Results update 2007

[johntheclaret]

Barnsley 3 - 2 Plymouth Ferenczi 12, Werling 45, Howard 60 Hayles 63, Chadwick 68

Attendance 9,240

Barnsley clung on for their first Coca-Cola Championship win of the season but were given a real scare by Ian Holloway’s never-say-die Plymouth. First-half goals from Istvan Ferenczi and Dominik Werling put Barnsley in command and when Brian Howard, the captain, thundered home a header not long into the second period, the 4-1 opening-day defeat by Coventry was a distant memory.
Argyle struck back through a close-range effort from Barry Hayles and Nick Chadwick stole in for a second after a shot by Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, a fellow substitute, had been parried by Heinz Muller. However, Simon Davey’s new-look team held their nerve in the closing stages, which included four minutes of added time, to the obvious relief of the Oakwell faithful.

Bristol City 2 - 1 Scun_thorpe Trundle 36, 45: Paterson 44

Attendance 12,474

Nigel Adkins, the **** manager, summed up Lee Trundle’s breathtaking contribution to Bristol City’s 2-1 victory by insisting that his team would have won the game last season by their only goal. Trundle, a £1 million summer signing from Swansea City, had failed to score in the previous two Championship fixtures, but the striker made up for that with two superb left-footed efforts to settle this close encounter between two clubs who were promoted from League One last season.
It left Adkins to praise the striker. “Fair play to Bristol City. They invested heavily in one player and it has paid off,” he said. “We were beaten by two great finishes. I am disappointed we allowed Trundle too much time, but you can’t argue with the quality of his goals.”

Cardiff City 0 - 1 Coventry City Tabb 34

Attendance 16,407

Dave Jones, the Cardiff manager, was left fuming at his side’s profligacy in front of goal after watching them slip to defeat at the hands of the new Coca-Cola Championship leaders. They missed countless opportunities in a one-sided first half yet went in at the break behind to a 34th-minute goal from Jay Tabb. For the second home match in succession, they even managed to miss from the spot when Darren Purse thrashed his penalty against the crossbar in injury time.

Cardiff’s new strike pairing of Robbie Fowler and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, neither of whom was on the bench on Saturday, are set to make their debuts tomorrow in the Carling Cup match against Leyton Orient. “They need game time and perhaps I can give them at least an hour apiece,” Jones said.

Charlton Athletic 3 - 2 Sheffield Wed Reid 51, Iwelumo 67, 87: O’Brien 6, Spurr 15

Attendance 22,033

Charlton produced a stunning second-half comeback, completed by Chris Iwelumo’s late goal that gave them their first league win of the season. The Scottish striker celebrated his full debut by grabbing the winner four minutes from time to complete a fight-back from a 2-0 half-time deficit. Charlton were behind after only five minutes to a long-range effort from Burton O’Brien and Wednesday doubled their lead just nine minutes later when Tommy Spurr took advantage of some poor defending to head in Glenn Whelan’s corner.
Andy Reid got Charlton back into the game with a fine strike before Iwelumo grabbed his first of the afternoon to equalise. With time running out, Iwelumo repaid the faith of Alan Pardew, his manager, by grabbing the winning goal.

Hull City 2 - 1 Norwich City Windass 49, Garcia 77 ublin 71

Attendance 15,939

Dean Windass won the battle of the veteran strikers as Hull deservedly secured their first league win of the season. Windass, who is in his second spell with Hull after spending time with Bradford City, opened the scoring with a fine strike just after the interval, but Dion Dublin equalised with an excellent volley for Norwich just moments after coming on as a substitute midway through the second half.
However, Windass had the last word by setting up Richard Garcia for the winning goal 13 minutes from time. Despite the defeat, Peter Grant, the Norwich manager, hailed the contribution of Dublin. “Dion is a very important part of the group,” Grant said. “He adds something different into the mix, which is important because I do not want us to become a one-dimensional team.”

Leicester City 4 - 1 Watford Hume 15, Campbell 51, Sheehan 54, De Vries 85 :1 King 90 (pen)

Attendance 21,642

Martin Allen was a relieved man after his Leicester side had swept aside Watford to record their first Championship win of the season. Iain Hume’s goal gave City a half-time lead and after the interval DJ Campbell, Alan Sheehan and Mark De Vries were all on target to put the home side four goals up before Marlon King scored Watford’s consolation from the penalty spot late on.
Allen feels that with the arrival of Hossein Kaebi, the Iran international, who received clearance on Thursday and made his debut as a second-half substitute, his team-building is now complete. “We’ve now got a good, big squad of players and each and every one of them now knows they have to earn their place in the team. No one has a divine right to play for this team,” Allen said.

