By Chris Wright

Sickening stuff from afore Blackpool's 3-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on Tuesday evening, wherein Wednesday mascots Barney and Ozzie Owl launch a vicious and unprovoked attack on ESPN's FA Cup mascot Buddy using the old 'kneel behind and push' takedown technique beloved by schoolboys everywhere.

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

Sheffield Wednesday mascots Barney and Ozzy shamelessly assault FA Cup mascot Buddy. [YouTube]

Man City's 88-year-old mascot. [Kickette]

Classic goalkeeper shirts as art.

Blackpool's reward for a scintillating 3-0 demolition of Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough is a trip to Everton in the FA Cup fifth round.

The game was effectively won in the opening 15 minutes as Matt Phillips continued his red-hot scoring streak with a precise finish and Lomana LuaLua curled in a superb effort soon after.

Harry Redknapp is a free man.

Redknapp and Sheffield Wednesday owner Milan Mandaric were acquitted of tax evasion charges after being found not guilty of avoiding to pay taxes on payments made into an offshore account in Monaco between 2002 and 2007, when both men were at Portsmouth.

By Chris Wright

Blackpool beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 at Hillsborough in their FA Cup fourth replay round last night, with Lomano Tresor LuaLua (yes, that Lomano Tresor LuaLua!) grabbing the goal of the night the Seasiders' second with a superb curling effort from the apex of the area.

Sheffield Wednesday vs Blackpool Goals FA Cup 2012 Highlights 0-3 Video Lua Lua Sylvestre Phillips is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Sheffield Wednesday vs Blackpool Goals FA Cup 2012 Highlights 0-3 Video Lua Lua Sylvestre Phillips is a post from Soccer Blogger.

Fox Soccer Plus has Sheffield Wednesday - Blackpool in an FA Cup Fourth Round replay. Copa Libertadores on Fox Deportes: Defensor Sporting - Velez Sarsfield at 5pm and Fluminense - Arsenal at 7pm. For those of you who don't regularly follow the Libertadores, we're starting the Second Stage. That means eight groups of four teams each with 16 advancing to the knockout stage.

You have to fill a 25 man squad with somebody and given the three major loan departures and one permanent sale earlier this week, perhaps it's no surprise at some of the names being included by Spurs this week.

In addition to those departures, Tom Carroll and John Bostock also went out to Derby and Sheffield Wednesday respectively so are David Bentley, Bongani Khumalo and Simon Dawkins literally there to ‘make up the numbers?

Notts County v Stevenage
Meadow Lane | League 1
4th February 2012 | 3:00pm kick off

Gary Smith's first game in charge was against Notts County last weekend and his first league game will also be up against Martin Allen's side as Boro travel to Nottingham this Saturday. Stevenage are still on a high from last weekend's Cup win and the bonus of drawing Tottenham in the 5th round.

Fulham manager Martin Jol has surprised everyone by exchanging all of his first team squad except Bryan Ruiz for Sheffield United's 2011 FA Youth Cup runner-up team.

"At first we looked at the Man United squad. They were the winners of that tournament, after all, and I am not stupid.

By FRANCO PANIZO

Chelsea is looking for a better second half of the season in the Premiership, and it is hoping the signing of an attacking midfielder will help them do that.

Chelsea is set to sign Kevin De Bruyne from Belgian club RC Genk on a five-year deal.

The club has announced that Tom Carroll has joined Derby County on loan and will stay there until the end of the season. Tom has featured heavily in our Europa League campaign and this looks to be an ideal move for the player as Derby look to push into the play off places.

"We are delighted to welcome Tom on board.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

It looked to be another long afternoon at the Emirates after Arsenal found themselves down two to Aston Villa at halftime and on the verge of going out of the FA Cup. Relief came quickly, however, as the Gunners scored three goals within 10 minutes to move on to the fifth round.

The draw for the FA Cup's fifth round was held earlier today. A reunion with Gus Poyet (via Brighton) wasn't in the cards, with Chelsea being drawn against Birmingham.

Not bad. The Championship club will pose a threat, but not to the extent that traveling to Anfield would have. Ties will be held 18/19 February.

It is a sobering thought to consider that, for all the hard work and drama involved in keeping Darlington FC alive just nine days ago, the looming deadline over the clubs future comes up for renewal again on Monday. The last few days have seen a patchwork team lose narrowly to Fleetwood Town and Hayes & Yeading United in the league, but performances on the pitch have, by necessity, had to take a back seat to the continuing efforts to save the club.

The quietness. It's so loud. In its quietness, of course.

According to various reports in The Sun (not linking) and The Express (won't link because of auto-playing video), there was something of a team meeting at the training ground this week. Some might call it 'crisis talks', some might call it 'group therapy', some might call it 'Trevor'.

Coventry City's Alex Nimely celebrates scoring their second goal of their terrific win against Middlesborough

Every week, my brother places an accumulator on various Football League results, only a few quid, but enough to make it fairly interesting. To this date, he has never won.

