Tacit

Proud Scotland coach Craig Brown watched his side crash out of Euro 2000 but has defiantly vowed to stay in his post .
Scotland needed to win by two goals at Wembley for the first time in more than 50 years to deny England
The painful truth is that though their 1-0 win came agonisingly close, once again despite all the blood and thunder it proved not quite enough.
However the victory may serve to ensure Brown is allowed to see out his contract, which runs for another two years.
Anything less than this epic performance from the battling Scots would have stoked the growing calls for his resignation.
As it was, his players have appeared to have silenced them.
“My contract expires in December 2001 and I intend to honour it,” he said.
“All this stuff about my contract and my position between these two matches has been very unnecessary. The players have been very supportive, not that I asked them to be.
“People should remember we don’t lose many games and have never lost two successive competitive matches and we have a habit of scoring away from home.
“I feel really gutted that we failed to qualify for Euro 2000. It is a major disappointment and I feel very upset.
“I felt that we didn’t have any breaks in the two games and I couldn’t have asked for anything more from my players.”
The Scots were denied the extra-time they deserved by England keeper David Seaman.
The Arsenal keeper pulled off a fantastic penalty save when the sides last met in Euro 96 and made a point blank stop from Christian Dailly.
Brown said: “He certainly raises his game when he plays against us.”
Both Kevin Keegan and Tony Adams took time at the end of the game to seek out the Scotland boss.

Seaman’s laid-back manner, chewing gum as he nonchalently commands the area behind the famous Arsenal defence, has made him a hero for club and country.
Recent injury problems have been followed by doubts over his form in recent weeks, and he can no longer be considered the automatic no 1 choice for his country, or even possibly at his club.
But the man with possibly the most famous moustache in football is feared by the Scots, who remember him brilliantly saving Gary McAllister’s penalty during the last meeting of the teams at Euro 96.
Martyn’s consistency during Leeds’ march to the top of the Premiership, as well as assured international performances mean Seaman has a genuine challenge for the no 1 shirt.
The big Cornishman waited a long time for his chance at the highest level but did not disappoint during Seaman’s recent injury-enforced absence.
With Kevin Keegan giving the pair a half each in the recent friendly with Belgium, Martyn might still have a chance of starting against Scotland.
The Spurs keeper has forced his way back into the reckoning after suffering at the hands of Gianfranco Zola at Wembley in 1997.
Many blamed him for the Italian’s deflected winner, which might have cost England dear in the World Cup qualifying campaign.
Last week’s superb performance in defeat for Spurs in Germany proved that Walker is back to his best, and he has held off the challenge of young keepers Richard Wright and Nicky Weaver.

Following the announcement, NatWest said it was considering all defence options, including asset sales to fight off Bank of Scotland’s hostile bid.
A major element of Bank of Scotland’s argument has been what it described as the poor management record at NatWest.
Mr Wanless, who has spent the majority of his career at NatWest, has been criticised by investors for taking it into areas like investment banking, while failing to address the bank’s high costs.
He steps down less than 48 hours after NatWest abandoned its attempts to take over insurance group Legal & General for ?0.75bn.
Mr Wanless was forced out by the bank’s non-executive directors, who decided that he should be replaced, said Sir David.
“There is a moment when you know it’s time to go and let someone else have a go,” he said.

Safeway spokesman Kevin Hawkins told the BBC they were trying to make sure all their top-selling lines would be available all the time.

It involves investment in the supply chain of ?0m-?0m, he said, and they were asking suppliers for contributions.

He said suppliers would benefit as sales would rise by 15% and some had already lauded the plan.

Mr Hawkins said: “The only way we can all do better … is to try to generate more sales and we can do that if we try and improve our availability. That’s what we’re trying to do and we hope our suppliers will come with us because they stand to gain.”

But Helen Lo of the NFU said it was unreasonable as profit margins would need to rise to 11% for the scheme to work. At the moment, farmers were struggling to make any profit, she said.

“Why should farmers and growers effectively subsidise the rest of the supply chain?”