Preston N E 0 - 3 Colchester Utd Lisbie 41, Sheringham 61 (pen), Yeates 72

Attendance 11,582

Preston’s dire start to the season continued as Teddy Sheringham inspired Colchester to a 3-0 victory at Deepdale. Preston have yet to score in the league in the new campaign and looked toothless in attack. The visiting team enjoyed relatively little possession, but the partnership of Sheringham and Kevin Lisbie possessed enough goal threat to punish the hosts. Lisbie headed home from a free kick four minutes before the half-time.
Sheringham - superb throughout - doubled the lead when he stroked in a penalty, in the 61st minute, before Mark Yeates curled in a sublime 25-yard free kick. “Teddy is class,” Geraint Williams, the Colchester manager, said. “He always has been and he always will be. He’s a model professional and that’s why he is still out there at 41 [years of age].”

Sheffield Utd 1 - 0 West Brom Beattie 37

Attendance 23,491

James Beattie struck the decisive goal as Sheffield United overcame their fellow promotion hopefuls at Bramall Lane. For Bryan Robson, the United manager, who engineered a miraculous final-day escape from Premiership relegation with West Bromwich in 2006, the victory tasted that much sweeter as he faced his former club for the first time. Beattie and Billy Sharp, Robson’s new strikers, were partnered in attack for the second time after their summer moves from Everton and **** United respectively.
The deadlock was broken in the 35th minute when Chris Armstrong’s cross found Beattie at the back post. The former England striker made no mistake in redirecting his header back across goal and beyond Dean Kiely, the West Bromwich goalkeeper.

Southampton 3 - 2 Stoke City Surman 36, Rasiak 71, Viáfara 75 : Fuller 10, Parkin 82

Attendance 20,300

George Burley, the Southampton manager, is resigned to losing Kenwyne Jones. The forward was omitted from the squad that recorded a 3-2 win over Stoke. “It is a shame, but when a player is excellent in this division, Premier League clubs will be interested,” Burley said. “You do not want to have to sell your best players, but sometimes other issues take things out of your hands.”
Burley will draw some consolation from his team’s first points of the season. Ricardo Fuller, the former Southampton forward, had given Stoke the lead in the tenth minute, but Andrew Surman levelled before half-time and second-half strikes from Grzegorz Rasiak and Jhon Viáfara put Burley’s team ahead. Jon Parkin, a substitute, pulled a goal back for Stoke late in the game, but the home side held on.

Wolves 2 - 1 Blackpool Eastwood 69, 78 : Taylor-Fletcher 51

Attendance 24,294

Simon Grayson, Blackpool manager, highlighted the quality of Freddy Eastwood’s finishing - and more pertinently his price tag - as the difference between the teams. The visiting team, who suffered their first defeat in 14 matches, had taken a second-half lead through Gary Taylor-Fletcher but Eastwood turned the tables with two goals in ten minutes. First, the forward rifled home an equaliser from 18 yards, then put Wolves ahead with a header.
“Freddy Eastwood cost Wolves £1.5 million and yet we have a team full of free transfers,” Grayson said. “In fact, we could not swap our whole team for Eastwood. We had a game plan and it was working well because we got Wolves on the back foot, their players were looking edgy and the crowd had been silenced.”

Table

Teams P GD Pts
1 Coventry........ 3 4 7
2 Ipswich.......... 3 4 7
-----------------------
3 Wolverhampton 3 2 6
4 Stoke............. 3 1 6
5 Watford.......... 3 -1 6
6 Colchester....... 3 3 5
-----------------------
7 Bristol City........3 1 5
8 Crystal Palace.. 3 2 4
9 Leicester........ 3 2 4
10 ****... 3 1 4
11 Plymouth...... 3 0 4
12 Charlton....... 3 0 4
13 Hull City....... 3 0 4
14 Blackpool...... 3 0 4
15 Norwich........ 3 0 4
16 Sheff Utd...... 3 0 4
17 Barnsley....... 3 -2 4
18 West Brom..... 3 0 3
19 Cardiff.......... 3 0 3
20 Burnley......... 2 -1 3
21 Southampton. 3 -3 3
-----------------------
22 QPR............. 2 -2 1
23 Preston......... 3 -5 1
24 Sheff Wed..... 3 -6 0

Footnote

Burnley's home game against QPR was postponed on Saturday morning at the request of QPR after QPR 19 year old striker Ray Jones was killed, along with 2 other friends, on Saturday night when his car was in a collision with a bus.

