Darren Way retires

Weasel finally confirmed yesterday what most of us had guessed was going to happen a while ago. Darren Way, one of the finest midfielders ever to wear the green-and-white shirt, has officially retired. A broken left femur, a broken left kneecap, a broken and dislocated right elbow, a broken and dislocated left hip, multiple fractures of his right wrist, damage to his right hand, a ruptured left bicep, and deep cuts to both shins as well as soft tissue damage and nine major operations eventually proved too much for even this most indomitable of characters to come back from, forcing his retirement from playing professional football. He shouldn't feel he's failed by not being able to come back, with injuries like he suffered he's lucky to be still walking around, never mind anything else.

So long then Weasel, though he'll still be around off the pitch of course as part of the coaching team. I was there when he made his Huish Park debut, as a triallist in the reserves side (remember when we had reserves?) that thrashed Minehead 9-1 in a pre-season friendly at the start of the 2000-01 season. I recall watching this short, slight and very young-looking blond-haired boy running up and down the pitch in a shirt far too big for him and thinking 'what the hell does Webb (the manager at the time) see in this kid?'.... Forty-five minutes later and we knew. He signed a contract that same evening I believe and went on to become one of the driving forces behind this club's rise into the football league. His central midfield partnership with Lee Johnson was a thing of beauty, both players complementing the other perfectly; Johnson the passer and playmaker, Way the ball-winner and terrier, though both players had enough of the other's qualities to interchange roles as and when needed, both more than the sum of their parts when playing together; and neither, it could be argued, quite as effective when partnered with someone else.

Injury meant he had a rough time in South Wales, never being able to force a regular place in the Swansea side that his talent more than justified. On his permanent return to Huish Park he looked to be getting back to the player he was before he first left us, but then came the road accident that cut short his playing career. The best of luck to Weasel in his new role at the club, I've no doubt he'll be as inspirational off the field as he was on it.

Back to League One, or Division Three as I prefer to call it. The Glovers travel to relegation-haunted Wycombe tomorrow, with both teams needing a win. A 0-0 draw it is, then! According to Skivo we're going there to attack and with Wycombe having lost their last 3 home games if ever there's a side that we perhaps ought to beat away from home then they are it; but we all know how poor our away form has been this season so nothing can be taken for granted. The bookies make the home side slight favourites at 13/10; the draw is priced at 9/4, the away win at 21/10. I'll no doubt get slated for this, but my fiver's going on the home win. And hopefully I'll be a fiver worse off tomorrow night! Running total: -£3.50p. Show me I'm wrong to doubt you, please Glovers!