We've always thought that 20 year-old James Tavernier could be one for the future at Newcastle. James Tavernier - look great in training And it looks like since James returned from his loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday last week, he's looked very good in training, and in fact manager Pardew had said he's looked brilliant.

Stadiums function a great deal like shoes. Wear a pair for too long and the shoelaces begin to fray, the outer sole wears thin, and the inner sole starts to emit a smell generally acceptable at the bottom of a rubbish bin. Change them out for new shoes that fit too snug, and walking around becomes a right pain in the heel with ingrown toenails forming from the compression.

Two points separate the top four sides in the Championship going into this weekend's action, with leaders Southampton in danger of falling out of the automatic promotion spots for the first time this season.
Nigel Adkins' men wasted no time in acclimatising to life back in the second tier, surprising those who bet on the Championship to quickly build up a healthy lead over the rest.

Newcastle have ended James Tavernier's loan at Sheffield Wednesday because the Owls were playing James out on the right wing. James Tavernier in action for Sheffield Wednesday Tavernier's stay ended on Monday, after he had been playing well out on the right wing, and he played a total of 7 times for the Sheffield club.

Resultados FA Cup 2011/2012 Tercer Ronda Ida
Viernes 6 de enero de 2012 5 Liverpool vs Oldham Athletic 1Sábado 7 de enero de 2012 0 Birmingham vs Wolverhampton Wanderers 00 Dagenham & Redbridge vs Millwall 02 Barnsley vs Swansea City 41 Brighton vs Wrexham 11 Coventry City vs Southampton 21 Crawley Town vs Bristol City 01 Derby County vs Crystal Palace 00 Doncaster Rovers vs Notts County 22 Everton vs Tamworth 01 Fleetwood Town vs Blackpool 54 Fulham vs Charlton Athletic 01 Gillingham vs Stoke City 33 Hull City vs Ipswich Town 12 Macclesfield Town vs Bolton Wanderers 21 Middlesbrough vs Shrewsbury Town 01 Milton Keynes Dons vs Queens Park Rangers 12 Newcastle United vs Blackburn Rovers 14 Norwich City vs Burnley 10 Nottingham Forest vs Leicester City 00 Reading vs Stevenage 13 Sheffield United vs Salisbury City 12 Swindon Town vs Wigan Athletic 13 Tottenham Hotspur vs Cheltenham Town 04 Watford vs Bradford City 24 West Bromwich Albion vs Cardiff City 21 Bristol Rovers vs Aston Villa 3Domingo 8 de enero de 2012 2 Manchester City vs Manchester United 34 Chelsea vs Portsmouth 01 Sheffield Wednesday vs West Ham United 00 Peterborough United vs Sunderland 2Lunes 9 de enero de 2012 1 Arsenal vs Leeds United 0 Gracias por tu visita Estadísticas de Fútbol

By JOHN BOSCHINI

Headlines in England following the draw for the fourth round of the FA Cup will be centered on the Liverpool vs. Manchester United battle and a possible QPR vs. Chelsea meeting, as rematches of racism-marred Premier League games take center stage. For American fans, though, there's a much more tasty fixture to be found.

By Chris Wright

Pies pick of the best of the rest of the photos from this weekend's FA Cup third round action (there weren't an awful lot to go at)...

Everton observe a minute's applause in honour of former Toffee Gary Ablett before their 2-0 win over Tamworth at Goodison

Roman Pavlyuchenko celebrates with a bashful pout after scoring Tottenham's second goal in their 3-0 win over Cheltenham at White Hart Lane

When Dave Met Mario: A meeting of minds takes place in the executive suites at the Etihad Stadium

Lomano Lua Lua goes arse-over-tit in celebration after scoring during Blackpool's 5-1 demolition of local 'rivals' Fleetwood Town

The sky splits and the heavens open above Hillsborough during Sheffield Wednesday's 1-0 win over West Ham

An elderly Manchester United fan gets the final score all wrong as she signals to the City supporters

Everton's Royston Drenthe gives Tamworth's Patrick Kanyuka a helping hand with his cramp

Bolton 'keeper Adam Bogdan is powerless to stop Macclesfield midfielder Arnaud Mendy's sublime volley ripping past him and into the back of the net

Swindon manager Paulo Di Canio thanks the Big Man upstairs after the League Two side's 2-1 win over Premier League opponents Wigan at the County Ground (this one's for STFC)

Photos: PA

Wayne Rooney celebrates as Manchester United win at neighbours City

The FA Cup third round saw very few shocks this weekend but did see some interesting results and a bit of controversy along the way.

In the tie of the round cup holders Manchester City lost in the derby match against record holders Manchester United by three goals to two.

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 wise old head is needed to calm the growing tensions between Sir Alex Ferguson and Kenny Dalglish and their teams in the wake of the Suarez/Evra race row.
Forget the Manchester derby for a moment and consider this: how do you extract the bile from the Manchester Ship Canal in the wake of Luis Suarez racially abusing Patrice Evra?

