Football Diary

by Patrick O'Connor

THE English political scene is currently awash with rows over bankers' bonuses and tax-avoidance schemes for public servants.

Money certainly does make the world go around but there seems to be tiny chink of common sense appearing in professional football.

THE fixture list was extremely kind to Sky TV on Sunday, providing their football subscribers with three local Derbies in one day.

And the viewing public were not disappointed. Liverpool and Everton served up a cracking 2-2 draw, Sunderland and Newcastle battled it out for a 1-1 stalemate and in the Midlands, Birmingham and Aston Villa also tied 1-1.