After the disappointment of going out of the FA Cup against Port Vale in midweek, Stevenage bounced back with a good, solid win over Forest Green Rovers. Westley's side began the game 5 points adrift of leaders Oxford United at the top of the Blue Square Premier table and with them beating Barrow at the Kassam Stadium, the 3 points were even more important as Boro try to keep at pace with Oxford in the run up to Christmas.

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Following their defeat to Chelsea, I read a couple of articles writing off Manchester United's title hopes. This feels absurdly early to me, so ahead of this weekend's Premiership matches here are 4 reasons why I reckon Manchester United will be lifting the Premier League title in May 2010.

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In the wake of Ireland's heartbreaking aggregate defeat to France, where Thierry Henry's handballed assist for William Gallas to score an equaliser in extra time denied a team who had performed magnificently to haul themselves level, we pay tribute to five of the greatest footballing heartbreakers in recent memory.

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Bath City have drawn Forest Green Rovers for a home match next week in the Second Round of the FA Cup. The selection was actually almost two weeks ago, but because Forest Green and Mansfield Town failed to produce a result in their Frist Round match, City could not be sure who their opponents would be until the replay two days ago. Click to continue reading...

When Everton put United out of the FA Cup on penalties last season, Phil Neville stood with his arms folded looking away as his team mates raced forward in celebration. Not the behaviour you'd expect from an Everton captain, but certainly the behaviour you'd expect from a born and bred red.

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Jon-Paul Pittman saw thirty minutes as Wycombe Wanderers fell to fellow League One team Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup first round replay, wrapping up the first round of the tournament. Click to continue reading...

If you missed the first game against Port Vale, well tonight was more or less the same, but without the dramatic injury time equaliser. Boro again were the better side for the majority of the game, but failed to convert their chances and ended up losing the game due to an error by captain Mark Roberts.

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Rafa Benitez gave a bizarre interview to the Times yesterday, and Liverpool fans should be worried that the pressure may be getting the better of their leader. When a manager spends time talking about the support he is getting from the management, threatening to quit, and talking about the legacy he wants to leave behind, he sounds less like a manager worried about this weekend's game against Man City and more like a man who wants to put this whole mess behind him.

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I wake up this morning and read something pretty disturbing coming from Rafa Benitez. Apparently, he says that if Fernando Torres is EVER moved out of Liverpool he'll walk...right there...on the spot.

First, let's deal with the 5th Grader's attitude about this. "So, what if Torres is 50 years old and you've won the FA Cup 5 times with him, but now he's too old.

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The English Football Association (FA) Cup is wrapping up its first round with replays this week. One of them includes Stevenage Borough v Port Vale as the first match ended in a 1-1 draw. Our other site, Free Live Sports TV, will be providing live coverage (including streaming video) of the match at the following link.

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If the Boro players weren't already up for the FA Cup first round replay against Port Vale tomorrow night, they will be now after Vale captain Tommy Fraser's stinging attack on the Conference side. League 2 Port Vale were outplayed by the Hertfordshire club when they visited 9 days ago. Boro were unlucky not to win the game in the original tie, but missed several chances and had to settle for another chance to beat their League opponents.

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Finally there is an official statement from the club on the extend of RVP's injury and it's 6 weeks. That's a total of 11 matches that the Dutchman will miss. 8 Premier League games, 2 Champions League games and 1 Carling Cup game (which I doubt he will feature in anyway). That spate of matches includes Sunderland (A), Std Liege (H), Chelsea (H), Man City (A), Stoke (H), Olympiakos (A), Liverpool (A), Burnley (A), Hull (H), Villa (H) and Portsmouth (A).

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by VIC CRESCIT Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Somebody at the club must have repeatedly run over a black cat in a tank. Yet again the injury curse has struck. Robin van Persie will be out, as things stand at the moment, for at least six weeks. He did his right ankle ligaments landing badly after a tackle playing for the Netherlands in their goalless draw in a friendly against Italy in the Stadio Adriatico in Pescara on Saturday.

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The infamous beach ball which cost Liverpool FC the match against Sunderland is being offered a place in football history.
The National Football Museum want to put the red inflatable on display alongside the ball from the 1966 World Cup Final and the original FA Cup.
Last night the ball was sold for £411. Click to continue reading...

Kop favourite Craig Johnston believes Rafa Benitez may have lost the dressing room and that his reign as Liverpool manager is hanging by a thread.
Benitez's side needed a controversial penalty to salvage a 2-2 home draw against Birmingham last Monday night and have won just once since the end of September. Click to continue reading...

Boro continued their fantastic unbeaten home run after a 5-3 victory over Gateshead this afternoon. In wet and windy conditions both teams struggled to really get hold of the game and kicking against the wind certainly seemed to affect Boro at times during the first half.

It was a rare opportunity for Graham Westley to name the same team as last Saturday after an impressive performance against Port Vale.

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Internazionale boss Jose Mourinho is already plotting his exit from Giuseppe Meazza, after less than two years in the Nerazzurri hotseat.Â

The Portuguese boss is just halfway through his contract with Inter but he is already talking up his plans to return to the Premier League.Â

When boss at Premier League club Chelsea Mourinho won back to back league titles as well as the FA Cup and League Cup essentially every prize available to an English coach domestically.

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The Galaxy did just like I said and took away the assist-maching in Houston in a shutout to reach the Final for the MLS Cup.

