More dour faces than you can shake a stick at West Brom supporters are marking their return to Championship football with a public display of confidence in manager Tony Mowbray. Instead of adopting the traditional fancy dress theme, Baggies fans will wear lifelike masks of Mowbray. Almost 2,000 Albion fans are expected to put on Mowbray [.

The Johnstone Paint Trophy began its Round 2 in the Northern and Section section on Tuesday, October 6, 2009. Most of the home teams advanced with a few exceptions. One match was postponed, Accrington Stanley v Shrewsbury Town, because of rain and the officials ruling the pitch unfit to play on.

Here's a list of the results from Tueday's matches.

Wondering what happened to those Chris Birchall to LA Galaxy rumors? So were we. Thanks to an astute MLSR reader we no longer need to wonder any longer. A Galaxy move for the Trinidad and Tobago International has been blocked by his club.
Courtesy of The Argus:

Albion have put on hold the prospect of Chris Birchall becoming a team-mate of David Beckham in the States.

The Last 'Team GB'
The 11 Players That Made Up The Last Great Britain Team Ever To Take To A Field
1. John Swannell (Hendon)
2. Paul Fuschillo (Wycombe)
3. Bill Currie (Albion)
4. Ted Powell (Wycombe) (captain)
5. Derek Gamblin (Leatherhead)
6. John Payne (Enfield)
7.

This comes to us courtesy of a loyal MLSR reader and seagulls.co.uk:

Albion boss Russell Slade today confirmed the club have received no official approach from LA Galaxy regarding midfielder Chris Birchall - and added that he does not want to lose the Trinidad & Tobago international.

In a similar vein to the 1990 book of the same name this is an account of my favourite year, part one.

Brighton & Hove Albion Second Division 6th place (losing Play-Off finalists) FA Cup 4th round League Cup 1st round.

Albion 1990-91 (wearing the worst kit of all time)

The motley bunch above, wearing the lurid pink strip, looking like some Gay World Cup side, is the team from my favourite ever season, 1990-91.

Since there are only Johnstone's Paint Trophy matches and FA Trophy Second Qualifying Round replays this week, we thought it would be about the right time to have another "Video Of The Week" and this, I have to say, is something rather special a complete episode of London Weekend Television's "The Big Match" from April 1979.

The Los Angeles Galaxy have officially announced the signing of midfielder Chris Birchall this afternoon. The Trinidad & Tobago international has already received his P1 visa and will be eligible to suit up for the club in league matches once he receives his International Transfer Clearance, which should come when the MLS secondary transfer window opens on July 15th.

A 0-0 draw away at Woking on Saturday afternoon signalled the end of Boro's pre-season campaign for 2009. Graham Westley's side played 7 games, winning 3, drawing 2 and losing 2. This year's campaign has been a lot different to previous pre-season's at Broadhall Way with the team being much more settled and no trialists featuring at all.

We preview four of the top games in Scotland this weekend and tip Hearts, Inverness, Cowdenbeath and Livingston to pick up three points.

This week's featured video is a full length episode of TVS's "The Saturday Match" from April 1983. The main match is a critical match between Brighton & Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur from The Goldstone Ground. Brighton were bottom of the First Division and without a home a league win since the previous December, but they were still in the FA Cup, and could have been forgiven for having one eye on their upcoming semi-final against Sheffield Wednesday.

Pre-register at the NEW football site 11×2 today Watch the match LIVE here – Highlights here www.mightyfootball.com

Lloyd Owusu cuts an unlikely figure as a possible season saving hero. He is thirty-two years old now, and has spent much of his career as a nearly man - Brentford's all-time highest scorer, he scored with his first touch for Sheffield Wednesday in a derby match against Sheffield United in 2002, but failed to settle at Hillsborough and ended up cutting something of a journeyman existence around the lower divisions.

8:30am, live in the US on Setanta
Last 4 head-to-head:
3-0 Liverpool (h) 11.08.08
2-0 Liverpool (a) 04.01.06
1-0 Liverpool (h) 12.31.05
5-0 Liverpool (a) 12.26.04
Last 3 matches:
Liverpool: 3-0 West Ham (a); 3-0 Newcastle (h); 3-1 Hull (a)
West Brom: 3-1 Wigan (h); 0-1 Spurs (a); 3-0 Sunderland (h)
Goalscorers (league):
Liverpool: Gerrard 15; Torres 13; Kuyt 11; Benayoun 7; Alonso 4; Babel, Riera 3; Aurelio, Ngog 2; Agger, Arbeloa, Carragher, Dossena, Hyypia, Lucas 1
West Brom: Brunt 8; Bednar 6; Fortune 4; Miller, Morrison 3; Greening, Koren, Olsson 2; Beattle, Menseguez, Moore, Simpson 1
Referee: Martin Atkinson
Guess at a squad:
Reina
Arbeloa Carragher Agger Insua
Lucas Mascherano
Kuyt Gerrard Benayoun
Torres
Yes, yes.

