The list of nominees was long for the second in our eponymous yearly awards. Joe Mason, a regular starter and scorer for Cardiff; Kevin Nolan, hardly cheap, but still value for money; Rhoys Wiggins, who's developed into by far and away the best left-back in League 1 over the course of the season after Charlton had snaffled him for a modest fee; and Crawley's quick and dirty turnover of Tyrone Barnett were all heralded as good pieces of business up and down the leagues.

West Ham's Wembley matchwinner Ricardo Vaz Te is determined to make the most of his second chance. The Portuguese winger was on the football scrapheap two years ago after being released by Bolton, but the Hammers' £500,000 January recruit looks like a bargain after scoring that dramatic late play-off final winner to sink Blackpool 2-1 and earn West Ham the estimated £90million promotion to the Barclays Premier League brings.

West Ham's Wembley matchwinner Ricardo Vaz Te is determined to make the most of his second chance. The Portuguese winger was on the football scrapheap two years ago after being released by Bolton, but the Hammers' £500,000 January recruit looks like a bargain after scoring that dramatic late play-off final winner to sink Blackpool 2-1 and earn West Ham the estimated £90million promotion to the Barclays Premier League brings.

1. Who needs RVP when you've got RVT? Ricardo Vaz Te has given West Ham a massive boost since arriving from Barnsley in January, but his winning goal today topped it all. 2. Never mind Blackpool and Ian Holloway, the real loser today was Steve Kean. Big Sam Allardyce will probably be using a promotion [.

Of the 699 players who appeared for Championship clubs during the 2011/2012 season 387 were English. As you'd expect the other nations from the British Isles also featured heavily with (and no, this isn't a joke) 52 Scotsmen, 50 Irishmen, 28 Welshmen and 19 Northern Irishmen.

The table below shows data on each of the twenty-four clubs in the Championship and the nationalities who played during the 2011/2012 season.

Of the 699 players who appeared for Championship clubs during the 2011/2012 season 387 were English. As you'd expect the other nations from the British Isles also featured heavily with (and no, this isn't a joke) 52 Scotsmen, 50 Irishmen, 28 Welshmen and 19 Northern Irishmen.

The table below shows data on each of the twenty-four clubs in the Championship and the nationalities who played during the 2011/2012 season.

So the 131st FA Cup Final is nearly upon us, as Liverpool and Chelsea look to paper over the cracks of their poor League form by their standards at least.

It also could be a day of redemption for record transfer holders Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll with Torres looking to put one over on his old club.

Sky Sports is reporting today that Newcastle United seem to be winning the race to sign 21 year-old Barnsley midfielder Jacob Butterfield, who is an England U21 International. Jacob Butterfield Barnsley's England U21 midfielder Newcastle have watched Butterfield for over year now, and were heavily linked with signing the central midfielder in January.

[O]nce upon a time, the PFA Awards were the undisputed measure of a season's most valuable players. Voted for by the Professionals themselves, the response to their announcement was one of awed hush and consent – how could mere onlookers presume to know better than those involved in the rough and tumble of the actual sport?

For our profile this week, we welcome back Craig Telfer, author of a deservedly well received post recently identifying those players in Scotland who might attract the attention of NPower League Clubs in the coming months. Craig runs his own blog dedicated to Stenhousemuir FC, Who the hell is Akabusi?

Premier League players and managers come and go over the seasons but one thing remains constant. Frank Lampard keeps on scoring goals in the top flight of English football.

Since 1996, Lampard has graced the Premier League every season and his penalty against Fulham Monday marked a remarkable achievement of becoming the first ever midfielder to reach 150 Premier League goals.

Barnsley vs West Ham Highlights 2012 0-4 Nolan Maynard Noble Ricardo Vaz Te Goals Video is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Barnsley vs West Ham Highlights 2012 0-4 Nolan Maynard Noble Ricardo Vaz Te Goals Video is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Barnsley vs West Ham United 2012 ( Barnsley West Ham VIDEO BELOW) Final score and result:- Barnsley vs West Ham 0-4 ( Nolan, Maynard, Noble, Vaz Te) Oakwell Stadium- [.

Barnsley vs West Ham Highlights 2012 0-4 Nolan Maynard Noble Ricardo Vaz Te Goals Video is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Barnsley vs West Ham Highlights 2012 0-4 Nolan Maynard Noble Ricardo Vaz Te Goals Video is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Barnsley vs West Ham United 2012 ( Barnsley West Ham VIDEO BELOW) Final score and result:- Barnsley vs West Ham 0-4 ( Nolan, Maynard, Noble, Vaz Te) Oakwell Stadium- [.