It's times like this that make you realise Fottball is only a sport.

[johntheclaret]

Man Utd 1 - 0 Spurs
A distressing week for Martin Jol ended in bitter frustration at Old Trafford yesterday as his team were denied a draw away to Manchester United. But the Tottenham Hotspur manager felt sufficiently emboldened to demand patience from the club’s hierarchy and to plea to be left alone to do his job.

Jol’s position has been undermined and destabilised, perhaps irreparably, since it emerged that Tottenham officials held a clandestine meeting with Juande Ramos, the Seville coach, ten days ago. A damage-limitation exercise last week resulted in an unconvincing vote of confidence and a public apology to Jol from Paul Kemsley, the vice-chairman, but the embarrassment grew for Tottenham yesterday when it was revealed that Daniel Levy, the chairman, and Damien Comolli, the club’s sporting director, had also been present at the meeting with Ramos in Spain.

Jol put on a brave face after his team were unfortunate to lose 1-0 to United, a result that he attributed to Howard Webb’s refusal to award Tottenham a penalty when Dimitar Berbatov’s goalbound shot appeared to strike the arm of Wes Brown, but he also asked that he be given time to get on with his job without interference ? presumably from Comolli, whose input has been a source of serious tension behind the scenes.

There was also an apparent dig at Kemsley’s claim that the meeting with Ramos had been to “talk with Seville about the way they run their club and to discuss their model for success”.

“Nothing would surprise me because I know how football works,” Jol said. “It’s always handy to have everyone from the club there so they can see how the whole club works. That way they can have a close look at how another club works with exactly the same structure as us.

“All of the people who have seen me over the last three years know about me. They have found out about other people and they can make a judgment. For me, I say let me get on with the job and I will be fine.”

On the penalty incident, Jol was less ambiguous, claiming that Webb, the referee, should have awarded Tottenham a spot kick in the 66th minute, only two minutes before Nani scored the only goal of the game.

“If you come from Manchester, you would say it’s not a penalty, but if you come from anywhere else in England, you would say it’s a penalty,” Jol said. “A player [Brown] is entitled to try to block a shot, but when you’re not a goalkeeper, you can’t do that. You would have to be a wizard to block that.

“The referee made the decision not to give it. That was the second time today. The first [when Nemanja Vidic collided with Berbatov two minutes earlier] was a very difficult one. But the second, I thought, was clear.”

Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, was relieved by a victory that lifted his team into the top half of the Barclays Premier League table, having begun the day in an unlikely nineteenth position after taking only two points from their first three matches. Nani’s goal, which took a slight deflection of the unwitting Carlos Tévez, brought United an overdue first win that Ferguson expects to be the springboard for their title challenge.

“You have to look at today as the first time this season that we’ve had a break,” Ferguson said. “There was really nothing in the game in the second half and, at the time [of the penalty appeal], I thought they protested so much that it must have been a penalty. When you see it again, you see that the ball hit him [Brown] in the chest. I’m sure of that.”

Jol also reiterated his intention to hold on to Berbatov, who has been the subject of interest from United this summer. “I’m 100 per cent convinced he will stay at the club,” Jol said.

Middlesbrough 2 - 2 Newcastle United Mido 28, Arca 80 : N’Zogbia 22, Viduka 77

Attendance 28,875 .................Referee M Dean

For a man habitually referred to as a recluse, Mike Ashley’s disguise was a little too obvious yesterday. True, Newcastle United’s billionaire owner had the name “Smith” emblazoned across his back, but subtlety was otherwise lacking - black-and-white strips are seldom seen in the Middlesbrough directors’ box. As far as statements go, it was a brazen one.

Attending his first Newcastle match since paying £134 million to buy the club, Ashley chose a rattling occasion and if the timing was coincidental, the message was not. There has been a renewed raft of speculation concerning his intentions - including suggestions that he may sell out to Icelandic or Chinese investors in order to fund a bid for Tottenham Hotspur - but his presence on Teesside felt significant.

