Since an already difficult job has been made immeasurably tougher by injuries to Le Tissier and

Since an already difficult job has been made immeasurably tougher by injuries to Le Tissier and Egil Ostenstad (who, in a rare break from tradition, was last season’s Player of the Year), it is no surprise to find Davy Jones’ locker anchored near the Premiership sea bed.Apart from three heady days at the end of August, and the 25 hours between last Saturday’s win over Spurs and Bolton’s defeat of Chelsea, Southampton have been in the relegation zone since losing to Bolton on opening day.”I knew what I was coming to,” Jones said when we met at his impressive house overlooking Winchester earlier this week. Jones eventually steered Stockport to the competition’s semi-finals and, more importantly, the First Division.This earned him the dubious reward of assuming the most vulnerable position in the game. Everton recently gave Kendall a third stint at the helm, but not before trying all the other options.A former Evertonian, David Jones, will be at Goodison Park tomorrow in the away dug-out, Southampton having decided to appoint the man who, as manager of Stockport County, knocked them out of last season’s Coca-Cola Cup. Clubs with the pretensions of Everton do not appoint promising lower division managers any more, they go for recent international players, exotic foreign coaches or someone else’s Premiership manager.

Six years on, Howard Kendall had become their most successful manager ever.
But that was before the Bosman ruling, share issues, Sky TV’s millions and the cult of the personality chairman took over. They peered into the lower divisions and saw a former player doing well at pre-Jack Walker Blackburn. As a native Evertonian, former Everton player and promising lower division manager, he should have been a strong contender to succeed Joe Royle this summer. The game has changed, however, and he will sit, instead, in the away dug-out. This week the Southampton manager talked to our football correspondent about the reasons why – offering a fanfare for the common manager

Sixteen years ago Everton were looking for a manager. There was a time when David Jones might have been in the home dug-out at Goodison Park tomorrow. “It is far too early to be optimistic or pessimistic, but we’ve all been very buoyed up by the experience.”We won’t get carried away.

But to see so much interest in our bid, that we’ve made such a powerful impact already, is a big boost for everybody.”. What came up time and again was that having so many foreign players in the Premiership is a big plus for us and the success we had in staging Euro 96 is also working in our favour.”McGivan hopes to talk face to face with all 24 members of the executive committee before the race begins for real at the finals in France next summer.”We know we don’t have a divine right to stage the World Cup and we must not be arrogant at all,” he said. Bidding is an expensive business – but you won’t win by sitting in an office in London.”McGivan added that the presence of Sir Bobby and Banks had been a major factor in the success of the trips to see US representative Chuck Blazer, his committee colleague Isaac Sasso Sasso in San Juan and Jack Warner, the vice-president of Fifa, the world governing body, in the West Indies.”All three of them commented on the fact that the Government was backing our bid so strongly and showing real support, while Sir Bobby was hailed as a football hero everywhere we went,” he said.”It’s clear that there is great interest in the new Wembley and the other great grounds we’ve got. England’s World Cup bid team returned home yesterday convinced their hopes of capturing the 2006 event had been boosted by eight days of transatlantic lobbying. Alec McGivan, who heads the bid team, Sports Minister Tony Banks, Sir Bobby Charlton and the chief executive of the Football Association, Graham Kelly, travelled to the United States, Trinidad and Tobago and Costa Rica to put England’s case to three members of Fifa’s executive committee.
McGivan said yesterday that the reception the team had received could not have been better “The trip exceeded all our expectations,” he said. Copeland will attempt to maintain team spirit with regular training meetings and a number of friendly matches, starting with one against France in February.The game against Germany, who beat England 3-0 in the opening group match last month, will be held at a venue yet to be arranged, but probably in the north.”That’s the one,” Coultard said with a grim smile.Mike Rowbottom. On Wednesday, West Ham and Hartson apologised to Reed, saying the remarks were made “in the heat of the moment and were not considered”.

Although Reed accepted the apology, he said the events were “out of his hands”.
The Football League has given Anton Johnson permission to continue his consortium’s pounds 2m takeover attempt of the struggling Third Division club Doncaster Rovers.Johnson, the former owner of Rotherham, was charged with breaching League regulations on being involved in more than one club in 1984, but the League said yesterday he was not banned from the sport, although they would keep an eye on events.”There were allegations about Mr Johnson’s involvement in more than one club and he was due to face charges concerning breaches of regulations, but he went out of football and the charges were not activated,” a League spokesman said.”The charges are still outstanding and on file, and if Mr Johnson becomes involved in football again, the League will look at the situation.”Donald Findlay, the vice- chairman of Rangers, yesterday denied that anyone had been asked to succeed Walter Smith as manager. “Being in a group with the world champions and the European champions it is going to be very, very difficult. But we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think we could qualify.”At least England didn’t lose against opponents they have not faced since 1978.”Tonight was very important,” England’s manager Ted Copeland said. “We would have had a major hill to climb if we had lost.”Harsh words had been required to lift his players’ performance after a dire first half.”There were too many smiling faces and too many mediocre performances,” Copeland said. “And Holland played better than we expected them to.”One of the problems we’ve got is we have a lot of young players in the team and we are asking them for mature performances.

Some of them let the pressure get to them.”England’s next World Cup group match, at home to Germany on 8 March, is crucial. And – Smith’s precocious intervention apart – there was nothing extraordinary on view at Upton Park.”We have got to be realistic,” Coultard said. Gillian Coultard left Upton Park hanging on to a commemorative silver cap on Wednesday night, a memento presented to her by West Ham’s old favourite Geoff Hurst to mark her century of England appearances. But the cruel draw which placed England in a group including the European champions, Germany, and the world champions, Norway, means they will require something extraordinary if they are to go through. England left Upton Park hanging on to their aspiration of emulating their male counterparts in qualifying for the World Cup finals.
A 1-0 win over the Netherlands, courtesy of a moment of opportunism from their 17-year-old midfielder Susan Smith, kept them in with a chance of reaching the finals in the United States in 1999.Only the group winner will progress, with the runner-up going forward to a play-off. The Scottish champions have been without Jonas Thern for the last nine weeks because of a knee injury, but the Swede is expected to return today. Sergio Porrini is back after missing the Dundee United defeat with an ankle injury.
Kilmarnock will be without their goalkeeper, Dragoje Lekovic, who suffered a knee injury while training with his Yugoslav colleagues before their World Cup play-off victory over Hungary in Budapest in midweek.