Crowded Out

Here's something to ponder when you're considering Richard Scudamore's claim that it is vital that the Premier League plays matches abroad because they only have 335,000 consumers at home: last night, on a bitterly cold Tuesday night in March and with Champions League match available on non-PPV or subscription television, 169,592 turned out to watch matches in the Championship. These are impressive figures for the second tier of the game - an average crowd of 16,959 per match.

The big match was at The Valley, where Bristol City came from a goal behind to draw 1-1 with Charlton Athletic. The result leaves Gary Johnson's team (who, you'll remember, were only promoted up from League One at the end of last season) three points clear of the chasing pack at the top of the table, with just ten games left to play. I keep looking at the results, expecting the inevitable collapse to start, but it just doesn't (it briefly did last autumn when they lost 6-0 at Ipswich, but they soon recovered from that). It says something for the extent to which they have developed this season that a draw at Charlton might be regarded as two points dropped, and the chasing pack failed to gain any ground on them. Stoke City weren't playing, whilst Watford were held 1-1 at home by Norwich City. Norwich were at the bottom of the table at Christmas, and their transformation has been no less extraordinary that Bristol City's. Last night's result took them up to thirteenth place - it's probably too late for them to make a bid for the play-offs this season (they're ten points off the pace with just ten matches to play), but it might be worth keeping an eye on them next season. West Bromwich Albion were dependent on a last minute goal from Kevin "Super Kev" Phillips (that's his nickname for himself, not mine) to beat League One-bound Sheffield Wednesday.

The other surprise package of the season, Plymouth Argyle, continued their push for promotion with a 4-1 win against bottom of the table Colchester United at Home Park last night. Argyle might have reacted badly to losing manager Ian Holloway to Leicester last year, but they have pushed up the table impressively since then, and last night's results saw them open up a small gap between themselves and Ipswich (held 1-1 at home by Sheffield United) and Hull City (2-0 winners of a bad-tempered match against Burnley that saw four players, including Jay Jay Okocha and Joey Gudjonsson, sent off). Wolverhampton Wanderers missed out on a chance to close the gap on the clubs in the play-off places after failing to hold onto the lead twice in a 2-2 draw with Southampton at Molineux. If you close your eyes, you can just imagine Mick McCarthy's big, angry head exploding with rage.

Finally, in League One, Brighton & Hove Albion continued their late push for a play-off place with a 4-2 win against Gillingham at The Withdean Stadium. They're now three points of the promotion places and with two games in hand on the teams above them. What price Brighton & Hove Albion vs Newcastle United as a league fixture next season?

FA Cup Fifth Round Review

With every round that comes and goes now, the inevitable slides closer and closer into view. Manchester United vs Chelsea for the second year in row, boring the hell out of each other (as well as all of us) with a terrible, attritional FA Cup final at the strangely echo-ey new Wembley Stadium. Still, never mind, because yesterday's Fifth Round was another cracker, with Liverpool biting the dust in frankly spectacular circumstances. After Dirk Kuyt put Liverpool in front, a string of spectacular saves kept Barnsley in the game and the creeping feeling started to envelop me that Liverpool's confidence was brittle enough for this to all go wrong, and so it proved when Stephen Foster levelled the scores. Liverpool continued to dominate, but none of this is to say that Barnsley didn't deserve the win - Brian Howard's winner, in the third minute of injury time, came after the referee bottled giving Barnsley a last minute penalty kick after a clear trip in Howard. Liverpool's season, then, is continuing to unravel. With Inter to follow this week in the Champions League, they might only have an uphill battle to hold onto their European place to look forward to.

The other big surprise of the day took place at The Memorial Ground in Bristol, the pleasingly retro looking temporary home of Bristol Rovers, who beat Southampton 1-0 thanks to a free-kick that took a massive, sumptuous deflection off Southampton's Jermaine Wright and left Kelvin Davis diving for a shot that wasn't coming. As the cameras shakily panned across the disbelieving crowd, a little shiver ran down my spine - the realisation hitting me that this is what it's all about. Truth be told, Rovers had matched The Saints for the entire game, and deserved their win as much as Barnsley did theirs. Rickie Lambert had what looked like a perfectly good goal disallowed goal before his shot cannoned off the unfortunate Wright. Southampton had five minutes to try and rescue something from the game, but with a swirling wind and on a terrible pitch, they never looked likely to. Rovers, then, are in the FA Cup Quarter Finals for the first time in fifty years.