Ashley’s public reticence is the stuff of City legend, but sitting next to Chris Mort, his chairman - and, for the first half, two seats distant from Sam Allardyce, the Newcastle manager - Ashley made no attempt to conceal himself. Having received permission from Steve Gibson, his Middlesbrough counterpart, to dress informally, he celebrated Charles N’Zogbia’s wonderful opening goal with gusto, enveloping Mort in a meaty hug.

“It was great to see him,” Allardyce said, “and he certainly hasn’t tried to hide away with that shirt on, has he? There’s been lots of talk, but as far as I’m concerned, me, Mike and Chris are moving the club on. Every day something pops up, but Chris says there’s nothing in it [the speculation] and Mike’s never had an offer. You never say never, do you, but the more success you bring, the more the new owner gets hooked and the better it is.”

Reinvention is no less apparent pitch-side and this feisty draw was indicative of what both they and Middlesbrough are attempting to achieve. Allardyce wishes Newcastle to become an immoveable object away from home while Gareth Southgate dreams about transforming his team into an unstoppable force. Both, clearly, are works in progress, but promise was evident.

Having twice grasped the lead, initially through N’Zogbia’s 20-yard shot and then Mark Viduka, there could only be dismay on Allardyce’s behalf that Newcastle allowed their advantage to dissipate quickly. “Absolutely unacceptable,” he said. “If we’re to be successful here, that will have to stop. Hopefully, that will be the last time we’ll see it. It had better be.”

On his return to the Riverside Stadium after his free transfer to Tyneside, Viduka’s 77th-minute goal - his 150th in Britain - was an eloquent riposte to some inevitable baiting. He collected a neat pass from Gérémi on his knee, fended off Jonathan Woodgate and scored on the volley, but the clamour faded swiftly. Viduka’s defection will not be forgiven and annoyance stretches to the Middlesbrough boardroom.

“With Mark, I’ve read comments that we left it late to speak about a new contract, but that’s not true,” Gibson said. “We spoke to him and his agent last Christmas and I was told very early that it was about money and that Mark would go to the highest bidder.

“The wages went up by so many millions, I felt almost tainted by it. I took it to the point where I felt so uncomfortable that it was almost a relief when he went to Newcastle because of the sums involved . . . Mark Viduka is 32 next birthday, he was asking for a three-year contract and a figure which, over a year, would equate to over half our gate income.”

Yet Viduka displayed respect to his erstwhile employers with a muted celebration and, in spite of Allardyce’s annoyance - he also praised “an exceptionally good performance” - parity was just. Middlesbrough were vibrant and Julio Arca, in particular, was superb, drilling his team’s second equaliser beyond Steve Harper when Fabio Rochemback’s chip was cleared hesitantly.

Rochemback had already played architect, feeding Mido with a clever through-ball in the 28th minute. The Egypt forward, who had scored on his debut away to Fulham last week, evaded Steven Taylor and skirted around Harper before placing his shot inside the near post. Mido’s subsequent booking for shushing Newcastle’s supporters was one of six for Middlesbrough, which will earn them an automatic fine.

Harper was called upon to repel Rochemback and Arca and did so expertly, but it is in different areas that Middlesbrough are frail. They have not recorded a clean sheet at home since December and injuries required Southgate to recall Woodgate and Luke Young ahead of schedule. “They had no right to be out on the field,” the manager said, “but they wanted to play. That’s fantastic for me as manager.”

Newcastle face similar difficulties. Their riches in attack meant that Allardyce could delay Michael Owen’s introduction until the 72nd minute - the England striker spurned one testing half-chance - but Stephen Carr limped off with a hamstring problem and Peter Ramage, his replacement, was removed on a stretcher. “Stephen could be out for as long as six weeks and Peter is in too much pain to determine the extent of his damage,” Allardyce said. “That makes me feel we’ve lost rather than drawn and it might take us into the transfer market on a more ferocious basis now. We’re well short defensively. It’s just typical that’s where my biggest problems have lain all summer.”

Overall, the mood in the home camp was positive, although Gibson said: “I sometimes think we have an air of pessimism around the place and we have to look at why that happens. It doesn’t help when ex-players have an agenda against us. On the way to the stadium today I heard someone disparaging our new signings, but we’ve spent £19 million this summer.” As Ashley now knows, ownership is no picnic.

