THAT WAS THE WEEKEND THAT WAS

Out for count at County Ground

TROUBLED Swindon Town's fears of a large-scale supporters' boycott failed to materialise when a crowd of 9,100 turned up for Saturday's match against revitalised Portsmouth - only 600 below this season's County Ground average.

Fans had threatened to stay away following the club's decision to charge fans an extra pounds 2.50 to watch the match, even though five of the last six preceding home fixtures ended in defeat. Last week, in what could hardly be described as a sweetener, the chairman, Rikki Hunt, labelled fans "mindless morons, brain dead and stupid," after calls for the manager, Steve McMahon, to be dismissed.

Hunt later apologised for his remarks, although he did not withdraw every criticism, particularly those relating to banners demanding his and McMahon's heads, which he said were unlikely to improve team morale.

Momentarily forgetting the price hike, he suggested fans and staff should pull together. "If we are all hitting each other, who is hitting the opposition?" he asked.

Despite this call to arms, Hunt and his board were ready for the sight of empty stands on Saturday, with Pompey chimes easily drowning out home voices. In the event, it was business as usual, more or less, as Swindon fans chose not to mooch around the shops grumbling among themselves but turned up for another anti-Hunt rally - and another home defeat.

Perhaps sympathy should not be offered to one camp alone. The First Division club, grappling with debts of almost pounds 4.5m, did honour a promise to give season ticket refunds worth almost pounds 50,000 when McMahon announced that promotion to the Premiership was beyond his team.

But cynics might argue that what the right hand giveth, the left hand taketh away.

Rumours

Fact and ction from the Sunday papers

MANCHESTER UNITED could buy back Newcastle's Keith Gillespie - the makeweight in the Andy Cole deal - if the price is right, says the People, who reckon Alex Ferguson is prepared to pay pounds 3.5m for the talented winger despite off-the-field problems.

Coventry could bid a sudden farewell to Dion Dublin just when it seemed his goals might carry them into a Uefa Cup slot and, perhaps, an FA Cup final to boot. According to the News of the World, Blackburn Rovers are lining up a pounds 5m pre-deadline swoop that the Sky Blues may find hard to resist.

Despite Saturday's Cup win at Leeds, Mark McGhee's position at Wolves remains insecure with the News of the World and Sunday Mirror tipping Brian Little - in charge at Molineux for nine months in 1986 - as a possible successor. The People, meanwhile, says Little has been offered the Sheffield United job ahead of Nigel Spackman, Lou Macari and Chris Kamara.

The News of the World says Queen's Park Rangers, Wolves and Nottingham Forest are chasing Tottenham's pounds 500,000-rated full back Justin Edinburgh, deemed surplus to requirements at White Hart Lane.

The Mirror reckons Coventry are poised for a pounds 1.5m move for 23-year-old Belgian midfielder Philippe Clement, but that West Ham will lose the Israeli midfielder Eyal Berkovitch to Benfica for pounds 5m at the end of the summer.

Emile Heskey is being targeted as a pounds 7m replacement for Robbie Fowler, according to the Mirror, who say the Liverpool chief executive, Peter Robinson, wants the Lazio coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, to replace Roy Evans as manager.

Chelsea's Roberto Di Matteo, meanwhile, could return to Italy to join Juventus. The Express reckons the Italian champions will move for the former Lazio midfielder if Antonio Conte fails to regain full fitness for next season.

Bescot bustles with European connections

STATEMENTS such as this are too often bandied about without the facts having been checked but if anyone can disprove this column's assertion that history was made at Walsall's Bescot Stadium on Saturday they would deserve to be richly rewarded.

Has there ever been another Second Division match in the Nationwide League - and a relegation struggle at that - which featured three players who had played in European Cup finals?

Admittedly, two of them were sitting in the dug-out, while the third had his winner's medal taken away in somewhat ignominious circumstances and was banned from football for a year - but need that spoil the story?

Burnley's manager, Chris Waddle, appeared for Marseilles when they lost the 1991 final on penalties to Red Star Belgrade, while his Walsall counterpart, Jan Sorensen, was a member of the FC Brugge team beaten by a Kenny Dalglish goal when Liverpool won at Wembley in 1978.

The other member of the trio, Sorensen's new French import, the 31-year- old midfielder Jean-Jacques Eydelie, collected a winner's medal after Marseilles had beaten Milan in the 1993 final - only to lose it when Marseilles were subsequently stripped of their title after a corruption scandal.