The other Premier League teams through to the quarter-finals are, of course, Manchester United and Chelsea. United beat Arsenal in a match blighted by the fact that both managers saw fit to rest about half of their players. What the 4-0 result did seem to confirm was that Arsenal simply have no strength in depth whatsoever. On a day during which none of their players really covered themselves in any glory it seems a little unfair to pick out any individual player, but it has to be said that Arsene Wenger's faith in Justin Hoyte is baffling, to say the least. Still, at least when Arsenal lose, they do it in style. 5-1 at Spurs and 4-0 at Manchester United are cup results that sit somewhat peculiarly next to their league form, and they have to travel to Milan in the week. Chelsea, meanwhile, overcame Huddersfield Town at Stamford Bridge, but not before they were given an almighty surprise when Michael Collins headed Huddersfield level right on half-time. They were, ultimately, no matches for the Premier League behemoths, and Chelsea could, in all honesty, have had five or six.

The final two matches were all-Championship affairs. Newly managerless Coventry City had what one can only describe as a "bad day at the office" at home against West Bromwich Albion. They'd been matching Albion ball for ball and were arguably unfortunate to be a single goal down. when Michael Doyle was sent off a couple of minutes into the second half. They folded after this, though, and Albion ran out easy 5-0 winners in the end. Last but not least, Cardiff City, as every good schoolboy knows, last won the FA Cup in 1927, but they're back in the quarter-finals for the first time since then after having beaten Wolverhampton Wanderers, thanks to two early goals at Ninian Park. The second, scored by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, was worth the admission fee on its own. This afternoon, Sheffield United play Middlesbrough at Bramall Lane, and then Preston North End play Portsmouth. The lingering possibility remains that there could be just two Premier League teams in the last eight of the FA Cup - it couldn't happen, could it?

Tuesday Night Review

This week's midweek matches, the vast majority of which were played last night, seemed to catch many people unaware. This certainly seemed to be what happened at The Reebok Stadium, where just 17,700 people took the time to drop by for their 0-0 draw with Fulham. The missing thousands must have known something. Meanwhile, Arsenal went back to the top of the table with a 3-0 win against Newcastle United, whose new managerial "team" could only watch in silence as their players turned in a second successive dreadful performance in North London. This morning's BBC web site leads with Keegan's bullish response to Dennis Wise's appointment as Supreme Galactic Overlord - most notably of all, the article points out that Newcastle are now just seven points off the relegation places. One shudders to think what the effect on Mike Ashley's apparently fragile mental state might be if they get sucked into a battle against relegation. You can probably expect to see him topless and daubed in war paint next Saturday. As it stands, anyone from Tottenham Hotspur (in twelfth place) down could find themselves fighting for their survival. The prognosis at least looks a little healthier for Sunderland this morning after their 2-0 win over Birmingham City lifted them up to fourteenth place. Taking their place beneath the trapdoor are Wigan Athletic, who lost 1-0 at Middlesbrough.

Anyone that believes that FA Cup is detrimental to league form should probably take a look at last night's results in the Championship. Preston North End seem to have been given a healthy dose of self-confidence, and followed up their thrashing of Derby County at the weekend by beating West Bromwich Albion 2-1 at Deepdale last night. This result meant that Albion failed to move clear of this season's surprise package, Bristol City, who stay in second place on goal difference only in spite of not having played last night. A few weeks ago it looked as if the race for the promotion places might come down to a two horse race, but there are now just four points between the top five. Charlton won a critical game against Stoke by a single goal last night, whilst Watford could only draw at Sheffield United, muddying the waters still further. Barnsley followed up the news that they will be the next team to try and knock Liverpool out of the FA Cup by beating bottom of the table Colchester United 1-0 at Oakwell, while Wolves, who seemed to be in free-fall over the last couple of months, beat Sheffield Wednesday at Molineux. This result left the bottom of the Championship table as open as the top, with six points now between third from bottom Preston and Sheffield United, in fifteenth place.

All eyes in League One last night were on Roots Hall - how well would Leeds United's players react to the surprise departure of Dennis Wise? The answer was "not very". Southend United beat them 1-0 to drop them down to sixth place. If the match between Nottingham Forest and Swansea City was meant to be "an advertisement for the division", it was an advertisement that lacked an end product. It finished goalless, although the crowd of over 21,000 was notable for a Tuesday night match in January. All of this suited Doncaster Rovers very nicely. They leapfrogged over Forest and into second place with a 2-0 win against Hartlepool United. At the the bottom, there's all still to play for. Luton Town lost 1-0 at home to Swindon Town in The Battle Of The Clubs That Have Flirted With Bankruptcy. The result leaves them one place off the bottom of the table, but results elsewhere went their way - fellow relegation candidates Bournemouth lost at Huddersfield, while Crewe could only draw at home against Bristol Rovers. The last time that I looked at the League One table, Cheltenham Town appeared doomed to the drop. Since then, they've gone unbeaten in 2008 until last night, when they were beaten 1-0 at home by Millwall, who hauled themselves out of the relegation places. It still looks like being tight, though, with anyone from Brighton & Hove Albion (in fourteenth place) likely to end up fighting against the drop.

