Stalemate at Carrow Road

This game was a classic example of the fact that football is a game of two halves. It may have been 0-0 in the end, but one half was considerably more exciting than the other. This result caused Leicester to slip to 20th on 31 points with a 4 point cushion over the bottom 3.

The first chance of the match went to Leicester’s Steve Howard with 1 minute gone, a shot from 30 yards that went well wide. Norwich immediately fought back with Ryan Bertrand scoring, only to be denied by the offside flag (it was offside!). Two minutes later Dion Dublin hit the cross bar with a great effort from Fotheringham’s cross. Tensions were high when all of a sudden Darel Russell crossed from the flank, only for Dublin to be penalised for a foul on Alnwick. I guess you’re starting to see which half was more eventful. More chances opened up with Norwich’s Ched Evans denied by McAuley and new boy Bori choosing power over presition. Norwich came close again when Jon Otsemobor crossed for Evans to volley but Bruno N’Gotty did well to get in the way and the danger passed. Coming up to half an hour in we were on the edge of our seats when Alnwick produced a brilliant save to keep out Fotheringham’s free kick. Croft and Fotheringham kept pummeling the Leicester goal but were always denied one way or another. Eventually for Leicester the half time whistle shrieked, a lifeline for the foxes.

Alnwick was tested again on 52 minutes when Dublin’s volley was superbly saved by our new signing. Leicester’s best effort came on 71 minutes when Barry Hayles got on the end of Iain Hume’s shot which hit the post, a cringing moment! Alnwick then again came up trumps when he did well to parry a shot from Jamie Cureton. However the best was saved for the end when once again Dublin hit the post, this time with a header.

Most of the pre-match talk was about the news that Dion Dublin a former Leicester player was going to retire at the end of the season. Dublin has so far made 725 appearances and scored 231 goals in a career spanning two decades. “My body needs a rest. It takes me 40, 45 minutes to get myself ready for training and then start the warm-ups.” Dublin told the Eastern Daily Press. Holloway’s reaction to the game was “I’ll certainly take that point and put it in my top pocket. I thought Norwich were terrific today, especially in the first half.” following up with “But that’s four points out of six now and I’m pretty happy with that.”

Christiano Ronaldo Vs Bugatti Veyron who will win?

I heard about this on BBC 5 Live this weekend. Nike have made this video to promote some new football boots, that Ronaldo now uses. I’ll leave it with you to make up your minds about this.

F1 Entry List and Calender

With the announcement of Force India’s lineup, we now have the full entry list for 2008. We have Force India, who took over Spyker. Timo Glock, who was champion of GP2 last Year is at Toyota. Alonso returns to Renault, with new boy Piquet trying to challenge him. Mclaren are of course bottom of the list, as they were kicked out of the constructors championship last, after the spying scandal. We also have the full calendar, which at a glance is very exciting. Despite the US GP being off the list this year, we have the new Valencia urban circuit, which is similar to Melbourne, because it has road markings, but it isn’t in the city center. We also have the first ever night race at Singapore which is a street circuit, I will not be missing that! Here’s the full lists.

FERRARI 1 Kimi RAIKKONEN (FIN) 2 Felipe MASSA (BR) BMW SAUBER 3 Nick HEIDFELD (D) 4 Robert KUBICA (PL) RENAULT 5 Fernando ALONSO (E) 6 Nelson PIQUET (BR) WILLIAMS TOYOTA 7 Nico ROSBERG (D) 8 Kazuki NAKAJIMA (J) RED BULL RENAULT 9 David COULTHARD (GB) 10 Mark WEBBER (AUS) TOYOTA 11 Jarno TRULLI (I) 12 Timo GLOCK (D) STR FERRARI 14 Sébastien BOURDAIS (F) 15 Sebastian VETTEL (D) HONDA 16 Jenson BUTTON (GB) 17 Rubens BARRICHELLO (BR) SUPER AGURI HONDA 18 Takuma SATO (J) 19 Anthony DAVIDSON (GB) FORCE INDIA 20 Adrian SUTIL (D) 21 Giancarlo FISICHELLA (I) McLAREN MERCEDES 22 Lewis HAMILTON (GB) 23 Heikki KOVALAINEN (FIN)

