New Statesman Scotland
Desperate straits call for desperate measures. So, when your team is bottom of the league, you have to move heaven and earth to get them up the table.
Even cheat? Well, Enrique Martin, coach of Leganes FC, currently propping up the Spanish second division, thought he had no alternative. Staring yet another defeat in the face in a recent game against Badajoz and becoming increasingly distraught at his team's inept performance, he struck on an innovative tactic to avoid the loss of another goal. As the opposition striker began to home in unopposed on goal, Senor Martin left his touchline patrol, sprinted furiously on to the pitch and adriotly dispossessed the Badajoz No 7 on the edge of the penalty box.
Not surprisingly, the Spanish FA is taking a close interest in this development.
Back home, if Aberdeen's current form continues much longer, their manager, Ebbe Skovdahl, may have to introduce something similar.
However, if the Dons' fans think they are having a rough time, spare a thought for Wigtownshire rugby club. Last week they won their first match in three years. Crisis at Aberdeen? What crisis?
"You cannot be serious! You are the pits!" Examples of the trademark cris de coeur of the youthful John McEnroe. Such were his profanities at Wimbledon that the cream on the strawberries curdled. All very different now. McEnroe is well into his forties, settled down and a father of a young child, almost an elder statesman. Until last week, when the honeydew air of Hong Kong was rent asunder by the war cries of the McEnroe of old. Mellowing with age is clearly a relative process. During his third-round match with Henri Leconte, they had a spectacular fallout over a line call. The power of reason waned in nanoseconds as McEnroe demonstrated that the years had not withered his command of Anglo-Saxon. He then jumped the net to put his points more forcibly to Leconte and a furious confrontation ensued between the two. But for the timely intervention of the officials, it seemed that blood would have been spilled. Among the crowd, the nostalgia was palpable.
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