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Back in July I wrote a post 'Teams to Watch out For' and after this weekend's round of fixtures, here is an update:
Money Citeh do not start their season until next weekend, but they did beat Celtic 2-1 yesterday at Eastlands.
This lunchtime, Ipswich lost away at Coventry 2-1 in the Championship.
In League One, Southampton drew with Millwall, 1-1
In League Two, Notts County beat Bradford City, 5-0.
This week, the Carling Cup starts, with games on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
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First there was relegation from the Premiership to the Championship, then last Saturday the 'Toon' were stuffed 6-1 by Leyton Orient and today the proposed take-over of St James' Park fell through.
Can things get any worse?
You know what they say, once you start in a downward spiral.......
The following post IS A BIT OF FUN, not to be taken seriously and certainly not for anyone to have a punt.
The title of the post is called "Teams to watch out for." Here is my list for the Premiership, Championship, League One, League Two & throughout the season there will be regular updates on the progress of each team.
So here goes:
Premiership: Forget your 'big four,' and forget the promoted clubs (although clubs promoted into the Premiership are always good for a laugh because they normally go straight back down.) The team to watch out for is Money Citeh. A no-brainer really considering the money they have spent.... so far.
Championship: Ipswich Town - Simply because Roy Keane worked the 'miracle' getting Sunderland into the Premiership. Lets see if he can do it again with the tractor boys.
League One: A difficult choice to make, but I plumped for Southampton. Simply because of the turmoil they have been through since the end of last season - relegation, change of ownership and administration and THEY start the season on minus 10 points.
League Two: The team I had originally picked was new boys Burton Albion, but since Sven took the Director of Football job at Notts County..... Notts County it is.
So have a bit of fun with the above list and if you have a list of teams to watch out for - let me know.Follow me on twitter
Following another injury-ravaged campaign in which he failed miserably to help Newcastle in the Premier League, I could not believe the gall of Michael Owen’s ‘come and get me’ plea to prospective suitors.
The 29-year-old, who cost the Geordies £17million from Real Madrid four years ago, has enjoyed a magnificent wage from the club but failed to repay them on the field. In four seasons he played just 71 games and scored 26 goals.
While Newcastle struggled last term Owen’s injury problems restricted him to 12 league games in which he managed just four goals! The Magpies were subsequently relegated and Owen wasted no time in trying to secure a contract with another club as his deal at St James’ Park is set to end this week!
The problem facing Owen, who says ‘the Premier League is where I feel I belong’, is that the only interested parties are Hull and Stoke City. No disrespect to these two clubs but I feel Owen had his sights set a little higher when pondering where to continue his career next season.
No ‘bigger’ clubs have expressed a solid interest as yet and it appears not many clubs can or will agree to pay him what Newcastle have stumped up since 2005!
If Owen used his head and stopped thinking about where HE wants to play and how good HE thinks he is, he could use this situation to propel himself back into hero status and boost his career in the long run.
Instead of enforcing the majority of football fans’ thoughts that modern-day footballers are all self-centred, money-grabbing, disloyal buffoons, Owen could dispel the myth with a goodwill gesture to his current employers.
Having earned a handsome living from the game – and Newcastle in particular – surely it would not hurt him to offer his services to the club for another 12 months on a wage that suits the club?
That way he could try and regain his match sharpness and eye for goal in the Championship, while possibly helping Newcastle reclaim Premier League football at the first attempt!
Owen could be given the freedom of the Toon if it all worked out, while the worst-case scenario is that he could at least say he gave it his best shot!
True it would not go down well with Fabio Capello, but then again the England coach does not seem in a rush to hand him a recall to the Three Lions squad. And his chances of returning to the national team fold would be barely enhanced by a move to Hull or Stoke!
The chances of this scenario happening are between slim and none. But what a refreshing change it would make if a footballer actually tried to give something back!
Written by Craig Smithson, a professional sports writer who blogs about football betting.
I bumped into an old friend yesterday who has supported Charlton Athletic all of his life and lives about 20 minutes away from the Valley.
After the normal greetings and the gracious how are you's, we got onto the subject of football and the first question he asked me was.
Are you still going to The Bridge? Of course I answered yes and I asked him, 'Are you still going to the Valley?'
Of course he said yes like I knew he would.
Despite Charlton's relegation to League One he was unfazed, he confirmed it was a terrible season and despite Charlton's performances he still managed to get to THIRTY-NINE games.
Put my twenty-five games or so right in the shade!!
One game he did miss last season was Plymouth Argyle away.
Instead he flew off to New York to watch Joe Calzaghe fight at Madison Square Gardens.
Plymouth, New York, Plymouth........?
'When the Red, Red Robin goes bob bob bobbing along....'
Wednesday morning at 10am was when football fans across the country were tuning into their TV sets or logging on to internet websites – well those media sources willing to pay the extortionate fees – to find out the full fixture list of their respective team for the coming campaign.
However in the days of saturated live TV coverage I am starting to think releasing the full dates of when teams are due to play – especially Premier League and Championship – might as well be left until the top brass at Sky and Setanta (finances permitting) get their mucky paws on them!
To be honest people requiring the fixtures to plan days off work, family functions, Christmas and basically fit their lives around their club’s games – which many people do – are wasting their time scribbling these freshly published fixtures into the trusty diary!
With Friday nights, Saturday lunch-times and evenings, Sundays and Monday evenings all now the home of live football on satellite TV, you can guarantee even the mediocre teams in any of the top-two leagues will have around four of their matches tampered with.
Fans of the ‘Big Four’ might as well bin their set of fixtures and just wait for Sky to dictate when they will be going to watch a match given the amount of times they are on the box!
