Those who are decrepit enough to remember the early days of Coronation Street (c. 1960)
may recall that the shop run by Emily Bishop (nee Nugent) was owned by a mysterious Greek
gentleman called Mr Papadopoulos, who was often mentioned but never put in an appearance.
(I understand that he subsequently transferred his entrepreneurial activities to Albert
Square, where he is equally invisible.) To date, his namesake, for whom we reputedly paid
a cool half-million, seems to have been behaving in a remarkably similar manner. So, along
with Becko, I made the short trip to Deadwood Park to check out the truth about Papa.
The first half of the match was largely dominated by England, for whom Defoe scored
after ten minutes. At this stage our erstwhile hero cut something of a lonely figure,
usually to be found standing on the half-way line, arm pointing skywards, presumably in
the hope that one of his colleagues might at some stage lob the ball up to him. I was
reminded here of Ronnie Moore's remark that Ian does not score enough goals because he
spends too much time and energy foraging for the ball. No chance of Papa falling into that
trap then!
His first major intervention was a foul on Kirkland after 20 minutes. Then, during a
spell of Greek pressure around the half-hour mark, he first ballooned a corner over the
bar from the edge of the box and then intercepted a pass out of defence from King to force
another corner. Almost on half time he hurled himself at Barry, only to end up on the
floor in a crumpled heap.
At the beginning of the second half, as the Greeks pushed up in search of an equaliser,
Papa won a race for the ball with Barry, who was close marking him, to force yet another
corner. By now he was making good runs into space, but either passes to him were
intercepted or he was dispossessed under pressure. With an hour gone he got his first shot
on target; a good one with the outside of his right foot which was well saved by Kirkland.
Soon afterwards he picked up the ball on the half-way line and beat two or three players,
before losing the ball to Kirkland, which resulted in one of a number of altercations
between the two players. A few minutes later the first of two neat flicks let in Kyriazis,
who missed a golden opportunity to equalise, whilst the second put in Vakouftis, only for
the Fiorentina player to handle the ball before burying it illegally.
By now most of the good things the Greeks had to offer seemed to involve Papadopoulos,
and the booing, to which he alone amongst the Greek players had been subjected by the
natives, was increasing along with the quality of his performance. A deceptive turn lost
Barry but Papa was unable to get a shot in. A decoy run then made space for the Greek
substitute Salpingidis, who failed to capitalise, just before Christie broke away to score
England's second with five minutes to go.
But the drama was not over. With only a minute to go Papa picked up a loose ball from
Vakouftis and broke into the penalty area, only to go down under a somewhat innocuous
challenge, which resulted in the bad blood between Kirkland and Papa reaching boiling
point. However, unfazed by this, or by the extreme verbal pressure to which he was now
being subjected by the crowd, Papa confidently drove the spot kick into the net and then
defiantly booted the rebound into the top tier of the Blackburn End. With almost the last
kick of the match he rounded Wayne Bridge in England's left back position, only to throw
himself to the floor for what seemed the umpteenth time when he had a clear run on goal.
This final incident seemed to sum up Papadopoulos' performance. He struck me as a
player who is both quick on the turn and pacey. His positional play is good and he is
perceptive both in making space and in laying the ball off quickly. He is reasonably good
in the air for a small man, although his lack of inches and weight will always prevent him
being an aerial threat. He has bags of confidence, bordering on arrogance, but he also has
a strong tendency towards histrionics and dives under the slightest pressure, when his
speed would probably present a scoring opportunity if he stayed on his feet. In the modern
game this might lead to more bookings than penalties, as well as an unfortunate
reputation. However, he is only 19 and appears to have a high level of technical ability
and pace, if it can be harnessed to the team effort. At the moment he is more of a Kurt
Nogan (at his best) than an Ian Moore, and it is difficult to see how he can be
accommodated in the same team as the latter (I still think we need a big, pacey striker).
However, time will tell. Suffice to say for now that an England victory and a Burnley
player scoring a goal before the baying hordes at Deadwood Park was a perfect result all
round!