Amid the fall-out from the bribery allegations and Marseilles' subsequent disgrace, Eydelie was banned from competitive football for 12 months. His arrival at Bescot on loan from the Swiss side FC Sion, whose former Bordeaux striker Didier Tholot has also joined the West Midlands club, increases Walsall's French connection to four: they already have the forward Roger Boli, their leading scorer with 22 goals, and midfielder Jeff Peron.

Clearly, their presence captured the imagination of the Walsall public - at 5,212, Saturday's crowd was 2,000 up on the attendance at the previous home fixture. Pity the players could come up with nothing better than a goalless draw...

GOOD BOYS . . .

Andy Cole 22

(Manchester United)

John Hartson 20

(West Ham United)

Chris Sutton 19

(Blackburn Rovers)

Dion Dublin 19

(Coventry City)

Michael Owen 19

(Liverpool)

Dennis Bergkamp 17

(Arsenal)

Kevin Gallacher 17

(Blackburn Rovers)

. . . and BAD BOYS

THE SEASON'S RED AND YELLOW CARDS

Leeds United

Coventry City

Chelsea

Arsenal

Bolton Wanderers

FAMILY

TREE

SHOULD Efan Ekoku fulfil his dream of playing for Nigeria in the World Cup in France this summer, he will not be the first member of a multi-talented sporting family to represent his country.

One of the Wimbledon striker's three brothers - the 32-year-old Abi Ekoku - competed for Great Britain at shot and discus at the Commonwealth Games and European Championships, before turning to a second career in rugby league and is now in his second season with Bradford Bulls. But his success is no more surprising than Efan's reputation as one the Premier League's leading strikers.

"We were always keen sportsmen," says another of the brothers, 29-year- old Nko. "Although our dad is Nigerian and our mum comes from Barbados, we were born in Manchester and grew up in Liverpool.

"Chuck, the oldest at 34, was a Great Britain junior athlete until he had a knee injury when he was 15 or 16. I played soccer for Liverpool Schoolboys and Efan was just as good at rugby."

The family spent eight years in Nigeria but returned to settle in the London area. Nko, a computer support analyst, relaunched his football career with non-League Sutton United and now plays for Ryman League Harrow Borough.

Meanwhile, the next generation of sporting Ekokus is already catching the eye at the highest level, with Chuck's 12-year-old son, Daniel, now training with Chelsea.

Missing...

Per Pedersen

(Blackburn Rovers)

Bought for pounds 2.5m from Odense last February, the Danish international striker hoped for better luck this season after just one goal in 11 matches last term. Instead, after only two appearances, Pedersen is on extended loan to Borussia Monchengladbach, where he has enjoyed some success but faces an uncertain future with the Bundesliga club under threat of relegation and the coach who signed him having gone. He may have to return to Ewood Park, where he accepts that his chances are limited behind Chris Sutton, Kevin Gallacher and Martin Dahlin but still rates Roy Hodgson "the best coach I have worked for".

Andrew O'Brien

(Bradford City)

Where Dean Richards and Des Hamilton went, the 18-year-old defender O'Brien follows as the third Bradford City player of recent seasons to be picked for the Football League XI to meet Italy's Serie B side. The England Under-18 international - still qualified to represent Ireland - lines up in the representative side at Charlton's Valley ground tomorrow.

Who says John Gorman does not have a high enough profile to be on Glenn Hoddle's team? It was always the England coach's basic instinct that his ex-Swindon chum was the right man for the job and having seen his assistant tie the knot with none other than Sharon Stone he is certain he made the right choice.

Phil Bronstein

John Gorman

The First XI

Rural types - 11 players who might have been marching for the countryside last weekend

Tim Flowers (Blackburn)

Jim Dobbin (Doncaster)

Jonathan Hunt (Derby)

Ben Thatcher (Wimbledon)

Mark Ford (Leeds)

Martin Bullock (Barnsley)

Glenn Cockerill (Brentford)

Neil Woods (Mansfield)

Steve Bull (Wolves)

Kevin Miller (Watford)

Andy Townsend (M'brough)

FA CUP TEAM OF THE WEEK

ALAN KELLY

Sheffield United

KEITH CURLE

Wolves

DAVID HOLDSWORTH

Sheffield United

RIO FERDINAND

West Ham United

MARTIN BULLOCH

Barnsley

GEORGE BOATENG

Coventry City

TEMUR KETSBAIA

Newcastle United

ALF-INGE HALAND

Leeds United

DARREN HUCKERBY

Coventry City

MARCELO

Sheffield United