In League Two, Franchise's implosion continues apace. They've now lost five home matches this season, and the "loyal" people of Milton Keynes demonstrated their impatience with it all with just 6,500 turning up to see them drop another two points, this time with a 1-1 draw against struggling Macclesfield Town. The chasing pack are catching up ominously. Franchise are still five points clear at the top, but everyone below them has got games in hand, though Rotherham United wasted the chance to close the gap to just two points with a 3-1 defeat at Peterborough United. Peterborough are up to fourth place now, with a game in hand, whilst Darlington stay in third place after a 1-0 win against Accrington Stanley. A highly undignified battle to stay in the Football League looks likely, with half a dozen teams in touching distance of the relegation places. Wrexham's mini revival continued with a creditable 2-2 at Morecambe, whilst Mansfield Town (who must have taken encouragement from their excellent performance in losing at home to Middlesbrough in the FA Cup on Saturday lunchtime) won at Lincoln City to keep Wrexham bottom of the table.

Finally, there were three matches in the Conference last night. Aldershot Town moved six points clear of Torquay United at the top of the table with a 1-0 win against Oxford United, although Torquay still have two games in hand and would go top if they won both of them. Oxford's slump has been as surprising for the rest of us as it has been alarming for their own supporters. They have now won just two matches in fifteen since the start of December, and have plummeted from having a reasonable chance of making the play-offs to fifteenth place. With thirty-seven points in the bag, they've probably got enough about them to steer clear of a relegation battle (there are still sixteen points between them and fourth from bottom Farsley Celtic), but this wasn't, I rather suspect, what anyone at The Kassam Stadium thought would happen after they lost out in last year's Conference play-offs. Elsewhere, Exeter City closed the gap on Cambridge United (who occupy the last play-off place at the moment) with a 1-0 win at The Abbey Stadium, and Burton Albion cemented their fourth position with a 2-1 win against struggling Rushden & Diamonds.

You can see some of last night's Premier League goals here, along with highlights from the African Cup Of Nations, the group stages of which are coming to an end. More on that tonight.

FA Cup Fourth Round Review

The FA Cup Fourth Round, played out last weekend, was most peculiar. There were sixteen matches played, involving thirty-two clubs, and not a single one was drawn. It was the first time that this had happened in a shade of fifty years. I bet no-one at the BBC saw that one coming. Equally strange is the layout of the last sixteen of the competition. Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool are all ominously present and correct (fingers crossed that they draw each other in the fifth round, then), but the rest of the Premier League has been absolutely decimated. I pointed out here before that the best possible Premier League representation in the Fifth Round would be eight clubs, and the weekend's results mean that just six have survived - the Big Four, plus Middlesbrough and Portsmouth. I can't offer a definitive solution to this riddle. I remain less than convinced that this idea that "the Premier League doesn't care about the FA Cup any more". I simply cannot accept that professional sportsmen could sell their supporters down the river like that, and I also don't think that it is in the genetic make-up of the professional sportsman to not want to win. I remain convinced that it is simply that the majority of the Premier League is nowhere near as good as it thinks it is. If the Premier League was anything like as good as it thinks it is, Everton's reserves would have rolled Oldham Athletic, Birmingham City would have beaten Huddersfield Town and so on and so forth. Until lunchtime, when the Fifth Round draw is made, it's difficult to gauge how healthy this all is for the competition (the rest of the Premier League's capitulation could be seen as simply giving the Big Four a free run to the semi-finals if they manage to avoid each other in the draw), but it does at least make a pleasant change to see some different faces at this stage of the competition.


The vast majority of the weekend's plaudits were taken by Havant & Waterlooville, who inflicted up Liverpool arguably the most excruciating forty-five minutes of football in their entire history. It was inevitable that Liverpool would eventually overpower them, but the final score of 5-2 was highly flattering, and whilst some cynics snorted over the cliches about "the magic of the FA Cup" and it being "what dreams are made of", it's worth pointing out that lazy journalism will always be lazy journalism. Some people have also wondered aloud how many of the 6,000 people that travelled up from Hampshire to Anfield will be back at West Leigh Park next week. My mind turns to Woking's FA Cup adventure in 1991, when they took a similar number of supporters to The Hawthorns for their match against West Bromwich Albion. Prior to that FA Cup run, Woking had been a fairly typical lower division non-league team, getting by on crowds of three to four hundred. Their average home crowds immediately shot up after this cup run, giving them the springboard for two promotions which took them into the Conference, where they remain to this day. We shall wait to see with interest whether Havant & Waterlooville enjoy similar success.

