As mentioned elsewhere, I visited the training ground today. Cloudy, but not anywhere near as cold as weather reports would have you believe. First time I can remember lasting an entire session without being wrapped up like Nanook of the North by the end of it. I actually still had feeling in my fingers and toes. Only Cordone continued to sport his fleecy headgear and gloves. Most of the rest were in shorts after warming up.

Well you all already saw the big news, which is Cort is due to be out another month. Indeed Nobby was also in treatment most of the session, though Derek Wright did bring him out for a walkabout and light jogging towards the end. Griffin is suffering the same virus Speed had last week so could be doubtful for tomorrow. He took full part in training but wasn't as lively as usual. He also took time to pet someone's dog that was tied up right at the gate the players ran through after their warm-up session. The stewards weren't overly concerned...just wondering aloud if the dog would attack any of the players as they ran past. Despite gentle urgings from some segments of the onlookers, the dog just sat wagging it's tail happily.

2 new faces. One is yet another triallist. This one from Austria, tall lad, trained in left midfield. Didn't look too bad. The other new face was, of course, Wayne Quinn who definitely looks more than useful! Some of the training ground staff were absolutely raving about how he's done since he came in. Someone mentioned that he was here for a month to prove his fitness. Another guy quickly put the kibbosh on that and said for NUFC to sign him, he's got to prove he's injured! How true!

The players were told to go off in groupings of 3 and practice kicking and receiving on the run. Shola seemed to have problems understanding the running part and was admonished by Bobby several times to quit standing still. Dyer was showing off his silky skills and speed during this exercise, but then disappeared when it was time for the practice game. I wonder if he's carrying any kind of niggle too?

Next was a practice game which seemed to spend long periods of time in Given's goal. Probably because the likely starting team for tomorrow was attacking that direction. The other team featured the return of Jamie McClen(yells alot but doesn't do much else of note), the triallist, and another reserve player. Intersting to note, Gallacher was training with the reserves today. I think I heard someone mention that he had played in yesterday's friendly. It would make sense then that he seemed to spend more time jabbering with Tommy Craig than anything else.

Steve Harper was training like a man possessed! He must realize he's got his best ever chance of finally securing the #1 shirt. During the periods when the ball was down the other end, he worked with Simon Smith on catching and kicking. Amazing how fast he'd then turn around and be right back in the game when the action came towards him, full concentration, shouting instructions, etc. Eventually as Gallacher made his way back he was hijacked into goal while Harper practiced penalty kicks! He literally did not stop the entire session and was the last one off the pitch at the end.

Or perhaps Harps is trying out for one of the empty striker postions? After the practice game, the players were split into 2 groups. The larger group and keepers were sent to one end of the pitch for shooting practice. John Carver worked with them from different angles and different forms of interference. At one point they were to shoot from a tight angle at the far left of the pitch. This was more about getting it into the box than into the goal itself. Harper placed himself just in front of goal(Shay was in goal) and got about half the shots into the net or on target. Amusing(or perhaps a bit scary) to note that he got far more shots on target than LuaLua who joined him but had a habit of shooting over or wide....from point blank range.

At the other end of the pitch was a smaller group including Ameobi, Quinn, Speed, Acuna, and Barton. This became the crossing clinic run by Mick Wadsworth, with Simon Smith in goal. 80-90% of the balls put in by Quinn were beautifully on the head or foot of the attacking player(Speed, Ameobi, Acuna). Speed was scoring for fun, including one lovely floating chip that had him running around, arms raised, cheering. Not much to say about Barton's crossing, except it was even more pathetic next to Quinn.

That was basically it today. As mentioned before, Harper was the last one off the pitch and seemed like he still didn't really want to go in. LuaLua and the triallist also stayed behind for a bit of ball work, but nothing too exciting.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2001

Answers

Forgot to mention the ghost.......Olivier Bernard was sighted floating in and out of one of the trailers. Nobody knew what he was doing or had any news on him...but it does prove he still exists. ;-)

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2001

Was the 'preferred team' in the practice game playing in a 4-4-2 or 3-5-2, formation, ciara?

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2001

Excellent report Ciara and good to see that we can still pick up some news from these reports that the hacks have missed i.e. Austrian Trialist.

By the sounds of it Quinn has a knack ofdelivering the ball into the middle in the same way that Solano does from the right, which has to be good news for when we eventually get Shearer and Cort fit. Hopefully in the meantime Ameobi can start running and get on the end of a couple.

Speed sounds as if he has recovered from the virus, although the news about Griffin is a shame. One suggested team line up on a web site this morning had Barton at right back and Quinn at left back, which now seems more likely if Griffin is out.

If Nobby doesn't make it then hopefully Glass will play left winger and we can bamboozle them down the left with him linking up with Quinn. Down the left, something we haven't seen for a while and that must confuse Coventry. Did you see Glass playing much of a role in training today?

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2001

Hard to tell about the formation as Barton was playing the entire right side at times. ;-) I think it was supposed to be 4-4-2

Glass and Quinn seemed to play well off each other in training. Very good at overlapping runs and good communication. One small problem is the rest of the team seem so used to playing everything down the right, they often seemed to forget we had real left sided players! I hope Bobby goes with the 2 of them tomorrow. Not only confuse coventry, but probably the rest of us too! What? Players wearing black and white and playing on the left-hand side? Is this a radical new concept?? ;-)

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2001

Without Dyer and Solano for the next few games we had to have some creativity in there somewhere and I am more confident about taking on Villa than I was!

Masterstroke from Robson getting Quinn, I only hope he doesn't get............what we don't want him to get, if you know what I mean.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2001

Great report Ciara - hope you remembered to invite them along for birthday drinks tonight! ;-)

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2001

What was Hughes doing, Allison? Just wondering, like.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2001

Quinn won't be eligible for the Villa match I don't think - you have to be signed in time for the first game to play in the replay - not sure we did that.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2001

Oi Dubah or whativver ye caal yersel , I want , nah demand that ye use aal yor influhence and poor like and as suun as ye tek ower thon White Hoose , forst thing te de is strike a madal for Wor Sea -Air -Ah for sorvices rendad to the Geordie Nashin , ask Jimmy Carter aboot us!

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2001

Thanks very much for the report Ciara. Very interesting.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2001

Thanks for the report Ciara. Great work. It comes to something when we're depending on someone flying in from Maryland to give us the local news! It occurs to me that you've been with us quite a while this time, almost long enough to have qualified for that malt I should have thought ...

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2001

Thirsty, Jonno? Well I do have my season ticket and mobile phone....now if I could just manage that danged work permit..... ;-)

Dougal, not much to report on Hughes. Just getting down to business as he's so good at doing. Probably why I tend to forget about him most games. Plus for some reason I keep confusing him with Speed. Why, I don't know. They aren't that similar looking other than being white and having dark hair.

Buff...fraid someone's gonna have to give ole Duh-bya a massive geography lesson. Not sure he realizes anything exists outside Texas and Wash, DC...and even that he probably thinks is just another part of Texas. ;-)

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2001