2008 Formula 1 World Championship calendar Mar 16 – Melbourne, Australia Mar 23 – Sepang, Malaysia Apr 6 – Sakhir, Bahrain Apr 27 – Barcelona, Spain May 11 – Istanbul Park, Turkey May 25 – Monte Carlo, Monaco June 8 – Montreal, Canada June 22 – Magny-Cours, France July 6 – Silverstone, Great Britain July 20 – Hockenheim, Germany Aug 3 – Hungaroring, Hungary Aug 24 – Valencia, Europe Sep 7 – Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium Sep 14 – Monza, Italy Sep 28 – Singapore (Night Race) Oct 12 – Fuji, Japan Oct 19 – Shanghai, China Nov 2 – Interlagos, Brazil

FA Cup 2007/08 Round 3

Hello again, just a short post today. This weekend produced many surprises and shocks, with potentially eleven teams out of the cup already, but Liverpool and Newcastle will have to lose next time, which is unlikely. Havant and Waterlooville are also in the draw, but they have a replay against Swansea. Here are the results and the draw for the fourth round, the winning teams are in bold.

Aston Villa 0-2 Man Utd
Barnsley 2-1 Blackpool
Blackburn 1-4 Coventry
Bolton 0-1 Sheff Utd
Brighton 1-2 Mansfield
Bristol City 1-2 Middlesbrough
Charlton 1-1 West Brom
Chasetown 1-3 Cardiff
Chelsea 1-0 QPR
Colchester 1-3 Peterborough
Everton 0-1 Oldham
Huddersfield 2-1 Birmingham
Ipswich 0-1 Portsmouth
Norwich 1-1 Bury
Plymouth 3-2 Hull
Preston 1-0 Scunthorpe
Southampton 2-0 Leicester
Southend 5-2 Dag & Red
Sunderland 0-3 Wigan
Swansea 1-1 Havant & W’looville
Swindon 1-1 Barnet
Tottenham 2-2 Reading
Tranmere 2-2 Hereford
Walsall 0-0 Millwall
Watford 2-0 Crystal Palace
West Ham 0-0 Man City
Wolves 2-1 Cambridge Utd

Arsenal v Stoke/Newcastle
Coventry v Walsall/Millwall
Derby/Sheff Wed v Preston
Luton/Liverpool v Swansea/Havant
Man Utd v Tottenham/Reading
Mansfield v Middlesbrough
Oldham v Huddersfield
Peterborough v Charlton/West Brom
Portsmouth v Plymouth
Sheff Utd v West Ham/Man City
Southampton v Norwich/Bury
Southend v Barnsley
Swindon/Barnet v Fulham/Bristol Rovers
Tranmere/Hereford v Cardiff
Watford v Wolverhampton
Wigan v Chelsea

 

 

Better Luck Next Year Foxes

Leicester City were beaten 2-0 today by Southampton to knock them out at the earliest stage, round 3. Andrew Surman and Gregory Vignal scored in the first half to seal Leicester’s fate. Leicester have 1 win in 10 and went out to the same opposition twice in 3 years.

Leicester started off promisingly, with good chances from Fryatt and new boy Howard, both failing to hit the back of the net. Then as it is with Leicester at the moment, their luck ran out. Jason Euell set up Andrew Surman on the edge of the box for his first goal since August. After that we were destined to fail. Safri came close a few minutes later with his trademark long range belter. Leicester tried to respond with Howard meeting with Sheehan’s cross, but somehow went over the bar. Chances were sparse after that with a chance from Grzegorz Rasiak go wide. Southampton managed to get a goal ten minutes before the break. Vignal’s header going pass Henderson, getting a rare start in goal. However on close inspection the ball got a deflection from Stearman, and should have been an own goal. The second half brightened up a bit, with chances from Euell and Hammil to name a few. Henderson managed to save Bradley Wright-Phillips shot to give them a slim hope. Leicester had to respond and they did just that. Howard tested Southampton’s goalkeeper, and then Sheehan followed that up with another good effort a minute later. from then on it was a question of just running the clock down, and ending Leicester’s misery.

There will be a short review of the rest of the ties tomorrow when all the scores are in.

