Television has once again shown it holds the whip hand when it comes to live coverage of our national sport.

Last Thursday, two of the biggest clubs in Europe, Barcelona and Liverpool, had to delay kick-off 15 minutes so we could find out who shot Phil Mitchell in EastEnders.

I wonder how Bill Shankly or Bob Paisley would have reacted to a similar request involving Crossroads during the 1970s.

If that was laughable, there was nothing comical about what went on 24 hours later in Yorkshire.

Albion's promotion/championship charge found yet obstacle put in its way when Sky Spurs went ahead with a live rugby league fixture at Halifax's Shay Stadium on Friday night.

Why didn't anyone in Halifax work out that the football fixture had to be the priority? The Albion and Halifax are running out of alternative dates, the rugby boys are at the beginning of their season, after selling their souls to Murdoch, and it would be much easier to have rearranged that fixture for later in the summer.

I have to admit that I carried on watching the rugby because I thought Sky, the kings of titillation, might have laid on some top quality mud wrestling at half time. Alas I was wrong.

Halifax FC, for their part, claim they didn't know that rugby was being played. I would have thought the Sky broadcast lorries thundering down the road might have given it away.

I'm confident Albion will bring back the three points from Halifax when they eventually play, but this shows the dangers of overusing pitches. Ecovert and Withdean 2000 please take note.

After years of acquiring all sorts of sporting tickets for various people I was actually on the receiving end for a change this weekend. My Argus colleague Phil Elcome, kindly took me to Old Trafford to see the all North London cup semi-final, courtesy of a competition he won on Talk Sport.

It was the first time I had been to the Theatre of Dreams since the Albion lost there in the FA Cup in 1993. It was truly impressive and I'm afraid it also worried me a little bit.

Like most Albion fans, I cling on to the hope that one day the Albion will be able to compete with the top-flight big boys, as they did from 1979-83. But the gulf between the Premiership and the rest of the Football League is getting bigger.

At Withdean the other night I spoke to former Albion boss Mike Bailey and asked him if he thought the Premiership had passed Albion by? He replied it had passed Wolves by and look at their ground and the money they've spent!

Talking of gulfs, the one between Arsenal and Spurs was big enough. The Gunners had 22 goals attempts and Glenn Hoddle was very fortunate his first match in charge didn't end in a humiliating heavy defeat. I give him no more than two years at White Hart Lane, the club and its supporters are clearly deluding themselves.

Spurs fans think they can challenge for the Premiership next season and want a crack at the Champions League after that. From what I saw on Sunday, the only way Spurs will get into Europe is if they write a song, preferably without Chas'n'Dave!

Prince Naseem was philosophical in defeat, he was beaten by the better man but like all true champions he would return. He announced that with the help of Allah he would knock out Marco Antonio Barrera in the rematch.

Will this help come in the shape of some WWF-like scam whereby Allah appears at ringside, distracts the referee, allowing Naz to hit his opponent over the head with a stool?