Latics lads wise to Theo’s class

THEO WALCOTT’S ascent to hero status with England won’t have been any surprise to Athletic duo Neal Eardley and Craig Davies.

They encountered the Arsenal starlet only four months ago while playing in an under-21 international for Wales.

Walcott earned rave reviews after the game in Wrexham, where his blistering pace had been a constant threat to Eardley and Co. in the Welsh defence.

He scored the second goal as England won 2-0 and has since, of course, gone on to bag a hat-trick for the full international side in Croatia.

Davies was a second-half substitute in May’s under-21 clash, while Eardley faced Walcott for 62 minutes.

Eardley said: “He played well and looked a very good player. And he was quick – very quick.”

England and Wales are set to renew their rivalry after being drawn together in the play-offs to reach the European Championships.

n ON the subject of speed, if you saw a bloke with Olympic sprinting prowess running around Boundary Park on Saturday . . . . that’s because he was a former Olympic sprinter.

The MK Dons fitness coach is Ade Mafe (pronounced Addi Maffi), who represented Great Britain at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

He also held the European Indoor 200 metre title and was a bronze medalist at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland.

Mafe is actually a reigning world record holder – in the rarely-run 4x200m relay. The mark he set with John Regis, Darren Braithwaite and Linford Christie has never been beaten.