A GAME OF TWO HALVES..



Wayne Rooney scored a remarkable goal yesterday to give Manchester United a 2-1 win over local rivals Manchester City.  I`ve already lost count of the number of re-runs being shown on television and this morning`s sports pages are full of the wonder of it all.

Now, afficionados of these pages will know of my deep seated aversion to anything connected with Manchester United but even I have to grudgingly admit that Rooney`s effort was spectacular.   In fact, it was just the kind of thing that you might reasonably expect for £200,000 a week and counting.   Rooney`s image rights income will doubtless also add to the multi-millions he has already acquired, along with his endorsements, appearances and all the other stuff that goes with the overblown, overhyped, Alice-in-Wonderland world of the Premier League.

Meanwhile, a few steps down the rung of the football ladder, a League One game was played at Charlton`s Valley ground yesterday between the Addicks and the `Posh` of Peterborough United.   The fact that Charlton won the game 3-2 is encouraging for Addicks fans as it keeps them well in contention for promotion to the next level at the end of the season.   But the game also saw an incident which brought into sharp focus the difference between the Rooneys of this world and those other professional footballers who ply their trade away from the glare of celebrity.

It concerned our street`s local hero, Scott Wagstaff, who has made a telling and consistent contribution to Charlton`s fortunes this season.   After half an hour or so, he was involved in an innocent clash of heads with a Posh defender.   Scott received `treatment` from the Charlton physio, carried on playing, but was substituted at half time.   I knocked on his door this morning and heard his tale of how, for the rest of the first half, he was suffering from blurred vision and wasn`t at all sure where he was.  At half time, he was sick, had a blinding headache and it was obvious that he was suffering from concussion, which sensibly led to him being substituted, carted off to hospital for a check-up and soon discharged.

Now, in rugby union, a player suffering from concussion is automatically banned from playing again for some time but in football, it seems, no such ban is imposed so Scott, now happily feeling `ok,` will report back for training tomorrow and no doubt board the team coach for the long trip to Hartlepool who Charlton will be playing on Tuesday evening.

Some of the intelligensia on the Charlton Life fans forum are pretty scathing in their `assessment` of Scott`s contribution to yesterday`s game but these are the cyber experts who know nothing of what really went on, are slow to bless, quick to chide and equally quick to profer their opinion in the misguided notion that anyone else is interested.  

This morning and for days to come we will have the unending, almost Messiah-esque praise of Rooney and his goal, whilst in football`s more modest, quieter foothills,  Scott Wagstaff faces the prospect of an overnight stay in Hartlepool before the game on Tuesday evening at their windswept, crumbling Victoria Park and then the long 280 mile journey home in the wee small hours of Wednesday morning.   Football, you see, is a game of two halves in more ways than one.