The Gardeners' World Blog

One of the strangest aspects of this job is the extent to which you're in the hands of fate. When Setanta, some weeks ago, opted for last Saturday's Newcastle v Bolton fixture as their live evening game, they would have seen it as a moderately interesting Premier League occasion which they could sell as 'struggling Big Sam takes on his former club'.

By the time it came round, everything had changed and the biblical analogies had reached ludicrous proportions. Setanta were, presumably, able to sell subscriptions in Tyneside and beyond to those who were suddenly sucked into the hype and/or locked out of the game.