Arsenal 1 - 0 Man City Fàbregas 80

Attendance: 60,114 ................Referee: C Foy

A lot is made of bravery in football. The iconic image of the blood-spattered centre half; the goalkeeper putting his body on the line. The less obvious valour of Alexander Hleb is harder to recognise.

As Arsenal probed for a way past the Manchester City defence, expertly marshalled as ever by Richard Dunne, Hleb searched repeatedly for the pass. Not a pass. Not any old pass. Not a pass that might set up another inexpert flurry around the goalmouth and present a teammate with a half-grasped opportunity. Each time Hleb was on the ball his aim was to deliver a moment of creative purity: the eye-of-the-needle pass, the one that takes, not an opponent, but a team, out of the picture.

That he emerged victorious is partly to the credit of Arsène Wenger, who ignored the frustrated howls of the crowd and let Hleb try and try again. Watching him strive, and ultimately succeed after so many disappointments, was vindication of the most underrated form of courage in football. The courage to fail.

When Hleb’s return pass to Cesc Fàbregas slipped through what may as well have been a gap in the floor-boards to craft Arsenal’s winning goal with ten minutes remaining, he exemplified the ethos that separates Wenger from the rest. Nowhere, maybe not even at Old Trafford, would a player be allowed to indulge such standards. There are teams who play good football and there are Arsenal, where the pursuit of excellence is almost reckless. The more the fans implored Hleb to shoot or despaired at his latest doomed attempt to slip a teammate in with a ball that appeared to have been created on a draughtsman’s board, the more he persevered.

First, he won a penalty, which Robin van Persie missed, then he won the game. “That is Alexander’s style,” Wenger said, “and for every quality there is a negative quality. So he plays for the eye of the needle, but then he misses a pass because that is so hard. Yes, I can understand that it is annoying, but it does not trouble me. All that matters is his effectiveness and here he won a penalty, and made our goal. I know what the fans say, but if you ask any of them whether Hleb is a good player, you will get the right answer.”

There was bravery, too, in the way Manchester City approached a daunting challenge, so soon after upsetting the odds against Manchester United. It would have been easy for Sven-Göran Eriksson to play the percentages, retreat into a shell of conservatism and attempt to steal a point. And while playing Emile Mpenza alone up front might appear a negative move, in reality, with three forward-thinking players behind him, it was anything but. City had chances to win the game on the break and a better striker than Mpenza would have taken them.

“There is no point in trying to kick Arsenal,” Eriksson said. “I don’t have a team who can kick. We have bought good footballers because that is the way we want to play.”

Understandably, Eriksson is playing down City’s chances of breaking into the Champions League elite, but Wenger disagrees. Certainly, on this showing, City’s potential is not undervalued. “The same four as last year? Not necessarily,” Wenger said. “Eight or nine can fight for it. This season will be harder than ever for that top four.”

Barclays Premier League
Teams P GD Pts
1 Chelsea 4 3 10
2 Man City 4 3 9
3 Wigan 4 3 7
4 Liverpool 3 3 7
-----------------
5 Everton 4 2 7
6 Arsenal 3 2 7
------------------
7 Newcastle 3 2 5
8 Portsmouth 4 1 5
9 Blackburn 3 1 5
10 Man Utd 4 0 5
11 Aston Villa 3 0 4
12 Birmingham 4 -1 4
13 Middlesbrough 4 -1 4
14 West Ham 3 -1 4
15 Reading 4 -3 4
16 Sunderland 4 -4 4
17 Tottenham 4 0 3
-------------------
18 Bolton 4 -2 3
19 Fulham 4 -2 3
20 Derby 4 -6 1

[johntheclaret]

Just got back from the clarets, so will do a quick round up and ad some meat to the bones tomorrow.

Champ League Qualifiers

Liverpool 4 - 0 Toulouse
Liverpool win 5 - 0 on aggregate and will go through to the group stages.
Couch got one, Kuty got 2, dunno about the 3rd.

Rangers drew 0 - 0 and go through 1 - 0 on aggregate.

Carling Cup Headliners

Wolves 1 - 3 Morcambe. Shrimpers took the lead 62 mins penalty, Wolves equalised 84 min penalty. Went to extra time and morcambe scored twice.

Wigan 0 - 1 Hull

Derby 2 - 2 Blackpool. Blackpool twice came from behind (scoring their 2nd in the last minute of the 2nd period of extra time, 120th minute) after a f$%k up by the Derby defence.
After 5 penalties apiece it was 2 each (Derby elected to go 1st and Howard missed.)It then went to sudden death and got to 6 each from eight penalties before Derby missed and Blackpool (capt Michael Jackson) scored. Blackpool go through.

