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
Friday, 17 September 2010
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...
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