For the live BBC tv match between Barnsley and West Ham United this afternoon, the PGMOB selected Anthony Bates to referee.
Mr Bates has officiated West Ham games twice this season.
The first the Hammers won 1-0 against Peterborough via a penalty.
The second the Hammers won 2-1 against Nottingham Forest via 2 penalties.

A journeyman at 23: Meet David Button, Tottenham's loan ranger is a post from: Just Football

Twenty-three is no age for a goalkeeper but Tottenham Hotspur prospect David Button is, by his own admission, a journeyman. He knows more about loans than even most Portsmouth fans, with 13 spells at 11 different clubs since turning professional in 2007.

A journeyman at 23: Meet David Button, Tottenham's loan ranger is a post from: Just Football

Twenty-three is no age for a goalkeeper but Tottenham Hotspur prospect David Button is, by his own admission, a journeyman. He knows more about loans than even most Portsmouth fans, with 13 spells at 11 different clubs since turning professional in 2007.

Premier League on Fox Soccer: Swansea - Newcastle United at 11:30am. Championship on Fox Soccer Plus: Reading - Leeds United at 9am and Barnsley - West Ham United at 12pm. Primera on Azteca and Fox Deportes: Morelia - Atlas at 9pm. All Times Eastern

It is entirely appropriate that Ipswich Town should have chosen last Saturday's home league match against Barnsley as an opportunity to rename their South Stand as The Sir Alf Ramsey Stand, for this month marks a very special anniversary in the history of the club. It is fifty years ago this month the Ipswich Town became, against all odds, the champions of England, an achievement made all the more remarkable for the fact that just five years earlier they had been playing in the Third Division South of the Football League and was playing its first ever season in the top division of English football.

Eleven matches were played in the Championship, at the weekend, with the most notable development being Birmingham's return to the play-off positions on goal difference. The Blues, in sixth, currently have a goal tally worthy of the top three in the division.
Birmingham drew 1-1 with Cardiff City, after Marlon King failed to score a penalty, and Mark Hudson hammered home for the Welshmen.

The success of Starbucks, Costa and Caffè Nero in recent years underlines perhaps more than anything Britain's ignorance as a coffee appreciative nation and football fans forced to once again imbibe another watery latte at staging posts along our motorways and railways lines will count this as yet another among a host of less than satisfying aspects of the away trip.

As the end of the 2011/12 league campaign draws near, Bristol City have improved their ranks – and their chances of surviving relegation – by bringing in some fresh blood.
The Robins have signed QPR's Hogan Ephraim and Andre Amougou, of Burnley fame, on loan until the end of the season.

Middlesbrough Boro vs Barnsley Highlights 2-0 Goals 2012 Video Hines Ogbeche is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Middlesbrough Boro vs Barnsley Highlights 2-0 Goals 2012 Video Hines Ogbeche is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Middlesbrough vs Barnsley 2012 ( Boro Barnsley video below) Final score and result:- Middlesbrough vs Barnsley 2-0 ( Hines, Ogbeche) Riverside Stadium- 6 March, 2012- Tuesday Middlesbrough net twice in the second half [.

If I'm brutally honest, a third win on the bounce seems an unlikely proposition and a trip to virtual bogey-side Barnsley perhaps seems to corroborate by reluctance to express too much optimism. Then again, with no disrespect to our Yorkshire hosts, this trip provides a theoretically smaller challenge than our last away trip [.

By Laban Scott Libby
In a world of unrelenting pressure for results, the January transfer window offers the tempting opportunity for the quick fix. For clubs contending for the championship or Europe, it encourages the hunt for that one piece of the puzzle that will make the club complete; and for clubs fighting relegation, that one special player may seem like the difference between another year among the world's top or a long year of away games at Barnsley and Peterborough.

It is hard to imagine two more unlikely Premier League bed-fellows than Mick McCarthy and Andre Villas-Boas. One a sophisticated, multi-lingual wine connoisseur; the other a former bruising Millwall centre half, born and raised in Barnsley.

But as McCarthy departed Wolves yesterday, the Portuguese may have sympathised with the muppet-faced plastic Paddy.

All the stuff being covered outside the unfriendly confines of the award-winning Dirty Tackle...

Varese beat Livorno 3-1 during a snow storm last weekend and both goalkeepers probably cried the whole time. [YouTube]

Barnsley goalkeeper David Preece says it's the media keeping gay footballers in the closet.

