A list of footballers who have played in the Premier League, Championship, League One or League Two this season with their first name beginning with the same letter as their surname. Please let me know if you are aware of any others.
Adebayo Akinfenwa (Northampton Town)
Adebayo Azeez (Wycombe Wanderers & Leyton Orient)
Ahmed Abdulla (Barnet)
Akwasi Asante (Shrewsbury Town)
Ali Al Habsi (Wigan Athletic)
Almen Abdi (Watford)
Andreas Arestidou (Morecambe)
Andrey Arshavin (Arsenal)
AntolÃn Alcáraz (Wigan Athletic)
Barry Bannan (Aston Villa)
Bartosz Bialkowski (Notts County)
Billy Bodin (Torquay United)
Brian Barry-Murphy (Rochdale)
Chris Cohen (Nottingham Forest)
Christopher Chantler (Carlisle United)
Ciaran Clark (Aston Villa)
Clarke Carlisle (York City & Northampton Town)
Conor Clifford (Portsmouth & Crawley Town)
Courtney Cameron (Rotherham United)
Craig Cathcart (Blackpool)
Craig Clay (Chesterfield)
Craig Conway (Cardiff Dragons)
Craig Curran (Rochdale)
Cyrus Christie (Coventry Dragons)
Damien Delaney (Crystal Palace & Ipswich Town)
Danny Drinkwater (Leicester City)
Darryl Duffy (Cheltenham Town)
David Davis (Wolverhampton Wanderers)
David De Gea (Manchester United)
David Dunn (Blackburn Rovers)
Diego De Girolamo (Sheffield United)
Donervon Daniels (Tranmere Rovers)
Dorian Dervite (Charlton Athletic)
Ethan Ebanks-Landell (Bury)
Frank Fielding (Derby County)
Gábor Gyepes (Portsmouth)
Gaël Givet (Blackburn Rovers)
Gary Gardner (Aston Villa)
Gianluca Gracco (Dagenham & Redbridge)
Gordon Greer (Brighton & Hove Albion)
Harry Hooman (Cheltenham Town)
Heidar Helguson (Cardiff Dragons)
Jake Jervis (Portsmouth, Tranmere Rovers, Carlisle United & Birmingham City)
Today sees the next round of the FA Youth Cup take place between Swansea City and Manchester United
at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea. Both teams have looked impressive during their respective cup
runs so far this season with United beating Torquay United easily then producing a much tougher,
ultimately more satisfactory performance and victory [.
This team is rapidly becoming one of the most technically gifted youth teams the club has ever
seen. Under the spotlights at Moss Lane on a cold rainy night, United's young hopefuls made light
work of a determined Torquay United side that set up, at times, with 7 men at the back. Goals from
van [...]
Saturday The Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona is on Fox at 2pm. The
League 2 playoff final between Stevenage and Torquay United is on Fox Soccer Plus at 10am. For
those who might be wondering where they're playing since Wembley is hosting the Champions League
final, the game is at Old Trafford.
The FA Cup fifth round draw threw up some fairytale ties for England's lower league
sides, most notably for non-league side Crawley Town who were paired with Premier League leaders
Manchester United...
Crawley Town became the first non-league team to reach the fifth round in 17 years after
disposing of League Two side Torquay United 1-0 in round four and will be banking on a cash
windfall as they travel to The Theatre of Dreams for the first time ever.
Manchester United were made to work hard for a 2-1 FA Cup fourth round win at Southampton on a
day when holders Chelsea were grateful to an equaliser from Salomon Kalou to stay in the
competition.
Michael Owen equalised for United with a close-range header early in the second half and then
before Javier Hernández scored the decisive goal 15 minutes from time after being played in by a
great Ryan Giggs' pass.
Manchester United were made to work hard for a 2-1 FA Cup fourth round win at Southampton on a
day when holders Chelsea were grateful to an equaliser from Salomon Kalou to stay in the
competition.
