Football Notebook

Given how vain some footballers are these days, it's possible that Charlton winger John Robinson's wife Fiona is on to a real winner. She has just opened a beauty parlour in the centre of Brighton called Beauty Within.

There is a new electronic service for finding players - footballcv.com. Encouragingly, it accepts registrations from players aged up to 39, weighing up to 17st 13lbs and who reach only 3ft high. Notebook searched for a player under that criteria, specifying that he must be able to play with both feet, but there must have been a glitch because it said Harry Redknapp had already bought him.

Leaving aside the lucky rabbit's foot carried at all times, Notebook is not at all superstitious. But what a relief that Cowdenbeath failed to win the Scottish Division Three title despite their 2-1 victory over Brechin City at Central Park on Saturday. Cowdenbeath, the team dubbed Blue Brazil, finished second on goal difference to champions Hamilton.
Although there were long faces in the Bank bar on Saturday and muted versions of the Coo Song, the rest of us can sleep a little easier, because when Cowdenbeath were previously champions, winning the Scottish Division Two title in 1914 and 1939, world wars followed.

Talking of good luck charms, spare a thought for Andy Thomson. The former Gillingham striker joined Queens Park Rangers in March. In the six weeks since, the club have gone into administration, been relegated and involved in merger talks with Wimbledon. "It is hard to believe some of the things that have happened," he admitted.

Hosting a press conference over the Wembley climbdown last Tuesday was bad enough, but it was compounded for some by having to get past anti-capitalist protestors who seemed to have something against Gordon Banks. They kept chanting "Stand up if you hate the banks". At the FA's Soho Square headquarters, Adam "no tie" Crozier looked every inch the capitalist in his formal blue tie but the chameleon-like David Davies was altogether more yoofish in a Kermit green informal shirt with the top buttons undone.

Getting a good quote out of a player whose side have just lost is not the easiest job. In the 1970s, Manchester United's Martin Buchan response to a reporter's request for a quick word was to mutter: "Velocity" as he brushed past.
Chelsea were obviously disappointed after losing at Leeds last week but imagine the problems for the poor reporter on the Chelsea Channel cable TV station. Players have to file past hacks at Elland Road in a narrow corridor and the Chelsea stars obeyed their club orders not to comment on the match.
The Chelsea reporter failed three times to get Jersey-born Graeme Pierre Le Saux to utter a few words of propaganda. He marched by as the man pleaded: "Please, Bergerac, oh please."