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Double-figure drubbings are out (almost) and shocks are in. Matthew Hall reports on how the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu upset the odds in the South Pacific qualifiers

The cliche says that if it’s 31-0 then this must be the Oceania Football Confederation’s World Cup qual­ifying competition but, thankfully, OFC took heed of record-breaking scores four years ago. A three-phase tournament now saves teams such as American Samoa the embarrassment of massive drubbings against Australia – in 2001, the Samoans actually did watch 31 goals go past their goalkeeper.

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However unjust their elimination from Euro 2004 might have seemed at the time, the truth is that England will never go further than the last eight in a major tournament until there is a major rehaul of the Premiership

 England’s elimination at Euro 2004 felt like a compilation of all their previous tournament crises. The team tend to rely on survival through attrition, of desperate defending with their “tin hats on”. But that never pays off, so other reasons for failure are found, often involving making a scapegoat of a referee (Urs Meier this year, Kim Milton Nielsen in 1998). This means uncomfortable questions don’t have to be posed, such as whether it’s right to place faith in star names when they are playing as badly as David Beckham, or indeed whether the best English players are in fact especially good in the first place.

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Neil Andrews explores the world of fantasy football while looking back at its roots

Years ago, fantasy football used to be such a simple thing. All you needed was a Subbuteo set and a group of friends who were willing to compete in some kind of championship. In fact, Subbuteo used to encourage the formation of independent leagues, as it was a good way of selling more sets. Of course, things used to be much simpler in the old days.

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Micky Adams has led Leicester back to the Premiership, his third promotion, and City are out of administration, too. But Adams – who has had his share of managerial knocks – believes they could be a “yo-yo side” for a while longer. He spoker to Al Needham

Leicester’s promotion is the third of your managerial career. In view of their financial problems, is it the one you’re most proud of?
They’re all the same. They all mean as much to me and the fans. But the other two promotions [Fulham in 1996-97, Brighton in 2000-01] were with sides that I’d moulded myself. Here, I inherited a side and had to motivate them after the disappointment of relegation, which was a major achievement. The hardest thing about running City this season was going into administration, in October. People we knew and respected were losing their jobs. We were trying to keep the morale going all over the club.

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It looks like Sheffield, but the Eindhoven derby hasn't been on a level playing-field for 50 years. Ernst Bouwes goes in search of PSV's forgotten neighbours

When he saw Jan Louwers bending over to adjust the ball on the penalty spot, Lieuwe Steiger check­ed his position on the goalline once more by looking at one of the posts. Watched by a capacity crowd (and then some), the PSV keeper had been beaten by local rivals EVV once that afternoon. Now the score stood at 1-1. The losers of this local derby could be out of the cham­pionship play-offs for 1955, the first year of Dutch pro­fessional football. When Steiger looked up again to prepare for the penalty, he saw Louwers grin­ning sheep­ishly. There was a space on the penalty spot where the ball should have been. The Eindhoven striker had al­ready taken the kick, hoping he could surprise the keeper. So he did, almost hitting a photographer with his miscue.

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