Michael Owen equalised for United with a close-range header early in the second half and then
before Javier Hernández scored the decisive goal 15 minutes from time after being played in by a
great Ryan Giggs' pass.
[M]aking his first appearance on these pages, James Bennettconsiders what fan ownership has done for the club he supports, Torquay United, and wonders whether the club's recent downturn form is perhaps indicative of a wider malaise. ... When a football club is in serious trouble, fans usually look for a reason, a suitable scapegoat for why things have gone so catastrophically wrong.
Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has promised to keep an eye on Sunderland's new signing James
McClean, after the Derry born player declared his intention to represent Ireland rather than the
IFA team.
The 22-year-old left winger wants to follow fellow Derry internationals Darron Gibson and Shane
Duffy into the Ireland senior team and Trap is happy to oblige.
Accrington 0-1 Stevenage (Beardsley 89)
BBC Report | Westley Reaction
Stevenage will face Torquay United in the League 2 playoff final at Old Trafford next Saturday.
A place in League 1 is up for grabs for the winners after they beat Accrington and Shrewsbury
respectively over two legs.
[T]oday, the focus of your average Football League supporter will probably be on Henning Berg and Sean O'Driscoll, sacked after 2 and 5 months in their jobs respectively. Back in reality, however, this correspondent's attention has turned to Devon's perennial bridesmaids, Torquay United, whose Boxing Day visit to Plymouth offered a useful barometer for both team's progress since the corresponding fixture in 2011-12, played out on a similarly wet and windy day in January.
The end of Hereford Uniteds last stay in the Football League didn't come without a fight. A four game unbeaten at the end of the season run saw the club finish just two points from the safety zone in League Two at the end of last season, with a win on the final day against Torquay United in front of a crowd of over 5,000 people not being enough to help them over the finishing line thanks to results elsewhere.
Last night at Kingsmeadow, Wimbledon were beaten by a single deflected goal by Torquay United. It was, by all accounts, a scrappy game, with the home team looking almost chronic in their lack of self confidence, but it was also a match that marked the end of an era. At the full time whistle, manager Terry Brown made a tearful lap of the pitch.
With time being short before the first games kickoff, this division will be a little briefer
than the Championship and League One. As with the other divisions, not all signings have been
named, so if you notice someone, or perhaps a club that I've "missed", chances are I haven't
actually missed them, just made a decision to omit them.
One of the headlines emanating from the BBC yesterday morning was that you can only have a day
out at the football in Britain for under twenty quid at eleven out of 104 league clubs in England
and Scotland. By a day out, the BBC talks about the entrance fee for an adult, a matchday
programme, a pie and a coffee.
Somebody hasn't been smiling on the football authorities at the end of this season. The one year
that the play-offs have to be moved from London to Manchester and this, for the record is not a
comment on whether the current volume of matches that are being played at Wembley is anything like
a good thing ends up being the year in which the majority of clubs that would have been playing
there would likely have preferred to have been playing in London instead.
I'm not generally a fan of points deductions, as they are the one punishment guaranteed to
punish the club as an entity (as well as the players and fans), without really punishing the people
responsible for the transgression in the first place. However, most of the points deductions in
recent times have been off the field transgressions.
When a non-league club gets as far as the Fourth Round of the FA Cup, the goodwill shown by
supporters of other clubs often transcends league and occasionally even local rivalries. Not so
this year. Crawley Town have an excellent chance of making the Fifth Round of the competition, but
there is at best a feeling of ambivalence surrounding this FA Cup run.
If you search online you'll find a few different versions of the all time league table. This one
for example gives a table sorted by points won in the football league throughout history. It's
interesting to a point, however it's flawed in that it rewards sides who score a large amount of
points in winning Division Four or Division Three and penalises those who spend time at the bottom
end of the top flight.
With Scottish players making moves to MLS, and Celtic soon to be playing Real Madrid at the Linc,
PSP looks at Philadelphia's history of players from the land of heather.