Burnley beat Oldham 3 - 0 COME ON YOU CLARETTTTTTTSSSSS.
Blake, Akinbyi and Gray all scoring.

[JK]

Champ League Qualifiers

Liverpool 4 - 0 Toulouse
Liverpool win 5 - 0 on aggregate and will go through to the group stages.
Couch got one, Kuty got 2, dunno about the 3rd.

Sami Hyppia

[johntheclaret]

Champ League Qualifiers

Liverpool 4 - 0 Toulouse
Liverpool win 5 - 0 on aggregate and will go through to the group stages.
Couch got one, Kuty got 2, dunno about the 3rd.

Sami Hyppia

Thanks for that C_P. Just back in the team too I think.

Worth £10 million that win tonight.

Other news from tonights games.

Nottm Forest v Leicester.
Match abandoned at 1/2 time after LCFC player collapsed with serious illness.

Keiron Dyer suspected multiple double fracture on leg (heard broken in 11 places on the news) durning WHU's game against Brisol C

[Dirko]

Derby 2 - 2 Blackpool. Blackpool twice came from behind (scoring their 2nd in the last minute of the 2nd period of extra time, 120th minute) after a f$%k up by the Derby defence.
After 5 penalties apiece it was 2 each (Derby elected to go 1st and Howard missed.)It then went to sudden death and got to 6 each from eight penalties before Derby missed and Blackpool (capt Michael Jackson) scored. Blackpool go through.

WE ARE SHITE !!

[JK]

Champ League Qualifiers

Liverpool 4 - 0 Toulouse
Liverpool win 5 - 0 on aggregate and will go through to the group stages.
Couch got one, Kuty got 2, dunno about the 3rd.

Sami Hyppia

Thanks for that C_P. Just back in the team too I think.

Worth £10 million that win tonight.

Other news from tonights games.

Nottm Forest v Leicester.
Match abandoned at 1/2 time after LCFC player collapsed with serious illness.

Keiron Dyer suspected multiple double fracture on leg (heard broken in 11 places on the news) durning WHU's game against Brisol C

No worries mate ... Played last weekend against Sunderland and will be needed now that Carra will miss a bit with broken rib/collapsed lung.

Thats a bad injury for Dyer ... 11 Places!!! I din't even know that was possible!

[devilsadvocate]

OK gents, this weekends games below - my tips in red, draws in blue:

Saturday, 01 September 2007
Bolton v Everton, 15:00
Fulham v Tottenham, 15:00
Liverpool v Derby, 15:00
Man Utd v Sunderland, 17:15
Middlesbrough v Birmingham, 15:00
Newcastle v Wigan, 15:00
Reading v West Ham, 15:00
Sunday, 02 September 2007
Arsenal v Portsmouth, 13:30
Aston Villa v Chelsea, 16:00
Blackburn v Man City, 15:00

I'm off shortly to the Fulham v Spurs game at Craven Cottage. Will take some snaps and post later this evening.

COYS!

[johntheclaret]

Reading 0 - 3 West Ham
Bolton 1 - 2 Everton
Fulham 3 - 3 Spurs
Liverpool 6 - 0 Derby
Middlesboro 2 - 0 Birmingham
Newcastle 1 - 0 Wigan

Colchester 2 - 3 Burnley Come on you Clarets
Norwich 1 - 2 Cardiff
Plymouth 0 - 0 Leicester
QPR 0 - 3 Southampton

Leeds 1 - 0 Luton
Millwall 1 - 2 Huddersfield
L Orient 2 - 2 Northampton

Stanley 0 - 2 Peterboro

[johntheclaret]

I'm off shortly to the Fulham v Spurs game at Craven Cottage. Will take some snaps and post later this evening.

Jol will be packing his bags at this rate DA. 2 - 0 up, just threw it away. No killer punch.


PS

Did you know you are not allowed to take photo's at the game.

[devilsadvocate]

Gutted isn't a strong enough word to describe what it feels like to be a Spurs fan tonight. We control the game, have chance after chance and still cannot pull 3 points. Fulham's 2nd and 3rd were lucky, but you create your own luck, and if you take your chances, you generally get the result.