Reina
Arbeloa Carragher Agger Insua
Lucas Mascherano
Kuyt Gerrard Benayoun
Torres
Goals:
Gerrard 28'
Kuyt 63'
Football is not fair sometimes. Thankfully, this time it favored Liverpool.
Okay, so West Brom wasn't content to sit back.

...that's the title of Derek Robson's blog this week, in reference to the sad plight of Middlesbrough and West Brom - two teams that try to keep the ball and play the game on the ground - as well as to Rafa Benitez, in the wake of his comments over the weekend.
Robson is really clever, and has some amusing comments about this past weekend's English Premiership action.

Brighton & Hove Albion's move to Falmer has been beset by every problem imaginable over the last few years, but when BBC South showed construction work starting at the site of the proposed new stadium last year one might have been forgiven for thinking that things were finally starting to move in the right direction.

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- The best QPR Messageboard on the web? Perhaps Not! But the QPR Report Messageboard is a football-only, ad-hominem-free, site that offers eclectic articles as well as interesting perspectives! ALL perspectives welcomed! So continue posting wherever you already post. And then come visit!
See also:
- Five Years Ago Today - QPR's Promotion Victory Parade
- Half-a Year Ago: Paulo Sousa Appointed to be in Charge of QPR
QPR Official Site - QUINTET SET TO DEPART
- The Club can confirm that five out of contract players will be leaving QPR at the end of June.

Los Angeles Galaxy have agreed terms with England-born Trinidad & Tobago midfielder Chris Birchall. The 25-year old most recently played with Brighton & Hove Albion but will now ply his trade with the Galaxy, pending an International Transfer Clearance.

"Chris is a player that I've tracked for a number of years," Galaxy General Manager and Head Coach Bruce Arena said.

Tomorrow sees a return to Broadhall Way for Boro as they continue their pre-season preparations against League 1 side Brighton & Hove Albion. The Seagulls are now managed by former Scarborough and Yeovil manager Russell Slade and will provide a stern test for the team. Boro kicked off their pre-season mid-week with a hard earned victory away at Chelmsford and now face a team who will be looking to improve on their lowly position in League 1 last season.

Cambridge City denied Boro their 3rd straight pre-season victory with a 1-1 draw at Milton Road. After an impressive win over Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, Stevenage were held to a battling draw by the Southern League side. Boro boss Graham Westley opted to start with a weakened 11, with the likes of Ashley Bayes, Eddie Odhiambo and Mark Albrighton playing the full 90 minutes, while reserve players Jerome Anderson and Chris Doyle made appearances too.

> Return to Fulham After six years of fine service to the Midlands club however, Bobby returned to Fulham in 1962, his departure caused by a wage dispute with the bigwigs of Albion. Bobby had just welcomed a second son into the world with Elsie, and financial security was very much at the forefront of [.

Red cards, score draws and a dream about Wick Academy all feature in this week's quick (and we mean quick) round-up of the weekend action across Scotland.

After a disappointing start to the season that sees them sitting above the League One relegation places on goal difference, Brighton & Hove Albion have parted company with their manager, Russell Slade. This in itself isn't much of a surprise, but it does provide us with a reasonable case study on the psychology of football supporters and the pressure under which clubs find themselves.

There was once this Bobby Zamora, scorer of 70 goals in 119 appearances for Brighton & Hove Albion, a legend to this Seagulls fan some years ago:

Blessed with power, pace, some aerial ability and a calm finish, Zamora led the Albion up two divisions with successive championships at the start of the decade through his goalscoring exploits.

Watch Everton FC vs West Bromwich Albion LIVE Watch  Everton FC vs West Bromwich Albion  HIGHLIGHTS

To Anfield, where football was not the most important thing on the agenda for once. Paying respect to those who sadly lost their lives in the Hillsborough disaster, 20 years ago this Wednesday, was at the forefront of everyone's mind. A minute‘s silence, impeccably observed. What followed was fitting; a comprehensive feast of flowing football saw Liverpool sweep Blackburn aside with ease.

The London Underground strike may be about to cause one or two problems for the England team this evening for their match against Andorra. The kick-off time has already been put back to 8.15, and people that have bought tickets have already been advised that they will be able to claim refunds if they are not able to trek across to north London this evening in order to make the match.

