Not all footballers are thick and overpaid

David Artell / David Artell / 15 November 2007 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

Morecambe's star defender on the newest addition to the Artell family, Joey Barton's latest misdemeanour and Scotland's moment of truth

I scored my fourth goal of the season on Tuesday night. Admittedly it was my second goal in a penalty shoot-out but we won again and are now in the semi-final of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. This brings me on nicely in response to Jon Davies' e-mail from last week in which he believes there are too many older players in our team and is worried about the lack of younger players coming through.

All three sides we have beaten in this competition are from a higher league and this is testament to our squad. The average age of our squad is 24 which I think reflects the blend of youth and experience. With regard to any young players breaking into the first team, if Mr Davies went to Hartlepool on Tuesday night he would have seen 20 year old Paul Lloyd put in a fantastic performance which was completed by him scoring the winning penalty.

The start of the week was a busy one as my wife gave birth to our second daughter on Monday, Freya Grace weighing 8lb 6oz. The only problem we had was trying to contain the excitement of our other daughter who couldn't't wait to be a big sister and now wants to pick her up all the time. Playing Hartlepool away the day after the birth wasn't ideal but the gaffer was kind enough to allow me to report straight to the ground (missing the pre-match meal) which gave me a few extra precious hours at the hospital. The 330 mile round trip (from Chester to Hartlepool) wasn't ideal preparation but I hope my performance repaid the gaffers' generosity and the journey home was made much more enjoyable by the result.

Joey Barton has made a few headlines again this week although I now think his reputation precedes him. I don't know him personally but I see him as a bit of a rogue though this is totally based on the press and media. Although it is wrong to base your perception of someone by what you read, everyone is guilty of it whether towards an individual or footballers in general.

Even at our level, which is no where near as high profile, we get tarred with the same brush as the likes of Joey Barton which means we are all overpaid, unintelligent thugs in a football shirt (not that I'm saying Joey Barton is; I might play against him one day and I don't particularly want to be on the end of one of his 'mistimed' tackles!). I'm not saying all footballers are underpaid angels either and there is certainly some thick footballers around but that don't apply to us all.

There will be plenty of supporters making a quick return from watching their club side on Saturday to see if Israel can do England a favour and take some points off the Russians but for me if they start watching at 6pm they will already have missed half of the game of the day.

Scotland's game at 5pm could be a cracker; Scotland unbeaten at home in these qualifiers versus Italy the masters of defending and getting clean sheets. For me that will be the key to success, can Scotland penetrate Italy's brilliant defence? Their attitude to defending is second to none and Kenny Miller and co. will have their work cut out trying to get anything from the World Champions. They certainly won't be as generous as the French were from set plays as the Italians will do anything they can to stop you passing. Although backing an Italian clean sheet is tempting at 2.48, I think there will be at least one goal so backing under 1.5 goals at 2.88 is the bet for me.

David Artell plays for Morecambe:

http://www.morecambefc.com/

Tags: David Artell, Division Two football, football betting, Morecambe FC