It is easy for players to think if this club goes down I can always

It is easy for players to think if this club goes down I can always find another one. It worked once but the Dutchman’s spectacular 63rd-minute strike was ruled out Not that their approach deserved anything. It looks money better spent.Southampton, who played with greater enterprise, passion and composure throughout, had gone ahead through Jim Magilton’s 35-yard shot after seven minutes. At pounds 500,000 he was bought at a tenth of the cost of Pierre van Hooijdonk. His goals fully justified Graeme Souness’s unpopular decision to bring him on for Le Tissier. Outstanding managers, and/or excellent youth systems, have led to brief periods of ascendancy for Burnley, Ipswich, Forest and Derby but, until the well-financed rise of Blackburn, no provincial side had finished in the first two since Southampton 13 years ago.The big city clubs generate more money through higher gates and commercial spin-offs than provincial clubs Those clubs thus find it harder to hold on to their players.

The side was impressive, featuring Peter Shilton, John Robertson, Tony Woodcock, Martin O’Neill, Garry Birtles and Archie Gemmill.It would be a stretching a point to say that Southampton were also a power in the land but they had international players such as Steve Williams, Alan Ball, Mick Channon and Chris Nicholl. In the aftermath of Nottingham Forest’s 3-1 home defeat to Southampton on Saturday Dave Bassett, Forest’s general manager, was standing in a corridor talking of character and relegation battles, and of how you cannot survive one without the other. Substitutes not used: Willems, Carbon, Solis, Hoult (gk).Bookings: United: Giggs; Derby: D Powell.Referee: D Elleray (Harrow).Man of the match: Trollope.Attendance: 55,243.Championship run-inManchester United: 12 April v Blackburn (a); 19 v Liverpool (a); 3 May v Leicester (a); 7 v Middlesbrough (h); 11 v West Ham (h); tba v Newcastle (h).Arsenal: 12 April v Leicester (h); 19 v Blackburn Rovers (h); 21 v Coventry (a); 3 May v Newcastle (h); 11 v Derby (a).Liverpool: 13 April v Sunderland (a); 16 v Everton (a); 19 v Manchester United (h); 3 May v Tottenham (h); 6 v Wimbledon (a); 11 v Sheffield Wednesday (a).. Gaining possession 10 yards inside his own half he cut inside Phil Neville and Pallister before side-footing past Schmeichel with the entire United back four surrounding him.Cantona’s glorious control and strike immediately after half-time and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s uninhibited 76th-minute volley would have got the champions off the hook but that hope was dashed with a goal of staggering ineptitude. Ryan Giggs and David Beckham underperformed, Andy Cole was anonymous and even Roy Keane was sloppy.

Arsenal, by contrast were vibrant and aggressive, none more so than Patrick Vieira and the improving Stephen Hughes, who took a grip on midfield.Once again Arsene Wenger’s side have responded spiritedly to a home defeat – they boast the best away record in the division – though the Frenchman, speaking before the shock results that befell Manchester United and Liverpool, insisted they were no longer realistic championship contenders. Arsenal’s second, eight minutes after the break, fashioned by Bergkamp and Wright, and finished by Platt, killed the game.”11.15? I like to get up at 11.15,” Dennis Wise wrote of the kick-off time in the programme. “I think everyone in this stadium was astonished by this performance.”Gullit added, with the nearest the dreadlocked Dutchman can get to a hint of menace: “I’ve seen what I wanted to see.” This has already been taken to point to the imminent departure of Gianluca Vialli, whose cause Gullit had championed 24 hours earlier, but who was clearly in the manager’s mind when he spoke of the experienced players not showing the requisite leadership.Gianfranco Zola, whose excuse of international duty Gullit refused to countenance – “I know, I’ve been there” – was another.Welcome though Gullit’s candour was, it seemed a mite unfair on the bald- headed one, whose display lacked aptitude rather than attitude, suggesting more than anything that an Italian birth certificate was no insurance against the ageing process. Gullit exempted only Jody Morris and Dan Petrescu from a withering critique of Chelsea’s passionless display, and refused to make allowances either for the absence of a handful of regulars or the presence of an FA Cup semi-final next weekend.”I told the players beforehand, ‘Don’t give them the chance to say we missed six players today’,” he said. Is it really expecting too much that the Toon Army should be welcome too?Goals: Gray (31) 0-1; Shearer (77) 1-1.Newcastle United (4-4-2): Hislop; Barton, Peacock, Watson, Elliott; Gillespie, Batty, Lee (Clark, 29), Ginola; Shearer, Ferdinand (Asprilla, 45). Asked if he was disappointed that his players had granted Shearer a point- blank chance, he said: “I was disappointed they got a cross in I was disappointed we got done on the back stick And I was disappointed he stuck it in the net…