Hughton at Newcastle United. Yes the way they were treated was poor and disrespectful but these are businessmen making the decisions and they are only concerned with making money, not about "doing the right thing". It would be nice if my bosses turned round and thanked all the workers for the effort they put in to ensure we got a certain contract rather than lay some people off and threaten that if we did not step it further the whole place would be shut down and we would be all out of a job. Or each Christmas claim that the company had not made any profits in the currrent environment so there was no bonus but turn up in the New Year in their brand new Aston Martins and Mercs. Some chairmen or owners may put on a friendly face but that is only a tactic to earn more money by pretending to be one of the fans as Ashley tried but does not fool the supporters.
   Incidentally, Newcastle supporters at work just gave the usual sang froid shrug that the wouldn't expect any less from their club: to do something stupid when things are going relatively well is becoming an unfortunate habit.