These were just three of a multitude of questions asked on BBC Radio Five Live one evening this week as 606, the iconic football phone-in that spawned dozens of inferior imitations, made a welcome return to form under the stewardship of original host Danny Baker.

Having returned to the station during Euro 2008 to bring his usual irreverent mix of humour, opinion and football gossip to six editions of 606, Baker is back for an extended run on Tuesdays.

And this particular listener could not be happier as there may finally be hope for a format that has deteriorated from feisty debate to dull and humourless moans about the failings of a referee/manager/star player (delete as applicable).

I should state here that I am a huge fan of BBC's sports coverage on the radio, both locally and nationally, as it is the one area where the Corporation constantly delivers on its Public Service Broadcasting remit. Whether it be the Ryder Cup, Premier League football or Test cricket, their live coverage is unrivalled – as are weekly magazine shows such as Five Live's Monday Night club where football's burning issues are discussed in depth.

At a local level, the BBC may, like all sections of the media, have a fractious relationship with certain clubs or individuals from time to time but, again, there can be no doubt that supporters would be worse off if the coverage came to an end.

The one area where Auntie does fall down on its football coverage, however, is the radio phone-in format that has become bloated and one-dimensional.

The nadir for 606 may have come under David Mellor, the former Tory minister who once spent a Saturday afternoon ahead of a show supposedly dedicated to football at Twickenham watching rugby union, but things have improved only marginally since with the likes of Alan Green, Tim Lovejoy and Spoony rarely seeming to stray far from the 'what did you think of the game?' and 'are your boys going to stay up?' theme of questioning.

That was, however, until a week last Tuesday at 10pm when Baker made his long overdue return to the airwaves during the domestic season.

Straight away, he proved the value of intelligent questioning with the Millwall supporter having clearly lost none of his ability to coax the most outlandish of tales out of his listeners.

This week, for instance, his appeal at the start of the show for "an ode to the 12-year-old referee who awarded Watford that ridiculous goal last weekend" elicited a hugely amusing poem about Stuart Attwell.

Likewise, the call for people whose names sound like football teams brought not only suggestions such as Debbie County, Carl Lyle and Crystal Alice, but also a call from one Leeds fan who revealed his daughter was named Eleanor Rose after his club's home ground. Baker was then highly amused to hear how worried this fan had been when United looked like moving to the outskirts of the city to a proposed 'Nike Stadium' early in the Millennium.

Tuesday night's best moment, however, came when John from Liverpool called in response to the earlier appeal for any fans who had ever written a letter to a player.

It emerged that Mark Hateley had once been the only one of five strikers selected by John in an accumulator bet not to score on one particular Saturday, costing him £700 winnings in the process. Worst of all, Hateley had spurned an open goal to present a team-mate with his hat-trick goal in a 7-0 romp for Rangers.

Incensed, John duly wrote to the striker via Ibrox to point out how costly his generosity had been and enclosed his betting slip as proof.

Two weeks later, Hateley replied and enclosed a cheque by way of an apology but, even then, John was not overly happy as it was to cover just the £5 stake and not the £700 booty he had been hoping for – much to Baker's amusement.