I was absolutely delighted to see Paul Kitson come off the bench to score the winner against Reading last week.

If anyone needed a goal to give themselves a bit of a boost it was him.

He has been so unlucky with injuries, not just at Brighton, but at his old club West Ham as well.

Some players are more prone to getting injured than others, just look at people like Darren Anderton who is nicknamed 'sick note'.

There used to be a player called Tommy Jackson who played for Manchester United and Northern Ireland and he had a physio bed named after him at Old Trafford because he was on it so often.

These players get injured because either their bodies cannot take the physical demands put upon it or because of the way they play the game.

Look at Bryan Robson when he was playing. He got so many injuries because he was fully committed. He paid the price because he missed so many games but that was the way he was.

You cannot think about getting injured when you are playing otherwise you would go mad. I used to put my foot and head in where it hurt a lot, but that was how I had been brought up to play the game.

I used to play a lot of Gaelic football and hurling when I was in Ireland and they were real tough games, soccer was just seen as a nancy sport. Once you'd had a few hurling sticks across your legs, going in for a tackle in football didn't seem so bad.

Injuries are what you dread the most as a player but you cannot foresee them so there is nothing anyone can do to stop them happening.

The longest I was out was 12 weeks when I broke a leg playing for Watford. It came just a few months after the 1982 World Cup where I played some of the best football I had ever played.

There was nothing I could do apart from accept it as part of the game and get on with it.

That is what Kitson has been doing and he just needs a bit of a run in the team to prove he can get over his problems.

He has been in and out of the side for so long, he must have thought he would never play again this season. Psychologically, that is hard on a player and hopefully the goal against Reading will go a long way to helping him build some lost confidence.

He will now be thinking he can score which is a massive boost for Albion. But he needs to avoid getting injured and unfortunately that is the one thing which is out of his control.

I was commentating on the Champions League games in the week for the ESPN television channel which was being beamed live to over 500 million people.

It is shown across countries such as Singapore, China, Hong Kong and they were all treated to some top class football.

From the start, I said Real Madrid would win it and from the way they played against Manchester United, I have no reason to change my mind.

It doesn't take a genius to see why they are so good, all you have to do is take a look at their team sheet.

Figo, Zidane and Raul were all on the top of their game, while some of the United players froze. I thought Ryan Giggs and David Beckham had poor games and only Ruud van Nistelrooy lived up to his reputation.

United have it all to do in the second leg and I think they will need to score four to win it because Real always get goals. They would have to play a lot better than they did and without Paul Scholes, who is suspended, it looks very unlikely they will go through.

Barcelona will also make it to the semi-finals after they managed to draw 1-1 with Juventus. I was disappointed with the way the Italians played, they were very negative and wanted to sit back and defend their lead.

That negativity seems to be ingrained in the Italians' mentality and separates them from the English and the Spanish, who both have a more positive approach.

Barcelona will definitely win the second leg at the Nou Camp and they could be joined by Valencia who only lost by a single goal away to Inter Milan. There could be three Spanish teams out of four in the semi-finals which goes to show just how strong the league in Spain is.

Gerard Houllier will need to take a long look at the Liverpool team over the summer to make sure there is no repeat of this season.

They have been so disappointing and summed it up last week when they lost 4-0 against Manchester United, who were a different class.

When you look at the individual players they have there is a base for a great team but there is also something wrong and I think it stems back to Mr Houllier.

They are a very one dimensional team and play a lot of long balls. I didn't think I would ever be calling Liverpool a long ball side but that is what they have become. They just seem to play it up for Emile Heskey's head or over the top for Michael Owen to chase.

They are desperately short of wide players and I bet Houllier is kicking himself he did not buy Damien Duff when he had the chance last year. They bought the boy Diouf who was known for his goals in Senegal but he has played on the right wing which is very strange.

The buck has to stop with Houllier, because he is the one who bought the players and he is the one who decides what system to play and it is not working.

I don't think he would ever get the sack because Liverpool are a patient club and he has done a lot for them. But I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to move upstairs in a couple of seasons if things are still not quite right.

The releasing of Jean Tigana as Fulham manager was a disgrace. Mohamed Al Fayed seems to have forgotten where the club were just a couple of years ago.

He has been clouded by his ambition and cannot see it was the wrong decision.

They are a club without a home, with not much support and with not the biggest budget and I think Tigana has done a very good job in getting them where they are.

He will not be out of work for long though. There is a job going at Paris Saint Germain in the summer and I wouldn't surprised to see him end up there, while Fulham battle with relegation.