It has been announced that Newcastle midfielder Alan Smith is joining League One side MK Dons on loan for the rest of the season. Alan Smith joining MK Dons for the rest of the season The 31-year-old former Leeds United and Manchester United player has appeared in only two cameo substitute appearances for Newcastle [.

Gary Smith is the new Stevenage manager. It doesn't come as any surprise that Smith has been appointed as he has been the favourite for the position over the last week or so. He was even in the main stand watching his new side beat play-off rivals MK Dons 4-2 earlier tonight. News of his appointment broke soon after and the Harlow born coach is set to be the man given the task of replacing Graham Westley and continuing Boro's promotion push.

Karl Robinson and his Milton Keynes Dons side make the short journey down to the Lamex tomorrow night in what could be a pivotal match as both sides look to cement their position in the League 1 play-off positions. MK Dons sit one place above Stevenage going into the game, although the Dons are 5 points clear with the bonus of a game in hand.

[T]his hasn't been a plum week in the history of MK Dons. Their dumping out of the cup at the hands of Premier League QPR on Tuesday night followed a weekend of sincere apology from all involved at the club after the farcical cancellation of their League One match with Carlisle. The game was the only weather casualty in the entirety of the professional game across England and Scotland – a mind blowing situation that owed much to bad planning and which was unbecoming for a stadium which was one the England 2018 bid's chosen host venues.

By Chris Wright

Pies pick of the stills from last night's FA Cup third round replay action...

ITV's punditry panel Matt Smith, Gordon Strachan and Ian Wright watch over QPR's game against the MK Dons from deep within the bowels of their elevated glass fortress at a sparsely populated Loftus Road

New QPR manager Mark Hughes gives the home crowd a wave before taking his place in the Loftus Road dugout for the first time

Obviously not used to moving at these speeds, a terrified Kevin Davies motors past Macclesfield Town's Tony Diagne at the Reebok.

Two big wins tonight in the FA Cup for Bolton and QPR, two sides that have been struggling for wins in the league this season.

Bolton beat fourth-tier Macclesfield 2-0 to reach the competition's last 32. First-half goals by striker Kevin Davies and Bulgaria winger Martin Petrov set up an all-Premier League match against Swansea on Jan.

Two big wins tonight in the FA Cup for Bolton and QPR, two sides that have been struggling for wins in the league this season.

Bolton beat fourth-tier Macclesfield 2-0 to reach the competition's last 32. First-half goals by striker Kevin Davies and Bulgaria winger Martin Petrov set up an all-Premier League match against Swansea on Jan.

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Chelsea beat Portsmouth 4-0 in the third round of the FA Cup this afternoon with goals from Juan Mata, Ramires (2) and Frank Lampard. Chelsea progress into the next round to face either MK Dons or QPR.
Here are the goals from the match today:
KTBFFH
Check out my blog posts on the Official Chelsea Website - http://bit.

A largely average performance resulted in a 4-0 win over Portsmouth at Stamford Bridge and a place in the draw for the fourth round of the FA Cup. Hey, I'm not complaining.

Who's up next then? The Dons of MK or that lot from down the road.

Rubbish

Chelsea will travel to either MK Dons or Queens Park Rangers in the next round of the competition.

A largely average performance resulted in a 4-0 win over Portsmouth at Stamford Bridge and a place in the draw for the fourth round of the FA Cup. Hey, I'm not complaining.

Who's up next then? The Dons of MK or that lot from down the road.

Rubbish

Chelsea will travel to either MK Dons or Queens Park Rangers in the next round of the competition.

As there are three teams promoted and four teams relegated from League One, seventeen sides spent the entirety of 2011 in the third tier. Of these teams it was League One play-off finalists Huddersfield Town that ended the year with the best record. It was only everyone's favourite franchise MK Dons that won the same number of games during 2011.

Norwich City make their first trip to Anfield since the 2004-2005 season, currently situated ninth in the Premier League and winners of three of their last four. Each of the newly promoted sides have impressed this season, but the Canaries are the top of the heap thus far. Liverpool have strung together seven points from their last three and will hope to continue their string of positive performances in what could potentially be a very tricky match.

Bury manager Richie Barker has extended the loan deal of Liverpool striker David Amoo until the New Year.
Amoo joined the Shakers on an initial month-long deal in September and it was due to expire after Saturday's game against Bournemouth.
However, the 20-year-old has agreed to prolong his time at Gigg Lane and will stick with the League One club until 2nd January.

Liverpool and England Under-21 midfielder Jordan Henderson has been granted permission to leave the Under-21 set-up early to join up with Kenny Dalglish's squad ahead of their match against Stoke City next weekend.
The former Sunderland man was on target for Stuart Pearce's side as they got their Euro 2013 qualification campaign off to the perfect start with a 6-0 win over Azerbaijan on Thursday.

A friend of mine has a huge collection of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight and within those pages, coverage devoted to institutions of which the organ actually approves is limited. Similarly, any word cloud representing The Daily Mail from 1997 onwards would probably throw up the term 'Blair' most commonly and copies of fanzines such as Red Issue spend an inordinate amount of time fixating

Mystic Meg appointed as The Sun's pay-per-click executive Erm... no, actually. Are you?

This is a guest article from one of our roving reporters who kindly reported back on his findings as he watched the Tottenham XI play MK Dons last night.

His name is Charlie Keeler and he is in his late 20′s. This is his first blog article.

He saw the 1987 FA Cup Final Squad on Blue Peter and decided that Spurs were the team for him.

For the most part this site is resolutely non-partisan, shying away from inflammatory articles and the bilious, monosyllabic responses they attract from spittle-flecked, talkSPORT-listening meatheads in favour of carefully considered argument and reasonable, civil debate. In fact, the only thing that seems to get the eminently agreeable Lanterne Rouge hot under the collar is a certain mob from

Possibly the closest category to call, this split our voters - divided by micro and macro concerns. At the latter level, the usual suspects are there: the primary interviewee on Lord Sugar Tackles Football, some oval ball proponents from the South Manchester borders and all those associated with the downfall of a Green Army from Devonshire.

I've written a few pieces recently with criticism of some of the facets of the modern game that have left me feeling that the dignity and the beauty of football is slipping away. With the promotion to the Football League of AFC Wimbledon, football has shown that it is far from dead, that the fairy tales still live on, and there is still hope for all of us who so love the beautiful game [.

His early coaching success now a distant memory, Paul Ince found himself out of a job once again this month after leaving relegation-threatened Notts County. With several of his former Manchester United teammates having enjoyed relatively straightforward routes into top-level management, is it circumstance or something else that's holding back Ince's managerial career?

-Chris Ballard
Following soccer in the United States can be difficult when you're a relative newcomer, and finding a team to call your own even more so. I've wanted to find a time to root for most of my time here. It's all very well staying aloof to the vagaries of the club season, but supporting a soccer team is fun, and I don't want to miss out.

Below is a guest post I wrote for twofootedtackle.com earlier this week. Two Footed Tackle is a blog devoted to the world of football, covering the Premier League right down to non-league. You can follow them on Twitter via @twofootedtackle.

Stevenage's 3-1 victory over Newcastle United at the weekend may have shocked the nation, but those who have followed the club over the last few years will tell you that they were not surprised to see a Premier League side turned over at fortress Broadhall Way.

I've just got enough time to get a quick preview done before I head off to the ground. Barnet are the visitors to Broadhall Way today, just over 2 months ago since we beat them 3-0 at Underhill. A lot has changed since that Tuesday night in early November. We haven't won a game in the league since, whilst Barnet have now parted company with former Boro boss Mark Stimson.