Yesterday's back pages certainly made interesting reading, with particular regard to Newcastle's trip to The Emirates Stadium to play Arsenal. One "senior source" (presumably a disgruntled player) noted darkly that Kevin Keegan's team talk prior to the match consisted of telling his players that "Arsenal are a great passing team. We must make sure that we pass the ball better than them", and nothing else. Such tactical acumen was thoroughly rewarded with Arsenal swatting them aside by an eventual 3-0 scoreline. Two games, no goals and out of the FA Cup. The Keegan Revolution marches on. Two further Premier League teams bit the dust against lower division opposition. There was no great surprise at Pride Park, where Derby County's new American owners saw their team thrashed at home by Preston North End, who currently occupy one of the relegation places in the Championship. They must be wondering what they've let themselves in for, there. Slightly more surprising was Manchester City's capitulation at Sheffield United, not least because Sven Goran Eriksson seemed to have turned a corner in terms of turning City into a capable, organised outfit, whilst the involvement of Bryan Robson at Bramall Lane would appear to preclude Sheffield United from doing anything with much efficiency.

In Sunday lunchtime's match, Spurs were predictably hungover against Manchester United. With a makeshift defence playing, they took the lead at Old Trafford before capitulating, and the 3-1 scoreline seemed to flatter United, with Michael Dawson getting himself sent off for deliberate handball and Radek Cerny rolled over a tame, deflected shot by Cristiano Ronaldo to sew the game game. In spite of all of this, Spurs had their chances. Jermaine Jenas was put through on goal with the score tied at 1-1 but rolled the ball tamely wide, and Dimitar Berbatov bundled the ball against the post with United leading 2-1, so it could have been different, but Spurs are going to have to put this one down to experience and redouble their efforts in the League Cup and UEFA Cup.

Elsewhere, Middlesbrough were given an almighty scare by Mansfield Town before running out 2-0 winners and Portsmouth had to come from a goal behind before beating Plymouth Argyle. In the matches between the lower division sides, Bristol Rovers beat Barnet 1-0 at Underhill, Wolverhampton Wanderers raised a few eyebrows in beating Watford 4-1 at Vicarage Road, and Luke Beckett continued his impressive record - he scored the winning goal in Huddersfield Town's 1-0 win at Oldham Athletic, meaning that he has scored in all four rounds of the cup so far this season. The draw for the Fifth Round will be made at lunchtime, and the sixteen teams left in are as follows: Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Cardiff City, West Bromwich Albion, Sheffield United, Coventry City, Huddersfield Town, Bristol Rovers, Barnsley, Southampton and Preston North End. You can catch up with the weekend's goals here, and there will be a lengthy report on the Liverpool vs Havant & Waterlooville match here.

Saturday Night On Sunday Morning

West Bromwich Albion have been playing some reasonably attractive football this season, but, to paraphrase The Streets, my God, don't they just know it? ITV ran something of a eulogy to them on "Championship Goals" this morning, in which they came across as a deeply unlovable bunch, from the supporters interviewed before their match against Cardiff City yesterday afternoon (one of whom had, "Boing Boing Baggies" tattooed across his thick neck, the other of whom said - without a trace of irony - "We're the Arsenal of the Championship". ITV then showed the highlights of their match, carefully adjusting their voice-over to put a spin on what was going on on-screen. Cardiff supporters can feel somewhat short-changed by the fact that they were reduced to bit-part players in one of their best away performances of the season, whilst the fact that it looked like a deflected shot and an own goal that "earned" Albion a point after Cardiff had deservedly gone 3-1 up was airbrushed out because it didn't fit with the script. I've always had a thinly veiled dislike of West Bromwich Albion, and this didn't help my viewpoint.

Elsewhere, the big matches of the day were a pair of Yorkshire derbies. Sheffield Wednesday beat Sheffield United 2-0 at Hillsborough in the lunchtime match yesterday, in an almost embarrassingly one-sided match. Wednesday took a first half lead and battered away at the United defence. The visitors rallied briefly at the start of the second half, before a Marcus Tudgay volley doubled their lead and killed the game stone dead. Good old Bryan Robson, eh? He's surely headed for the sack (United, having been relegated from the Premier League on the last day of last season, currently sit in fourteenth place in the Championship, justifying, in my eyes at least, their relegation last season), but we can at least thank him for turning them into one of this season's more entertaining soap operas. The other Yorkshire derby came at Elland Road, where Leeds United played Doncaster Rovers in the league for the first time in fifty-two years. Brian Stock's free-kick was enough to settle matters, in a result that seriously dents Leeds' automatic promotion chances (they're three points off second placed Carlisle United, but Carlisle have two games in hand on them). With recent defeats at Oldham and Swansea, it's tempting to think that the wheels are coming off the Leeds promotion bandwagon, but they're out of administration and have been spending predictably heavily in the January transfer window. Still, the lottery of the play-offs could yet condemn them to a second successive season League One.

