Hello everyone! Long time no speak, but as you can see in the title, I have apologised for being such a terrible person. All I can say is that I accept all your loathing and endeavour to move on with things this week. Do you know what's pathetic? I haven't done a blog post since 17th September. That is stunningly absent-minded, but all I can say is that I have been very busy with work and my new post as Ponthir 2nd's Match Reporter (www.ponthirafc.co.uk incase you fancy checking out those match reports) so I only hope you'll tune back into the blog from this week onwards.
So this week I caught just one of the Barclays Premier League matches, but fortunately, it was the best one of the weekend as Liverpool took on Chelsea at Anfield yesterday afternoon. I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking Liverpool would surely be in for an absolute hiding from a Chelsea side who have been dominating English football this season. They did however throw a surprise into the line-up as Drogba was told he would not start, but would instead play from the bench. Despite the non-presence of my blog (I'm sorry I haven't got a really good jounalist-y word for that one yet) we all know Liverpool have been struggling in the early part of this season and that Fernando Torres has been ridiculously under-par. Cometh the hour, cometh the man then as Torres finished a wonderful move in the 11th minute to send Anfield into delighted applause. Dirk Kuyt lifted the ball over the Chelsea defence for Torres who cushioned the ball with his first touch, and then powered the ball past Pepe Reina into the net. That was an absolutely stunning start and Chelsea looked shell-shocked as they hadn't really got going against their illustrious opponents. As the first half drew to a close, Torres once again thought he would underline his return to form with a stunning turn inside the Blues defence and smashed the ball back across the goal past the outstretched hand of Petr Cech. This seemed to totally deflate the Premier League champions and even the introduction of Didier Drogba at half-time didn't spark them into life and they couldn't fashion any chances against a resolute Liverpool defence meaning that Anfield could celebrate a fantastic victory against the biggest of the big four teams. That victory also means Manchester United close to within just 2 points of their biggest rivals after their late, late win against Wolverhampton Wanderers. The full classified results from last weekend's Premier League matches is as follows then:
Birmingham City 2-2 West Ham United
Blackburn Rovers 2-1 Wigan Athletic
Blackpool 2-2 Everton
Bolton Wanderers 4-2 Tottenham Hotspurs
Fulham 1-1 Aston Villa
Manchester United 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Sunderland 2-0 Stoke City
Arsenal 0-1 Newcastle United
West Brom Albion 0-2 Manchester City
Liverpool 2-0 Chelsea
The big, big game of the weekend in the Championship was of course, the South Wales derby. Cardiff City, sitting second in the table, took on their arch rivals Swansea City, sitting third, but 6 points behind Cardiff, in the table. This was perhaps the biggest derby of recent history, and both clubs were desperate to win in order to give their promotion chances that added boost that comes when you win against your hated rivals. As a Swansea fan, I think it was obvious which team I wanted to win Sunday lunchtime. We have never ever won at the Cardiff City Stadium, but after an absolutely stunning performance, we came away with a 1-0 win courtesy of loanee Marvin Emnes' second league goal in just 4 league games. I have to say, we were absolutely stunning with the midfield of Joe Allen, Andrea Orlandi and Mark Gower breaking up play at every opportunity and spreading the ball fantastically to the forward 3 of Nathan Dyer, the previously mentioned Emnes and our brilliant new winger Scott Sinclair. Cardiff barely showed up, and the chances that they did create were either fluffed by Craig Bellamy or fantastically defended by the away side. I have to say, I think the performance was one of the best I have ever seen from Swansea, and the result was absolutely fantastic for us as it closes that gap between us and Cardiff to just 3 points and also puts us 5 ahead of 4th place. I know this seems harsh on Cardiff, but I think most of their fans will tell you they were absolutely useless yesterday, but I also think they will be promoted at the end of the season, hopefully alongside Swansea City. Time for the full round-up of Championship games then:
Barnsley 0-2 Leicester City
Bristol City 1-1 Preston North End
Coventry City 2-3 Leeds United
Derby County 2-0 Portsmouth
Doncaster Rovers 2-1 Millwall
Hull City 0-1 Scunthorpe United
Middlesbrough 2-1 Crystal Palace
Norwich City 2-2 Burnley
Queens Park Rangers 3-1 Reading
Sheffield United 1-2 Ipswich Town
Watford 1-1 Nottingham Forest
Cardiff City 0-1 Swansea City
Usually, we have a look at League One and Two here. I say usually because this week those teams were in FA Cup action and so didn't take to the field in their respective leagues. I know that Newport County lost 2-1 against Barrow in the Conference and so they're out of the promotion places at the moment. That's unlucky for them, but I expect them to bounce back sooner or later as Dean Saunders isn't the sort of guy who will let his team get slack when they are so close to the League system once again.
That's all for this week guys, and once again, I'm soooo sorry I haven't been at the races recently. I will be alot better from now on I promise. See you soon guys!
Monday, 8 November 2010
Friday, 17 September 2010
Mid-week Championship report
I had planned to do a Championship blog after the mid-week games, but it sort of got to the point where I didn't have alot to say as I hadn't seen much/any of the highlights. I will endeavour to give you something though as obviously this is the league my very team is in and I'd feel terrible if I didn't report every game they played in.
So mid-week, Swansea City were looking to recover from the away loss last weekend at Leeds United. Fortunately for us, we were at home against Coventry City. The reason being at home was fortunate for us was because we hadn't lost at home this season going into the game and pretty soon, it looked like that record was set to continue as Darren Pratley beat keeper Kieran Westwood with a header from a corner. Obviously it was nice to have him back in the squad after his suspension, and he showed his worth even further in the second half as his strike came back off the post for Scott Sinclair to tap in and extend the Swans' advantage. In the 56th minute, the Swans then conceded the first goal at home of the season as Ben Turner lashed in from a corner after Dorus De Vries made a decent save and once again none of the Swansea defenders reacted, much like Bradley Johnson's goal for Leeds against us last Saturday. We were able to hold on and keep our 100% home record and in a nice twist, we play Scunthorpe, who smashed 4 past Sheffield United on Tuesday, at home tomorrow and so hopefully we can keep that fantastic home record going for a little longer and then improve our stuttering away form next week. All that leaves for me to do is to summarise the mid-week scores from the Championship then:
Barnsley 5-2 Leeds United
Bristol City 0-2 Watford
Crystal Palace 4-1 Portsmouth
Doncaster Rovers 3-1 Norwich City
Hull City 2-0 Derby County
Ipswich Town 0-3 Queens Park Rangers
Leicester City 2-1 Cardiff City
Middlesborough 2-1 Burnley
Milwall 0-0 Reading
Preston North End 1-2 Nottingham Forest
Sheffield United 0-4 Scunthorpe United
Swansea City 2-1 Coventry
Right then guys, I hope you all have a fantastic weekend. I'll watch as much football as possible and bring you as brilliant a blog as I possibly can either Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, depending on when the games finish and also if I can do it Monday night before falling asleep. Hope you all enjoy your team's exploits this weekend. See you later
So mid-week, Swansea City were looking to recover from the away loss last weekend at Leeds United. Fortunately for us, we were at home against Coventry City. The reason being at home was fortunate for us was because we hadn't lost at home this season going into the game and pretty soon, it looked like that record was set to continue as Darren Pratley beat keeper Kieran Westwood with a header from a corner. Obviously it was nice to have him back in the squad after his suspension, and he showed his worth even further in the second half as his strike came back off the post for Scott Sinclair to tap in and extend the Swans' advantage. In the 56th minute, the Swans then conceded the first goal at home of the season as Ben Turner lashed in from a corner after Dorus De Vries made a decent save and once again none of the Swansea defenders reacted, much like Bradley Johnson's goal for Leeds against us last Saturday. We were able to hold on and keep our 100% home record and in a nice twist, we play Scunthorpe, who smashed 4 past Sheffield United on Tuesday, at home tomorrow and so hopefully we can keep that fantastic home record going for a little longer and then improve our stuttering away form next week. All that leaves for me to do is to summarise the mid-week scores from the Championship then:
Barnsley 5-2 Leeds United
Bristol City 0-2 Watford
Crystal Palace 4-1 Portsmouth
Doncaster Rovers 3-1 Norwich City
Hull City 2-0 Derby County
Ipswich Town 0-3 Queens Park Rangers
Leicester City 2-1 Cardiff City
Middlesborough 2-1 Burnley
Milwall 0-0 Reading
Preston North End 1-2 Nottingham Forest
Sheffield United 0-4 Scunthorpe United
Swansea City 2-1 Coventry
Right then guys, I hope you all have a fantastic weekend. I'll watch as much football as possible and bring you as brilliant a blog as I possibly can either Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, depending on when the games finish and also if I can do it Monday night before falling asleep. Hope you all enjoy your team's exploits this weekend. See you later
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
Another weekend full of fantastic action...for some of you!
Hello everyone. I'm pretty sure everyone's comfortable with the format of this blog by now so all that's left to do before we get down to it is...well nothing really. How was the international break for you all? As a Welshman, I was left without any football (because what we play internationally can't be called football technically) and so I was so glad when it returned last weekend. I was at Elland Road this past Saturday and so I didn't see the game of the weekend, or what seems like it, at Goodison Park.
I did however see two Premier League games over the weekend and so I'll take you through those first before we carry on. The first game of the weekend that I saw was at St Andrews where Birmingham City took on Liverpool on Sky's Super Sunday coverage. The undoubted star of the match was Liverpool's Pepe Reina who made a succession of fine saves from Birmingham's players. Other than that, it was quite a drab match and the performance's of Liverpool's star players Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres will not inspire the fans of the Merseyside club much, whereas Birmingham will be highly enthused by their general play and indeed the results that that play is bringing them. Another plus for the Midlands club is that the draw at St Andrew's extends an unbeaten run at home dating all the way back to September last year.