I feel the simple solution is for the Football League and Premier League to print these fixtures off on a Saturday and hand them over to Sky et al. They can select their live matches until at least Christmas from the list and then give them back in time for all to be revealed by the Wednesday!
This would allow fans to know a definitive date when their team would be playing instead of swapping a shift for a match on Saturday September 19 only to find out a week later they will actually need the Sunday off work instead!
The present system is highly annoying and to be honest the remedy is hardly rocket science!
Hopefully the light bulb will flicker in the minds of someone who can actually do anything about it!
With thanks to Craig Smithson, a professional sports writer who blogs about football betting.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is the day that the 2009-2010 season fixtures are published.
Due to extremely high 'policing' from the authorities and mega mega money that the authorities are demanding for rights to copyright, I am unable to publish said fixtures here.
However you can get ALL the fixtures from here and here from 10am (UK time) tomorrow morning.
Twenty years ago, Burnley Football Club almost went out of the Football League and out of business.
Yesterday at Wembley they acheived a remarkable turnaround and won a massive £60m pay cheque, beating Sheff Utd 1-0 and winning promotion to the Premiership.
Scunthorpe Utd returned to the Championship after beating Millwall 3-2 in the sizzling heat at Wembley yesterday lunchtime.
Scunthorpe can look forward to trips to Newcastle Utd and Middlesbrough after they were relegated from the Premiership.
Simeon Jackson's last minute header promoted Gillingham into League One against Shrewsbury Town at Wembley this afternoon in the League Two play-off final.
Gillingham's goal came from a corner that never was and TV pictures proved the ball hit a Gillingham player before it crossed over the line.
Tomorrow, Millwall take on Scunthorpe in the League One play-off final - plus there is SURVIVAL SUNDAY..... Newcastle Utd, Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Hull City are all battling to avoid the drop to the Championship.
Apart from the fact that this weekend is a three-day weekend, the main highlight if you are a neutral football fan, is the play-offs being hosted at Wembley Stadium.
On Saturday, Shrewsbury Town and Gillingham battle it out for promotion to League One. The game kicks off at 3pm.
On Sunday, Millwall take on Scunthorpe United for the right to play Championship football next season. The game kicks off at 1pm.
On Monday, Burnley and Sheff Utd play for £60m - that's how much promotion to the Premiership is expected to be worth. The game kicks off at 3pm.
So who is going down to the Championship with WBA?
Middlesbrough
Newcastle United
Hull City
Sunderland
This Sunday's fixtures see Sunderland at home to Chelsea, Middlesbrough away to West Ham, Hull City at home to ManUre and Newcastle away to Aston Villa.
So who is your money on?
.... For a mate of mine whose beloved Clarets beat Reading last night 2-0 (3-0 on agg) in the 2nd Championship Play-off Semi-Final 2nd leg at The Madjeski Stadium.
On Monday 25th May he will be at Wembley to see Burnley take on Sheff Utd for the £30m Premiership jackpot.
Five days later I will be at Wembley for the FA Cup Final.
Sheff Utd beat Preston North End last night 1-0 (2-1) to get to Wembley for the Championship final.
Tonight Burnley leading 1-0 from the first leg, travel to Reading in the other Play-Off Semi-Final.
In League One, Millwall beat Leeds United at The New Den 1-0 and in the Championship Burnley beat Reading also 1-0 at Turf Moor.
On Sunday, League Two play-off semi-finals come to a conclusion as Bury host Shrewsbury Town with a 1-0 advantage and Gillingham entertain Rochdale. The first leg ended 0-0.
Play-off season is upon us. Conference to League Two, League Two to League One, League One to the Championship and finally The Championship to the Premiership (and when you get into the Premiership, don't upset UEFA, you might get shafted). Oh and don't forget the money.Last night, two games play-off were played. Shrewsbury Town lost at home to Bury 1-0 and Rochdale drew 0-0 with Gillingham.Tonight Preston take on Sheffield United and Scunthorpe United take on MK Dons - results will be in the comments section later.
I know of one Foxy Lady who will be dancing round her living room tonight after this result:MILLWALL 2-0 PETERBOROUGHNot only does it mean that her beloved Leicester City are on the verge of promotion back to the Championship, but they could be taking the League One title with them.
So Burnley, riding high in the Championship, put Arsenal to the sword in the Carling Cup tonight at Turf Moor, beating Arsenal 2-0.Gone before the Turf 'Moorers,' were Fulham and Chelsea. Anybody wanna back against them reaching the Carling Cup final?In the second of the four quarter-finals this evening, Derby beat Stoke 1-0 with a really late late penalty - 95th minute to be precise.
Check out Nicola with her progress on I'm a Celebrity!There is a lot of football going on tonight. Champions League, Championship, League One and League Two.Keep up-to-date with all the night's action in the comments section from 7.45pm (UK time).
On Tuesday night, all over and Europe and the UK it rained goals, goals and more goals!!In the Champions League, Arsenal went to Turkey and beat Fenerbache 5-2, in Spain Villarreal beat Aalborg 6-3, Lyon went to Bucharest and won 5-3, Man Utd beat Celtic 3-0 and Bayern Munich beat Fiorentina 3-0.Back to the UK and in the Championship, Norwich beat Wolves 5-2. There was a five goal thriller as Blackpool beat Derby 3-2, Burnley travelled to Coventry and won 3-1.In League One, Hartlepool beat Huddersfield 5-3, Yeovil beat Crewe 3-2 and for the record, The Real Latics lost 2-0 at Bristol Rovers.In League Two, Rochdale beat Chester 6-1.More of the same tonight please?
