By Alan Duffy
What a bizarre game! We usually don't cover U21 matches but this one, a European Championship
qualifier in Casarano, literally had it all Sendings off? Two Derrick Williams (Aston Villa) on 36
minutes and Anthony Forde (Wolves) on 84. Penalties? One missed by Ciro Immobile (Genoa) on 37
minutes.
By Alan Duffy
Craig Levein and his Scottish charges failed to secure a vital home win against Serbia on
Saturday.
Both sides huffed and puffed, but in truth they game lacked a real spark. Man City defender
Aleksandar Kolarov was key to the majority of the Serbs' good play while new Stoke man, Charlie
Adam, did his best to make things happen for the Scots.
By Alan Duffy
Fat Frank Lampard once again provided his trademark goalscoring magic from midfield for England
on a night that they totally dominated a dismal Moldovan side.
The Chelsea man netted a first-brace, courtesy of a penalty and then a header, after a fine
floated cross from Glen Johnson.
By Alan Duffy
That's some divot
Both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland produced poor performances on Friday night in
their opening World Cup qualifiers of the new campaign.
The North travelled to Moscow to face Fabio Capello's Russia.
By Alan Duffy
Newcastle United 1-1 Aston Villa Premier League 2nd September 2012
A superb Hatem Ben Arfa thunderbolt gave Newcastle a share of the points on Sunday against an
improved Aston Villa side.
Coming into the game at St.
By Alan Duffy
Southampton 2-3 Manchester United Premier League 2nd September 2012
On Sir Alex Ferguson's 1,000th league game in charge of Manchester United, summer-signing Robin
Van Persie conjured up a fine gift for his boss in the shape of a crucial hat-trick.
By Alan Duffy
Swansea City 2-2 Sunderland Premier League 1st September 2012
Steven Fletcher celebrated his debut for Sunderland with a fine brace which would ultimately
earn the Black Cats a creditable share of the points at the Liberty Stadium.
By Alan Duffy
Manchester City 3-1 Queens Park Rangers Premier League 1st September 2012
Despite dominating this clash with fellow nouveau riche side QPR, Man City struggled to turn
possession into goals as the visitors battled back to push the champions all the way.
By Alan Duffy
Manchester City 3-1 Queens Park Rangers Premier League 1st September 2012
Despite dominating this clash with fellow nouveau riche side QPR, Man City struggled to turn
possession into goals as the visitors battled back to push the champions all the way.
By Alan Duffy
Wigan Athletic 2-2 Stoke City Premier League 1st September 2012
The DW Stadium played host to an entertaining 2-2 draw on Saturday, with the home side going
ahead twice only to be pegged back on both oaccasions.
Scottish attacker Shaun Maloney opened ths coring from the penalty spot after just five minutes,
when Robert Huth handled the ball.
By Alan Duffy
Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Norwich City Premier League 1st September 2012
It looked like being the dream start of new Spurs man Moussa Dembélé, after the Belgian opened
the scoring on his debut for the Lilywhites. However, visitors Norwich had worked hard all
afternoon and were rewarded for their graft with a late equaliser, courtesy of former Leeds man,
Robert Snodgrass.
By Alan Duffy
West Bromwich Albion 2-0 Everton Premier League 1st September 2012
Everton's superb start to the season came crashing to a halt at the Hawthorns on Saturday,
courtesy of another impressive display by Steve Clarke's charges.
By Alan Duffy
West Ham United 3-0 Fulham Premier League 1st September 2012
Geordie boys Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan were reunited against Fulham on Saturday, with the
Hammers' new signing Carroll providing Sam Allardyce's hooftastic side with a big old-fashioned
battering ram up front.
By Alan Duffy
One imagines Roman Abramovich was standing outside the Atletico Madrid dressing room at
half-time with his cheque-book open, after he witnessed a magnificent first-half hat-trick from
Colombian hitman Radamel Falcao.
