Association Football in The British Isles

[Nick Ink]

But the Champions League ensures that the largest groups of frothing-at-the-mouth glory-hunters possible face each other! It's the perfection of the form!

Indeed! And for those given to such frothing, here's the draw for the next round(s):

Inter Milan v Schalke 04
Barcelona v Shakhtar Donetsk
Chelsea v Man.Utd.
Real Madrid v Tottenham

(semis: Real Madrid/Tottenham v Barcelona/Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan/Schalke 04 v Chelsea/Man.Utd.)

And the Europa League quarters:

Braga v Dynamo Kiev
Villarreal v FC Twente
Benfica v PSV Eindhoven
FC Porto v Spartak Moscow

[Good Intentions]

A scoreless draw in a West Ham game? Surely not!

< watches highlights of Tottenham 0 - West Ham 0 >

Well, if West Ham are going to have scoreless draws, they're going to look like that, aren't they?!

[Nick Ink]

A scoreless draw in a West Ham game? Surely not!

< watches highlights of Tottenham 0 - West Ham 0 >

Well, if West Ham are going to have scoreless draws, they're going to look like that, aren't they?!

Quite. My heart is still recovering.

A good point though. Only 3 points covering the bottom 8 now, it's all getting very exciting.

Barclays Premier League table
Saturday, 19 March 2011 14:47 UK
         P   GD   PTS
1   Man Utd    29    33    60
2   Arsenal    28    30    57
3   Man City    29    20    53
4   Chelsea    28    27    51
5   Tottenham    29    7    49
6   Liverpool    29    3    42
7   Bolton    29    2    40
8   Sunderland    29    -2    38
9   Everton    29    0    37
10   Newcastle    29    3    36
11   Fulham    29    1    35
12   Stoke    29    -6    34
13   Aston Villa    29    -13    33
14   Blackburn    29    -12    32
15   West Ham    30    -13    32
16   Blackpool    29    -15    32
17   West Brom    29    -15    32
18   Birmingham    28    -12    31
19   Wolves    29    -15    29
20   Wigan    29    -23    27


The run-ins look like this:

WIGAN
Wigan v T*ttenham
Chelsea v Wigan
Blackpool v Wigan
Sunderland v Wigan
Wigan v Everton
Aston Villa v Wigan
Wigan v West Ham
Stoke v Wigan

BIRMINGHAM
Birmingham v Bolton
Blackburn v Birmingham
Birmingham v Sunderland
Chelsea v Birmingham
Liverpool v Birmingham
Birmingham v Wolves
Newcastle v Birmingham
Birmingham v Fulham
T*ttenham v Birmingham

WOLVES
Newcastle v Wolves
Wolves v Everton
Stoke v Wolves
Wolves v Fulham
Birmingham v Wolves
Wolves v West Brom
Sunderland v Wolves
Wolves v Blackburn

WEST BROM
West Brom v Liverpool
Sunderland v West Brom
West Brom v Chelsea
T*ttenham v West Brom
West Brom v Aston Villa
Wolves v West Brom
West Brom v Everton
Newcastle v West Brom

BLACKPOOL
Fulham v Blackpool
Blackpool v Ars*nal
Blackpool v Wigan
Blackpool v Newcastle
Blackpool v Stoke
T*ttenham v Blackpool
Blackpool v Bolton
Man Utd v Blackpool

ASTON VILLA
Everton v Aston Villa
Aston Villa v Newcastle
West Ham v Aston Villa
Aston Villa v Stoke
West Brom v Aston Villa
Aston Villa v Wigan
Ars*nal v Aston Villa
Aston Villa v Liverpool

BLACKBURN
Ars*nal v Blackburn
Blackburn v Birmingham
Everton v Blackburn
Blackburn v Man City
Blackburn v Bolton
West Ham v Blackburn
Blackburn v Man Utd
Wolves v Blackburn

edit: - Ha! Forgot to include us. A nice easy run coming up 

'AMMERS
West Ham v Man Utd
Bolton v West Ham
West Ham v Aston Villa
Chelsea v West Ham
Man City v West Ham
West Ham v Blackburn
Wigan v West Ham
West Ham v Sunderland

[Nick Ink]

Hope Blackpool stay up, I must say.

[kyle]

I know this is a bit old, but still gets me everytime:

[Thermofusion]

Hope Blackpool stay up, I must say.

I watched clips of the victory parade in Blackpool after they won the promotion playoff, I was pretty fucking charmed. Good on those guys if they stay in it.

[Nick Ink]

Not sure how closely you chaps are watching the League 1 promotion race this season (that's the third tier of professional football here, of course), but I wanted briefly to highlight a couple of things.


1   Brighton           38   15   4   0   45   14   10   4   5   24   13   42   83
2   Huddersfield   39   11   6   3   31   15   9   4   6   30   24   22   70
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3   Peterborough   38   13   3   3   57   34   7   3   9   31   30   24   66
4   Southampton   36   11   4   3   33   10   8   4   6   32   21   34   65
5   MK Dons           39   12   5   3   29   17   7   3   9   27   32   7   65
6   Bournemouth   38   12   5   3   43   19   5   6   7   19   22   21   62
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7   Leyton Orient   37   10   5   3   33   19   5   7   7   27   31   10   57
8   Rochdale           37   8   6   4   28   22   7   6   6   22   19   9   57


Firstly, go on the Seagulls! Besides the mighty Irons, Brighton & Hove Albion, my local team, are the only football team outside the Korean peninsula I have anything approaching a benign attitude towards. Uruguay and Chelsea legend, Gus Poyet is leading them to a record-breaking points tally, and certain promotion, and it comes at just the right time as they are about to move into their brilliant new stadium.

