Robert Lee's inclusion David Platt was not regarded as match-fit may remedy that problem but it is still a
Robert Lee's inclusion (David Platt was not regarded as match-fit) may remedy that problem, but it is still a retrograde approach.The other doubt surrounding Sheringham is his pace: he is simply not quick enough for international football. And while Sheringham may be better in the air, England will be playing without a suitable winger: Steve McManaman is a winger, but he tends to put in hard, low crosses and cut-backs rather than deep, lofted ones.The biggest danger in playing Shearer and Sheringham together is that England will resort to hitting long balls forward too early and fail to support in time. His aerial ability also gives England a greater choice of targets. And he is in form with 12 goals this season.On the other hand, Beardsley has looked as sharp as anyone in training and has much greater cunning when it comes to breaking down defences on the ground. He tends to play further forward than Nick Barmby or Peter Beardsley and is thus more able to support Shearer. Which is how it should be: if Venables gets it wrong he is heavily criticised, so he may as well take risks on his own judgement.There is a case for playing Sheringham.
He and Alan Shearer - who is retained - have started together twice for England: against the United States in September last year Shearer scored twice in a 2-0 win (his last goals for England); against Sweden in June Sheringham scored in a 3-3 draw (his only England goal). In both games they linked as well as any pair have under Venables.Sheringham's partnerships with Jurgen Klinsmann and, increasingly in recent weeks, with Chris Armstrong show that he works well with other centre-forwards. Sheringham was refusing to talk and you can never get through to Wembley. One thing was sure: his inclusion in the team to face Switzerland tonight was unlikely to clog even further Wembley's telephone lines with late requests for tickets.
Sheringham's fan club may be based much closer to Wembley than Les Ferdinand's, but it is considerably smaller.The inclusion of Sheringham underlines that, when it comes to team selection, public and media opinion mean little to Venables. GLENN MOORE Football Correspondent It was hard to tell who was more delighted at Teddy Sheringham's selection for England yesterday: the player himself or Wembley's over-burdened switchboard operators.It was impossible to ask either party. Basketball Peter Scantlebury makes his 100th appearance for England in their European Championship game in Portugal tonight, after a nine-year international career that would have earned twice as many caps had he played for a national team that enjoyed any measure of success, writes Duncan Hooper. Scantlebury, who is 32 next Tuesday, is only the second player to make 100 appearances for England and now has Paul Stimpson's total of 112 in his sights.The 6ft 5in Thames Valley Tigers' forward could easily have doubled his total had England regularly reached the final stages of the five European Championships, which have been staged since he made his debut against Turkey in December 1986.. Much, however, will depend on whether the coach, Sue Slocombe, has been able to knit together a squad from the national teams of England and Scotland.Britain open their programme tomorrow against Canada, always a difficult side to beat, and they need to win this opening game otherwise the path to qualification will be extremely difficult.GREAT BRITAIN SQUAD: J Atkins (Bradford Swithenbank, capt), J Thompson (Ipswich), H Rose, J Sixsmith, M Davies (Sutton Canada Life), A Bennett, K Brown, M Nicholls (Slough), L Cope (Balsam Leicester), T Miller (Clifton), C Cook (Hightown), D Renilson, R Simpson (Edinburgh Ladies), S MacDonald (Glasgow Western), P Robertson, S Fraser (Grove).. If this matter is referred to us, then it will be looked at."Privately, the League expressed doubt that they would have any powers to act and would simply end up referring the matter back across the corridor at Lancaster Gate.. Hockey The toughest women's tournament in the history of the sport begins here today, writes Bill Colwill from Cape Town.
At stake are five of the eight places at next summer's Olympic Games in Atlanta. Britain's prospects in the round-robin event involving seven games in 13 days spring from a blend of experience and youth. The spirit of the Charter is to ensure that chairmen deal with each other in a proper manner."However, we do believe that all those in representative positions should act in a dignified and appropriate manner. However, that is designed only to deal with inter-club disputes, and the Premier League are unlikely to take any action. That will put the ball firmly back into the FA's court, and they must then decide whether to charge Bates with bringing the game into disrepute.The Chairman's Charter and the code of conduct for players and managers, which were both introduced at the start of the season, have yet to be tested, but a spokesman for the Premier League said: "The Chairman's Charter is designed to deal with relationships between clubs. Graham Kelly, chief executive of the Football Association, is said to be so concerned by the pair's exchanges that he may report Bates under the terms of the new Chairman's Charter. Ken Bates, the Chelsea chairman, could escape censure for his public row with his director Matthew Harding by slipping through a loophole in the new Premier League rules. In Group Two Turkey are set to qualify for their first major tournament since 1954, even if they are beaten for the first time in 15 matches in Sweden.