Martins Antics A Disgrace!
Last updated : 13 April 2009 By Footy Mad - Editor
Never a man to tell the truth ... Martins has dropped himself in the shit once again ... missing the game on Saturday because of "a groin strain" when he had no signs of it leading up to the game.
This is the man who said "I feared for my life in a gun battle" at a Lagos petrol station when rifles were fired .... yet the police proved later he was TWENTY MILES AWAY at his mother's house!
Oh yes, he can tell a good tale can Oba ... but Saturday's incident was an absolute disgrace ... making Alan Shearer change his team plans just hours before the match with Stoke.
The day before Shearer said Martins could be a lethal weapon during the closing weeks of a difficult season.
Shearer: "He is a very different player to what Michael Owen brings.
"But what the opposition fear with Oba is they are not sure what he is going to do because at times, he probably doesn't know himself.
"You can take that as a negative or a positive, but he is a threat.
"He is good in the air, he can score great goals and we are going to need that every bit as much from him as we are Michael, as we are Shola, as we are Andy Carroll.
"We are going to need all those players firing on all cylinders."
And what does Martins do?
STOKE CITY: Sorensen, Wilkinson (Kelly 90), Shawcross, Abdoulaye Faye, Higginbotham, Lawrence, Delap, Whelan, Etherington (Pugh 80), Fuller, Beattie (Cresswell 73).
Subs Not Used: Simonsen, Olofinjana, Tonge, Sonko.
NEWCASTLE UNITED: Harper, Edgar, Bassong, Beye, Ryan Taylor, Guthrie (Gutierrez 63), Nolan, Butt, Duff, Owen, Ameobi (Carroll 70).
Subs Not Used: Krul, Coloccini, Smith, Geremi, Ranger.