Things could yet get worse for Leeds United, if rumours doing the rounds that Kevin Keegan is eyeing up Dennis Wise to be his assistant at Newcastle United prove to be correct. On current showing, Keegan is going to be needing all the help that he can get, as Newcastle played out a dreadful 0-0 draw against Bolton Wanderers at St James Park last night. The highlight of the match came about fifteen minutes into the second half, when the TV cameras picked up and honed in upon a man wearing a black and white crown, along with the grumpiest facial expression I think I've ever seen. Keegan's going to need more than the force of his personality if he's going to turn this bunch into anything any good.

FA Cup Third Round Review

If this year's FA Cup Third Round has proved anything, it has proved that the supposed gap between the Premier League and the rest is nowhere near as great as many people would have you believe. Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Everton and Birmingham City all fell to lower division opposition, whilst others such as Liverpool, Fulham and Derby County could do no more than force replays against teams that one might have thought that they would have brushed aside. Even a couple of the Premier League teams that did get through got massive slices of luck. Elsewhere, there's still a non-league team in the draw after Swansea City could only draw at home against Conference South side Havant & Waterlooville, and Cambridge United led for a large part of their match against Wolverhampton Wanderers before losing to two late goals.

First up, then, the giants that were slain. Everton made a mockery of their top six place in the Premier League in losing 1-0 at home to Oldham Athletic. Manager David Moyes was widely criticised for picking a weakened team for the match, to which he responded by saying, "It wasn't a vastly weakened team at all. I felt it was strong. I would have expected the team I put out to have been good enough to win.", all of which leads one to question why he doesn't play that team every week in the Premier League. There were no such excuses for Blackburn Rovers, who put out a full-strength team at home against Coventry City, but still contrived to lose 4-1. They were already 3-0 down when David Bentley pulled one back for them, and Blackburn now have nothing to play for except for securing their Premier League status for the rest of the season. Birmingham City supporters might have been forgiven for thinking that they had got out of jail when Garry O'Connor cancelled out Luke Beckett's early goal for Huddersfield Town at the Galpharm Stadium, but Chris Brandon, who had earlier hit the post, scored the winner ten minutes from the end. Finally, Bolton Wanderers "rested" a number of their first choice players (including Nicolas Anelka - presumably to increase his value by a few quid, should Chelsea decide that they want him) and lost 1-0 at home to Sheffield United.

It wasn't just Premier League clubs that made heavy weather of playing against lower division opposition. Swansea City were held 1-1 by Conference South side Havant & Waterlooville (there's an excellent review of this match on Hobo Tread), while Conference South side Cambridge United took the lead through a dodgy penalty away to Wolves, before losing 2-1 to two late goals. You could tell how rattled Mick McCarthy was by it all by his ranting about the penalty in the post-match interview before he finally remembered a bit of magnanimity and praised Cambridge for an excellent performance. Cardiff City went a goal down before beating Chasetown 3-1. Elsewhere, Mansfield Town beat Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 at the Withdean to keep a small ray of sunlight shining on what has been an otherwise dismal season at the foot of League Two. Norwich City required a late equaliser to get a home draw against Bury, and Barnet earned a creditable 1-1 draw at Swindon Town. Finally, the all-Premier League matches proved to be the least interesting of the lot. Manchester United cruised past a weak Aston Villa team on Saturday evening, West Ham United and Manchester City couldn't manage a goal between them, and Spurs and Reading (founded - 1871, number of major trophies ever won - zero, but who still seem to think that two seasons in the Premier League have rendered them "too big" for the FA Cup) played out a 2-2 draw.

Sunday's matches matches resolved almost nothing, with only Arsenal managing a win at Burnley, albeit with the aid of a harsh sending off and after the Lancashire had missed several good chances. Liverpool came unstuck at Luton Town, managing only a 1-1 draw and upping the pressure on Rafael Benitez by another several notches. Derby County came from two down to manage a 2-2 draw against Sheffield Wednesday, Fulham had to come from behind to manage a 2-2 draw against Bristol Rovers, and Newcastle United rode their luck to a 0-0 draw away to Stoke City. The draw for the fourth round will be made today at 1.30, and there will be plenty of bigger clubs now looking at the draw with considerably more uneasiness than they would have been before this weekend started.

You can see all of this weekend's FA Cup goals (and plenty more besides) and the excellent 101 Great Goals.

