Performance of the Week

A little later than usual I know but that doesn't put a downer on what was a superb week for British sport last week and yes this weeks winner is one of the elite band. Andy Murray secured his forth title of the year as he defeated Giles Simon in straight sets 6-4 7-6 in Madrid. Lewis Hamilton won his fifth Grand Prix of the season and extended his lead at the top of the driver championship to even point as he won the Chinese Grand Prix. John Higgins beat Ryan Day 9-7 to win the Grand Prix snooker at Wembley and England's football team made it four wins from four in their World Cup Qualifying group as they beat Belarus 3-1 in Minsk. I'm sure you can agree one the of the best weeks in British there has been since the Beijing Olympics. We're all grateful we've only had to wait 2 months for the next string of achievements.

My victor this week is some what of an unsung hero. Behind every great team performance there ha to be someone who pulls the strings in the background while others take the glory. This person's role is as, if not more important than headline grabber themselves. My performance of the week therefore goes to Wigan Striker Emile Heskey for the brilliant part he played in England win against Belarus.

Since Heskey was recalled to the England side for the double header with Estonia and Azerbaijan England have looked like a totally different unit. He was instrumental in his sides wins in those games and with Heskey at the helm Steve McLaren's helm as England manager looked slightly more rosy. However disaster struck, just 3 days after his heroics he broke his foot in a league game for Wigan. He was ruled out of England's games against Russia and Croatia. As we know the rest is history, England failed to qualify and Steve Mclaren lost his job as England boss.

Who knows whether Heskey had been fit or not whether the striker could have helped England towards the results they needed in those games. I'll be honest thank god not. McLaren needed to go whether we qualified or not.

But the state of intention was there, McLaren's crazy recall of Heskey, whose record of 5 goals in 50 caps is hardly one to strike fear into opposition defences, could be called as a shred one.

Capello wasted no-time bringing Heskey in as he saw no possible partner for Wayne Rooney coming from slightly built Jermaine Defoe or the clumsy Peter Crouch.

And now we come to last Wednesday night, his crowning moment in an England shirt. Playing alongside Rooney he was a great decoy for the Manchester United front-man. He held the ball up well as he always does and scared defenders into coming anywhere near him.

I know these characteristics are hardly ground breaking when talking about Emile Heskey but I think many people need reminding seeing as he was harshly slated when talks of a recall came calling.

His run and pass for Wayne Rooney's first goal showed what he's all about, and he's got something that people might have forgotten about and that's a bit of pace, and once he knew the pass was on he made no mistake. it was the perfect performance from the former Liverpool man.

Yes people will say his goal record isn't good enough, but if he's giving perfect service to Wayne Rooney like he's been craving for his entire England career then we could have on hell of a player on our hands, rap him in cotton wool I say.

His performance the other night showed to me that Heskey is irreplaceable for England. No matter who England try with Rooney, no-one not even Michael Owen can exploit Rooney's talent like Heskey can.

This performance shows alot of things, one thing it definitely shows is that England finally have a partner for Rooney, and it might be the partnership to take England to South Africa.