As Tony Drago slipped out of the Malta Cup on Monday night you could see the massive disappointment etched across his face.

There is no doubting Tony is one of Malta's premier sportsmen of all time, performing consistently at the top level of world snooker year after year, tournament after tournament.

But the one prize he really wants is the Malta Cup - to win on his home turf in front of his home fans.

Sadly that was not to be this year as he crashed out at the second qualifying stage against the hugely talented and experienced John Parrott - losing the best of nine tie 5-4.

There were moments in this match, as in his previous one, where Tony looked to be on top of his game. But those moments proved to be too few as some errant potting - possibly brought on by a rash need for speed - ultimately let the big man down.

His cries of 'Come on!" on Sunday were replaced by a frustrated punching of the table on Monday as he saw his dream slip away again.

It's always possible, of course, that Tony may go through his entire career without winning his local tournament. But, somehow, you get the feeling it the gods of snooker have nicer plans than that for our Tony.

Stuart Pearce

As a long-time admirer of Stuart Pearce, both as a manager and player, I have to say the possibility of him taking over the England under-21s is extremely exciting.

It's not so much the under-21s themselves that get me going, although I have to admit they often play much more exciting stuff than the grown-ups. It's the fact that Pearce will be learning the international ropes with a view to eventually taking over the first team job.

There are still some club vs country issues to be sorted out with Manchester City rightly worried about how Stuart will cope with having both jobs. But I think City will eventually realise that having their boss hanging around some of the world's most talented young players can only be a good thing for them.

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods has now won seven back-to-back PGA titles thanks to his latest victory in the Buick Invitational in San Diego.

That puts him second on the list of consecutive PGA wins, just behind a chap called Byron Nelson who holds the record with a quite startling 11 wins in a row.

Tiger now needs just four more to equal the record and I can't imagine there are many out there who would bet against him doing it on current form.

I certainly wouldn't.

Funny football stories

Two funny football stories tickled my fancy over recent days.

The first one comes from down in South America where people are a little over passionate about the beautiful game.

A young Boca Juniors supporter went to a tattooist to get his beloved team's club crest tattooed on his back. Sadly for him, he didn't realise the man with the needle in his hand was a big fan of rivals River Plate.

Unable to bring himself to ink the requested image on his client's back, the tattooist instead drew a large penis. And the victim was none the wiser until he went home.

"I could not see what he was tattooing because he didn't have a mirror. I only saw it when I got home and showed it to my parents," the unfortunate fan explained before rushing off to his lawyers to sue the errant inker.

The other story is much closer to home and involves a Manchester United fan's wife.

With her husband's 40th birthday looming this unnamed woman decided it would be lovely to get her beloved something he had always wanted - a season ticket to Old Trafford.

And that is just what she did. Sadly, however, her knowledge of football was not that great and she only gave it to him on the big day itself - which was last week.

That means the unfortunate birthday boy had missed no less than 12 home matches and 40 United goals while the seat had been sitting empty - much to the amazement of those from the surrounding seats.

"A few of us noticed the seats were empty. His wife can't know much about football. He must be gutted," one surprised fan said.

Still it's the thought that counts. Just wait till she gives him his Christmas present in 11 months time - tickets for this year's FA Cup final…

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