Don't believe a word

As a Saints fan, Pompey sacking their manager should be a good thing and indeed on many levels it is!

But Paul Hartt being relieved off his duties yesterday was something that saddened me as well. Hart was appointed initially as caretaker manager following Tony Adams departure having previously been the Youth team coach. He had previously managed Nottingham Forest and that hadn't ended well. Despite that he did ok and eventually the caretaker part of the title was removed. Eventually he kept Pompey in the Premier league.

During the last five months Pompey have become a laughing stock amoung the media as the ownership has changed three times and in order to avoid administration virtually every decent player on their books has been sold. (Last weekend Spurs beat Wigan 9-1 and seven of the goals were scored by three of those players). During all that time Hart must have wondered what on earth was going on and been tempted many times to let them get on with it. He didn't, however, he carried on with quiet dignity, facing the media and giving the impression that he was "as one" with the management, what ever the reality.

Yesterday he turned up, trained the first team squad in the morning, met the media to discuss the weekends pending game against Man Utd and. after all that. was then called into to see the Chief executive and "let go". Why on earth they couldn't do it either when he first arrived (or the night before?) only they know, but it was a shabby thing to do to someone who had represented them in a way they had no right to expect.

While he may not be the best manager in the world, he seems a decent man and I hope that he finds another job soon.

Editions of you

I went to see Roxy Music play live in 1979 at the Gaumont in Southampton and have been a fan ever since. It was a concert I mainly went to because my friend Nigel had a spare ticket, but they were brilliant that night.

I have all the albums and all of Bryan Ferrys solo stuff as well. Earlier this week I stumbled upon three remix EP's on the Amazon MP3 store (they're also on iTunes). Each EP takes classic Roxy songs and as is the way with a re-mix album, presents them for a new audience. "Virginia Plain" and "Same Old Scene" are the best, sounding like they might have had they been written and recorded today on modern equipment. "Editions of you" rocks but is more of a re-mix. "Angel Eyes" (which gets two different remixes) and "The Main Thing" have been remixed before when 12" remixes were released at the time of the original albums. The new remixes do add to those but don't sound that different. "Finally "the Thrill of it all" is a complete re-working of the original.

Some Roxy fans will hate them as they do mess with classic songs, but to me it is good to hear a re-take on these tracks. After all there is meant to be new Roxy album somewhere in the future.

Another record

Yesterday one of my favourite bands "Transatlantic" (yes, I know "who"?) released their latest album.

Tonight I diverted my journey home via Southampton to buy a copy. The only option was HMV, who didn't have it. Now some of you may say " that was lucky you were saved from having to listen to it" but that would be cruel and unnecessary.

What struck me, however, was a city the size of Southampton has only one music store where you can buy anything that isn't chart music (and even then it's only Smith's and ASDA!)

Time was there was Virgin, Our Price, Smith's, Fopp, Debenhams and various smaller independant shops. Now just HMV. No wonder iTunes etc do so well!!!

Down in the park

I grew up in Shirley in Southampton and a large part of my life between 8 and 15/16 was based around Shirley Recreation Ground (Shirley Rec). It was here I played football during the winter, cricket in the summer (although the football usage during the Winter didn't make for straight uneven bounce!). In the summer, as well, we regularly used the 4 tennis courts (except during Wimbledon when you couldn't get near them). I climbed my first tree there, rode my bike there and hurtled down the sloping paths on home built go carts.

Over the years it has declined as generations of local children increasingly abused it, with vandalism and graffiti and it has a tired look.

We've still visited it, to use the play park when the boys were younger and to play sport as they've got older.

More recently it has started to show signs of new life, with a cafe opening and a friends of Shirley Park (as it now known) group forming to keep in a tidier way.

Well today they've hit the jackpot with the Lottery announcing that a £1.5m grant has been given to them and all sorts of things will now be carried out to "the Rec" so that further generations will be able look back and smile when they think of it.

Everybody wants to rule the world

World cup qualification for next years tournament in South Africa ended tonight. For England that meant the unusual feature of England playing a largely meaningless final tie against Belarus at Wembley, having already qualified last month against Croatia.

Having lost in Ukraine last week-end there was some added pressure for some players (Rio Ferdinand?) as to lose two games on the trot would make Capello a very unhappy man and that is not something that I would wish to experience.

It also meant that some of the "fringe" players could play, a fact helped by injuries to Gerrard and Rooney. So Crouch, Agbonlahor, Lennon & Bridge all got a game and with 35 minutes left Beckham came on. At that stage we were 1-0 up from a very early Crouch goal. It finished 3-0 and Beckham made us look a much better team, having a hand in both goals and hitting the post with a shot.

What did we learn tonight...not a lot. Will we win the World Cup..... maybe? Next year? Who knows, it'll be winter in South Africa next June/July, so maybe the weather will help us. We can but hope.

Loser in the end

Expenses are something that I have claimed for most of my working life. I have always erred on the side of caution as, to be honest, I was always certain that some kind of banking "big brother" was going to measure how far Wimborne was from Bournemouth and reduce my mileage claim accordingly (or worse....)!!!

I know that some colleagues claim for absolutely everything ( as I'm sure happens in most businesses), BUT the yard-stick for me has been what is reasonable, not what is possible. Sorry but that's just how I am.

Our British Members of Parliament have, however, made claiming expenses an art form whereby our Prime Minister has overclaimed by £12k and thinks that paying it back makes it all ok. The fact that he claimed all that extra money for cleaning and gardening seems to only make it worse. I know that he's far from the only one but he's the PM and if he is not above reproach then hell and handcarts come to mind.

"Sighs deeply"

We will rock you

Last night I made my second appearance as a singer in a choir (not counting school boy times).

It occurred during the Roger Jones musical "Rock" which is touring the South west. This is a semi-professional set up who augment each performance with a local choir.

This means that for the last 3 months we've been practicing singing the 16 songs so that come last night we look like we've been part of the show all the time! Except that of course everyone in the audience knew that we were only performing that evening.

The musical is based on the story of Simon Peter (the one in the New Testament) and the show was excellent, with good acting, singing and music. The music was a professionally produced backing track, with some live instruments and the staging, sound and lighting were all again of a semi-professional standing.

It was a pleasure to be a small part in such a great production.