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
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
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.
Friday, 6 August 2010
2010/2011 season: The kick-off
Hello guys. Long time no post I know. Last time I posted, I did promise that I would do an overall sweep of bests and worsts at the World Cup. The only reason I didn't get around to this was that by the time I had perused all the relevant info, and made my decisions on certain bests and worsts, it had been about 2 weeks since the World Cup had ended so there seemed very little point so sorry to anyone who had been awaiting the arrival of that and still wanted me to do it.
So what's new?? Well, tonight, the football season officially started again as Norwich City took on Watford in the first game of the inaugral Npower Championship having changed sponsors from Coca Cola last season of course. Pre-kick-off, there was alot of talk about Norwich City challenging for promotion this season after the way they ran away with League One last season and subsequently gained promotion back to England's second tier and also alot of talk about Watford being contenders for a possible relegation to League One. Everything seemed set then for a big win for the team from East Anglia, but as so often happens with this division, we were in for a surprise. Watford first took the lead through the unlikely first goalscorer of John Eustace, a player who had looked like he would move on from the Londoner's at many points this summer. It was a very well taken goal aswell for a defender as Eustace took the ball down on his chest after it had been lofted in to him and struck a beautiful left-foot half volley past the despairing dive of John Ruddy to give Watford a 1-0 lead. The Hornets managed to double their lead before half-time as striker Danny Graham finished off a beautiful flowing move with a stunning finish. As the ball was lofted to Graham, he chested the ball to Marvin Sordell who played a glorious through-ball back to his compatriot allowing Graham to stroke the ball into the right-hand corner past John Ruddy and send the away fans into delirium and severely trouble the Canaries. Paul Lambert looked like he had alot to do at half-time then and it seemed he must've done that as just 6 minutes into the second-half, Delia's Canaries pulled themselves back into the game through Andrew Croft's brilliant low-strike after good build-up play involving debutant Simeon Jackson. After that there seemed to be a very sustained period of pressure from Norwich which ended when Graham got a controversial second goal in the 81st minute. The reason it was controversial was that it seemed as though Watford player's had fouled a few of the Norwich boys in the build-up to the goal, but it was a very good finish from the Watford striker when he was given the chance. 3-1 then and it seemed as though it was all over, however, when Michael Nelson swept in a goal in the 90th minute, and the news was revealed that there would be 4 minutes of extra time, the Norwich fans and players sensed there may still be something in this game for them. Unfortunately that was not the case, but it was still nice to see a grandstand finish in the first Championship of the season. So plaudits to Watford who become the first team to win this season and are the first leaders of the Npower Championship. Final result: Norwich City 2-3 Watford, a result which shows that anything is possible in this league.
This blog isn't just about that match, I also have something new to reveal. From now on, I will be covering every division in England down to the Blue Square Premier and giving all the scores on this blog having spoken about select games from each league. I feel this will be more comprehensive and so I hope you guy's enjoy the new format of the blog this season. Thanks for reading as usual, and here's to what will hopefully be a fantastic season for everyone. Good luck to your individual team's this season, and I hope you enjoy this blog week in, week out.
So what's new?? Well, tonight, the football season officially started again as Norwich City took on Watford in the first game of the inaugral Npower Championship having changed sponsors from Coca Cola last season of course. Pre-kick-off, there was alot of talk about Norwich City challenging for promotion this season after the way they ran away with League One last season and subsequently gained promotion back to England's second tier and also alot of talk about Watford being contenders for a possible relegation to League One. Everything seemed set then for a big win for the team from East Anglia, but as so often happens with this division, we were in for a surprise. Watford first took the lead through the unlikely first goalscorer of John Eustace, a player who had looked like he would move on from the Londoner's at many points this summer. It was a very well taken goal aswell for a defender as Eustace took the ball down on his chest after it had been lofted in to him and struck a beautiful left-foot half volley past the despairing dive of John Ruddy to give Watford a 1-0 lead. The Hornets managed to double their lead before half-time as striker Danny Graham finished off a beautiful flowing move with a stunning finish. As the ball was lofted to Graham, he chested the ball to Marvin Sordell who played a glorious through-ball back to his compatriot allowing Graham to stroke the ball into the right-hand corner past John Ruddy and send the away fans into delirium and severely trouble the Canaries. Paul Lambert looked like he had alot to do at half-time then and it seemed he must've done that as just 6 minutes into the second-half, Delia's Canaries pulled themselves back into the game through Andrew Croft's brilliant low-strike after good build-up play involving debutant Simeon Jackson. After that there seemed to be a very sustained period of pressure from Norwich which ended when Graham got a controversial second goal in the 81st minute. The reason it was controversial was that it seemed as though Watford player's had fouled a few of the Norwich boys in the build-up to the goal, but it was a very good finish from the Watford striker when he was given the chance. 3-1 then and it seemed as though it was all over, however, when Michael Nelson swept in a goal in the 90th minute, and the news was revealed that there would be 4 minutes of extra time, the Norwich fans and players sensed there may still be something in this game for them. Unfortunately that was not the case, but it was still nice to see a grandstand finish in the first Championship of the season. So plaudits to Watford who become the first team to win this season and are the first leaders of the Npower Championship. Final result: Norwich City 2-3 Watford, a result which shows that anything is possible in this league.
This blog isn't just about that match, I also have something new to reveal. From now on, I will be covering every division in England down to the Blue Square Premier and giving all the scores on this blog having spoken about select games from each league. I feel this will be more comprehensive and so I hope you guy's enjoy the new format of the blog this season. Thanks for reading as usual, and here's to what will hopefully be a fantastic season for everyone. Good luck to your individual team's this season, and I hope you enjoy this blog week in, week out.
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