I also mentioned that the Dynamo needed to find a way to keep Landon Donovan "double-teamed" or something that would not allow him to beat them and they simply couldn't do it.

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It's back to league action this weekend as Gateshead make the long journey south to play Stevenage in a fixture which was last played in 1998 with the 'Tynesiders' winning the game 2-1 at the International Stadium. Boro though won the reverse fixture earlier that season 6-1, so I doubt the Gateshead fans have that fond of memories of Hertfordshire.

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The FC United of Manchester radio crew.

Photo credit: FCUM photography on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion Photo Pool.

Related posts:

1. Photo Daily: FC United of Manchester's FA Cup Dream FCUM fans on the long road to Wembley, back in September.

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No TGIF during the International break, so it gives me a chance to go back to traditional blogging. The subject for discussion this week is the vexed question of silverware at Arsenal football Club. The persistent refrain of Arsenal MUST win something this season if the youth experiment is to be hailed as a success is rather doing my head in. Click to continue reading...

Something is happening behind the scenes that Pompey that is worth a great deal more headscratching than what it's generating at the moment. The club's present footballing situation is a nightmare, and after rumours that players and staff have not been paid, the financial situation cannot be much better.

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- You're invited to also visit the "cutting-edge" combination messageboard and quasi-blog QPR Report Messageboard. If your're interested in constantly-updated QPR-related news; QPR nostalgia; and some other broader football-related isssues: QPR Report Messageboard is there for you. All opinions welcome! Click to continue reading...

Actually, a lot... pretty much every football trivia question ever in fact. Thanks to Steve (from whom you can also find all the answers).

Question 1

Name 4 teams out of the 92 in England (Premiership, Championship and Divisions 1-2), who start with the same letter that they end with.

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The Times columnist and Spiked magazine editor, Mick Hume, has taken some time out of his busy schedule to speak to RoM.

Scott the Red: How long have you been following United?
Mick Hume: My whole life since I was seven anyway, in 1967. I am the stereotypical Surrey Red, from the suburbs where there was no professional football.

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- You're invited to also visit the "cutting-edge" combination messageboard and quasi-blog QPR Report Messageboard. If your're interested in constantly-updated QPR-related news; QPR nostalgia; and some other broader football-related isssues: QPR Report Messageboard is there for you. All opinions welcome! Click to continue reading...

Port Vale's trip to Broadhall Way for their 1st round replay against Boro next Tuesday will be streamed live on the FA website. It's great news for the club as they are now due to receive £33,750 for the game being broadcasted live, even though it isn't on TV. It's an unexpected bonus for Phil Wallace and the club, who after losing the Setanta TV money in the summer have now received this income as well as part of the £1m the Premier League gave to the Conference earlier in the season.

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Real Madrid beat Alcorcon 1-0 at the Bernabéu last night, which wasn't nearly enough to prevent Los Galácticos losing 4-1 on aggregate and exiting the Copa del Rey. So the team that spent nearly a quarter of a billlion euros this summer has been bounced out of the cup by a team from Segunda B, [... Click to continue reading...

The English Football Association Cup or FA Cup continues its first round on Wednesday with Rochdale AFC v Luton Town. The match will be covered live at our other site, Free Live Sports TV, at the following link below.

Rochdale AFC v Luton Town LIVE English Football Association (FA) Cup Wednesday, November 11, 2009 20:00 GMT, 15:00 EST

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So there was the Hollywood United game and all the anticipation that went with it, and we did brilliantly to draw 1-1, with Anthony LaPaglia having the game of his life in goal for Hollywood - and them unleashing the hounds of their 'A' team against us in the second half when they were 1-0 down.
It was quite a high really, as we enjoyed a couple in The Daily Pint afterwards. Click to continue reading...

Saturday's FA Cup First Round Proper match against Grimsby Town was my first ever visit to Lincolnshire. I'm ashamed to say, it was only my third foray north of Birmingham. On that count alone, I looked forward to the journey.
Of course, most everyone else I know thought the idea of going to Grimsby and back in a day was crazy. Click to continue reading...

This week, we offer an alternative to our usual format. This is due to a technical problem that wiped out all of Terry's track and rendered the original podcast useless.
Instead. Chris Oakley has gone it alone this morning to talk about Manchester United v Chelsea, the FA Cup and World Cup qualifiers. Click to continue reading...

FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round. Sheffield FC 1-3 FC United of Manchester. Coach and Horses Ground, Dronfield, Derbyshire. September 14th, 2009. Their dreams of Wembley glory ended last month after a 3-0 loss to Northwich Victoria.

Photo credit: Matthew Wilkinson on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion Photo Pool.

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- In addition to this site, try the combination messageboard and quasi-blog QPR Report Messageboard. If your're interested in constantly-updated QPR-related news; QPR nostalgia; and some other broader football-related isssues: QPR Report Messageboard is there for you. All opinions welcome! Click to continue reading...

The Premier League/PGMOB need to explain how the three most anti-Manchester United referees were the individuals selected to officiate the Big Match yesterday between Chelsea and Manchester United.
Martin Atkinson, the supposedly impartial match referee, has the most significant negative bias against United, while the original choice as 4th Official, Phil Dowd, has the second most anti-Man Utd tilt in his officiating. Click to continue reading...