UFO Info Week-End

Jones took time to hail Denis Irwin who received a standing ovation when

Jones took time to hail Denis Irwin, who received a standing ovation when he officially retired with 89 minutes on the clock, some 700 League appearances after first turning out for Leeds 22 years ago.”He’s been a fantastic professional at this football club,” said Jones. His celebrations were quiet, cheered more by Wolves fans in awe of the talented forward who joined them as a 16-year-old.”Fame, glory, or whatever, it is has not phased Robbie,” said David Pleat, Spurs’ departing caretaker manager. “He’s a very straightforward, simple lad who is in early in the morning, he trains and wants to stay out. Senegal international Camara was involved in most attacks and, after a pre-match “Keep Camara” campaign, his post-match Player Of The Season award came coupled with a harsh “hands off” warning from his manager, Dave Jones.Tottenham goalkeeper, Kasey Keller, did well to keep out first-half shots from Ince, Camara and Cort, and Spurs regrouped to shock their hosts by taking the lead through former Wolves hero, Keane, when the Irishman had enough space in the box to bundle the ball past Paul Jones and in off the far post. Goals from Jermain Defoe and Robbie Keane saw Tottenham end their most disappointing season in the Premiership on a more positive note while their already relegated hosts’ brief Premiership spell concluded with their captain Paul Ince sent off after a cynical foul on Jamie Redknapp. Having been denied seconds earlier, he made amends with a fine low shot.

He finished the season on 19 goals, and one more would have earned him a £20,000 pay-out from Redknapp himself.Meanwhile, Teddy Sheringham marked his last appearance for Pompey with possibly the easiest goal of his long and illustrious career as he tapped the ball in from all of a foot.Portsmouth 5 Yakubu 4, pen 14, 31, 83, Sheringham 80Middlesbrough 1 Zenden 27Half-time: 3-1 Attendance: 20,134. His third, after 31 minutes, arrived when he pounced on Ugo Ehiogu’s failed clearance.Four minutes earlier, Boro’s Dutchman, Bolo Zenden, had reduced the arrears when his low left-foot shot beat Shaka Hislop. They have not been bad in the League since then, but this result showed that their minds were definitely on their summer holidays.Yakubu had threatened in the first half to score his fourth goal of a match he will long remember, but instead he had to wait until seven minutes from the end to reach that particular landmark. But for the most part, Middlesbrough failed to show the sparkling football they have produced this season, which peaked at the end of February, when they won the Carling Cup and qualified for the Uefa Cup in the process. Mandaric would like to see a greater emphasis on youth-team development to keep down player costs.Yakubu cost £1.8m but showed his worth with a hat-trick in 27 minutes.

His first came after Eyal Berkovic’s defence-splitting pass and his second from the penalty spot after he had been fouled. Yet cries of “There’s only one Milan” from the faithful summed up how much in debt the locals are to their Serb-born chairman: roughly £25m, in fact.Mandaric’s main gripe has been about the vast wage bill Redknapp has built up in ensuring he had the players to keep Pompey up. I enjoy being here.”A bout of insults reached an uneasy truce on Friday night when all those concerned agreed in private talks that they should put on a united front for the last game of the season.Redknapp managed never-theless to inspire his side, as they dominated this game thanks to four goals from Yakubu Ayegbeni. Certain people thought I wouldn’t, but let’s be honest, I wouldn’t be out of work long if I wanted a job, would I? I don’t want another job, but if I did I know it wouldn’t take long. With Redknapp threatening to leave, things grew nastier as Mandaric claimed Redknapp had criticised Smith’s contribution, something which the manager naturally denied.But Redknapp said last night he was sure that he, and Smith, would still be at the club in August He said: “I do think I’ll be here in August, for sure. Given that Liverpool had produced their best performance of the season against Birmingham with that line-up it was more a case of buy, buy from the manager rather than bye-bye.Newcastle, by comparison, limped into Anfield deprived of many of their better players and with Craig Bellamy nursing a tender hamstring on the bench.