JOHN Sheridan might be in the twilight of his career but he can still teach the youngsters a thing or two.

Alan Thompson for one!

Tommo took the accolades for keeping his cool to knock in the penalty winner against Sheffield Wednesday but he was quick to praise the elder statesman for his contribution to the long-awaited Wanderers win.

It was only Sheridan's third start of the season and, by his own admission, the Stretford-born Irish international would prefer to forget his first - the 5-1 home defeat by Coventry. But his performances against Liverpool and Wednesday in Scott Sellars' absence, have more than justified his inclusion in Colin Todd's survival squad.

"He's helped a lot since he came back into the side," Thompson said of his 33-year-old midfield partner.

"He tells you what to do, where to go, when you can go and when you can't. He's been a magnificent help to me."

Thompson's is a tribute that wouldn't have come as any surprise to Ron Atkinson who, on hearing of Sheridan's possible inclusion in Saturday's line-up, described him as "the best player I have ever worked with" and warned his Wednesday midfield of the threat he would pose if he played at the Reebok.

How much more of a part Sheridan plays will depend on whether Sellars can shake off the sciatica problem that has held up his return from suspension and, significantly, whether Todd decides to continue with the formation that worked so well on Saturday.

The manager played down the tactical triumph when he insisted: "It's not about systems, it's about players.

"I just picked the best 11 I had available and then looked at how I could get the best out of them. The credit goes to them."

Nevertheless, the formation based on three centre-backs enabled Neil Cox and Jimmy Phillips to become effective raiders in the true sense of the term 'wing-back' and with experience and endeavour alongside him in the shape of Sheridan and Per Frandsen, Thompson was given licence to get further forward - although things didn't go exactly according to plan to begin with.

"That was the idea," Thompson confirmed, "but I found myself going further and further back in the first half, tracking Atherton and Carbone. I felt I should have got forward a lot more but we did have our backs to the wall a little bit at times.

"But the front lads (Blake and Holdsworth) gave us a lift by grafting so hard and putting defenders under pressure, whether we had the ball or not; Deano especially. I thought he came good last week."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.