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A year to the day after Northern Ireland in a World Cup qualifier, Lawrie Sanchez should have been celebrating the team's biggest win for two decades. David Healey's hat-trick last night at Windsor Park secured a over Spain, and silenced the home team's detractors after their humiliating 3-0 defeat by Iceland last Saturday. But Sanchez's management decisions at the weekend earned him so much criticism, much of it entirely over the top, that he refused to turn up for the post-match press conference last night, and is declining all bids for an interview.

Kate Hoey MP, the former sports minister and a fanatical NI supporter, told us today that Lawrie Sanchez was coping with a family bereavement -- his mother-in-law's funeral is planned for tomorrow -- and he is entitled to some space. The difficulty he now faces is that, by not giving an interview, Sanchez has made himself, rather than the game, the story.

Some of the sports pundits I've talked to today sense the presence of a cover story, and now there is speculation that Sanchez may have talked to the IFA's Howard Wells about in the aftermath of Saturday's defeat. We're expecting to her more from the IFA, perhaps later this afternoon. So, I started the day on the radio asking: "Will he (talk) or won't he?" Now the question is: "Will he (walk) or won't he?" And they say a week is a long time in politics?

Speaking of which, Tony Blair says he's an avid football fan (though all politician's seem professionally required to make that claim). It looks like he may have time to attend a few more games in the near future. Jack Straw attempted a deflection this morning by assuring us that Blair's attendance later this month at the Labour Party's annual Conference will be . The Prime Minister is about to make a statement, in an effort to end the damaging public debate about when he plans to step down.

So it looks like Sanchez may not be talking because he's thinking of walking; while Blair is talking to avoid walking.