It's tough for my wife, too, because she's friendly with a lot of their wives."At one time, Hessenthaler could never have believed that Taylor would coach the England team. Not because of any lack of ability, more, he says,because "he was too nice a guy". He explains: "You couldn't imagine him raving, or shouting at players. But over the years he's learnt from Glenn [Hoddle] and other people When he came to Gillingham, I noticed it straight away He can be nasty when he wants to be. He'll have fun on the training field, but when it comes to having a pop at people for not doing their jobs, he's got that now.

That's something I've had to learn to do, too".As Chelsea and Ranieri will discover next Sunday.. Liverpool were probably too preoccupied with their own scuffle for a point yesterday to take much note of how Palace rescued a draw from impending defeat against a Gillingham side who had well deserved the two-goal lead they carried into the final 10 minutes. Liverpool were probably too preoccupied with their own scuffle for a point yesterday to take much note of how Palace rescued a draw from impending defeat against a Gillingham side who had well deserved the two-goal lead they carried into the final 10 minutes. Boos greeted Palace at half-time and a steady drift homewards was well under way before the revival finally came. It started with substitute Dougie Freedman's headed goal, followed three minutes later by a Freedman knock-down which Mikael Forssell drove home emphatically.While promising that his team would be up for their Worthington Cup semi-final second leg at Anfield on Wednesday, Palace manager Alan Smith stressed that the team were tired "We have now played 11 games in 40 days," he said "After Liverpool we will have earned a rest.

It has been a hell of a week: Forest, Sunderland and now this game."Certainly Palace found it difficult to generate much pace, motivation or excitement against an efficient Gillingham squad who have now gone seven matches without defeat. Their defence was solid enough to blot out the free-scoring Clinton Morrison and his ginger-haired sidekick, Forssell; Nicky Southall and Mark Saunders dominated midfield as well as combining for both goals; and Carl Asaba and Paul Shaw regularly threatened to undermine a creaky Palace back line in which old stager Neil Ruddock became such a liability he had to be taken off.It needed a crucially timed tackle from Andrew Frampton to halt Southall as he steamed towards goal after only nine minutes, but Gillingham were almost as toothless in front of the net as Palace until the closing minutes of the first half. First Paul Smith let fly from a distance, but just the wrong side of Aleksandrs Kolinko's left-hand post. Then, a minute before the break, a Southall corner found Saunders in position for a free header. In attempting to steer the ball on its way Shaw completely missed it, distracting Kolinko sufficiently for him to fumble the ball over the line.Asaba and Shaw both missed excellent openings to add to the lead before Gillingham scored a second in the 57th minute Again it came from a set piece. Jamie Smith flattened Shaw to the left of the penalty area, Southall curled the ball in at a tempting height and Saunders dashed it to head it away from Kolinko's grasp.Smith praised Gillingham's attitude and commitment, saying: "When it was 0-2, I thought 'I'm not surprised it's going this way.' In terms of power football and technique we have the better players but people with character are also important and Gillingham have them."Jamie Pollock arrived in place of Ruddock to gee up a flagging side but it was Freedman's introduction on the hour which proved decisive. Palace, with three men up, began to pick holes, although it was the 80th minute before they breached the stout defence.Simon Rodger did the spadwework with a fine diagonal run, giving Andrejs Rubins the space to cross accurately for Freedman to head home."Once we get a goal our lads are young enough and keen enough to push on," said Smith So it proved.

Three hectic minutes later Palace were level through Forssell, who until then had done little except look neat in his gloves. "Watching us, there is always something happening," smiled Smith. "But it is slightly ageing for the manager."When I saw Asaba and Shaw running at us I thought 'Oh God, on Wednesday it will be bloody Fowler and whoever'." Palace may need that one-goal lead from the first leg.. It was difficult to discern in the demeanour of the two managers late on a freezing night at Selhurst Park which was the winner and which the loser. Peter Reid's persecution complex grows with every mile he travels south from the Stadium of Light, while Alan Smith, the genial manager of Palace, was in expansive mood, telling anyone who cared to listen about the extent of his club's untapped potential. It was difficult to discern in the demeanour of the two managers late on a freezing night at Selhurst Park which was the winner and which the loser. Peter Reid's persecution complex grows with every mile he travels south from the Stadium of Light, while Alan Smith, the genial manager of Palace, was in expansive mood, telling anyone who cared to listen about the extent of his club's untapped potential. Not for the first time, Reid cut a deeply unattractive figure, swaggering and ungenerous.

The London media are after him, he reckons, and he reserved a particular volley of abuse for the BBC pundit, Mark Lawrenson, who recently questioned Sunderland's substance and style on Match of the Day. It is an old motivational trick, summoned at a timely stage of a long, hard season and effectively adapted for use in dressing rooms as disparate as Old Trafford, Millwall and Wimbledon.Less easily digested was Reid's casual dismissal of the First Division side whose head-to-head record against the Premier League's unlikely high fliers provides some weighty evidence in favour of the Lawrenson camp. In three matches against mid-table Palace, Sunderland have won one, drawn one and lost one and Reid's assertion that his side "thoroughly deserved" their 4-2 victory in Wednesday's FA Cup third-round replay did not conform to the views of most neutrals. For long periods, Palace played the more composed football and it was not until Fan Zhiyi hobbled off early in the second half with a hamstring injury and Kevin Phillips was able to exploit the clumsiness of his replacement, Neil Ruddock, that the match swung Sunderland's way.Sunderland return to Premier League duty against Bradford City this afternoon, buoyed by a return to goalscoring form of Phillips; Palace take a 2-1 lead to Anfield in the semi-final of the Worthington Cup on Wednesday aware that in the probable absence of Fan Zhiyi, their defence will be dangerously short of pace against Emile Heskey and Michael Owen, the profligates of the first leg who are unlikely to extend their generosity into the second. But, as he held court in midweek, stemming the flow of Liverpool goals came a poor third to the humdrum matter of garnering League points from Gillingham and, in marked contrast to his opposite number, the need to pay proper respect to the victors "We want to do what Sunderland have done," Smith said. "They have real strength of character and that's what I want my team to show too."It will not be lost on Smith that, whatever the final outcome of his jousts with the Cup, his young and vibrant side are enjoying a priceless education in the ways of the Premier League. The team of the Eighties? Where have we heard that phrase before?Sunderland's world-weary cynicism provided a neat foil to the naïve enthusiasm of the First Division side, a contrast most neatly encapsulated in the contest between Michael Gray, the man whose name Sven Goran Eriksson could not remember, and Hayden Mullins, the Palace full-back whose potential has already been endorsed by Tord Grip, Eriksson's influential No 2.