I really hope the board don't sack Jol. Loved singing 'I love Martin Jo-ol, Martin Jol loves me'!!

Kudos to Fulham. They are entertaining to watch as they always have a crack and never gave up. My only criticism is....how the hell in this day and age, at a club that plays in one of the strongest leagues in the world, that's sponsored by a TV manufacturer can they not have a replay screen? Seriously, what a joke. Get a screen or two up Mr Fayed and you night actaully sell all your season tickets!!!

Highlights for me...

Gareth Bale - he's a real talent. Big things ahead for this young fella.
Younes Kaboul - another great talent. Big, strong, quick and mature for his age.
Both scored excellent goals.
Kamaras goal to win it for Fulham - took a punt, had a crack and it paid off big time.
The atmosphere (until we lost) with the songs. It's worth every penny to experience it. Amazing when a goal is scored.

Lowlights:

Kamaras goal....bloody Fulham levelling in the last minute!

JTC, didn't know about pics at games !! A LOT of people are breaking the rules. Every 2nd person was taking snaps.
Is it OK to post pics here or not? Don't want to land you blokes in the porridge.

[Dirko]

DERBY = SHITE...

That result is a disgrace...
Not at all happy...

[MightyEagles]

6-nil to the Liverpool, 6-nil to the Liverpool and now we're on the top of the EPL.

[RoosterMarty]

Did you get nervous at the end JTC when Colchester scored to make it 3-2?

Superb win by Cardiff away from home, came from 1-0 down to snatch it 2-1. I have read that Robbie Fowler looked dangerous again but couldn't find the back of the net, hopefully he gets off the mark soon because I'm sure many more will follow.

Man Utd dominated but struggled to find the goal yet again, still 3 points is 3 points.

Spurs should have held on after going 2 goals up twice, the equaliser was an absolute peach of a goal by Kamara though.

[johntheclaret]

Did you get nervous at the end JTC when Colchester scored to make it 3-2?

Listened to it on the radio RM. We were very lucky. Got a hammering in the 2nd half, but will take the win.

Leeds started with -15 points, and are now only 13 points off the top spot.

[johntheclaret]

Not sure about the photo's DA. Will ask the mods

[RoosterMarty]

I read today that Leeds are the only team in the English leagues with a perfect record... yet they are bottom with a negative point difference. It still cracks me up.

[mighty_tiger_79]

Arsenal win 3-0

Aston VIlla 2-0 over chelski

interesting to note Villa havent lost to chelski at home in the league since 99

[devilsadvocate]

Arsenal win 3-0

Aston VIlla 2-0 over chelski

interesting to note Villa havent lost to chelski at home in the league since 99

It was Gooners 3 v Pompey 1

Emmanuel Adebayor, Cesc Fabregas and Tomas Rosicky scored for Francenal and Kanu got one for Portsmouth.
Senderos sent off for Le Arse, which is great for Spurs with the north London Derby next round.

Blackburn 1 v Man City 0

Benni MaCarthy scored in the 13th.
Tugay of Blackburn and City skipper Richard Dunne were both sent off for 2 yellows.

Great win by Villa. Great story behind Villas first scorer Zat Knight. Knight was a Villa fan as a kid, coming from a poor family. He used to go to Villa games and look through the gates at whatever he could see. Now on debut, he scores for his club. Well done! Agbonlahor (cracking name!) put the finishing touches in 2 minutes from time.

Liverpool and Le Arse sitting pretty atop of the League with a game in hand over a lot of challengers, but most importantly Manure and Chelski. I haven't seen an Arsenal game this year, but they're going down in a fortnights time when the EPL resumes , but Liverpool have been outstanding, and would have to be early favorites to take it out.

[JK]

Liverpool and Le Arse sitting pretty atop of the League with a game in hand over a lot of challengers, but most importantly Manure and Chelski. I haven't seen an Arsenal game this year, but they're going down in a fortnights time when the EPL resumes , but Liverpool have been outstanding, and would have to be early favorites to take it out.

Have certainly looked good early mate, but there's a long way to go and most in the squad wouldn't be used to being the hunted rather than the hunter.

Also interesting to note that in the 2nd half of the season we face the big 3, Chelsea, Man U and Francenal all AWAY from home.

Great to see how we're travelling (still would have liked the other 2 points we earnt imho in the Chelsea game) at the moment, but I don't think any Liverpool fan will be satisfied unless we're in the same position at the end of the season.