Two weeks ago we ran out of money but something was sorted out to pay the wages
"Two weeks ago we ran out of money, but something was sorted out to pay the wages.. We are penniless but it's not all doom and gloom We have some players, we have a pitch to play on. We just don't have any money."That never-ending problem forces Rochdale to travel to Torquay and back in a day. "What a complete and utter waste of time that was," Kilpatrick declares after arriving back at Spotland at 3.40am. "Stuck in traffic, didn't do anything properly, the game was crap, we lost and came back home."There are some more light-hearted episodes. Paul Adams, a YTS player, is accused by the senior players of not trying in training, and is made to lap the pitch, naked except for a coating of boot polish, pursued by two team-mates wielding belts. "It was snowing when they made me run round the pitch with nothing on," Adams recalls.
"I put my Santa hat on and just got on with it."The central character, though, is the manager: Mick (son of Tommy) Docherty. For most of the campaign, it seems he is held in high regard by almost everyone. He is allowing the fans to dream of promotion, and is popular with his players for treating them like adults. Yet he is sacked at the end of the season, and not just because of results. As Allsop explains: "His friendship with Joyce Pickles, who supplies the club kit, ended abruptly and bitterly when she discovered his affections had been diverted towards her 21-year-old daughter, Alison." It's a funny old game.Rupert Metcalf. Although Danny Wilson and Howard Kendall both cautioned against reading too much into one skirmish in an extended campaign, Barnsley's late winner at Bramall Lane has significantly changed the balance of power in the First Division.
Wilson's already confident side will find their faith in their own abilities strengthened by the enterprising way they took on their big city neighbours. As he said, offered a 0-0 draw 10 minutes from time he would have politely declined. To some extent, United were there for the taking. Kendall refused to use the absence of eight first-team regulars as an excuse - a similar line-up won at fellow promotion candidates Crystal Palace in midweek - but the timing of those absences was unfortunate. If United deserved something for their diligence, then Barnsley still merited a little more.It was John Hendrie's take, turn and tuck past Alan Kelly that secured the points - "he stuck his big, fat arse into them," was Wilson's highly technical description of the manoeuvre - and his combination with his old Middlesbrough hunting partner, Paul Wilkinson, always carried more threat than Sheffield's equivalent.Other key contributors were David Watson, who made three outstanding saves, and the imports recruited from Portugal earlier this season - the Trinidadian, Clinton Marcelle, and the Yugoslav, Jovo Bosancic.United's own exotic signing, the Belorussian, Petr Kachuro, had two good chances to score but was twice denied by Watson That effectively cost Sheffield a place or two. But there is a long way to go and, as Kachuro said: "In Minsk, we celebrate the new year much more."Goal: Hendrie (85) 0-1.Sheffield United (3-5-2): Kelly; Hodgson, Holdsworth, Parker; Beard, Patterson, Spackman, Hutchison, Scott (Simpson, 59); Walker, Kachuro. Substitutes not used: Hartfield, Tracey (gk).Barnsley (3-4-1-2): Watson; Davis, Shirtliffe, De Zeeuw; Eaden, Bosancic, Redfearn (Jones, 19), Sheridan; Marcelle; Hendrie, Wilkinson.
Substitutes not used: Liddell, Bullock.Referee: E Lomas (Manchester).Man of the match: Bosancic Attendance: 24,384.. Kevin Keegan, the Newcastle United manger, yesterday discounted the chances of his old rivals, Manchester United, as he prepared his team to face the title favourites Liverpool in tonight's crucial match at St James' Park. Keegan warned his fifth-place side had to improve "otherwise, in a month's time, we'll be saying at least we've still got Europe." He added: "If I had to knock us out of it I would say that the championship will come from Liverpool, Arsenal or Aston Villa." Newcastle are without David Batty, who completes a three-match ban, and injured trio John Beresford, Faustino Asprilla and Steve Howey. Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson said that he was prepared go before an inquiry to defend his club's decision to request a postponement of Saturday's Premiership match at Blackburn "We will tell the truth," he said. "We will tell the League of our problems."The match was postponed on Friday when Middlesbrough claimed they could not field a team that would do justice to the club and paying public, claiming they had 23 players injured or ill.
Gibson said: "If we had played an under-strength side in the Coca-Cola Cup we could have left ourselves open to a fine, so we are hoping the authorities will read the situation the same way."A disciplinary hearing will be set up in the new year to look into the reasons behind Boro's action. The Blackburn Rovers caretaker manager, Tony Parkes, believes that his side should be awarded the three points.Jurgen Klinsmann has been told by Lothar Matthaus, the Bayern Munich captain, it is time to make up his mind about whether he intends to stay with the German club or leave it, because the uncertainty was hurting the team. The club president, Franz Beckerbauer, said on Saturday he expected the player to stay for the rest of the season and beyond.. John McGinlay scored his 18th goal of the season to earn Bolton a point but the visitors missed the chance to go back to the top of the First Division table at the County Ground yesterday.