FA Cup Third Round Preview

Is it that time of the season again already? The first weekend in January means that, just after the chaos of the Christmas schedule, everyone can relax for a weekend and forget all about The Football That Is More Important Than Life Itself and enjoy (Enjoy! Fancy that!) the Third Round of the FA Cup. None of this means that it will be necessarily all be plain sailing for the biggest clubs and plenty of them will have very uncomfortable weekends indeed. It's also time to mention my annual reminder to clubs that aren't in the Champions League - You're not too big for the FA Cup. There will be plenty of Premier League clubs putting out under-strength sides this weekend, pursuing that agenda that I've never been able to understand - that, in modern football, it's much more important to secure that fourteenth place in the Premier League than it is to actually have a go at winning the FA Cup. I can't think of a single club that hasn't been humiliated in the Third Round of the FA Cup. Whether it's Manchester United getting stuffed by Bournemouth (1984), Arsenal throwing away a lead to lose to Wrexham (1992) or Liverpool getting beaten at Burnley thanks to a hilarious own goal (2005), there isn't anyone that hasn't come a cropper in the FA Cup Third Round at some point or other, so here are five matches that could make must of us giggle while supporters with wounded pride start banging on about the "league being more important anyway".

Derby County vs Sheffield Wednesday - Cor. Just how bad are Derby County this season? Worst team in the history of top flight English football? Probably. Laughing stocks of the whole of English football? Yes, and deservedly so. Their board of directors have consigned their supporters to a year of unremitting misery - where has that £50m that they pocketed for going up at the end of last season gone, anyway? Yeah, right. Meanwhile, after an appalling start, Sheffield Wednesday have stabilised and, although they've been without a chairman for the last couple of months, they are currently out of the relegation places and, in the "everybody beating everybody else" world of the Championship, they could yet make the play-offs. Would you bet against them getting a result at a half-empty Pride Park on Saturday?

Stoke City vs Newcastle United - As I was writing on the subject of Newcastle United last night, they were in the process of getting beaten 2-0 at home by Manchester City, further tightening the screws in Sam Allardyce's coffin. With Joey Barton still in prison after having been refused bail again and plenty of people on Tyneside very much on edge at the moment, I'd fancy Newcastle to lose to just about anyone at the moment, so it's probably the wrong time for them to be playing a Stoke City team that is probably the best that the club has had in well over twenty years. Reading through the Stoke team is like reading a "Where are they now?" article for the Premier League about seven or eight years ago. If you've ever wondered what happened to Steve Simonsen, Marlon Broomes, Leon Cort, Dominic Matteo, Salif Diao, Russell Hoult and Rory Delap are now, then look no further. Stoke City are currently in fourth place in the Championship, and are more than capable of beating a Newcastle team that is currently playing with the collective look of the condemned man on its face.

Huddersfield Town vs Birmingham City - Although they have improved slightly under new manager Alex McLeish, there is still something pleasingly unpredictable about Birmingham City at the moment, and they're ten times more loveable than they were when Steve Bruce was in charge of them. Huddersfield are currently in a mid-table place in League One, though they do contain such moderately well-known names as Danny Cadamarteri, Phil Jevons, (Huddersfield legend) Andy Booth and Frank Sinclair. Whether Huddersfield can beat Birmingham or not will come down to which Birmingham team turn up at Galpharm Stadium on Saturday. If the Birmingham team recently beaten 3-0 at Bolton Wanderers turn up there, then anything is possible.

Blackburn Rovers vs Coventry City - I still can't really fathom exactly why it is that people continue to be impressed by Mark Hughes' Blackburn Rover team to the extent that Hughes is now regularly linked with bigger jobs. Coventry have had a traumatic season of it so far, with the club sailing close to administration and a points deduction that would have put them bottom of the Championship before Ray Ranson's SISU group managed to secure a take-over. Like so many other teams in the Championship, Coventry's squad is peppered with familiar names, such as Chris Burchill (the former Port Vale player who was notable as Trinidad & Tobago's only white player at the 2006 World Cup), Julian Gray, Michael Hughes and Arjan de Zeeuw. Considering that there will most likely be more people sitting in my living room on Saturday afternoon than there will be at Ewood Park, I'd be less than surprised if Coventry saw off their more illustrious opponents.

Bristol City vs Middlesbrough - Bristol City had been threatening to get out of League One for the last few seasons, but not even their most optimistic of supporters would have expected a sustained run at a place in the Premier League in their first season back in the Championship, which sees them currently in third place, hanging grimly onto the coat tails of the vastly better off Watford and West Bromwich Albion. Middlesbrough, meanwhile, are still managed by Gareth Southgate, which is more a reflection of the extraordinary patience of Boro chairman Steve Gibson than it is on the dubious managerial "skills" of Master Southgate. It's a long journey down from Middlesbrough to Bristol, but I suspect that their return journey could be even longer.

This weekend's live BBC FA Cup matches are Aston Villa vs Manchester United on Saturday, and Burnley vs Arsenal & Stoke City vs Newcastle United on Sunday.

The End Of The Weekend

Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea all won over the course of the weekend. Derby lost. Spurs conceded a goal in the last minute and lost at home. Newcastle lost. Business, then, as usual in the all-singing, all-dancing Premier League this weekend. Alex McLeish must be wondering what all the fuss is about, having started his time at Birmingham City with a 3-2 win at White Hart Lane against Spurs, who had Robbie Keane sent off. Meanwhile, Sunderland required a last minute goal to see off Derby County at the Stadium of Light, all of which breathes further life into the ever-growing belief that Sunderland are actually no better than Derby this season.