The mystery surrounding the death of Wales coach Gary Speed unraveled somewhat today at the official inquest.
While the coroner concluded there was not enough hard evidence to record a deliberate suicide, instead of just a cry for help presumably, we did learn that Speed and his wife had been having problems in their marriage and had rowed on the night he died.

Bloated Premier League squads need ballast and amid the burnt ends of Match of the Day episodes, the fleeting few minutes of highlights from the KC, Molineux or DW Stadiums have been notable for their late cameos from players unfamiliar – your Henrik Pedersens, Okelsandr Yevtushoks and Itzhak Zohars – the men you feel yourself reaching for the Rothman's successor volume to run the rule over, or, laptop on knees, Wikipedia.

By Chris Wright

One player sure to be high on everybody's list, Zat Knight that is

A few players have hithered and thithered about since the turn of the year but, after a fairly dormant month on the transfer front and with only 385,589 precious seconds left until the January window SLAMS SHUT is closed carefully and contentiously by the relevant personnel, we impatient fools at Pies reckon it's high time to start making big things happen in our minds.

When Eric Cantona of Manchester United did his amazing Kung-fu kick on an obnoxious Crystal Palace supporter seventeen years ago this month, I was there. By chance I was also an eye-witness thirty-five years earlier when United's goalkeeper Harry Gregg spectacularly whacked a spectator at Luton Town in April, 1960, knocking him to the ground.

Another week spent dodging ever more dire warnings about the state of Scottish football.
This time everything's got a lot Grimmer with Aberdeen losing a lauded protégé to the mysterious land of riches that some people call England.
Highly rated youngster leaves Aberdeen area to chance his arm in England?

In the most recent match-day programme Marcus Evans sent out a rare direct message to the fans.
As inconsistent results continue into the New Year, our club balances just four points above the Championship's relegation zone. So it's difficult, as a fan, not to feel concern for the direction our club is going.

The once-formidable Anfield fortress now resembles a welcoming visitor centre. The sense of overwhelming intimidation, so integral to Liverpool's success during their prime, is in danger of becoming a memory.
It is revived for special occasions – no doubt the double header with the city of Manchester this month will reawaken passions – but too many Premier League encounters have failed to raise beyond the humdrum.

The once-formidable Anfield fortress now resembles a welcoming visitor centre. The sense of overwhelming intimidation, so integral to Liverpool's success during their prime, is in danger of becoming a memory.
It is revived for special occasions – no doubt the double header with the city of Manchester this month will reawaken passions – but too many Premier League encounters have failed to raise beyond the humdrum.

While die-hard U.S. men's national team fans probably already have the lowdown on young West Ham United defender Dan Potts, the reaction to some tweets about the 17-year-old left back suggests that not everybody is aware of the story behind the latest promising foreign-born prospect eligible to play for the United States.

Gems of the Lower Leagues: Jacob Butterfield is a post from: Just Football

Just Football's ‘Gems of the Lower Leagues' series continues with a look at Barnsley midfielder Jacob Butterfield. James McMath looks at why talk of a January move to the Premier League will surprise some, but not Barnsley fans.

Gems of the Lower Leagues: Jacob Butterfield is a post from: Just Football

Just Football's ‘Gems of the Lower Leagues' series continues with a look at Barnsley midfielder Jacob Butterfield. James McMath looks at why talk of a January move to the Premier League will surprise some, but not Barnsley fans.

By Chris Wright

So, West Ham unveiled their new mascot 'Hammerhead' before their 1-0 win over Barnsley at Upton Park on Saturday...

Saints be praised, it looks like he's got a back story too:

"Foundered in the Thames Iron Works many decades ago, the workers who crafted a new champion drew on the spirits of heroes old and new to create the ultimate goal machine.

Ipswich Town boss Paul Jewell must have feared the worse when he walked into the dressing room at half-time during their game against Barnsley at Oakwell last Saturday.
His side was 2-0 down and staring down the barrel of an eight consecutive league defeat. Incredibly, they hit five goals during the second half as they staged the most unlikely of comebacks.

Saturday EPL on ESPN2: Manchester United - Wolverhampton at 10am. On Fox Soccer, Arsenal - Everton at 9:30am, Norwich City - Newcastle at noon, and Bolton - Aston Villa at 5pm. Fox Soccer Plus has Liverpool - QPR at 10am, and Swansea - Fulham at 2pm. Championship on FS+: Southampton - Blackpool at 7:45am and Barnsley - Ipswich at 4pm.