Wealing and Dealing at the Walkers

Yep its that time again, for managers and clubs to take out their checkbooks and search for players who make the grade. My club Leicester City will certainly need to be busy this month to have any chance of staying where they are. Dundee Utd have made an offer for young striker Eric Odhiambo to go on loan for the rest of the season. “Eric is an exciting young fella. He’s not somebody I want to lose,” Holloway said. If Holloway doesn’t get rid of Carl Cort in this window, then I will never forgive him. Carl Cort thinks he is a tree. He’s tall and all he does is stand around and do absolutely NOTHING! he can’t even win headers so he has to go. Fortunately I think Ian has seen this which is why he hasn’t been playing many matches lately.

As you can see from the RSS Holloway has started in advance to get the players in and out. We have made an offer for Sunderland goalie Marton Fulop (who is currently on loan with us) and veteran midfielder Graham Kavanagh.”The offer has been made for both players. We like Marton a lot but Sunderland are making some noise that they might take him back.”We are close to completing a deal for Graham,” Mandaric told City’s website. Ian also has his eye on another veteran Barry Hayles from Plymouth, you can see the connection here! He is a striker and has scored 131 goals in 342 games. And last but certainly not least, is the Derby County striker Steve Howard, who has agreed a three and a half year deal with the Foxes. Rumors around both clubs say that the fee is expected to be in excess of £1 Million. “Steve and Barry scored a total of 33 goals between them last season, while off the field they are two of the best characters in the game,” said Holloway.

And We Thought Our Refs Were Bad!

It was reported yesterday in the New Straits Times in Malaysia that a referee fired warning shots with his gun after the sending off of a player. The ref who was also by coincidence a police officer, ran to his patrol car, and grabbed his gun and fired into the air. Before this players were crowding round the ref, outraged by the decision which provoked the whole incident.

“We are investigating as to whether the policeman was justified in taking out his firearm and discharging it, and also why he had it with him during the match,” explained the police chief Hussin Ismail. The policemen was taken into custody for suspected misuse of firearms. Five other players were also taken in for questioning and could be charged with rioting the newspaper reported.

European Cup Draws Made

So this morning the draw was made for the UEFA Cup and the Champions League. It has thrown up a few surprises and some great matches are coming up. Here’s are the 1st legs of the matches, and they obviously swap round for the 2nd leg.

UEFA Champions League	UEFA Cup
Liverpool v Inter Milan	Aberdeen V Bayern Munich
Olympiakos v Chelsea	AEK Athens V Getafe
Roma v Real Madrid	Bolton V Atlético Madrid
Schalke 04 v FC Porto	Zenit St. Petersburg V Villareal
Arsenal v AC Milan	Galatasary V Bayern Leverkusen
Celtic v Barcelona	Anderlecht V Bordeaux
Fenerbahce v Sevilla	Brann V Everton
Lyon v Man Utd	Zürich V Hamburg
	Rangers V Panathinaikos
	PSV Einhoven V Helsinborg
	Slavia Prague V Tottenham
	Rosnborg V Fiorentina
	Sporting Lisbon V Basel
	Werder Bremen V Sporting Braga
	Benfica V Nuremburg
	Marseille V Spartak Moscow

Carling Cup Bring on the Semi’s!

All the scores from the quarter finals of the Carling Cup are in, and there has been lots of action and drama in all the ties. Chelsea booked a place in the Carling Cup semi-finals by beating a Liverpool side who had Peter Crouch red-carded. Arsenal’s youngsters managed to scrape a win against Blackburn, Tottenham beat Man City 2-0 and and of course Yakubu scored a late winner against West Ham last week. Here’s a brief round up of all the matches this week and my opinion of the draw for the next round.

We may as well start with the big talking point of the round, Chelsea V Liverpool. It was generally a quiet game throughout. The first half saw Liverpool sit back and allow Chelsea to go on the attack, which saw them miss many chances thanks to reserve keeper Charles Itandje. By half time it was still too close to call. Both sides came out all guns blazing with chances from Essien and significantly Crouch after a mistake from Carvalho. Liverpool regretted those missed chances as Shevchenko set up Lampard to score, after a big deflection off Carragher, unlucky really. Then just a minute after, Crouch was sent off for a two footed tackle on Mikel. This sealed the game for Chelsea and late on Shevchenko managed to squeak in a late goal against 10 man Liverpool.