Mr Hawkins said suppliers not joining the scheme would not suffer discrimination, but those who were in the scheme would enjoy the advantages of the promotion

So just what is going on at Marks and Spencer?
This bastion of the UK high street, a chain which has clothed generations for many decades, had appeared unstoppable.
Its quality of products, its customer service and its ranges of functional and fashionable clothes at affordable prices had been unbeatable.
But as everyone now knows, its invincibility has proved somewhat less long lasting than its trusty socks.
Profits have been halved and sales continued to be down – a worrying 15% – leading into Easter.
Concern for its welfare can only grow as the gloom continues. It appears to have been floundering into ever deeper waters for more than a year now.

The deal between Microsoft and BT puts the two companies in a head-to-head contest with Psion, a British company that has beaten the US software giant in the hand-held computer market.
Last year, Psion linked up with mobile phone manufacturers Motorola, Nokia and Ericsson to form Symbian. The alliance was designed to rival Microsoft’s Windows CE, which was developed for use in mobile phones, hand-held computers and household appliances.
It is unclear whether Motorola’s new deal is a deal to the alliance or means that Symbian will be extended to include Cisco Systems.
The move prompted Microsoft’s boss Bill Gates to proclaim that Psion represented the biggest threat to his business.
Psion is perceived to have the edge with its Epoc software, a multi-tasking 32-bit operating system that can host a raft of communications applications. However the group’s shares tumbled 133.5p or more than 14% to 795p in early trading on the London Stock Exchange, on fears that a Microsoft-BT joint venture could provide a significant threat to its business.

Rap star Kanye West has said sorry for interrupting the acceptance speech of singer Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards ceremony in New York.
The musician stormed the stage to tell the audience Beyonce should have won best female video prize.
Madonna made a personal tribute to Michael Jackson at the ceremony, saying she felt she had “abandoned him” and “felt his pain”.
The late star’s sister Janet recreated the dance moves from their duet Scream.

Paralysed people have been taught to type using their brainwaves, thanks to a device which measures the electrical waves through the skull.
Last year two patients were able to write messages on a computer via electrodes implanted in their brains but the new method does not require risky surgery, simply placing electrodes on the top of the head.
“We have got patients writing messages who couldn’t communicate at all,” said Edward Taub of the University of Alabama at Birmingham in New Scientist magazine.
The scientists, led by Niels Birbaumer of the University of Tubingen, Germany, has to train the three patients to harness their brain power. The two electrodes, the size of contact lenses, picked up signals from near the motor cortex.

Data from the World Health Organisation was used to look at the patterns of births over the last 50 years.
It was found significantly more boys were born in southern European countries than in central Europe or Nordic countries.
In the UK, the figures were 20,441,737 male births and 19,330,020 female births.
But in north America the reverse pattern was seen, with a low male to female ratio in Mexico, a higher ratio in the US, and a higher ratio still in Canada.
The male to female ratio for the total number of births in both central and southern Europe combined was significantly higher than for the US, even though both land masses spanned the same latitudes.
Writing in the BMJ, the research team’s leader, Dr Victor Grech, a paediatric consultant at St Luke’s Hospital said: “We are unable to explain these findings, which do not support a temperature related effect.”
Dr Ian Hardy, from the University of Nottingham, who has edited a book on sex ratios, told BBC News Online latitude could be a factor: “It certainly isn’t beyond all possibility that there is some sex ratio effect.”

The shuttle left its Florida launch pad right on schedule at 1438 EDT (1838 GMT) and roared skywards to the cheers of spectators.
The vehicle’s mission will take it to the International Space Station (ISS).
The shuttle flight is the first of 2006 and only the second since the catastrophic loss of the Columbia orbiter three years ago.
There was some concern among US space agency (Nasa) officials after several pieces of debris appeared to fall off the external fuel tank shortly after lift-off.
“About two minutes and 47 seconds, give or take, we saw three, perhaps four, pieces come off,” said Wayne Hale, the shuttle programme manager.
He added that it was unclear whether the objects were insulating foam or “something else”, but said it was too high to cause damage to the craft.