The Sunday Times April 10, 2022 25LESSONS FROM
A LIFE IN SPORT
ANDY COLE
The former striker on
his love for Anfield —
but not its sign — and
a talk with Jimmy HillWHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Family sporting prowess?
Yes. Football? No. My dad is a
Jamaican cricket man and
doesn’t really understand
football. Like any kid born in
England to Caribbean
parents, I grew up with
football. My mum used to say
that I always fell asleep with a
ball under my arm.MY BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT
When you’re good enough,
everyone tells you. When
I decided to get my head
down, stay on the straight
and narrow, start listening to
my elders who were telling
me just how talented I was,
I realised I could become a
professional footballer.THE COACH I LOOKED UP TO
Nobody had to look out for
me because I knew what I
wanted to do and where I
wanted to get to. If a coach
understands the individual
rather than having pre-
conceived ideas, they’ll get
more out of that individual.
Sir Alex Ferguson understood
me. He got absolutely
everything out of me.MY CHILDHOOD HERO
Cyrille Regis. Everything
about the man. His
generation made it easier for
my generation to come
through. He was a special
human. I’ve never been
starstruck, other than the first
time I met him. I didn’t want to
speak to him, because I didn’t
know what to say. He was
Jason Roberts’s uncle and
Jason modelled his game on
me. Football’s crazy like that.FOOTBALL NEVER GOT ANY
BETTER THAN...
Completing the treble
with Manchester United.
Afterwards, you think, ”What
can be better than this?”MORNING I HAD THE HANGOVER
TO END ALL HANGOVERS
After we won the Champions
League — we had only one
night out after we won the
league, as we still had to play
the FA Cup final and in Europe
— it was time to let our hair
down in Barcelona. The day
after wasn’t easy.MY FAVOURITE GROUND
Anfield. I loved playing there
and I had a good record. It’s
a stadium which understands
football. But I had no interest
in touching the “This is
Anfield” sign.Regis: ‘A special human’MY LEAST FAVOURITE GROUND
Selhurst Park. The dressing
rooms were small, but no fuss
if you got the points there.I LEARNT MOST FROM...
Jimmy Hill. On loan at Fulham,
he sat me down at Craven
Cottage and asked if I thought
I was good enough. I said
I might have a chance. He
replied: “You’ll never make it.”
My career went from strength
to strength, but that always
stuck with me.MY GUILTY PLEASURE
I just love chocolate, but I’ve
had a kidney transplant and
sugar increases the chances
of diabetes. I try hard, but it’s
a weakness.MY FAVOURITE MEAL
Nothing’s better than my
mum’s Caribbean cooking.
It doesn’t complement
Caribbean food, but I love
red wine. A bottle of that
with her food would make
me very happy.I KNEW THE GAME WAS UP
WHEN...
The younger generation came
in. They were more concerned
about finances and lifestyle.
Football isn’t about that, it’s
about winning. By the end,
I expected people to treat me
like a seasoned professional,
but it didn’t work at
Nottingham Forest, when the
manager talked to me as if
I were a little kid.MY ONE REGRET
I left United when I shouldn’t
have. I won a League Cup
winners’ medal at Blackburn
to complete the set, though.BEST ADVICE FOR A YOUNG
SPORTSPERSON
Weigh things up for yourself.
People tell you what you can’t
do, but never what you can.
John Aizlewoodabout the game they are about to play
and no doubt dominate. Roebuck, by
contrast, is a prisoner to fears and
insecurities that grow and grow until a
page of the diary, Monday August 1,
reads simply “no entry”.
Roebuck, like all of the 500 or so
men and women who will contest this
summer, went to that place, the vast
psychological hinterland where the
game is really played.
Cricket is a game of failure. The
stats show that even the greatest of
batters fail to make their average score
in two of every three innings. The best
bowlers take a wicket one in every 60
deliveries. That’s a lot of failure. It is,
at heart, a game of mental suffering
and brutal, explosive skill.
And yet how do we imagine it?
What do we yearn for, on the lip of
another season? I think it is for respite
and refuge from an even more brutal
world. Go to a ground, or turn on your
livestream, and escape into a place
where the names change but the songSt Helens made sure of their place
in the semi-finals of the Betfred
Challenge Cup with a convincing
36-20 victory over Catalans
Dragons in Perpignan.