In the Championship, just when it looked as if Watford might actually be in danger of opening up a decent lead at the top of the table, they've thrown away much of their hard work with two home defeats in in five days. Burnley and Bristol Rovers have been the lucky beneficiaries of their recent slump in form. West Bromwich Albion would have gone top of the table had they seen off Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, but Neil Warnock's team managed to hold them to a draw. Wolves beat Preston North End at Molineux to keep the pressure on but even now there are just ten points between Watford at the top and Southampton in thirteenth place. At the bottom of the table, Blackpool won an important match 1-0 at Bloomfield Road against Queens Park Rangers. You have to wonder whether this was what Flavio Briatore had in mind when he took over at Loftus Road earlier in the season. I wonder if Naomi Campbell made the trip north? Meanwhile, Cardiff City, who have slid down the table towards the relegation places at an amazing pace picked up a 2-2 draw at Hull City, but remain in twentieth place. Look on the bright side, though - at least if they do get relegated, they'll have their derby match with Swansea City back for the first time in a few seasons. Unless, that is, Swansea get promoted at the same time.

Finally, the FA Cup. This year's FA Cup has, on the whole, been a somewhat disappointing affair so far, and this wasn't helped by the weekend's events, which culminated in one of the worst Third Round draws that I can remember. Aston Villa against Manchester United again? Chelsea against QPR? Burnley against Arsenal? Luton Town or Nottingham Forest against Liverpool? You don't have to be much of a mind reader to be able to imagine what sort of teams they'll put out for those matches, though at least Luton, who are back in administration, at least have half a chance of a decent pay-day should they beat Forest. The draw was uniquely cruel to the few surviving non-league sides. Horsham put in an outstanding performance against Swansea City on Friday night and thoroughly deserved their 1-1 draw. What will their reward be, should they pull off a minor miracle and win their replay? A home match against Havant & Waterlooville of the Conference South. It's a tough draw on both clubs. Conference club Burton Albion held Barnet to a draw - their "reward" for winning the replay would be an away match at Swindon Town. Chasetown managed an excellent draw at Port Vale and will be at home against Cardiff City if they get through. If there is one Premier League that I do think is done for, it's got to be Middlesbrough. Still in the relegation places in the Premier League, they have got a (for them) horrible trip to Ashton Gate to play Bristol City. It's probably for the best that you start writing that CV now, Gareth.

The Weekend Ends Here (Slight Return)

I have to say that I have always held a sneaking regard for both Aston Villa and Martin O'Neill. I regard Villa, with their rich history and occasional bouts of being reasonably successful, as a "proper" English football club (though they lost about a million brownie points when they demolished the marvellous Trinity Road stand a couple of years ago). I first saw a team managed by Martin O'Neill in 1987, when he took Wycombe Wanderers to Clarence Park to play St Albans City in the Isthmian League Premier Division - they won 4-1 on their way to a comfortable title win, and O'Neill was already demonstrating the motivational qualities that would, within two decades, see him being linked with the England manager's job. Every club that he has had a spell in charge of has ended up in a significantly better state than it was in when he first arrived there, and that is, I guess, about as much as you can ask of a manager.

I suspect that these feeling might be more widespread than one might expect, because there was a considerable amount of delight at Villa's win against Chelsea yesterday - possibly a disproportionate amount. It wasn't merely the victory itself, but the manner of it too. Villa matched Chelsea every inch of the way, and even managed a "Roy Of The Rovers" story in new signing Zat Knight, a boyhood Villa fan with a thick Birmingham accent, opening the scoring. As a matter of fact (and it's not often that you'll hear me say this), Steve McClaren had quite a helpful weekend. Luke Young, recently added to his squad, set up Villa's second goal, whilst up at St James Park, Michael Owen finally scored his first goal of the year for Newcastle United against Wigan Athletic. I still don't think that England will qualify for the finals of Euro 2008, but they've got a fighting chance if Owen comes back into form. Finally in the Premier League, weren't Manchester United terrible against Sunderland on Saturday? Sunderland were reasonably well-organised, but United's new look team still isn't gelling, and they'll continue to run into problems unless they improve rapidly.