That first match was very drab unfortunately and so I was hoping the 2nd Premier League game of the weekend, Monday night's encounter between Stoke City and Aston Villa at the Britannia Stadium, would be a little more entertaining. Pointless Stoke must've been eyeing up this fixture as the game where they'd finally be able to make their mark in this Premier League season as they have a good record of beating Villa at home. Despite this, it was Aston Villa who took the lead when Stewart Downing headed in a brilliant Gabby Agbonlahor cross after it had wrong-footed Robert Huth. For a man not known for his heading abilities, it was actually a pretty decent header back across Thomas Sorensen and into the corner. It had actually been a very good start from the home team who must've felt down on their luck being a goal down at half-time, but that is what happened. The problem for Stoke was that they didn't start the second half particularly brightly and really looked like they might capitulate completely. However, in the 79th minute, Matthew Etherington got to the bye-line and clipped a brilliant cross into Kenwyne Jones who headed home excellently past Brad Friedel to give the Potters hope of not only salvaging a single point, but also the chance to go on and score a second which, incredibly, they managed to do in the 93rd minute as Robert Huth turned in Matthew Etherington's wayward drive. Spark scenes of absolute jubilation at the Britannia and for Stoke, it does enough to alleviate the pressure on manager Tony Pulis whilst also pulling them slightly out of trouble ahead of their match with pointless West Ham United next weekend. For Aston Villa, they must still be in shock that they haven't at least got a point from last nights game. Full Premier League results are as follows:
Arsenal 4-1 Bolton Wanderers
Everton 3-3 Manchester United
Fulham 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Manchester City 1-1 Blackburn Rovers
Newcastle United 0-2 Blackpool
West Bromwich Albion 1-1 Tottenham Hotspurs
West Ham United 1-3 Chelsea
Wigan Athletic 1-1 Sunderland
Birmingham City 0-0 Liverpool
Stoke City 2-1 Aston Villa
As I said in the pre-amble, last Saturday I was at Elland Road to watch my team play against Leeds United. As was expected at Elland Road, Leeds came quickly out of the blocks and had quite a few chances early on which I though was quite bad for a defence that was second to only the champions Newcastle United last season. However, after 13 minutes, Swansea took the lead totally against the run of play as a long ball forward was missed by Richard Naylor and Stephen Dobbie ran onto it and tucked it away under Leeds goalkeeper Higgs. Soon after, Swansea actually had a chance to double their lead as Scott Sinclair ran through totally unchallenged only to stumble into Higgs and waste a glorious opportunity for Swansea. Leeds went into half-time 1-0 down but still in the game as Swansea still hadn't turned themselves into the dominant side. Leeds did, however, turn it around completely in 8 second half minutes as first Bradley Johnson capitalised on some poor Swansea defending, and then Luciano Becchio did the same as Dorus De Vries could only palm it back to the Leeds attackers after they had 3 shots on goal. It was hard to take for me after De Vries' brillaint performances last season, but I suppose the fact that a new coach has come in is bound to change things slightly. One could argue that Joe Allen should've had a penalty as he was felled in the Leeds box towards the end of the game, but the simple fact is that we weren't good enough on Saturday, as has been the case much of the time away from home this season. Cardiff were facing another new Championship side on Saturday as they took on relegated Hull City at Cardiff City Stadium. As part of his loan deal, Seyi Olofinjana was allowed to play against his parent club and he scored the first of Cardiff's 2 goals with Gavin Rae getting the second in the second half. In all fairness to Cardiff, they dominated the game against Swansea's opening day conquerors and truly deserved their win. There is more League football tonight so there will be another post before Saturday regarding the Football League. Full Championship results were:
Burnley 4-3 Preston North End
Cardiff City 2-0 Hull City
Coventry 1-1 Leicester City
Derby County 0-1 Sheffield United
Leeds United 2-1 Swansea City
Norwich City 2-1 Barnsely
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Millwall
Portsmouth 0-0 Ipswich Town
Queens Park Rangers 3-0 Middlesborough
Reading 3-0 Crystal Palace
Scunthorpe United 0-2 Bristol City
Watford 2-2 Doncaster Rovers
I have once again neglected League One and League Two again but luckily under my new format, all the scores are recorded on here. League One scores were:
Bournemouth 3-0 Dagenham & Redbridge
Brighton and Hove Albion 2-0 Milton Keynes Dons
Bristol Rovers 0-0 Brentford
Charlton Athletic 1-0 Notts County
Colchester United 1-1 Plymouth Argyle
Hartlepool United 2-3 Exeter City
Leyton Orient 1-2 Huddersfield Town
Peterborough United 5-2 Oldham Athletic
Rochdale 3-2 Walsall
Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Carlisle United
Swindon Town 1-0 Southampton
Yeovil Town 3-1 Tranmere
And the League Two scores were:
Cheltenham Town 1-0 Stevenage
Crewe Alxeandra 3-0 Bury
Gillingham Town 2-0 Shrewsbury United
Hereford United 0-2 Oxford United
Lincoln City 1-0 Barnet
Morecambe 1-1 Chesterfield
Northampton Town 2-1 Southend United
Port Vale 1-0 Aldershot Town
Rotherham United 3-3 Burton Albion
Stockport County 1-1 Bradford
Torquay United 0-0 Accrington Stanley
Wycombe Wanderers 1-2 Macclesfield
My usual bumph about Newport County then at the end of the post. Since we've been on a break, they've played two games. One of them was a Welsh derby at Newport Stadium and the other was an away trip to Rushden & Diamonds. In all fairness, they'd have to be happy with the 4 points attained from those games as they battled back superbly to draw 1-1 with Wrexham and then Craig Reid struck on Saturday to give them an away win against R&D which is mightily impressive to say the least.
Now then I am off to watch some Champions League football, namely Spurs v Werder Bremen and also get on BBC's live updates of Swansea v Coventry. I'll see you either tomorrow or Thursday with a post about tonight's league action. Thanks for reading guys. It means alot that people still read this blog and I'm thankful to you all. Bye then
I did however see two Premier League games over the weekend and so I'll take you through those first before we carry on. The first game of the weekend that I saw was at St Andrews where Birmingham City took on Liverpool on Sky's Super Sunday coverage. The undoubted star of the match was Liverpool's Pepe Reina who made a succession of fine saves from Birmingham's players. Other than that, it was quite a drab match and the performance's of Liverpool's star players Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres will not inspire the fans of the Merseyside club much, whereas Birmingham will be highly enthused by their general play and indeed the results that that play is bringing them. Another plus for the Midlands club is that the draw at St Andrew's extends an unbeaten run at home dating all the way back to September last year.