The Philadelphia Daily News' Kerith Gabriel questions Philadelphia Union's youth movement, and
it's pretty clear he falls into the "win now" camp. Yeah, you and a lot of others, but not me. Come
see me in 2011 or 2012 when Union Jack's the  most exciting player in the league, and then we'll
talk about that 20-20 hindsight thing.
Jonathan Moss, as regular readers will understand, is a Premier League Select Group referee, one of
nineteen referees who are allowed to officiate in EPL games.
John Colquhoun is a friend of Jonathan Moss of 20 years standing and, as regular readers will
understand, is West Bromwich Albion club agent, Key Sports Management joint-owner, tv presenter,
journalist, professional gambler and ambassador for the Scottish tourism industry.
This marvellous poster was given away free with Soccer Monthly some time during the mid to late
70s. It contains information on 158 Â teams throughout the British Isles, from Torquay United to
Sligo Rovers. Click to enlarge.
There are some terrific kits in there. Bonus points to Orient and Wales for their lovely Admiral
numbers and to Cardiff City, Carlisle United and Torquay United.
One of the more interesting facets of the South Wales derby is that neither Cardiff City or
Swansea have ever managed to "do a league double" over the other side. Craig Bellamy's
wonder-strike on Sunday afternoon ensured that Cardiff City not only left the Liberty Stadium with
all three points, but also left without the inigmany of being the first side to lose two league
games against their bitter rivals in the same season (Swansea won the derby fixture at Cardiff last
November)
I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the other fixtures that haven't produced a
league double for either side and the results were (in my opinion) very surprising.
Real Madrid did something Sunday that it had only done once before during this season. It lost.
The Merengues fell 1-0 to the 17th-placed Pamplona club despite taking 21 shots and controlling 66
percent of the possession. Even the debut of on-loan Togolese striker Emmanuel Adebayor couldn't
keep Jose Morinho's side from falling 7 points behind Barcelona in the Spanish title race.
While Dimitar Berbatov has been stealing most of the headlines during Manchester United's
unbeaten league run, Mexican striker Javier Hernandez has also played a pivotal role, scoring seven
league goals and threatening Wayne Rooney for a starting role.
Hernandez should get another chance to work his magic today as Manchester United takes on
Southampton in FA Cup action.
If you're anything like me you lay awake at night sleepless, attempting to name all of the
players with double barrelled surnames who played in the Premier League or Football League last
season (2009/2010). Well, you can rest easily now with this "cut out and keep" list of all players
with double barrelled names who played last season:
Dog 1-0 Man: How animals changed football is a post from: Just Football
Animals and football have one thing in common, they're loved. However, some animals have interfered in football matches in the past changing the whole course of the match, sometimes in a good way for a certain team and sometimes in a really bad way.
Passion meets the power of social media in England's lower leagues.
What are the chances that an individual covering a League Two club in England gains a
following from across the globe? Well, Ben Mayhew lived the experiment with his beloved Torquay
United as the case study under the twitter handle @GreenwichGull, which later became the name of
his blog.
Gol más rápido (primera división): Ricardo Oliveira (Uruguay) a los 2,8 segundos para RÃo Negro
Capital contra Soriano Interior, Torneo de la Confederación del Litoral de OFI (26 de diciembre de
1998).
Gol más rápido de la Copa Mundial de Fútbol: Hakan Şükür a los 10,30 segundos (La FIFA lo
reconoció en 11 segundos), en el partido por el tercer puesto entre TurquÃa y Corea del Sur en el
Mundial de Corea y Japón de 2002.
LONDON, England Holders Chelsea needed a late equalizer by Salomon Kalou to snatch a 1-1 draw that
kept it in the FA Cup after a Louis Saha header had put Everton on course for a fourth-round upset
at Goodison Park. In another of the weekend's five all-Premier League ties Aston Villa beat
Blackburn Rovers [.
Eddie Johnson has been receiving sporadic minutes with Fulham as of late, but this weekend's FA
Cup action may be just what he needs in order to receive a start.
Fulham take on League One club Peterborough United, and that could give Johnson an opportunity
to get his first start since early October.
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