The Championship looks like being even less predictable than less season - there are three points between Barnsley in twenty-first place and Scunthorpe United in fourth place. Coventry City are the team occupying top place for the next few days, courtesy of a 2-1 win over Preston North End, with Watford moving ominously into second place after a win against Ipswich Town. At the bottom of the table, Sheffield Wednesday's wretched start to the season continued with a 1-0 home defeat against Bristol City, who moved inexplicably into third place. In League One, Leyton Orient stayed top of the table, in spite of losing their perfect record after having to come from two behind to draw at home to Northampton Town. Meanwhile, Leeds United's fifteen point deduction is fast becoming a fading memory - they're one win from zero points after beating Luton Town 1-0 at Elland Road. League Two's story of the day came at Spotland, where (and let's please try to stop sniggering) Rochdale scored twice in the last minute to beat Franchise 3-2.

Finally, the FA Cup reached the Preliminary Round stage over the weekend. FC United of Manchester played out their first ever match in the competition yesterday, "away" to Trafford FC (oh, the irony) at Altrincham's Moss Lane ground. They won the match 5-2, in front of a crowd of almost 2,300 and travel to play Fleetwood Town in the next round. Elsewhere, AFC Sudbury (who, you may recall, I saw batter a fairly hapless Wivenhoe Town team in the Ryman League last week) fluffed their lines in their derby match against Bury Town, and lost 3-2, whilst Enfield Town, the nearest surviving relatives to the great giant-killing team of the early 1980s, are also through after a 2-1 against AFC Hayes (who changed their name from Brook House at the end of last season, and are not to be confused with Hayes & Yeading of the Conference South). Finally, other results stand out from the rest - a lucky 55 people saw Colliers Wood United beat Faversham Town 7-6 (yes, that's 7-6 - if, just on the off-chance, you were one of these people, you should definitely send us a match report), whilst we should all spare a thought for poor old Ipswich Wanderers. They might have been hoping for an exotic cup run, playing teams that they wouldn't normally play. Well, they drew Needham Market, from the same league as them (the Ridgeons Eastern Counties League), but at least it was a home draw. They lost 10-1. Ah, the romance of the cup.

Another Weekend Round-Up

Ho hum. After all the excitement of the first two rounds, the Copa America is starting to come undone at the seams a little. For one thing, three groups of four is a deeply unsatisfactory way of organising the tournament. The first two quarter-final matches were both repeats of first round matches, due to two of the teams being third placed teams, and both matches ended up being very one-sided indeed.

First up, Brazil and Chile. Brazil may well be the second favourites to win this competition, and there's no question that beating anybody 6-1 in the quarter-finals of a major international competition is a terrific result, but let's be honest for a minute here. Chile were terrible. Hopelessly disorganised on corners, marking thin air rather than Brazilian forwards and giving the impression once the Brazilians went a couple of goals up, this Chile team is light years away from the Salas-inspired vintage of 1998 that pushed Italy all the way in the first round of France '98, even though Suazo's consolation for them was the goal of the match. They were five down at the time, though.

If there was a somewhat deflated air surrounding the Brazil-Chile match, it could probably be attributed to Venezuela's 4-1 defeat by Uruguay earlier in the day. Venezuela had shown their vulnerability in the group stages by throwing away the lead twice in their opening match of the competition against Bolivia, and this result was one that, in all honesty flattered Uruguay somewhat. Diego Forlan led the way with two goals - he had been evoking memories of his form whilst at Manchester United in the first round but came alive in this game, scoring the opening goal before Venezuela levelled just before half-time. An outrageous twenty-yard curling shot from Pablo Garcia gave Uruguay the lead with fifteen minutes to play, and Venezuela folded after this, pushing too many players forward and leaving gaps at the back for Forlan and Rodriguez to make the game safe for Uruguay. Today's quarter-finals are Mexico-Paraguay and Argentina-Peru.

Elsewhere, presumably keen to avoid the World Cup and the European Championships, the Asian Cup has kicked off in (deep breath) Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. The groups line up as following:

Group A: Thailand, Iraq, Australia and Oman
Group B: Vietnam, United Arab Emirates, Japan and Qatar
Group C: Malaysia, Iran, Uzbekistan and China
Group D: Indonesia, South Korea, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia

The tournament kicked off with a 1-1 draw between Thailand and Iraq on the opening match, but the real drama came in the next match. Australia have sent a strong team, featuring the likes of Mark Viduka, Tim Cahill, Lucas Neill and Harry Kewell, to this tournament, but they seemed to struggle in the humid conditions against Oman, and were reliant on an injury time scrambled goal from Tim Cahill to rescue a 1-1 draw. In the other match played so far, Vietnam beat the UAE 2-0. A shaky start for Australia, then, and with four host nations, South Korea and Japan and an invigorated Iran (who beat Jamaica 8-1 in a recent friendly), they might just have their work cut out to go all the way. More on this as it unfolds.

Finally, in attempt to further underline the fact that the Premier League is now nothing like the game that the rest of us play on a Sunday morning, the FA have decided on a trial of Hawk-Eye technology, presumably with some sort of rationale stating that "the stakes are too high to not use it nowadays". I'll bet a pound to a penny that it won't work.