'El Tigre' tore Chelsea apart in an outstaning first-half performance, netting three superb
goals as the Blues defence fell apart.
By Alan Duffy
Scottish giants Celtic made it to the Champions League group stages for the first time in four
years after comfortably finishing off Helsingborgs at Celtic Park last night.
Taking a two-goal advantage with them into the second leg of his Champions League qualifier, the
home side were rarely threatened by the Swedes.
By Alan Duffy
Liverpool fans will no doubt be happy with Brendan Rodgers' desire to get Liverpool playing sexy
football. However, the Anfield faithful are also likely to be impressed by the Irishman's
no-nonsense approach, which has been perfectly highlighted in a new Fox Sports documentary on the
Reds.
By Alan Duffy
Liverpool 2-2 Manchester City Premier League 26 August 2012
A fine performance from Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday should have seen Brendan Rodgers' side
take all three points against Man City. However, mistakes from Martin Kelly and then Martin Skrtel,
handed the league champions a couple of goals on a plate.
By Alan Duffy
Stoke City 0-0 Arsenal Premier League 26 August 2012
Arsenal made it two goalless draws out of two this season after failing to find a way past
Stoke's defence at the Britannia Stadium.
As expected, the Gunners had the vast majority of the possession but their RVP-less front-line
struggled to create a clear cut chance.
By Alan Duffy
Southampton 0-2 Wigan Athletic Premier League 25 August 2012
Playing in their first home game in the top tier in seven seasons, the Saints were looking to
give their fans something to celebrate. However, an impressive display by visitors Wigan spoiled
the party and gave Roberto Martinez's side a deserved victory.
By Alan Duffy
Norwich City 1-1 Queens Park Rangers Premier League 25 August 2012
Both sides came into this game on the back of heavy opening day defeats, but ultimately they
would have to be satisfied with a share of the points after a fairly close contest.
By Alan Duffy
Chelsea 2-0 Newcastle United Premier League 25 August 2012
Man of the moment Eden Hazard produced another match-winning performance for Chelsea in
Saturday's tridcy late game against Newcastle.
The Belgian wunderkind scored from the penalty spot on 22 minutes after Fernando Torres was
fouled, before setting up the Spaniard himself before half-time.
By Alan Duffy
Aston Villa 1-3 Everton Premier League 25 August 2012
Aston Villa, having barely strengthened their squad during the summer, were utterly dire at home
to Everton, with the visitors going in 3-0 up at the break.
Steven Pienaar opened the scoring with a superb effort early on while Marouane Fellaini headed
home his second of the season.
By Alan Duffy
Man Utd 3-2 Fulham Premier League 25 August 2012
An early Damien Duff goal for Fulham did nothing more than prod the home side into action at Old
Trafford, with new boys Robin van Persie and Shinji Kagawa bagging a goal each in reply.
By Alan Duffy
Swansea City 3-0 West Ham United Premier League 25 August 2012
A clash of two rather different styles of play here, with Michael Laudrup's smooth and sexy
Swans starting well against Sam Allardyce's more prosaic Hammers.
By Alan Duffy
A terrific little player, Damien Duff has decided to hang up his boots for the Republic of
Ireland after picking up his 100th cap at Euro 2012. The move by the 33-year-old comes hot on the
heels of Shay Given's decision to do the same.
The gifted wideman has enjoyed a fantastic club career with Blackburn, Chelsea, Newcastle and
his current club, Fulham, although it's probably fair to say that he never quite hit the heights
that his talent, back at the turn of the millennium, hinted at.
By Alan Duffy
Liverpool had to rely on a late own-goal to secure victory at Tynecastle on Thursday night,
against a Hearts side that deserved more from the game.
Fabio Borini missed a load of chances to score for Brendan Rodgers' side, while Raheem Sterling
impressed out wide.
