Neil Warnock: Bruce will be hopping mad after Heskey's Herculean performance

1. Closing teams down opens up new dimension

I don't like to say, "I told you so", but I've said for 18 months Emile Heskey had to be in the England team and we have to play the English game. In the last two away games we've been super. We've closed teams down from the front and got results, so why it can't it be done all the time?

Heskey was great on Wednesday but I could see, about five or six minutes into the second half, that he was playing on one leg. This carried on for about 20 minutes and I'm thinking, "If Steve Bruce is watching this he'll be saying, 'Why not take him off? He can't run'." Then he finally gets subbed and Chris Waddle says, "I can't believe he's been subbed". Steve must be steaming. I'll be interested to see whether Heskey plays for Wigan today against Liverpool.

I thought Wales were unlucky against Germany. They played ever so well and had some decent chances. They have some good young lads, plus the boys in the Under-21s who include our own Rhoys Wiggins. The Welsh Under-21s were very unlucky, England were hanging on at the end.

We had quite a few players away and it is always a worry for managers, seeing who comes back with a knock. I think we're OK, though training was difficult. What with injuries and so on one day, when the reserves were playing, we only had seven in for training. There's not much you can do then.

Having not had a match for two weeks, we now have five in a fortnight. It's strange, and tough for the fans in the current climate. That's a lot of admission money if you're forking out for a couple of kids as well. At least the price of petrol has come down, which is good news for those fans who'll be following us to Birmingham and Blackpool this week.

First we play Barnsley. "One of your old clubs," said a local hack. As I pointed out, there's a reasonable chance of that most weeks. I had my prolific season at Barnsley: nine goals. Not bad for a winger.

We're on television today. There's no real difference to a normal game except I do a bit more media and the late kick-off means we have to adjust mealtimes. I don't like the midday kick-offs but 5.20pm is good. There's always a better atmosphere under floodlights. I love the winter months when we kick off in the dark. Some friends tell me Selhurst always looks better under lights but I don't understand what they mean.

2. Match-fixing claims jog Sixties memory

I was amazed by the match-fixing allegations involving a match in our league, Norwich v Derby. You want to know the game is clean. I still remember the shock in Sheffield when three Wednesday players, Peter Swan, David "Bronco" Layne and Tony Kay were found guilty of match-fixing in 1964. They bet against their own team in a match at Ipswich.

They paid a terrible price, a jail sentence and a life ban. Peter Swan might have played for England in the World Cup. He was only 28 and he'd already been to the 1962 tournament.

3. Fox's unwelcome visit gives us hound trouble

I used to think that milkmen came at about half-five in the morning but we have one now that comes round our house at 12.55am – and how I know that is the dogs start barking like blazes at him. Obviously, being a light sleeper I wake up. Either that or we have a burglar who uses an electric getaway car.

I always blame the foxes when the dogs wake up – we are inundated with them round here. I didn't expect that when we moved to the big metropolis. We have one who comes up to the back door nearly every night marking his territory. He leaves a "deposit" which our dogs have started, believe it or not, to eat. We're always wary in the morning when they come and try and kiss us and I'd appreciate it if anyone can let me know how we can kindly warn them off.

4. I'm a fan once again for the Sheffield derby

I'll be tuned in on Sunday, it's the Sheffield derby at Hillsborough. It'll be strange not being under any pressure. I used to love the games as a fan. It was a bit different as a manager – the result meant so much. The manager always carries the can.

It's a tough one to call. United have the better squad, but Brian Laws has done ever so well this season at Wednesday. "Blackie" [Kevin Blackwell, United's manager] would love to get his first victory in a derby. He was on the bench for a few with me and we had a decent record.

It is a terrible game to lose. Any game is bad to lose as a manager, and not just because of the immediate footballing consequences. We came home the other Saturday after winning at Forest and the kids said, "Great, we can go out tomorrow." Imagine what it is like if you lose a derby. You daren't go out for weeks.

5. Railroaded towards senior person's railcard

On Wednesday we went to London for a few hours. I was at the station getting the tickets when I caught Sharon sneaking into her bag a leaflet on a senior person's railcard. When I asked why she had done that she reminded me that I am 60 in December. As you can imagine, that really made me feel really good.