The ex-files

How pleasant to arrive back in Blighty and be able to unwind in front of the TV by watching West Ham beat the Mackems thanks to key contributions from Nobby Solano (making his Hammers debut) and Craig Bellamy. You can take the boys out of Newcastle...

And on the subject of old habits dying hard, the friends with whom we were staying in Toronto are fans of Toronto FC, whose inaugural season in the MLS drew to a close yesterday. Mo Johnston's side recovered from two goals down to draw against the New England Revolution, managed by former Liverpool utility man Steve Nicol, but I just couldn't get wholeheartedly behind the home side - partly because their star players are Welsh midfielder and stand-in skipper Carl Robinson and Danny Dichio, both ex Mackems... Having also notched his side's very first MLS goal, Dichio it was who spawned the injury time equaliser - and this after the Revolution's Michael Parkhurst had opened the scoring by lobbing TFC 'keeper Kenny Stamatopoulos from inside his own half Beckham-style...

Back to the real business tomorrow evening, though.