Catalans failed to cope with a
slick Saints attack as Jack Welsby,
Lewis Dodd, Mark Percival, right,
Morgan Knowles, Dan Norman and
Joe Batchelor all pierced the home
defence.
The Dragons lost star full back
Sam Tomkins early in the game and
his replacement, Arthur Mourgue,
was unable to inspire a recovery
from a 20-10 half-time deficit.
Catalans were penalised twice
early in the game and Tommy
CATALANS DRAGONS 20
ST HELENS 36
Slick St Helens sweep aside Catalans
Makinson struck the first points
with his boot in the fourth minute
from in front of the posts.
But St Helens were next to be
penalised when Percival went high
on Tom Davies and Catalans spun
the ball left for Fouad Yaha to
continue his tryscoring streak
with a touchdown in the
left corner.
Saints struck back
immediately when Will
Hopoate stretched the
Dragons on the right
and a simple pass
inside to supporting full
back Welsby put the
visitors back in front at 8-4
with Makinson’s conversion.
Welsby then turned provider for
scrum half Dodd as St Helens tore
through Catalans in the 29th
minute and Makinson’s conversion
pushed them ten points ahead.
And Percival, above, punched
through on the left to score Saints’
third try in five minutes, Makinsonadding his fourth successful
conversion for a 20-4 lead.
The game took another turn
when Tomkins had to leave the field
injured, but Curtis Sironen was
then sent to the sin-bin for a high
shot on Dragons captain Ben Garcia
and Catalans responded
immediately with a try for
prop forward Gil
Dudson, converted by
Mourgue.
Saints scored first in
the second half with a
short-range strike by
Knowles, Makinson
skilfully negotiating a
strong wind to convert.
But Yaha scorched in for his
second try of the game in the 57th
minute and Mourgue’s touchline
conversion put the match back in
the balance.
But further tries for Norman and
Batchelor secured the holders’
progress, despite a late consolation
try for Davies.CHALLENGE CUP
Mohammad Abbas took
four for 22 as Hampshire
humbled Somerset by an
innings and 113 runs
inside three days of their
County Championship
Division One opener at
the Ageas Bowl.
James Fuller had torn
through the top order
with a trio of quickfire
wickets in a brutal
morning spell, before the
Pakistan seamer Abbas
ripped out the middle
order.
Hampshire take 23
points after claiming
only their second innings
victory over Somerset —
who received a single
point after being bowled
out for 180 and 135 —
since 1957.
Realistically, the hosts
knew ten wickets would
probably be enough to
earn victory on day three
after Joe Weatherley’s
168 had provided a 248-
run lead. However a solid
opening hour between
Ben Green and Tom
Lammonby suggested a
tough day’s graft was in
order.
The opening pair put
on 50 in considered
style, on a pitch provedplacid by Hampshire’s
428, but Fuller entered
the attack and took three
wickets in 22 balls.
Hampshire were
rampant after lunch.
Abbas was Somerset’s
main punisher as Steven
Davies edged him to
second slip, Roelof van
der Merwe departed for
a nine-ball duck and
Marchant de Lange and
Peter Siddle were sent
back to the pavilion.
Kent, meanwhile,
fought back against
Essex after Ben
Compton scored 129 at
Chelmsford.
After Essex scored 514
on the opening two days,
Compton, 28, the
grandson of Denis and
cousin of Nick, put on
century partnerships
with both Tawanda
Muyeye (58) and Jordan
Cox, who also made a
hundred.
6 Chris Silverwood has
been named as Sri
Lanka’s new head coach,
two months after leaving
England in the wake of
their 4-0 Ashes defeat.
The 47-year-old has
signed a two-year
contract.ABBAS AND FULLER TEAR
THROUGH SOMERSETstays the same. Red ball, white
clothes, green field, under the blue
skies of Worcester or Guildford,
Aigburth or Scarborough. This brutal
game wraps itself in summer, and it is
somehow eternal. At blustery Chelms-
ford on Thursday, cricket’s own Father
Time, aka Darren Stevens, a fortnight
shy of his 46th birthday, sent down 14
overs at Alastair Cook, 37, who opened
his 20th first-class season with a hun-
dred. Stop all the clocks: however
fleetingly, the times felt right.