That first match was very drab unfortunately and so I was hoping the 2nd Premier League game of the weekend, Monday night's encounter between Stoke City and Aston Villa at the Britannia Stadium, would be a little more entertaining. Pointless Stoke must've been eyeing up this fixture as the game where they'd finally be able to make their mark in this Premier League season as they have a good record of beating Villa at home. Despite this, it was Aston Villa who took the lead when Stewart Downing headed in a brilliant Gabby Agbonlahor cross after it had wrong-footed Robert Huth. For a man not known for his heading abilities, it was actually a pretty decent header back across Thomas Sorensen and into the corner. It had actually been a very good start from the home team who must've felt down on their luck being a goal down at half-time, but that is what happened. The problem for Stoke was that they didn't start the second half particularly brightly and really looked like they might capitulate completely. However, in the 79th minute, Matthew Etherington got to the bye-line and clipped a brilliant cross into Kenwyne Jones who headed home excellently past Brad Friedel to give the Potters hope of not only salvaging a single point, but also the chance to go on and score a second which, incredibly, they managed to do in the 93rd minute as Robert Huth turned in Matthew Etherington's wayward drive. Spark scenes of absolute jubilation at the Britannia and for Stoke, it does enough to alleviate the pressure on manager Tony Pulis whilst also pulling them slightly out of trouble ahead of their match with pointless West Ham United next weekend. For Aston Villa, they must still be in shock that they haven't at least got a point from last nights game. Full Premier League results are as follows:
Arsenal 4-1 Bolton Wanderers
Everton 3-3 Manchester United
Fulham 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Manchester City 1-1 Blackburn Rovers
Newcastle United 0-2 Blackpool
West Bromwich Albion 1-1 Tottenham Hotspurs
West Ham United 1-3 Chelsea
Wigan Athletic 1-1 Sunderland
Birmingham City 0-0 Liverpool
Stoke City 2-1 Aston Villa
As I said in the pre-amble, last Saturday I was at Elland Road to watch my team play against Leeds United. As was expected at Elland Road, Leeds came quickly out of the blocks and had quite a few chances early on which I though was quite bad for a defence that was second to only the champions Newcastle United last season. However, after 13 minutes, Swansea took the lead totally against the run of play as a long ball forward was missed by Richard Naylor and Stephen Dobbie ran onto it and tucked it away under Leeds goalkeeper Higgs. Soon after, Swansea actually had a chance to double their lead as Scott Sinclair ran through totally unchallenged only to stumble into Higgs and waste a glorious opportunity for Swansea. Leeds went into half-time 1-0 down but still in the game as Swansea still hadn't turned themselves into the dominant side. Leeds did, however, turn it around completely in 8 second half minutes as first Bradley Johnson capitalised on some poor Swansea defending, and then Luciano Becchio did the same as Dorus De Vries could only palm it back to the Leeds attackers after they had 3 shots on goal. It was hard to take for me after De Vries' brillaint performances last season, but I suppose the fact that a new coach has come in is bound to change things slightly. One could argue that Joe Allen should've had a penalty as he was felled in the Leeds box towards the end of the game, but the simple fact is that we weren't good enough on Saturday, as has been the case much of the time away from home this season. Cardiff were facing another new Championship side on Saturday as they took on relegated Hull City at Cardiff City Stadium. As part of his loan deal, Seyi Olofinjana was allowed to play against his parent club and he scored the first of Cardiff's 2 goals with Gavin Rae getting the second in the second half. In all fairness to Cardiff, they dominated the game against Swansea's opening day conquerors and truly deserved their win. There is more League football tonight so there will be another post before Saturday regarding the Football League. Full Championship results were:
Burnley 4-3 Preston North End
Cardiff City 2-0 Hull City
Coventry 1-1 Leicester City
Derby County 0-1 Sheffield United
Leeds United 2-1 Swansea City
Norwich City 2-1 Barnsely
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Millwall
Portsmouth 0-0 Ipswich Town
Queens Park Rangers 3-0 Middlesborough
Reading 3-0 Crystal Palace
Scunthorpe United 0-2 Bristol City
Watford 2-2 Doncaster Rovers
I have once again neglected League One and League Two again but luckily under my new format, all the scores are recorded on here. League One scores were:
Bournemouth 3-0 Dagenham & Redbridge
Brighton and Hove Albion 2-0 Milton Keynes Dons
Bristol Rovers 0-0 Brentford
Charlton Athletic 1-0 Notts County
Colchester United 1-1 Plymouth Argyle
Hartlepool United 2-3 Exeter City
Leyton Orient 1-2 Huddersfield Town
Peterborough United 5-2 Oldham Athletic
Rochdale 3-2 Walsall
Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Carlisle United
Swindon Town 1-0 Southampton
Yeovil Town 3-1 Tranmere
And the League Two scores were:
Cheltenham Town 1-0 Stevenage
Crewe Alxeandra 3-0 Bury
Gillingham Town 2-0 Shrewsbury United
Hereford United 0-2 Oxford United
Lincoln City 1-0 Barnet
Morecambe 1-1 Chesterfield
Northampton Town 2-1 Southend United
Port Vale 1-0 Aldershot Town
Rotherham United 3-3 Burton Albion
Stockport County 1-1 Bradford
Torquay United 0-0 Accrington Stanley
Wycombe Wanderers 1-2 Macclesfield
My usual bumph about Newport County then at the end of the post. Since we've been on a break, they've played two games. One of them was a Welsh derby at Newport Stadium and the other was an away trip to Rushden & Diamonds. In all fairness, they'd have to be happy with the 4 points attained from those games as they battled back superbly to draw 1-1 with Wrexham and then Craig Reid struck on Saturday to give them an away win against R&D which is mightily impressive to say the least.
Now then I am off to watch some Champions League football, namely Spurs v Werder Bremen and also get on BBC's live updates of Swansea v Coventry. I'll see you either tomorrow or Thursday with a post about tonight's league action. Thanks for reading guys. It means alot that people still read this blog and I'm thankful to you all. Bye then
Friday, 3 September 2010
Another belated post
I can only apologise for the fact that this is once again belated. I've been awfully busy and so I'm sure you can appreciate the fact that I haven't been able to find the time to do it again. As usual, we'll have my 2 featured games in each division followed by a round-up of the scores from each league. I also will give my usual tell of Newport County's score.
So we start as usual at the top. The Premier League entered it's 3rd week last weekend and the first match of the weekend I witnessed was Blackburn-Arsenal at Ewood Park, a fixture renowned for being feisty and controversial in previous seasons and afer Arsenal's brilliance the previous weekend there was surely no way that this match could disappoint. Theo Walcott answered his critics in the finest fashion with his hat-trick in the 6-0 demolition of Blackpool continued his fine performance as he slammed Arsenal into a 1-0 lead from an acute angle, once again showing his critics what he is made of. It was a brilliant finish from the England and Arsenal winger and a finish that has too seldom been seen from the player when he has been on international duty, but can he now impress on that stage after his early performances this season. Soon after, El Hadji Diouf was set down the left wing after a brilliant pass from Christopher Samba and he squared across goal for new Blackburn loanee Mame Biram Diouf to slot into the net which meant that the home side went in at half time level with their London rivals. As usual then, this game was turning out to be a brilliantly pulsating game in which both teams looked like they could win. Arsenal were the team who came out on top after Andrey Arshavin struck into the Blackburn net to give his side a 2-1 lead. That was fairly early in the second half but it was effectively the end of the game as both teams cancelled each other out in the later stages. Overall, it was a brilliant game, and the win meant that Arsenal went top, for a few hours at least.
The second game that I saw live in the the Premier League last weekend was from the Reebok Stadium as Bolton Wanderers took on Birmingham City. Most avid followers of the Premier League would've been looking at this match as an almost guaranteed Birmingham win, though some will have been bright enough to notice the stat that Alex McCleish had never beaten his former employee Owen Coyle and so on paper, it could've gone either way. It was perhaps a surprise then when Birmingham took an early lead, after just 5 minutes of play, as Cameron Jerome's touch across goal was tapped in by Roger Johnson, the defender who had been bought from Cardiff just over a year ago scoring his first ever goal for the club and making the task all the more difficult for Mr Coyle. The game the took an even worse turn for Bolton as veteran goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen stood up and slapped Roger Johnson after the Birmingham defender has made a particularly heavy challenge on the Finn, although when both got to their feet, it did look like Johnson was trying to apologise to him and so perhaps the veteran should've used his knowledge of the game a bit more. After half-time, Cameron Jerome then headed across goal for Craig Gardner, the hero the previous weekend against Blackburn to tap into the net and make it 2-0 to McCleish's Birmingham and the Scotsman must've believed he finally had the better of Owen Coyle. Just 20 minutes later, Kevin Davies backed into Johnson who allegedly fouled the Bolton striker allowing him to score from the spot and bring Coyle's Bolton back into the match with 19 minutes left to play. What was Coyle's next move then? Well, he immediately bought on Robbie Blake to give Bolton more of an attacking threat up front and try to salvage something from the seemingly impossible task. It took moments for the former Burnley man to make his mark as he stepped up in the 81st minute and take a free-kick, which he promptly smashed into the top corner to level things up in the later stages of the match at the Reebok. Not only did this mean that Bolton took a point that they hadn't looked like getting, but it also meant that the unwanted statistic still hangs over Alex McCleish. He has STILL never beaten Owen Coyle. Full Premier League results then:
Blackburn Rovers 1-2 Arsenal
Blackpool 2-2 Fulham
Chelsea 2-0 Stoke City
Manchester United 3-0 West Ham United
Tottenham 0-1 Wigan Athletic
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 Newcastle United
Aston Villa 1-0 Everton
Bolton Wanderers 2-2 Birmingham City
Liverpool 1-0 West Bromwich Albion
Sunderland 1-0 Manchester City
Last weekend in the Championship, the two Welsh sides came up against two former Premier League clubs as Cardiff City visited relegated Portsmouth and Swansea City hosted relegated Burnley. Let's look at the game at the Liberty first then. As early as 8 minutes, Swansea had taken the lead as summer signing Scott Sinclair scored his first league goal for the club and diminished hopes of a Burnley walkover. That was pretty much the main and only incident of this game as Burnley failed to score to bring themselves into the game, and Swansea failed to extend their lead further. Both teams did however have a man sent off and it was in pretty quick succession as first Darren Pratley picked up his 2nd booking, and then Tyrone Mears earned his for a disgraceful challenge on Nathan Dyer. And Cardiff managed to complete what was a brilliant day for the Welsh clubs as they earned a 2-0 away victory at Fratton Park against a team who had beaten them in an FA Cup Final jus 2 years earlier. So in what was a great weekend for the Welsh clubs, lets take a look at the classified results for the Championship:
Barnsley 2-0 Middlesborough
Derby County 2-2 Queens Park Rangers
Doncaster Rovers 3-1 Hull City
Ipswich Town 2-0 Bristol City
Leicester City 1-2 Reading
Milwall 3-1 Coventry City
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Norwich City
Portsmouth 0-2 Cardiff City
Scunthorpe United 3-0 Crystal Palace
Sheffield United 1-0 Preston North End
Swansea City 1-0 Burnley
Watford 0-1 Leeds United
I'll be honest, I am severely neglecting League's One and Two so far this season. I will be better with these as we go on, but for now, I've already missed half an hour of Wales' vital European Championships Qualifying game against Montenegro in Podgorica and I'd quite like to watch a bit of it. So League One scores last weekend were:
Bournemouth 3-3 Notts County
Brentford 1-3 Rochdale Town
Brighton and Hove Albion 2-1 Walsall
Bristol Rovers 0-4 Southampton
Dagenham and Redbridge 2-2 Tranmere Rovers
Hartlepool 0-5 Sheffield Wednesday
Huddersfield Town 3-1 Charlton Athletic
Leyton Orient 3-0 Exeter City
Milton Keynes Dons 2-1 Swindon Town
Oldham Athletic 0-0 Yeovil Town
Plymouth Argyle 0-3 Peterborough United
And the scores for League 2 last weekend were as follows:
Bradford 0-2 Southend United
Aldershot Town 1-1 Stevenage
Barnet 1-1 Bury
Cheltenham Town 2-1 Burton Albion
Hereford United 0-1 Rotherham United
Lincoln City 0-1 Crewe Alexandra
Macclesfield 1-1 Chesterfield
Morecambe 0-0 Gillingham
Northampton Town 1-1 Wycombe Wanderers
Oxford United 0-0 Accrington Stanley
Port Vale 1-2 Torquay United
Stockport County 0-0 Shrewsbury
And finally, there have been 2 Newport County games since my last post so I'll give both scores. On Saturday the 28th August, County romped home 3-0 against Kidderminster Harriers and on Monday the 30th August, they acheived a 2-2 draw away to early leaders AFC Wimbledon. That means there were 2 very positive results for County over the course of last weekend and so well done to them as they attempt to make it back into the league.