A wise old head is needed to calm the growing tensions between Sir Alex Ferguson and Kenny Dalglish and their teams in the wake of the Suarez/Evra race row.
Forget the Manchester derby for a moment and consider this: how do you extract the bile from the Manchester Ship Canal in the wake of Luis Suarez racially abusing Patrice Evra?

It's that time of year again when I allow myself to go all misty-eyed about the FA Cup while the less sentimental (and perhaps younger) among us tut-tut and denounce the old jug as a busted flush.

The Champions League is bigger, bolder, more watched, more important and above all more lucrative than the FA Cup, this we all know.

Guardian: Hillsborough campaigner's anger over FA Cup crowd barrier plans

• Barriers to be trialled at Sheffield Wednesday v West Ham • Margaret Aspinall calls plans 'insensitive' A campaigner for justice following the Hillsborough disaster has claimed it is "insensitive" to use crowd control barriers for an FA Cup game at the stadium this weekend.

Mirror: Families' fury as crowd barriers return to Hillsborough

Sheffield Wednesday's ground will use them on Sunday for first time since 1989 tragedy

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2012-01-07 00:00:04 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

By FRANCO PANIZO

If the Christmas weekend left you starved for soccer, Monday might just be enough to satisfy your hunger.

Nearly a dozen games involving Americans Abroad are scheduled to take place on Boxing Day, including Jonathan Spector's match against his former club, West Ham United.

Wycombe Wanderers have announced Liverpool have signed highly-rated teenager Jordan Ibe.
As revealed by skysports.com earlier this month, Liverpool has won the race for the 16-year-old, fending off interest from a number of their Premier League rivals.
Ibe became Wycombe's youngest-ever goalscorer when he netted against Sheffield Wednesday in October aged 15 years and 325 days on his first start for the club.

You've got to feel for Andy Rhodes. Most fathers, having just witnessed their son score four times to single-handedly salvage a point from a pulsating and fiercely contested derby match in front of more than 28,000 spectators, would be bursting to the seams with pride. But not Andy, who, as Sheffield Wednesday's goalkeeping coach, had just seen his charge Stephen Bywater beaten four times, his

[Y]ou've got to feel for Andy Rhodes. Most fathers, having just witnessed their son score four times to single-handedly salvage a point from a pulsating and fiercely contested derby match in front of more than 28,000 spectators, would be bursting at the seams with pride. But not Andy, who, as Sheffield Wednesday's goalkeeping coach, had just seen his charge Stephen Bywater beaten four times, his own flesh and blood Jordan wresting two points from the Owls' grasp seven minutes into stoppage time.

You've got to feel for Andy Rhodes. Most fathers, having just witnessed their son score four times to single-handedly salvage a point from a pulsating and fiercely contested derby match in front of more than 28,000 spectators, would be bursting at the seams with pride. But not Andy, who, as Sheffield Wednesday's goalkeeping coach, had just seen his charge Stephen Bywater beaten four times, his own flesh and blood Jordan wresting two points from the Owls' grasp seven minutes into stoppage time.

NME Album of the Year: Elephant by The White Stripes Crufts Best in Show: Yakee a Dangerous Liaison Palme d'Or Joint Winners at Cannes: Elephant Vice President of the United States: Dick Cheney Given the uncanny coincidence that artworks with the same title scooped the NME Album of the Year and Palme d'Or Awards in 2003, it's appropriate that one of the blogosphere's finest polymath's should

[G]iven the uncanny coincidence that artworks with the same title scooped the NME Album of the Year and Palme d'Or Awards in 2003, it's appropriate that one of the blogosphere's finest polymath's should contribute the fourth in our fledgling series of hopeless teams. For Chris Ledger is none other than the brains behind Obscure Music and Football, a site with a sometimes unhealthy predilection for Salad (the band that is), the musical career of one Paul 'Gazza' Gascoigne and the witticisms of everyone's favourite xenophobe, Steve Claridge.

NME Album of the Year: Elephant by The White StripesCrufts Best in Show: Yakee a Dangerous LiaisonPalme d'Or Joint Winners at Cannes: ElephantVice President of the United States: Dick CheneyGiven the uncanny coincidence that artworks with the same title scooped the NME Album of the Year and Palme d'Or Awards in 2003, it's appropriate that one of the blogosphere's finest polymath's should contribute the fourth in our fledgling series of hopeless teams.

[G]iven the uncanny coincidence that artworks with the same title scooped the NME Album of the Year and Palme d'Or Awards in 2003, it's appropriate that one of the blogosphere's finest polymath's should contribute the fourth in our fledgling series of hopeless teams. For Chris Ledger is none other than the brains behind Obscure Music and Football, a site with a sometimes unhealthy predilection for Salad (the band that is), the musical career of one Paul 'Gazza' Gascoigne and the witticisms of everyone's favourite xenophobe, Steve Claridge.