By Alan Duffy
Chelsea 4-2 Reading Premier League August 22 2012
Another pivotal performance from Belgian wing-wizard Eden Hazard helped Chelsea on their way to
a second win of the season at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night. However, Premier League new-boys
Reading made a proper game of it, and came close to pulling off a major shock.
By Alan Duffy
With Rangers banished from the SPL, poor old Celtic must be feeling rather lonely in the top
tier of Scottish football. However, the Champions League does offer Neil Lennon's side a chance to
go face to face with some of Europe's big-boys, should they make it through the tricky
qualifiers.
By Alan Duffy
It all could have been so different for Andre Villas-Boas. Instead of walking a path which took
in Euro-success with Porto, lack-of-success with Chelsea and not-sure-yet-if-he'll-have-any-success
with Tottenham, the Portuguese tactician could have been the main man at none other than Burnley
FC.
By Alan Duffy
It's fair to say that footballers are rather fond of a flash motor, a penchant Pies have already
featured today. And it's this love of high-end cars which Doncaster Rovers Chairman John Ryan is
hoping will spur attacking midfielder Kyle Bennett on to great things this season.
By Alan Duffy
QPR's tough-tackling Malian international, Samba Diakite, has returned home to France on a leave
of absence (thought to be 10 days) after suffering from depression.
Although he started the Hoops' first two league games of the new season, Diakite missed the game
against Man City due to his illness.
By Alan Duffy
In what is a rather unfortunate oversight by 'Rochdale Driving School', Manchester City starlet
Courtney Meppen-Walter is featured on the front page of their website (see below), as one of their
happy customers who had passed first time.
However, this weekend the 18-year-old was arrested, along with another man, on suspicion of
causing the death of another person due to dangerous driving.
By Alan Duffy
Arsenal fans, here we go again! Currently sidelined by injury, Arsenal defender Bacary Sagna
has been speaking to French newspaper L'Equipe. And his somewhat out-of-character comments won't
have done anything to calm concerns over the Gunners' transfer policy.
By Alan Duffy
A new report from Deloitte puts the figure for total spending in the Premier League since the
introduction of the transfer window (10 years ago) at a whopping £4.4 billion.
It'll come as little surprise that Chelsea come out on top as the top division's biggest
spenders, with the Blues spunking £673 million (of mainly Roman Abramovich's money) over the last
decade.
By Alan Duffy
Pint-sized horse-lover Michael Owen has finally found himself a new team after spending the
summer on the mooch for some football.
Since leaving Man Utd, the 32-year-old striker had even been linked with a move back to Anfield.
However, rather than get a chance to join Brendan Rodgers' tiki-taka revolution on Merseyside, Owen
has signed up for the far more prosaic tactics of Tony Pulis and co.
By Alan Duffy
Harry injured. Again.
Once a veritable bright young thing of the Premier League, former Leeds United star Harry Kewell
has seen his career not quite live up to its initial potential. Now, after leaving Aussie side the
Melbourne Victory, the 33-year-old Socceroo is looking for a new club, with Stoke City on his list
of potential employers.
By Alan Duffy
A fine player on his day, Chelsea wingman Florent Malouda has seen his stock drop like a stone
at Stamford Bridge over the last year. Once a key figure in the Blues' side, he is now a forgotten
man at the club, having failed to secure a move away in the transfer window.
By Alan Duffy
After publicising the serialisation of a book telling the inside story of the collapse of
Rangers FC, the Scottish Sun has now done a major about-turn and decided to drop the feature after
their switchboard was inundated with complaints from angry Rangers fans.
By Alan Duffy
Barcelona's ghostly-paloured schemer, Andrés Iniesta, has come out on top of the pile in UEFA's
2011/12 Best Player In Europe awards. The Spaniard beat Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to the
prize which is voted for by journos across Europe.
By Alan Duffy
It's in a condom-themed restaurant (yes really) in Bangkok. So there. Why? God only knows.
And who is the (bloody creepy) player supposed to be? Stevie G, maybe?Again, God only knows.
via @Twisted_Blood