Just my final little bit to say thank you to you guys for reading. I know they haven't been of the highest quality of late, and I can only apologise profusely for that and hope that you will carry on reading what I put out because I can promise you, these posts will get only get better as we go further into the season. Thank you everyone, I hope you're still enjoying this blog, and I hope to write again soon. I'll probably leave it until after the internationals as I only really want to do the major international tournaments, not qualifying. See you probably Monday the 13th September. Until then...
So we start as usual at the top. The Premier League entered it's 3rd week last weekend and the first match of the weekend I witnessed was Blackburn-Arsenal at Ewood Park, a fixture renowned for being feisty and controversial in previous seasons and afer Arsenal's brilliance the previous weekend there was surely no way that this match could disappoint. Theo Walcott answered his critics in the finest fashion with his hat-trick in the 6-0 demolition of Blackpool continued his fine performance as he slammed Arsenal into a 1-0 lead from an acute angle, once again showing his critics what he is made of. It was a brilliant finish from the England and Arsenal winger and a finish that has too seldom been seen from the player when he has been on international duty, but can he now impress on that stage after his early performances this season. Soon after, El Hadji Diouf was set down the left wing after a brilliant pass from Christopher Samba and he squared across goal for new Blackburn loanee Mame Biram Diouf to slot into the net which meant that the home side went in at half time level with their London rivals. As usual then, this game was turning out to be a brilliantly pulsating game in which both teams looked like they could win. Arsenal were the team who came out on top after Andrey Arshavin struck into the Blackburn net to give his side a 2-1 lead. That was fairly early in the second half but it was effectively the end of the game as both teams cancelled each other out in the later stages. Overall, it was a brilliant game, and the win meant that Arsenal went top, for a few hours at least.
The second game that I saw live in the the Premier League last weekend was from the Reebok Stadium as Bolton Wanderers took on Birmingham City. Most avid followers of the Premier League would've been looking at this match as an almost guaranteed Birmingham win, though some will have been bright enough to notice the stat that Alex McCleish had never beaten his former employee Owen Coyle and so on paper, it could've gone either way. It was perhaps a surprise then when Birmingham took an early lead, after just 5 minutes of play, as Cameron Jerome's touch across goal was tapped in by Roger Johnson, the defender who had been bought from Cardiff just over a year ago scoring his first ever goal for the club and making the task all the more difficult for Mr Coyle. The game the took an even worse turn for Bolton as veteran goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen stood up and slapped Roger Johnson after the Birmingham defender has made a particularly heavy challenge on the Finn, although when both got to their feet, it did look like Johnson was trying to apologise to him and so perhaps the veteran should've used his knowledge of the game a bit more. After half-time, Cameron Jerome then headed across goal for Craig Gardner, the hero the previous weekend against Blackburn to tap into the net and make it 2-0 to McCleish's Birmingham and the Scotsman must've believed he finally had the better of Owen Coyle. Just 20 minutes later, Kevin Davies backed into Johnson who allegedly fouled the Bolton striker allowing him to score from the spot and bring Coyle's Bolton back into the match with 19 minutes left to play. What was Coyle's next move then? Well, he immediately bought on Robbie Blake to give Bolton more of an attacking threat up front and try to salvage something from the seemingly impossible task. It took moments for the former Burnley man to make his mark as he stepped up in the 81st minute and take a free-kick, which he promptly smashed into the top corner to level things up in the later stages of the match at the Reebok. Not only did this mean that Bolton took a point that they hadn't looked like getting, but it also meant that the unwanted statistic still hangs over Alex McCleish. He has STILL never beaten Owen Coyle. Full Premier League results then:
Blackburn Rovers 1-2 Arsenal
Blackpool 2-2 Fulham
Chelsea 2-0 Stoke City
Manchester United 3-0 West Ham United
Tottenham 0-1 Wigan Athletic
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 Newcastle United
Aston Villa 1-0 Everton
Bolton Wanderers 2-2 Birmingham City
Liverpool 1-0 West Bromwich Albion
Sunderland 1-0 Manchester City
Last weekend in the Championship, the two Welsh sides came up against two former Premier League clubs as Cardiff City visited relegated Portsmouth and Swansea City hosted relegated Burnley. Let's look at the game at the Liberty first then. As early as 8 minutes, Swansea had taken the lead as summer signing Scott Sinclair scored his first league goal for the club and diminished hopes of a Burnley walkover. That was pretty much the main and only incident of this game as Burnley failed to score to bring themselves into the game, and Swansea failed to extend their lead further. Both teams did however have a man sent off and it was in pretty quick succession as first Darren Pratley picked up his 2nd booking, and then Tyrone Mears earned his for a disgraceful challenge on Nathan Dyer. And Cardiff managed to complete what was a brilliant day for the Welsh clubs as they earned a 2-0 away victory at Fratton Park against a team who had beaten them in an FA Cup Final jus 2 years earlier. So in what was a great weekend for the Welsh clubs, lets take a look at the classified results for the Championship:
Barnsley 2-0 Middlesborough
Derby County 2-2 Queens Park Rangers
Doncaster Rovers 3-1 Hull City
Ipswich Town 2-0 Bristol City
Leicester City 1-2 Reading
Milwall 3-1 Coventry City
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Norwich City
Portsmouth 0-2 Cardiff City
Scunthorpe United 3-0 Crystal Palace
Sheffield United 1-0 Preston North End
Swansea City 1-0 Burnley
Watford 0-1 Leeds United
I'll be honest, I am severely neglecting League's One and Two so far this season. I will be better with these as we go on, but for now, I've already missed half an hour of Wales' vital European Championships Qualifying game against Montenegro in Podgorica and I'd quite like to watch a bit of it. So League One scores last weekend were:
Bournemouth 3-3 Notts County
Brentford 1-3 Rochdale Town
Brighton and Hove Albion 2-1 Walsall
Bristol Rovers 0-4 Southampton
Dagenham and Redbridge 2-2 Tranmere Rovers
Hartlepool 0-5 Sheffield Wednesday
Huddersfield Town 3-1 Charlton Athletic
Leyton Orient 3-0 Exeter City
Milton Keynes Dons 2-1 Swindon Town
Oldham Athletic 0-0 Yeovil Town
Plymouth Argyle 0-3 Peterborough United
And the scores for League 2 last weekend were as follows:
Bradford 0-2 Southend United
Aldershot Town 1-1 Stevenage
Barnet 1-1 Bury
Cheltenham Town 2-1 Burton Albion
Hereford United 0-1 Rotherham United
Lincoln City 0-1 Crewe Alexandra
Macclesfield 1-1 Chesterfield
Morecambe 0-0 Gillingham
Northampton Town 1-1 Wycombe Wanderers
Oxford United 0-0 Accrington Stanley
Port Vale 1-2 Torquay United
Stockport County 0-0 Shrewsbury
And finally, there have been 2 Newport County games since my last post so I'll give both scores. On Saturday the 28th August, County romped home 3-0 against Kidderminster Harriers and on Monday the 30th August, they acheived a 2-2 draw away to early leaders AFC Wimbledon. That means there were 2 very positive results for County over the course of last weekend and so well done to them as they attempt to make it back into the league.
Just my final little bit to say thank you to you guys for reading. I know they haven't been of the highest quality of late, and I can only apologise profusely for that and hope that you will carry on reading what I put out because I can promise you, these posts will get only get better as we go further into the season. Thank you everyone, I hope you're still enjoying this blog, and I hope to write again soon. I'll probably leave it until after the internationals as I only really want to do the major international tournaments, not qualifying. See you probably Monday the 13th September. Until then...
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
The week the Premier League went gooooal crazy!!
Hello blog fans. How is everybody doing out there? Some of you could well be watching your team in League Cup action right now. I know I am frantically checking BBC Sport for updates on Swansea City's match at Tranmere and so excuse me if I seem distracted in this post. Alot of goals to get through this week however, and so maybe it's best if we dive straight in and get on with it.
As usual, I managed to see two full Premier League matches last weekend, both of them involving team's from Manchester. On Sunday, Manchester United took on Fulham, looking to follow on from champions Chelsea's shining start to the season, the dominant Blues having scored 12 goals in their opening 2 Premier League fixtures. As early as 11 minutes in, last season's runner-up's looked set to go on and show that they can match Chelsea's early season scoring exploits as Paul Scholes blasted an effort in from outside the box past David Stockdale. It showed yet again why Paul Scholes has so regularly been hailed as one of the best players ever to come out of the United academy and United fans will be hoping the 35-year-old can replicate this form for much of the season and hopefully help to bring the title back to Old Trafford. It took until half-time for the home side to show any sort of desire to get back into the game and to this end, it was on 57 minutes that the brilliant Bobby Zamora laid the ball back to former Welsh international Simon Davies who shot past United keeper Edwin Van Der Sar, a former fan favourite at Craven Cottage. In what was a game of twists and turns, it was the turn of Manchester United to strike and take what looked like it could be a decisive lead as Brede Hangeland deflected a United corner into his own net. Soon after, the Red Devils were even awarded a penalty which David Stockdale did brilliantly to save after Nani's poor attempt to slot it into the corner. Watching it, you'd have been amazed if there wasn't more drama to come in the dying moment's and thats exactly what the game gave us as Brede Hangeland headed in from a Fulham corner to make it 2-2. In such a topsy-turvy game, there would be scope to say that you expected yet more drama, however, this was the end of the controversy and the drama, at least from this instalment at the Cottage. Surely United will already be worried about whether they can catch their rivals who have barely broken a sweat so far sweeping teams aside 6-0.
