A rain swept Buck's Head on a cold winter night is not the ideal setting to witness the precocious talent that was Paul Gascoigne and it's a good job because I wasn't to be disappointed.

Gazza lined up with several "1st teamers" in a game against Blackburn reserves. Blackburn had only Craig Short and the infamous Enckleman whom I had heard of (forgive me but I don't take too much notice of other teams) and a crowd of some 2,000 (4 times the usual) came to witness a spectacle. To my amazement there were several Blackburn fans mingling amongst the Wolves following - surely not everyone wanted to see gazza in his death throws??

The game was a scrappy affair with the ball being hoofed out of the tiny ground 6 times that I can remember - the local kids must make a fortune on match balls. Wolves started brightly with some nifty footwork from Silas and darting runs and crunching tackles by Cooper. Gazza came close early on latching onto a through pass which was smoothed well by the keeper. Wolves had several early corners, but really only the one taken by Gazza caused any problems for their defence (aka the 1st team?). Wolves huffed and puffed but made no real impression, Sila’s play was very disjointed in as much as he wanted to dribble the ball into the net too often and wasn't interested in what or where other team players were. Cooper tried and looked quite sharp whilst Clingan impressed early on.

The game changed half way through the first half as a dreadful hospital back pass to Clyde from Gazza was nicked and neatly buried by one of their forwards. Worse was to come a few minutes later as another attack saw one of their forwards have a vicious shot which was well parried by the youngster Deeney, but unfortunately it fell back to their striker who buried with some venom - breaking the back of the Wolves net.

Wolves tried to get back into the game but didn't seem to be playing as a team.

Half Time Wolves Res 0 Blackburn Res 2

I must admit that I missed most of the second half as I was queuing for a cup of coffee and a drink for Stuperstitious (Telford being taken by surprise by the numbers and only opening one bar!). However we struggled to get into the game.

Gazza didn't come back on for the start of the second half, he was crunched in the first half, but only because he was too slow to get out of the way. 5 mins from the end the Wolves defence dallied on the ball on the edge of their own area (schoolboy stuff) and one of their strikers nicked the ball only to be taken out by Deeney, who was sent off for his troubles. The resulting penalty was despatched with ease.

This game was more about one person (more in a moment), but certain individuals I felt were very poor and could not have done their chances of breaking into the first team much good . Sturridge looked like a few more games are needed before a return, whilst Cooper did enough to warrant a return to the bench. Silas I am afraid is not the type of player required, language problem or not.

As for Gazza, I would have loved to have seen him in an old gold shirt plying his trade against the best, but I am sorry to say that time has had its toll on him. He was too slow to the ball (even in this training ground game) and too often left his foot in which with refs today would mean a few problems. A shame but maybe Gazza should take up Tony Adam's offer of second division footy.

Full Time Wolves Res 0 Birmingham 3

TEAMS:

Wolves: Deeney, Flynn, Bradley, Lowe, Townsend, Clingan, Melligan, Gascoigne (Gobern 45, Walters 72) , Sturridge (Ikeme 82), Silas, Cooper.
Unused subs: Jones, Goodhead.
Sent-Off: Deeney (82 – professional foul).
Blackburn: Enckelman, Peers, Johansson, Danns, Short (Fitzgerald 75), Martin Taylor (Nelson 61), Watt (Harkins 80), Donnelly, Johnson, Douglas, Morgan.
Unused subs: Renton, Michael Taylor.
Bookings: Johansson (29 – foul), Danns (52 – foul), Watt (79 – foul), Douglas (90 – foul).