Marcus had a good week, with both QPR and Birmingham Ladies taking three points.
By Marcus Bignot. Friday, 03 December 2004.
Welcome to my weekly column, where I wax lyrical about my double life as a player for one team and a manager for another.
You'll be pleased to hear that Ian Holloway is back with us after his stay in hospital. He's back to his normal self, and it's a lot noisier around here. I don't know exactly what he had but, whatever it was, I hope it stays away.

Hopefully he's got over the worst of it, and is back to his enthusiastic self. He tried to talk two weeks of training into his first session, which he is quite capable of doing!
He's a character around the place, and when he came back it showed us how much we had missed him.
But the rest of the staff were excellent, and led us to a win over Cardiff - the perfect response to our Leeds loss. Tim Breacker took over the managing duties, and after the Cardiff win I'm tipping him to be the next West Ham manager - I reckon he's even applied for it.
Tim's got a bit of a manager's swagger about him after his week in charge. Mind you, there's not many people who can boast a 100 per cent record.
Seriously, it was a beautiful weekend. Winning 1-0 against Cardiff, then beating Liverpool

Ladies 6-0 on Sunday. Two wins in two days makes for a perfect weekend.
If you win on a Saturday, it puts you on a high but if you lose on Sunday, it takes a bit of the previous day away - and vice versa. The only way to have a perfect weekend is to win them both.
There's no way Tim or anybody else will oust me from Birmingham Ladies at the moment - I'm flying. We've won six on the trot, which means we only need to beat Bristol City this Sunday to equal QPR's best run this season.
Our victory over Liverpool last weekend was extremely satisfying. Now they know how QPR felt when we lost 6-1 to Leeds, and how the ladies felt when they lost 5-1 to Arsenal. Everyone gets the medicine someday or another. But the most important thing is how you respond.
The week after this is the League Cup semi final against Arsenal. It's a big one but the only problem is I miss the derby of the century - Birmingham v Aston Villa.

I'll stay up in the midlands from Friday, and meet the coach on the way to Nottingham Forest. And after that - I am a little embarrassed to say - it's home for X-Factor. It's coming into the final stages, and it's starting to draw me in.
I found some tenants for my flat in Birmingham. They are both in banking, at Barclays - he's a director or something, and she works there as well.
That has taken up a lot of my week. I've been getting furnishing for them, which was strange. I had to buy a load of furniture just to give to them. I hope they like my taste. Catch you next week.
QPR play Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Saturday at 3pm, and Birmingham Ladies play Bristol City at Solihull Borough on Sunday at 2pm.