The other Premier League game I saw from the second round of fixtures was last night's fixture between Manchester City and Liverpool, a game that historically always ended quite close in terms of the scoreline. Well last night's game defied history in that one side came out very much on top. That team was the one managed by Roberto Mancini, the team that have spent copius amounts of money buying all the star players they can possibly get their hands on, a tactic that seems to be paying off so far. Manchester City opened the scoring after 11 minutes as their newest acquisition James Milner made a brilliant run around the outside of Daniel Agger and after being found by Adam Johnson laid the ball across the box to Gareth Barry who slotted past Pepe Reina in the Liverpool goal. After that, the rest of the first half passed with little incident as Manchester City remained on the attack but couldn't find a way through a better Liverpool defence. The second half continued in the same vein almost except for the fact that Liverpool attacked Manchester City aswell as the other way around, but the game was basically settled after Micah Richards' header was turned in by the brilliant captain Carlos Tevez to make it Manchester City 2-0 Liverpool and really turn the heads of many of City's apparent doubters. Joe Hart was the next hero of Manchester as he made a brilliant double save from David Ngog and Fernando Torres to stop the Merseysiders getting their foothold in the game. The game was over in the dying minutes after Adam Johnson was felled and Carlos Tevez tucked away the spot-kick to further compound the woes of the travelling supporters. Liverpool will have to desperately improve on this performance if they are to improve on their 7th place finish from last season, whereas Manchester City already look like they may have enough in the tank to compete for their place in the top 4. Scores this week then are:
Arsenal 6-0 Blackpool
Birmingham City 2-1 Blackburn Rovers
Everton 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Stoke City 1-2 Tottenham Hotspurs
West Bromwich Albion 1-0 Sunderland
West Ham United 1-3 Bolton Wanderers
Wigan Athletic 0-6 Chelsea
Fulham 2-2 Manchester United
Newcastle United 6-0 Aston Villa
Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool
In a similar vein to my Premier League features, my Championship matches come from two rival teams this week. The first is obviously Swansea City's match away at Norwich City, a team, who like Swansea, play some very attractive football and have been tipped for a good season in the Npower Championship. Unfortunately, they got the better of us at Carrow Road as a late Ashley Williams own goal and an even later Simeon Jackson volley proved the difference between the teams. It was very unfortunate for us as we bossed the game and even missed a penalty towards the end. Looking at that incident, I think Norwich should've been down to 10 men after their goalkeeper John Ruddy, formerly of Everton, felled Scott Sinclair in the area and for me, I consider that a red card offence. Nevertheless, our away form has been very rubbish and we have to accept that loss at Carrow Road and move on, hopefully getting better as the season goes on as we need to get our away form to match up to our dazzling home form if we hope to make a serious impact on this league. The other match I want to look at, although not for long, is the match at Cardiff City Stadium between Cardiff City and Doncaster Rovers. This match was special because it was Craig Bellamy's homecoming and his first game for his hometown team. In fairness to the guy, he bossed it and proved the biggest difference between the two sides as he set up two of the 4 goals they scored and indeed scored a screamer of a free kick to give Cardiff a 4-0 home win. So, Npower Championship scores:
Bristol City 3-3 Barnsley
Burnley 3-0 Leicester City
Cardiff City 4-0 Doncaster Rovers
Coventry City 2-1 Derby County
Crystal Palace 1-2 Ipswich Town
Hull City 0-0 Watford
Leeds United 3-1 Millwall
Norwich City 2-0 Swansea City
Preston North End 1-0 Portsmouth
Queens Park Rangers 2-0 Scunthorpe United
Reading 1-1 Nottingham Forest
Middlesbrough 1-0 Sheffield United
I've dropped the ball again guys, although in all fairness, it takes something extra special for me to actually see a game from League One or Two. I'll just give you the scores again, and I unreservedly PROMISE to bring you a game or two from these divisions next week. Sorry again. League One scores then:
Carlisle United 4-1 MK Dons
Charlton Atletic 1-1 Oldham Athletic
Exeter City 2-2 Bristol Rovers
Notts County 1-0 Dagenham & Redbridge
Peterborough United 4-2 Huddersfield Town
Rochdale 1-2 Colchester United
Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 Brighton & Hove Albion
Southampton 1-1 Leyton Orient
Swindon Town 1-1 Brentford
Tranmere Rovers 0-3 Bournemouth
Walsall 2-1 Plymouth Argyle
Yeovil Town 0-2 Hartlepool
And now the League Two scores for you:
Accrington Stanley 3-0 Macclesfield
Burton Albion 3-2 Morecambe
Bury 1-1 Northampton Town
Chesterfield 4-0 Hereford United
Crewe Alexandria 7-0 Barnet
Gillingham 0-1 Lincoln City
Rotherham United 6-4 Cheltenham Town
Shrewsbury 1-1 Aldershot
Southend United 1-3 Port Vale
Stevenage 3-1 Stockport
Torquay United 2-0 Bradford
Wycombe Wanderers 0-0 Oxford United
Blue Square Premier is the only other league I discuss on this blog but I'll be honest, I never get to see a game from that league, not unless I journey down to Spytty Park to watch the Newport County. I know the score from the County match last weekend, but thats really the only details I could tell you, but I will bring you the whole league round-up:
AFC Wimbledon 3-0 Tamworth
Altrincham 0-1 Crawley Town
Barrow 2-0 Rushden & Diamonds
Bath City 2-2 York City
Cambridge United 0-0 Southport
Eastbourne Borough 4-3 Wrexham
Fleetwood Town 0-3 Luton Town
Forest Green 1-1 Gateshead
Grimsby 1-2 Hayes & Yeading
Kettering 0-0 Darlington
Kidderminster Harriers 1-3 Mansfield
Newport County 2-2 Histon
Thats your lot for now then. I tell you what, that's taken me ages so I hope you enjoy it, although admittedly I don't think it's my best work either so... Anyway, pop back next week, I'll have highlights from the 3rd, yes THIRD, weekend of the British football season. Peace out
As usual, I managed to see two full Premier League matches last weekend, both of them involving team's from Manchester. On Sunday, Manchester United took on Fulham, looking to follow on from champions Chelsea's shining start to the season, the dominant Blues having scored 12 goals in their opening 2 Premier League fixtures. As early as 11 minutes in, last season's runner-up's looked set to go on and show that they can match Chelsea's early season scoring exploits as Paul Scholes blasted an effort in from outside the box past David Stockdale. It showed yet again why Paul Scholes has so regularly been hailed as one of the best players ever to come out of the United academy and United fans will be hoping the 35-year-old can replicate this form for much of the season and hopefully help to bring the title back to Old Trafford. It took until half-time for the home side to show any sort of desire to get back into the game and to this end, it was on 57 minutes that the brilliant Bobby Zamora laid the ball back to former Welsh international Simon Davies who shot past United keeper Edwin Van Der Sar, a former fan favourite at Craven Cottage. In what was a game of twists and turns, it was the turn of Manchester United to strike and take what looked like it could be a decisive lead as Brede Hangeland deflected a United corner into his own net. Soon after, the Red Devils were even awarded a penalty which David Stockdale did brilliantly to save after Nani's poor attempt to slot it into the corner. Watching it, you'd have been amazed if there wasn't more drama to come in the dying moment's and thats exactly what the game gave us as Brede Hangeland headed in from a Fulham corner to make it 2-2. In such a topsy-turvy game, there would be scope to say that you expected yet more drama, however, this was the end of the controversy and the drama, at least from this instalment at the Cottage. Surely United will already be worried about whether they can catch their rivals who have barely broken a sweat so far sweeping teams aside 6-0.
