I’m just up at St Andrews, we’ve had a couple of training days, it’s just a get-together, there has been no game but the manager wanted all the players together again and to see each other again after the summer. It has been a good couple of days.

The manager wanted certain opposition but after the World Cup a lot of the bigger countries didn’t want a game so early, the games that he could have got he didn’t see as being beneficial to us, he thought it would be better to get the lads together and have a training session.

It is going to be tough. We’ve got the two World Cup finalists in our group as well as the Ukraine and a couple of other teams that will give us tough tests. We know what is expected of us but we have picked up some good results against some decent teams since the new manager has taken over. We’ve done ok in the last group so obviously we want to try and qualify for the Euros.

It is always a great occasion to be playing the bigger countries. I remember playing Italy last year, we got a draw against them and we were a bit disappointed with that to be honest, they went on to win the World Cup. On your day if you stick together and believe that you can get the result then nothing is impossible.

Gutted is an understatement, I was really disappointed with the red card, I don’t think I deserved it, I thought it was a booking at the most. The way everyone reacted and with it being away at Norwich, the referee was quite weak throughout the game, I think I was a victim of circumstance but it was myself that put myself in that position so I blame myself a little bit, I’m not totally blameless but I thought that it only warranted a yellow and I am disappointed that it wasn’t rescinded.

I’m not going to blame anyone for it, it goes on in football and it has done for a few years now. Players always react to situations and I think that referees have to be stronger and just look at the challenge rather than all the hoo-haa afterwards, in different circumstances with that challenge I don’t think I’d have got a red card. I just think it all added up and got me sent-off.

I let my team down in that game, not so much in that match because it was over at that stage but I will be missing for the three games at a time when we have got a few injuries. I have to say though that the lads did brilliantly at Wolves, it was a great result and they did well.

The last few years I have been ok but when I was younger I used to get a few suspensions over a season, but that was my fifth sending-off and I think that it has been kept quite quiet, to be honest they have been five travesties!

I watched the game against Wolves, it took us a while to get into the game but once Nuge scored I thought that there was only going to be one winner to be honest. The confidence grew in our team and drained out of theirs at the same time, two fantastic strikes from Nuge and then Simon finished it off at the end.

Mick McCarthy was a big competitor as a player and he’s the same as a manger, we’ve seen that with the games we have had against Sunderland. We probably played them at a good time because he has only been there two or three weeks and I’m sure he will get them going, but it is about what we do and you have to beat what is put in front of you and we got the three points which is what we needed.

With what had gone on over the summer and the first two games not going our way. We should have won against Sheffield Wednesday but we can’t really complain about the Norwich result, we needed to get a win to get the confidence going, we did that and now everybody is looking forward to the weekend and getting more points on the board.

You want to see the big games and you want to see the players who have done well in the World Cup, you want to see the world stars like Shevchenko and Ballack and see how they get on. Even though you are not involved in it it is good to go home, watch Match of the Day on a Saturday and take it all in.

Claude’s injured at the moment but I was speaking to Christian Dailly about Tye and he has said that he has done well in pre-season and might be playing. Hopefully he does because Tye is a good player, a good lad and he deserves his chance. Hopefully he will play for West Ham and get a few games.

After the World Cup tips that I gave you, I said that Michael Owen would be top scorer and Brazil would win so I think my days as a tipster are over.