Trev Reaching For Sky

As eventful fortnights go, Trevor Sinclair has endured and enjoyed a few ups and downs in the last one.

But it has all turned out wonderfully after he was pulled out of the latest England squad through a foot injury - when he would surely have got a run out - his wife had a baby boy, he scored the winner at Sunderland...and then got a clump on the head for his endeavours that meant he was not on the pitch to celebrate West Ham's second Premiership win of the season.

But first thing's first: baby boy Sky, born conveniently in midweek and giving Trevor the chance to help his wife recuperate before he headed north.

It is his third lad, but wags who suggest his other two are named BBC and ITV are, er, obviously wrong.

"There is no reason for the name," he says.

"We just liked it, having met a guy called Sky before, and we thought it was a nice name - and that goal against Sunderland is for him."

Trevor's performance belied the fact that his training routine, already disrupted by injury, were further affected by Mrs. S completing a hat trick.

"I'd not been in since Tuesday because my wife had the baby that day, and I have been helping her because obviously things are difficult when you have had a child, so I had been helping her at home and at hospital.

"I was always going to be up for the game, though, and I said to the gaffer 'you can rely on me, I will definitely be up for the game.'

"Luckily it worked - it is not what I am about, to miss games; the main thing was that we got the win and it was a bonus to score the goal."

And what a goal it was, too, as Trevor latched on to Paolo Di Canio's exquisite cross field pass - Paolo earned the man of the match champagne, to silence critics that say he can't play in the frozen north - and blasted home a half volley off the underside of the bar.

"I was hoping to score but obviously the win was more important and, as I say, I was never going to pull out of the game.

"We are in a bit of a dogfight, we still are, and we need as many points as we can get.

"And I was hoping that if we were going to win and I was going to score it would be a perfect day - and so it proved."

Plenty of ecstasy then, but a bit of agony to end up on.

He was clattered out of the game by a challenge that the referee saw no need to punish, and Trevor recalls very little about it.

"I can't remember the challenge, to be honest, but as a result I couldn't really see properly, my ear was ringing and my head was thumping - so one of the doctors said I has better come off.

"But there is no rest; we have a big game on Wednesday and we have to try and get something out of it."

Trevor's goal sparked the by now familiar Bebeto style cradle rocking celebrations, but Paul Goddard admits:

"I didn't see them! But it was a great display by Trevor and all the lads."

Trevor should be back midweek, but the news is not so good for Fredi Kanoute, still struggling with a groin injury.

"Fredi trained a couple of days but you would doubt whether he will be ready for Wednesday.

"We will just have to wait and see."