To make sure he didn't suspect I was after revenge, I avoided eye contact and walked past him Then I turned and elbowed him full in the face. The defender dropped to the floor and lay there motionless." A reader voiced his complaint about the passage in a letter to Liverpool's Football Echo last week but it met with an unsympathetic response from the newspaper's letters' editor Who is he? Tommy Smith. Enough said.FOR SOME people it was inevitable that George Graham would bring success to Tottenham, but winning a major trophy in his first season in charge and going as close as they did last Sunday to reaching a second Wembley final exceeded the expectations of his most ardent fans. He has certainly exceeded the life-time expectations of his one-time Gunners' boss Don Howe.

In his Sports Argus column recently, Howe wrote of his protege: "If there was ever a player who I felt definitely did not have what it took to be a top coach it was George Graham! Running a night club? Yes Running a football club? Absolutely not. The man who has built his success first and foremost on one simple ethos - discipline - was the kind of player who was always after an easy training session, a "fun morning", as he called them, so he could just flick the ball around instead of doing some hard work. He was regularly hauled into the manager's office at Arsenal and told to start working harder. Bertie Mee would even resort to dropping him four or five times during a season to pull him into line...

it probably won't come as much of a surprise that his nickname was `Stroller'." So the next time he lays into you, Ginola, about not working hard enough...AT LEAST David Ginola can expect a better send-off from George Graham, if and when he leaves Tottenham, than the former Spur Vinny Samways got when he left Everton three years ago. "I'd like to wish Vinny well," said the then Everton manager Joe Royle, "and thank him for the one match we won while he was in our first-team." Samways, a player of deft touch and control, was not always fully appreciated by some in England (though, unlike Ginola, he has won an FA Cup winners' medal), but he now appears to have found his natural habitat at Copacabana - that's the British-style pub he runs in Grand Canaria where he now plays for the Spanish Second Division side, not the breeding ground of Ronaldo and co.Because of Uefa's insistence that the FA Cup must have an entrant in the Uefa Cup next season it means that had relegation-threatened Everton beaten Newcastle United in their quarter-final last month, the Toffees, instead of the Geordies, would almost certainly have been European-bound, due to the fact that the other semi-finalists are already guaranteed European football - Manchester United and Arsenal probably in the Champions' League and Tottenham in the Uefa Cup. I bet Liverpool would have loved that.FOR TWO seasons the residents on a new housing estate in Sunderland (built on a former football pitch) have been in hope that the Wearsiders would return to the Premiership. On Tuesday evening they could finally afford to celebrate, none more so than those like season ticket holder Susan Charlton who lives in Promotion Close. "Kevin Phillips is my favourite player, it's ironic that he should score four," said the 31-year-old primary school teacher who lives, naturally enough, at No 10 Roker Park Estate.. Name: Poacher the Imp. Club: Lincoln City. Appearance: White hair, large ears, toothy smile and horns.Crime sheet: During the last two seasons the referee has, on two occasions, had to insist that Poacher leave the touchline and head off up into the stand.

The problem is that Poacher wears the Lincoln strip during matches and this throws the linesmen into confusion, especially when it comes to making offside decisions. "It's been suggested that Poacher, who stands 6ft 6in with a head 3ft in diameter, should be easy to distinguish from the players," said a spokesman for the club. Whether the officials are myopic, or whether the players have some peculiar appearance-altering pre-match snack, we do not know, but identification appears to be a problem. Poacher's only alternative might be to strip off during a game but, given his description, perhaps it wouldn't be prudent.In mitigation, your Honour: Poacher has been an Imp for the community for some time and has done great work for local charities.

His greatest moment was leading out a long line of mascots from across the country before the last England Under-21 international at Pride Park, Derby.. Actor and comedian "I like Everton because they're a big club and over the years have usually done well in both the cup and the league. Over the past six seasons they've struggled but made sure they've not been relegated. The fans are so passionate, it's like they will the players to stay in the Premiership. I'm also a Newcastle fan and, although I was upset when Duncan Ferguson left Everton, at least he went to another great team. Some of my big pals are also Evertonians, including Ed Stewart, Derek Hatton and Bill Kenwright, and my agent's son, Elliot Mans We often got to games together Just keep your eye on next year, the Millennium.