The other Premier League game I saw from the second round of fixtures was last night's fixture between Manchester City and Liverpool, a game that historically always ended quite close in terms of the scoreline. Well last night's game defied history in that one side came out very much on top. That team was the one managed by Roberto Mancini, the team that have spent copius amounts of money buying all the star players they can possibly get their hands on, a tactic that seems to be paying off so far. Manchester City opened the scoring after 11 minutes as their newest acquisition James Milner made a brilliant run around the outside of Daniel Agger and after being found by Adam Johnson laid the ball across the box to Gareth Barry who slotted past Pepe Reina in the Liverpool goal. After that, the rest of the first half passed with little incident as Manchester City remained on the attack but couldn't find a way through a better Liverpool defence. The second half continued in the same vein almost except for the fact that Liverpool attacked Manchester City aswell as the other way around, but the game was basically settled after Micah Richards' header was turned in by the brilliant captain Carlos Tevez to make it Manchester City 2-0 Liverpool and really turn the heads of many of City's apparent doubters. Joe Hart was the next hero of Manchester as he made a brilliant double save from David Ngog and Fernando Torres to stop the Merseysiders getting their foothold in the game. The game was over in the dying minutes after Adam Johnson was felled and Carlos Tevez tucked away the spot-kick to further compound the woes of the travelling supporters. Liverpool will have to desperately improve on this performance if they are to improve on their 7th place finish from last season, whereas Manchester City already look like they may have enough in the tank to compete for their place in the top 4. Scores this week then are:
Arsenal 6-0 Blackpool
Birmingham City 2-1 Blackburn Rovers
Everton 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Stoke City 1-2 Tottenham Hotspurs
West Bromwich Albion 1-0 Sunderland
West Ham United 1-3 Bolton Wanderers
Wigan Athletic 0-6 Chelsea
Fulham 2-2 Manchester United
Newcastle United 6-0 Aston Villa
Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool
In a similar vein to my Premier League features, my Championship matches come from two rival teams this week. The first is obviously Swansea City's match away at Norwich City, a team, who like Swansea, play some very attractive football and have been tipped for a good season in the Npower Championship. Unfortunately, they got the better of us at Carrow Road as a late Ashley Williams own goal and an even later Simeon Jackson volley proved the difference between the teams. It was very unfortunate for us as we bossed the game and even missed a penalty towards the end. Looking at that incident, I think Norwich should've been down to 10 men after their goalkeeper John Ruddy, formerly of Everton, felled Scott Sinclair in the area and for me, I consider that a red card offence. Nevertheless, our away form has been very rubbish and we have to accept that loss at Carrow Road and move on, hopefully getting better as the season goes on as we need to get our away form to match up to our dazzling home form if we hope to make a serious impact on this league. The other match I want to look at, although not for long, is the match at Cardiff City Stadium between Cardiff City and Doncaster Rovers. This match was special because it was Craig Bellamy's homecoming and his first game for his hometown team. In fairness to the guy, he bossed it and proved the biggest difference between the two sides as he set up two of the 4 goals they scored and indeed scored a screamer of a free kick to give Cardiff a 4-0 home win. So, Npower Championship scores:
Bristol City 3-3 Barnsley
Burnley 3-0 Leicester City
Cardiff City 4-0 Doncaster Rovers
Coventry City 2-1 Derby County
Crystal Palace 1-2 Ipswich Town
Hull City 0-0 Watford
Leeds United 3-1 Millwall
Norwich City 2-0 Swansea City
Preston North End 1-0 Portsmouth
Queens Park Rangers 2-0 Scunthorpe United
Reading 1-1 Nottingham Forest
Middlesbrough 1-0 Sheffield United
I've dropped the ball again guys, although in all fairness, it takes something extra special for me to actually see a game from League One or Two. I'll just give you the scores again, and I unreservedly PROMISE to bring you a game or two from these divisions next week. Sorry again. League One scores then:
Carlisle United 4-1 MK Dons
Charlton Atletic 1-1 Oldham Athletic
Exeter City 2-2 Bristol Rovers
Notts County 1-0 Dagenham & Redbridge
Peterborough United 4-2 Huddersfield Town
Rochdale 1-2 Colchester United
Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 Brighton & Hove Albion
Southampton 1-1 Leyton Orient
Swindon Town 1-1 Brentford
Tranmere Rovers 0-3 Bournemouth
Walsall 2-1 Plymouth Argyle
Yeovil Town 0-2 Hartlepool
And now the League Two scores for you:
Accrington Stanley 3-0 Macclesfield
Burton Albion 3-2 Morecambe
Bury 1-1 Northampton Town
Chesterfield 4-0 Hereford United
Crewe Alexandria 7-0 Barnet
Gillingham 0-1 Lincoln City
Rotherham United 6-4 Cheltenham Town
Shrewsbury 1-1 Aldershot
Southend United 1-3 Port Vale
Stevenage 3-1 Stockport
Torquay United 2-0 Bradford
Wycombe Wanderers 0-0 Oxford United
Blue Square Premier is the only other league I discuss on this blog but I'll be honest, I never get to see a game from that league, not unless I journey down to Spytty Park to watch the Newport County. I know the score from the County match last weekend, but thats really the only details I could tell you, but I will bring you the whole league round-up:
AFC Wimbledon 3-0 Tamworth
Altrincham 0-1 Crawley Town
Barrow 2-0 Rushden & Diamonds
Bath City 2-2 York City
Cambridge United 0-0 Southport
Eastbourne Borough 4-3 Wrexham
Fleetwood Town 0-3 Luton Town
Forest Green 1-1 Gateshead
Grimsby 1-2 Hayes & Yeading
Kettering 0-0 Darlington
Kidderminster Harriers 1-3 Mansfield
Newport County 2-2 Histon
Thats your lot for now then. I tell you what, that's taken me ages so I hope you enjoy it, although admittedly I don't think it's my best work either so... Anyway, pop back next week, I'll have highlights from the 3rd, yes THIRD, weekend of the British football season. Peace out
Friday, 20 August 2010
A belated first Premier League post of the season!
Apologies to all my "fans" out there/anyone who reads my blog regularly, I have kind of dropped the ball after my post from the opening weekend of the Football League season. I have been very busy this week, quite ill, and then my internet connection broke for a bit. I can only apologise for not doing it sooner, but as you can see, I have also had some terrible luck.
So, last weekend, the Premier League and Blue Square Premier joined the rest of British football in the 2010-2011 football season. I saw two games from the Premier League on opening weekend, and so I will disucss those and also highlight an absolutely stunning result that the best league in the world threw up last Saturday. Let's get on with all these action-packed updates and reports then.
The first game I saw of the Premier League 2010-11 was actually the Sunday afternoon as two of the perceived big guns, Arsenal and Liverpool, met at Anfield, a place the reds were no doubt hoping they could make into a fortress this season as they looked to snatch 4th place again amid the massed contenders. The first half passed with little incident, that was until Joe Cole saw red in his first Premier League outing for his new club after a horrendous tackle on new Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny. I think personally that Koscielny made a bit of a meal of it given that he was fit enough to come back out after the half-time interval, but nonetheless, it had to be a red as players simply cannot throw themselves into tackles like that anymore, and a model professional like Joe Cole really should've known that and so I feel he really can't have any complaints about it. As you can imagine, Liverpool came out after the half-time break determined to right the perceived injustice of Cole's departure, and soon they had managed to do that as David Ngog turned in the area and struck a beautiful shot into the top corner past a sprawling Manuel Almunia, though most critics will say he should've done better with it. What a change in a player who has so often disappointed since his arrival on Merseyside, and yet this season has managed 3 goals in 4 competitive games. The drama of this game was to come in the last few minutes however as Arsenal pummeled the 10-men of Liverpool looking for an equaliser to earn a less than deserved point. In the 89th minute, an Arsenal cross fell to Marouane Chamakh, the new Arsenal striker diverting the ball onto the post and as Pepe Reina tried to collect, he spilled the ball into his own net. One must feel that that was harsh on a man who had made so many good saves to deny Arsenal earlier in the game, but it was better for the game as a whole as both teams went into the 5 minutes of injury time looking for the vital winner. Neither team managed this, but they were briefly put on a level playing field in terms of players as Laurent Koscielny was booked for a second time in the 94th minute earning him a red card in his first competitive game for his new club. Arsenal will now have to struggle on as their defensive shortage has been sprawled all over the back pages this season and what with Koscielny now being ineligible for the next 3 games, these frailties could come to the fore.
The second game I saw from the opening Premier League fixtures was Monday's game at Old Trafford as last season's Premier League runner-ups Manchester United took on last season's Championship winners Newcastle United in what was a hotly anticipated battle between the United's. This time two seasons ago, Newcastle managed to take a point against their Manchester rivals and got relegated, so they were looking for a little more on Monday night after their immediate return to the Premier League otherwise the signs could be ominous for the Geordie side. Both sides shared the early exchanges and indeed Newcastle even had a brilliant chance to score early on and out Man Utd under some serious pressure. They didn't take the early chances though and they were punished in the 33rd minute as Dimitar Berbatov fired past Steve Harper and once again showed doubtful United fans why Sir Alex rates him so highly. Once again as with the Community Shield, his team-mates rushed to him in what was clearly a very public show of affection to United's board and owners and that makes me and other pundits think that perhaps Berbatov will actually be staying at Old Trafford for the forseeable future. Just 8 minutes later, Wayne Rooney diverted a cross into the path of Darren Fletcher who added a second for Manchester United and effectively ended Newcastle's resistance. From there on in it was pretty simple for the Community Shield winners and in the 85th minute they struck their final blow as man-of-the-match Paul Scholes floated a delightful ball over to Ryan Giggs who struck the ball left-footed past Steve Harper to cap a fine performance from Manchester United. Scholes in particular was exceptional and there will be people who will wonder what sort of effect this Paul Scholes could've had on England's disastrous display in South Africa. I also wanted to just bring it up in passing, Blackpool played their first game in the Premier League at the DW Stadium last Saturday and somehow not only came away with 3 points, but also 4 goals as they thumped a pathetic Wigan side and sent themselves top for a few hours at least. It was a miraculous story and I just wanted to mention that before I recap all of the opening weekend scores. Here are those scores then:
Aston Villa 3-0 West Ham United
Blackburn Rovers 1-0 Everton
Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Fulham
Chelsea 6-0 West Bromwich Albion
Sunderland 2-2 Birmingham City
Tottenham Hotspurs 0-0 Manchester City
Wigan Athletic 0-4 Blackpool
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 Stoke City
Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal
Manchester United 3-0 Newcastle United
Onto the Championship and I only have 1 feature game from this division this week as I am in a bit of a rush, and to be honest with you, I didn't really see much of the Championship last weekend anyway. My feature game, as always, involves Swansea City and comes from the Liberty Stadium. I was meant to be at this game but because of circumstances outside of my control, I didn't end up getting to go, and boy, am I sad I missed it. I got all the ribbing from mates about goal-scoring last season, but last Saturday, Swansea City smashed 4 goals past Preston North End as they did their best impression of Blackpool at the DW Stadium. The goals came from last season's Blackpool loanee Stephen Dobbie, Darren Pratley, Nathan Dyer and David Cotterill who finished the thumping from the penalty spot after Nathan Dyer won it late on. A fabulous game to be a Swansea City supporter, and our biggest win in two and a half years incidentally. I don't think there'll be many criticising the appointment of Brendan Rodgers now. So the Championship classifieds are as follows:
Barnsley 1-0 Crystal Palace
Derby County 1-2 Cardiff City
Doncaster Rovers 1-1 Bristol City
Ipswich Town 1-1 Burnley
Leicester City 0-0 Middlesborough
Milwall 4-0 Hull City
Portsmouth 1-1 Reading
Scunthorpe United 0-1 Norwich City
Sheffield United 0-3 Queens Park Rangers
Swansea City 4-0 Preston North End
Watford 2-2 Coventry City
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Leeds United
I won't lie to you, I didn't see any of League's One and Two last week, so I can't comment, and I'm still in that original rush, so I'll just bring you the scores this week and concentrate more on these 2 leagues next week:
Bournemouth 5-1 Peterborough United
Brentford 1-2 Walsall
Brighton and Hove Albion 2-2 Rochdale Town
Bristol Rovers 2-1 Yeovil Town
Colchester United 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday
Hartlepool 2-2 Swindon Town
Huddersfield Town 0-0 Tranmere United
Oldham Athletic 3-0 Notts County
Plymouth Argyle 1-1 Carlisle United
Leyton Orient 1-3 Charlton Athletic
League 2:
Aldershot 1-0 Southend United
Barnet 0-0 Burton Albion
Bradford 1-0 Stevenage
Cheltenham 3-2 Crewe Alexandria
Hereford 0-0 Gillingham
Lincoln City 0-2 Torquay
Macclesfield 0-1 Shrewsbury Town
Morecambe 0-0 Rotherham
Northampton 0-0 Accrington Stanley
Oxford United 1-2 Bury
Port Vale 1-1 Chesterfield
Stockport 0-0 Wycombe Wanderer's
And last weekend there was only 1 result I was looking at in the Blue Square Premier League, and that was Newport County's result. They unfortunately lost 1-0 to Darlington, but that's no crying shame and they'll be looking for a win this weekend no doubt.