Next up Blackburn V Arsenal. Arsenal (who had an average age of 21) took the lead through Abou Diaby after he looped the ball over Brad Friedel. 20 minutes later Arsenal doubled their lead with Silva from a through ball from Denilson, as well as a mistake from Samba. Blackburn managed to get a goal back for Rovers, meeting to Derbyshire’s cross. Derbyshire did look a bit offside but it was given. After the break Cruz got his second with a header, from a free kick delivered by Bentley. Extra time was looming for both sides, however this was overshadowed by Denilson’s injury time red card. So extra time. It was very tight with chances from both teams. Then suddenly at the end of the first period of extra time Silva was set up for his second goal of the match. The Gunners managed to hold on and seal their passage to the last 4.

Man City V Tottenham, and yet another sending off! Tottenham took and early lead when Defoe steered home a cross from Lennon. City couldn’t respond, largely tha nks to the persistent Berbatov, showing why he should always have a starting place in the side. Then on 20 minutes Didier Zokora was sent off after tackling Elano. This was described by Mark Lawrenson on Five Live as ” a rank bad decision”. This forced Ramos to take an obviously annoyed Defoe to put Tainio in the back line. Berbatov kept massacring the back line, but with no luck. Its called a game of two halves, it certainly was. Man City came out inspired by their manager Eriksson. Robinson was kept busy, parrying Vassel’s header over the bar, saving from Bianchi and the volley rebound from Martin Petrov. It paid off. Spurs caught them on the break, and in the 82nd minute Malbranque scored to send into the semi’s.

So what has all this drama produced, two cracking ties thats what! Tottenham will be looking to get revenge against Arsenal in the North London Derby, this is also a repeat from a semi last year. Chelsea are up against the Toffees, which promises to be an exciting encounter. So my predictions then (which are usually wrong!), well Arsenal and Chelsea will obviously be favourites and will probably win the home legs. However they will both be affected for the second leg due to African Cup of Nations, but I think they will pull through. Arsenal have many talented youngsters, and Chelsea still have a world class side whoever they put out.

Here We Go Again!

Yup once again Leicester lost to a team on the back foot. Goals from Caleb Folan and Fraizer Campbell gave the Tigers their first Coca-Cola Championship victory in five matches. Hull made two changes from Southampton, Damien Delaney missed the match through suspension, with Andy Dawson promoted from the bench in his place. Holloway kept the same starting 11 that began Tuesday’s 3-1 defeat at Ipswich.

Leicester started tentatively, conceding two shots from Windass and Garcia, fortunately going wide. Then on 17 minutes a right foot drive from 12 yards by Caleb Folan, a £1million August signing from Wigan sent the leaders ahead. Two long range efforts from Stephen Clemence and Alan Sheehan tried to light Leicester’s fire, with Sheehan’s efforts forcing the Hull keeper to tip the ball over the bar. By half time it wasn’t looking promising.

This didn’t phase Ian at half time, as he put out strikers Carl Cort and Stern John. Soon after the break Stern John shot across the face of goal, but with no end result. Hull hit back with Garcia’s shot blocked by Kisnorbo. When things were starting to look up Leicester ‘s bad luck struck again. Bruno N’Gotty was adjudged to have fouled Windass in the box, and they were awarded a penalty. Marton Fulop did well to stop the verteran’s strike, but could do nothing about the rebound from 6 yards by Fraizer Campbell. Hull held on and claimed the win, much to the dismay of the Leicester fans and supporters.

So what does this mean? Leicester are now a point above the drop zone with no win in 6. Hull on the other hand are looking up climbing to 13th with 30 point and a bit of a buffer on the bottom 7.

Today has been a very eventful day up and down the country in all divisions. We saw an 8 goal thriller at the JJB Stadium and 6 goals at Eastlands. In the Championship there were wins for Stoke, Sheffield Utd and Ipswich to name a few and in Leagues 1 and 2 there was a rare draw for Leeds against Walsall and Dagenham were thrashed 4-0 by Shrewsbury. In Scotland Gretna fought a well earned draw against Kilmarnock and Rangers beat Hearts 2-1.