What sort of character should run a team in the second tier of English football?This was the question debated by myself and Lanterne Rouge after yesterday's match at the Hawthorns.Albion's 3-1 win over Reading meant they ended the day top of the championship with the Royals fourth bottom.In the summer, both clubs changed manager, and both went for 'continental-style' appointments – men who seemed

Can it be only two weeks since West Brom's stunning 5-0 win at co-promotion favourites Middlesbrough?For since that game, which left many pundits regarding Albion as automatic promotion shoe-ins, an autumnal chill has descended on the Hawthorns, blowing away the sunny late-summer optimism.First, there was the League Cup elimination against the Wenger boys.

National League Division 2 South Fixtures

Would dearly love to go to a Richmond V Barnes fixture :

Saturday, 07 November 2009

Barking v Westcombe Park, 15:00

Bridgwater & Albion v Rosslyn Park, 15:00

Canterbury v Southend, 15:00

Dings Crusaders v Worthing, 15:00

Ealing v Henley, 15:00

Lydney v Clifton, 15:00

Richmond v Barnes, 15:00

Why?

In the midst of the Alonso summer saga, I posted the results from different midfield pairings. Lucas/Mascherano's line looked like this:
6 wins, 4 draws
2-0 West Brom, 3-0 West Ham, 4-1 United, 1-1 City, 1-1 Wigan, 0-0 Stoke, 5-1 Newcastle, 3-1 PSV [4-4-2], 0-0 Fulham [4-4-2], 2-1 Marseille
Let's ignore the PSV and Fulham games because of the 4-4-2 formation in Gerrard's absence (and Torres' against PSV).

This week's Video Of The Week takes us back to the race for the Second Division title from the 1978/79 season and features three matches from an episode of London Weekend Television's "The Big Match", presented as ever by Brian Moore. The first match is between from Selhurst Park and is between Crystal Palace and Notts County, the second match is from The Goldstone Ground and is between Brighton & Hove Albion and Blackburn Rovers (about whom Moore says, "they've already been relegated to the Third Division, so at least they'll be relaxed) and the final match is from Roker Park, and is between Sunderland and Cardiff City.

The English League One continues on Sunday, November 15, 2009 with Southampton hosting Brighton & Hove Albion. Currently, both of the clubs are at the bottom half of the table and in need of points. Live coverage (with streams) will be providing by other partner site, Free Live Sports TV, at the following link below.

It requires some planning, quite a lot of peering of timetables and unintelligible weather forecasts, but we decided to go in the end. The bus chunters up through Kemptown and Hanover, eventually depositing us in the centre of Whitehawk, which feels like the very top of the world. The wind is gusting at sixty to seventy miles per hour and as we walk down to The Enclosed Ground the heavens open and rains falls horizontally, a lacerating experience made all the worse for the creeping suspicion that Whitehawk FC is hiding from us.

Southampton 1-3 Brighton (15:11:09)
- click photos to enlarge image -
I'm probably bereft of any Albion supporting credit nowadays. With the non-league coverage on these pages coupled with the European stuff something had to give. Unfortunately, it was my 30 year association with The Seagulls and my £400 quid season ticket in that athletics stadium.

According to Brighton and Hove Albion's official website, Brighton are set to extend the loan deal of Arsenal defender Gavin Hoyte until the new year.

Both the Green and Black squads took care of business on the carpet at Tualatin Indoor Soccer Complex.
The Green squad posted a victory over PCU Albion (Blue) and the Black over WSM Venom.
Great jobs lady warriors!
Schedules:
BLACK
Sunday 11/29 - 12:10PM vs SSC Hotspur
Sunday 12/6 - 8:50AM vs PCU Albion (White)
Friday 12/11 - 5:30PM vs Zveda
Sunday 12/13 - 11:20AM vs PCU Albion (Blue)
Sunday 12/20 - 10:30AM vs Laker TNT
Sunday 1/2 - 1:00PM vs THUSC Sodium Green
GREEN
Sunday 12/6 - 11:20AM vs Laker TNT
Sunday 12/13 - 12:10PM vs PCU Albion (White)
Sunday 12/20 - 2:40PM vs SSC Hotspur
Monday 12/21 - 1:20PM vs WSM Venom
Sunday 1/3 - 1:00PM vs THUSC Sodium Black
Best of luck in the coming games!

Inside Left highlights the four games in this weekends Scottish fixture card that you need to keep your eye on. This week we feature a tough fixture for both teams at Pittodrie, a bottom-of-the-table clash in Granton, a mid-table affair in the First division and lastly, the pick of the Scottish Cup games taking place [.

Hats off to the 2018 World Cup committee! They trimmed the list down from sixteen to twelve cities as potential venues to host matches for the 2018 World Cup should England, and they left Milton Keynes in. The bid has so far been a troubled one this much we already know for certain but the one thing that the FA had largely been able to depend upon had been, broadly speaking, a high degree of public support.