That's it until Sunday or Monday now guys. Sorry it's been so rushed but trust me, you have no idea how much of a rush I'm in and it will return to it's brilliant standard next week I promise. If you've taken the time to read it and actually hated how bad it was, I am sorry, but be safe in the knowledge that next time it'll be back to it's good old self. Cheers everyone. TTFN
So, last weekend, the Premier League and Blue Square Premier joined the rest of British football in the 2010-2011 football season. I saw two games from the Premier League on opening weekend, and so I will disucss those and also highlight an absolutely stunning result that the best league in the world threw up last Saturday. Let's get on with all these action-packed updates and reports then.
The first game I saw of the Premier League 2010-11 was actually the Sunday afternoon as two of the perceived big guns, Arsenal and Liverpool, met at Anfield, a place the reds were no doubt hoping they could make into a fortress this season as they looked to snatch 4th place again amid the massed contenders. The first half passed with little incident, that was until Joe Cole saw red in his first Premier League outing for his new club after a horrendous tackle on new Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny. I think personally that Koscielny made a bit of a meal of it given that he was fit enough to come back out after the half-time interval, but nonetheless, it had to be a red as players simply cannot throw themselves into tackles like that anymore, and a model professional like Joe Cole really should've known that and so I feel he really can't have any complaints about it. As you can imagine, Liverpool came out after the half-time break determined to right the perceived injustice of Cole's departure, and soon they had managed to do that as David Ngog turned in the area and struck a beautiful shot into the top corner past a sprawling Manuel Almunia, though most critics will say he should've done better with it. What a change in a player who has so often disappointed since his arrival on Merseyside, and yet this season has managed 3 goals in 4 competitive games. The drama of this game was to come in the last few minutes however as Arsenal pummeled the 10-men of Liverpool looking for an equaliser to earn a less than deserved point. In the 89th minute, an Arsenal cross fell to Marouane Chamakh, the new Arsenal striker diverting the ball onto the post and as Pepe Reina tried to collect, he spilled the ball into his own net. One must feel that that was harsh on a man who had made so many good saves to deny Arsenal earlier in the game, but it was better for the game as a whole as both teams went into the 5 minutes of injury time looking for the vital winner. Neither team managed this, but they were briefly put on a level playing field in terms of players as Laurent Koscielny was booked for a second time in the 94th minute earning him a red card in his first competitive game for his new club. Arsenal will now have to struggle on as their defensive shortage has been sprawled all over the back pages this season and what with Koscielny now being ineligible for the next 3 games, these frailties could come to the fore.
The second game I saw from the opening Premier League fixtures was Monday's game at Old Trafford as last season's Premier League runner-ups Manchester United took on last season's Championship winners Newcastle United in what was a hotly anticipated battle between the United's. This time two seasons ago, Newcastle managed to take a point against their Manchester rivals and got relegated, so they were looking for a little more on Monday night after their immediate return to the Premier League otherwise the signs could be ominous for the Geordie side. Both sides shared the early exchanges and indeed Newcastle even had a brilliant chance to score early on and out Man Utd under some serious pressure. They didn't take the early chances though and they were punished in the 33rd minute as Dimitar Berbatov fired past Steve Harper and once again showed doubtful United fans why Sir Alex rates him so highly. Once again as with the Community Shield, his team-mates rushed to him in what was clearly a very public show of affection to United's board and owners and that makes me and other pundits think that perhaps Berbatov will actually be staying at Old Trafford for the forseeable future. Just 8 minutes later, Wayne Rooney diverted a cross into the path of Darren Fletcher who added a second for Manchester United and effectively ended Newcastle's resistance. From there on in it was pretty simple for the Community Shield winners and in the 85th minute they struck their final blow as man-of-the-match Paul Scholes floated a delightful ball over to Ryan Giggs who struck the ball left-footed past Steve Harper to cap a fine performance from Manchester United. Scholes in particular was exceptional and there will be people who will wonder what sort of effect this Paul Scholes could've had on England's disastrous display in South Africa. I also wanted to just bring it up in passing, Blackpool played their first game in the Premier League at the DW Stadium last Saturday and somehow not only came away with 3 points, but also 4 goals as they thumped a pathetic Wigan side and sent themselves top for a few hours at least. It was a miraculous story and I just wanted to mention that before I recap all of the opening weekend scores. Here are those scores then:
Aston Villa 3-0 West Ham United
Blackburn Rovers 1-0 Everton
Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Fulham
Chelsea 6-0 West Bromwich Albion
Sunderland 2-2 Birmingham City
Tottenham Hotspurs 0-0 Manchester City
Wigan Athletic 0-4 Blackpool
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 Stoke City
Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal
Manchester United 3-0 Newcastle United
Onto the Championship and I only have 1 feature game from this division this week as I am in a bit of a rush, and to be honest with you, I didn't really see much of the Championship last weekend anyway. My feature game, as always, involves Swansea City and comes from the Liberty Stadium. I was meant to be at this game but because of circumstances outside of my control, I didn't end up getting to go, and boy, am I sad I missed it. I got all the ribbing from mates about goal-scoring last season, but last Saturday, Swansea City smashed 4 goals past Preston North End as they did their best impression of Blackpool at the DW Stadium. The goals came from last season's Blackpool loanee Stephen Dobbie, Darren Pratley, Nathan Dyer and David Cotterill who finished the thumping from the penalty spot after Nathan Dyer won it late on. A fabulous game to be a Swansea City supporter, and our biggest win in two and a half years incidentally. I don't think there'll be many criticising the appointment of Brendan Rodgers now. So the Championship classifieds are as follows:
Barnsley 1-0 Crystal Palace
Derby County 1-2 Cardiff City
Doncaster Rovers 1-1 Bristol City
Ipswich Town 1-1 Burnley
Leicester City 0-0 Middlesborough
Milwall 4-0 Hull City
Portsmouth 1-1 Reading
Scunthorpe United 0-1 Norwich City
Sheffield United 0-3 Queens Park Rangers
Swansea City 4-0 Preston North End
Watford 2-2 Coventry City
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Leeds United
I won't lie to you, I didn't see any of League's One and Two last week, so I can't comment, and I'm still in that original rush, so I'll just bring you the scores this week and concentrate more on these 2 leagues next week:
Bournemouth 5-1 Peterborough United
Brentford 1-2 Walsall
Brighton and Hove Albion 2-2 Rochdale Town
Bristol Rovers 2-1 Yeovil Town
Colchester United 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday
Hartlepool 2-2 Swindon Town
Huddersfield Town 0-0 Tranmere United
Oldham Athletic 3-0 Notts County
Plymouth Argyle 1-1 Carlisle United
Leyton Orient 1-3 Charlton Athletic
League 2:
Aldershot 1-0 Southend United
Barnet 0-0 Burton Albion
Bradford 1-0 Stevenage
Cheltenham 3-2 Crewe Alexandria
Hereford 0-0 Gillingham
Lincoln City 0-2 Torquay
Macclesfield 0-1 Shrewsbury Town
Morecambe 0-0 Rotherham
Northampton 0-0 Accrington Stanley
Oxford United 1-2 Bury
Port Vale 1-1 Chesterfield
Stockport 0-0 Wycombe Wanderer's
And last weekend there was only 1 result I was looking at in the Blue Square Premier League, and that was Newport County's result. They unfortunately lost 1-0 to Darlington, but that's no crying shame and they'll be looking for a win this weekend no doubt.
