MAKE a New Year wish - that is something my mum has said to me every year for as long as I can remem (From Warrington Guardian)

MAKE a New Year wish - that is something my mum has said to me every year for as long as I can remem

With Dave Lawrenson

My wishes have never revolved around the world of sport - watching and playing sport may be my main hobby but there are more important things in life than that!

But if I was to dedicate my New Year's desire to sport then what would it be?

As a passionate Red, the obvious choice would be to wish for Liverpool to win every piece of silverware going.

That would be a big ask, specially with many of Gerrard Houllier's muppets still playing for the team.

But my actual wish would be even more unrealistic.

For I would like, more than anything else in sporting terms, for the Press to lay off Tim Henman when the inevitable happens and he crashes out of Wimbledon.

The abuse he suffered last year when he failed to make the semifinals was nothing short of a disgrace.

You would have thought that he'd urinated all over the Queen's quarters at Buckingham Palace judging by some of the over-the-top comments I read about him in the broadsheets.

Accusing him of committing a crime against Britain merely because he lost a tennis match is nonsensical.

After all, he lost to a better player. Don't get me wrong, I think that Tim Henman is a top class tennis performer.

He is the best tennis player we've had for many, many years but he is not good enough to win Wimbledon and I don't think he ever will be.

There are several players better than Henman and age is no longer on his side so why he is expected to win a Grand Slam on English turf is beyond me.

All the Press can ask of him is that he gives his all every year and that is something that Henman has always done.

The grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis Club brings out the best in him and he should be proud of his Wimbledon record.

To have reached four Wimbeldon semi-finals is no mean feat, specially for a player with few lethal weapons.

His volleying and touch at the net are exceptional but beyond that he does not pose much of a threat to genuine world class stars like Roger Federer and Layton Hewitt.

Henman can only dream of reaching their standard of play and you have to feel sorry for him.

He comes across as being a really nice guy. He conducts himself like a true English gent both on and off the court but that does not stop the national Press from subjecting him to vicious personal attacks.

They love nothing more than building sports stars up and then knocking them down.

As a result, Tiger Tim becomes Toothless Tim as soon as he's eliminated and it makes me sick.

Henman is on a hiding to nothing every year and I admire him for not losing heart.

Because if I was in his shoes I'd be sorely tempted to pull out of Wimbeldon every year with a phantom injury.

May be that's the only way for him to avoid being called a loser and a gutless choker by sensationalist so-called journalists.