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
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