That's it until Sunday or Monday now guys. Sorry it's been so rushed but trust me, you have no idea how much of a rush I'm in and it will return to it's brilliant standard next week I promise. If you've taken the time to read it and actually hated how bad it was, I am sorry, but be safe in the knowledge that next time it'll be back to it's good old self. Cheers everyone. TTFN
Monday, 9 August 2010
First weekend
Hello everyone. How are we after that opening weekend?? If you support a football league side, I hope your side had a little bit more luck than mine and that you enjoyed yourselves whether you were at a match or not. For now, let's get on with the new style of blog that I promised on Friday and more importantly, see if it actually works.
So, Friday night I watched the game between Norwich City and Watford and brought you the summary of that game. I also saw 45 minutes of Cardiff's game with Sheffield United on Sunday, a game which incidentally ended 1-1 giving us our only Championship draw of the weekend. The goals in that game came from Ched Evans and Jay Bothroyd. The one thing I will say is that it looks as though Leon Britton has really settled in at Sheffield United after turning his back on Swansea City so cruelly at the beginning of the summer. Cardiff perhaps should've done better aswell, despite the fact that they had to come from behind, against the 10-men of Sheffield United who had Lowton sent off in the first half. The other feature game for me in this division was obviously Swansea's season opener which resulted in a 2-0 loss at the Kingston Communication's Stadium courtesy of goals from John Bostock and Ian Ashbee. I have no complaint's about the first one as it was an absolute screamer, which I don't think Dorus De Vries could really have done all that much about. The second goal however just shows that Dorus De Vries has learnt nothing from the error's he made last season. I know that sounds harsh seeing as how he really didn't make that many error's, but when he did, they usually involved him flapping at corner's which is what he did once again just before Hull captain Ashbee put them 2-0 up. We weren't without our chances which is encouraging, and I guess this game was always going to be difficult against the relegated Premier League side, so now I think we should just look forward to the Preston North End home game on Saturday, a game I will myself be going to and which I will feature next weekend. The full list of Championship results then are as follows:
Norwich City 2-3 Watford
Bristol City 0-3 Milwall
Burnley 1-0 Nottingham Forest
Coventry 2-0 Portsmouth
Crystal Palace 3-2 Leicester City
Hull City 2-0 Swansea City
Leeds United 1-2 Derby County
Middlesbrough 1-3 Ipswich Town
Preston North End 0-2 Doncaster Rovers
Queens Park Rangers 4-0 Barnsley
Reading 1-2 Scunthorpe United
Cardiff City 1-1 Sheffield United
League One next, and another game I saw alot of on Saturday morning was the clash between favourites for promotion Southampton and relegated Plymouth Argyle. In my eyes, it was easy to see why Southampton have been billed as such huge favourites as they created most of the early chances, even without star striker Rickie Lambert who watched on from the stands injured. It was somewhat surprising that Argyle managed to get in at the break on level terms, and then soon after the restart, take a 1 goal lead. I think Southampton were so shell-shocked after the goal that they never really got back upto their first half levels, because if they had, Plymouth would not have been going away from St Mary's with 3 points. Full League One results then are as follows:
Carlisle United 2-0 Brentford
Charlton Athletic 1-0 Bournemouth
Exeter United 2-2 Colchester United
Notts County 0-3 Huddersfield Town
Peterborough United 3-0 Bristol Rovers
Rochdale Town 0-0 Hartlepool United
Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 Dagenham & Redbridge
Southampton 0-1 Plymouth Argyle
Swindon Town 1-2 Brighton & Hove Albion
Tranmere Rovers 1-2 Oldham Athletic
Walsall 1-2 Milton Keynes Dons
Yeovil Town 2-1 Leyton Orient
So, we're all the way down to League Two's opening weekend. I'll admit to everyone right now, I didn't see much of League Two this weekend but one match I saw the result of was Stevenage's result against Macclesfield. Of course, Stevenage were beginning their first season of league football EVER on Saturday and it looks like they may have a good season this season having taken a point from their first game and scored 2 goals, one of them after just 7 minutes and the second one, an 89th minute equaliser. I will be keeping a close eye over Stevenage's results on this blog throughout the season as I think it is a brilliant story to follow so keep your eyes out for that if you're a Stevenage fan/sympathiser. Full list of League Two's results can be seen below:
Accrington Stanley 0-0 Aldershot Town
Burton Albion 0-0 Oxford United
Bury 0-1 Port Vale
Chesterfield 2-1 Barnet
Crewe Alexandria 0-1 Hereford United
Gillingham 1-1 Cheltenham
Rotherham 2-1 Lincoln City
Shrewsbury 3-1 Bradford
Southend 1-1 Stockport
Stevenage 2-2 Macclesfield
Torquay United 3-0 Northampton Town
Wycombe Wanderers 2-0 Morecambe
So that's all for the weekend. Tonight Stevenage play Portsmouth in the League Cup, and there are alot of first round matches tomorrow night aswell so I will more than likely post again on Thursday giving you an update of how those matches have gone. I hope you like the new layout. It is longer, but it is also more comprehensive so probably better in a few ways. Hope you've all enjoyed this blog, and keep your eyes open for Thursday's post.
So, Friday night I watched the game between Norwich City and Watford and brought you the summary of that game. I also saw 45 minutes of Cardiff's game with Sheffield United on Sunday, a game which incidentally ended 1-1 giving us our only Championship draw of the weekend. The goals in that game came from Ched Evans and Jay Bothroyd. The one thing I will say is that it looks as though Leon Britton has really settled in at Sheffield United after turning his back on Swansea City so cruelly at the beginning of the summer. Cardiff perhaps should've done better aswell, despite the fact that they had to come from behind, against the 10-men of Sheffield United who had Lowton sent off in the first half. The other feature game for me in this division was obviously Swansea's season opener which resulted in a 2-0 loss at the Kingston Communication's Stadium courtesy of goals from John Bostock and Ian Ashbee. I have no complaint's about the first one as it was an absolute screamer, which I don't think Dorus De Vries could really have done all that much about. The second goal however just shows that Dorus De Vries has learnt nothing from the error's he made last season. I know that sounds harsh seeing as how he really didn't make that many error's, but when he did, they usually involved him flapping at corner's which is what he did once again just before Hull captain Ashbee put them 2-0 up. We weren't without our chances which is encouraging, and I guess this game was always going to be difficult against the relegated Premier League side, so now I think we should just look forward to the Preston North End home game on Saturday, a game I will myself be going to and which I will feature next weekend. The full list of Championship results then are as follows:
Norwich City 2-3 Watford
Bristol City 0-3 Milwall
Burnley 1-0 Nottingham Forest
Coventry 2-0 Portsmouth
Crystal Palace 3-2 Leicester City
Hull City 2-0 Swansea City
Leeds United 1-2 Derby County
Middlesbrough 1-3 Ipswich Town
Preston North End 0-2 Doncaster Rovers
Queens Park Rangers 4-0 Barnsley
Reading 1-2 Scunthorpe United
Cardiff City 1-1 Sheffield United
League One next, and another game I saw alot of on Saturday morning was the clash between favourites for promotion Southampton and relegated Plymouth Argyle. In my eyes, it was easy to see why Southampton have been billed as such huge favourites as they created most of the early chances, even without star striker Rickie Lambert who watched on from the stands injured. It was somewhat surprising that Argyle managed to get in at the break on level terms, and then soon after the restart, take a 1 goal lead. I think Southampton were so shell-shocked after the goal that they never really got back upto their first half levels, because if they had, Plymouth would not have been going away from St Mary's with 3 points. Full League One results then are as follows:
Carlisle United 2-0 Brentford
Charlton Athletic 1-0 Bournemouth
Exeter United 2-2 Colchester United
Notts County 0-3 Huddersfield Town
Peterborough United 3-0 Bristol Rovers
Rochdale Town 0-0 Hartlepool United
Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 Dagenham & Redbridge
Southampton 0-1 Plymouth Argyle
Swindon Town 1-2 Brighton & Hove Albion
Tranmere Rovers 1-2 Oldham Athletic
Walsall 1-2 Milton Keynes Dons
Yeovil Town 2-1 Leyton Orient
So, we're all the way down to League Two's opening weekend. I'll admit to everyone right now, I didn't see much of League Two this weekend but one match I saw the result of was Stevenage's result against Macclesfield. Of course, Stevenage were beginning their first season of league football EVER on Saturday and it looks like they may have a good season this season having taken a point from their first game and scored 2 goals, one of them after just 7 minutes and the second one, an 89th minute equaliser. I will be keeping a close eye over Stevenage's results on this blog throughout the season as I think it is a brilliant story to follow so keep your eyes out for that if you're a Stevenage fan/sympathiser. Full list of League Two's results can be seen below:
Accrington Stanley 0-0 Aldershot Town
Burton Albion 0-0 Oxford United
Bury 0-1 Port Vale
Chesterfield 2-1 Barnet
Crewe Alexandria 0-1 Hereford United
Gillingham 1-1 Cheltenham
Rotherham 2-1 Lincoln City
Shrewsbury 3-1 Bradford
Southend 1-1 Stockport
Stevenage 2-2 Macclesfield
Torquay United 3-0 Northampton Town
Wycombe Wanderers 2-0 Morecambe
So that's all for the weekend. Tonight Stevenage play Portsmouth in the League Cup, and there are alot of first round matches tomorrow night aswell so I will more than likely post again on Thursday giving you an update of how those matches have gone. I hope you like the new layout. It is longer, but it is also more comprehensive so probably better in a few ways. Hope you've all enjoyed this blog, and keep your eyes open for Thursday's post.
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