But the most amazing thing about that little excerpt from the table there is arguably not Brighton's surge towards a rare 100 points finish. On close inspection, you will notice that Peterborough United fans have seen 91 goals in just 19 home games this season. That's an average of nearly 5 goals a game over a whole season. I've never seen anything  like it in the modern era. Highlights have been a 6-0 win over Carlisle, a 5-3 against Sheffield Wednesday and a 5-4 over Swindon, 5 more at home to Oldham (5-2 this time, for variety), a 4-4 draw with Southampton, and three 4-1s. They've also lost 5-1 at home. Twice!Their away games are nearly as ridiculous, including a 5-0 win and 4-1 and 6-2 losses. The next team in the table, Southampton, by comparison, have hosted less than half that many goals in their games - just 43.

At the moment of writing, Peterborough are currently leading their rivals Bournemouth (who they lost 5-1 to earlier in the season, by the way) 3-1. It's half time.

[Nick Ink]

Two up within 10 minutes last night, but sat back after that^^^^


But this thread really needed bringing back to say 'Well done Real Madrid'

[kyle]

Mesut Ozil continues to be one of my favorite players.

[Good Intentions]

I must say that I enjoyed the Stoke - Arsenal game. Stoke simply ran the Gunners off the pitch, and I got indecent amounts of satisfaction seeing the multi-millionare Arsenal ponces sulk like spoilt children, and the Stoke fans respond to Wenger complaining that Stoke play using rugby tactics by chanting 'Swing Low Sweet Chariot' when their team went a goal up.

[Good Intentions]

My commiseration at your loss, Nick.

[kyle]

My commiseration at your loss, Nick.

Seconded.

[Nick Ink]

Thanks chaps. It's been coming (for about 3 seasons, in fact), and part of me thinks it's what we need. A chance to have a clearout, rebuild around the younger players (we have a lot of very promising youth players, as well as people like Sears, Hines, Tomkins, Collison and Spence, who will get more of a chance now), maybe even win the odd game.

Another part of me is absolutely gutted though.

To add insult to injury, when Wigan scored their equaliser, at the precise moment we became mathematically relegated, a plane flew over the stadium (300 miles north of London, I might add - someone went to a lot of effort on this one), trailing the following banner:



But I have to admit it was funny.

[kyle]

It will do them good. Come back much stronger next year with a better squad.

Also, Surprisingly Spurs beat Liverpool to put them into fifth and a berth in the Europa Cup. I did not see that coming with how well Liverpool have been playing recently and how poorly Tottenham have been.

[Johnp]

Also, Surprisingly Spurs beat Liverpool to put them into fifth and a berth in the Europa Cup. I did not see that coming with how well Liverpool have been playing recently and how poorly Tottenham have been.

The 'Pool want to win the P'Ship next year. Europa'd be a distraction.

[Thermofusion]

Man how cool will it be if Blackpool manage to beat Man Utd this weekend?

[Johnp]

Man how cool will it be if Blackpool manage to beat Man Utd this weekend?

Very cool, maybe staying up at Birmingham's expense. Hoping Wolves hang in there, too.

If Blackpool do, it could be a 41 (or 44) point spread between 1st and 20th. Last year was 67, before that 58, 76 and 61. Best league in years (with apologies and sympathy to NI).

[kyle]

Blackpool could beat them, they're a great team.

[Good Intentions]

Blackpool could also stay up even if they lose if Brum get hammered even worse. Though, knowing Blackpool, the most likely scenario for that is Brum losing 2-0 and the Tangerines going down 4-3.

[Nick Ink]

Blackpool could beat them, they're a great team.

They were 2-1 up just a few minutes ago, but 3-2 down and in the bottom 3 now.

20 minutes to play though, and all sorts of permutations - looks like goal difference could come into it too, even.

As it stands:

Man Utd 3-2 Blackpool
Stoke 0-0 Wigan
Tottenham 1-0 Birmingham
Wolves 1-3 Blackburn

15   Blackburn 38   -12   43
16   Wolves 38   -21   40
17   Wigan 38   -22   40
-----------------------------------------------------
18   Birmingham 38   -21   39
19   Blackpool 38   -22   39
20   West Ham 38   -26   33

[Nick Ink]

Birmingham equalise! Wigan score!

That puts Wolves down, and means Blackpool are in big, big trouble (4-2 down now, and surely finished)...it now looks like this

15   Blackburn 38   -12   43
16   Wigan 38   -21   42
17   Birmingham 38   -20   40
----------------------------------------------
18   Wolves 38   -21   40
19   Blackpool 38   -23   39
20   West Ham 38   -26   33

[Nick Ink]

Wolves can escape on goal difference if they score again though - even though they'd still be losing the match (it's 3-1 there at the moment)

[Nick Ink]

Wolves can escape on goal difference if they score again though - even though they'd still be losing the match (it's 3-1 there at the moment)

And they do score! As the Wolves fans sing "One goal! We only need one goal!" Stephen Hunt rifles one in to make it 3-2 and that puts Birmingham bvelow the dotted line on 'goals scored' (incredibly, points and even goal difference are now exactly equal!)

I'd like to see Wolves stay up, personally. Great team, loads of fight, and out of all of this lot at the bottom, deserve to escape the most I think.

Still, 2 minutes plus added time to go - a goal in any of these games can still change things....nailbiting


15   Blackburn 38   -13   43
16   Wigan 38   -21   42
17   Wolves 38   -20   40
------------------------------------------------
18   Birmingham 38   -20   40
19   Blackpool 38   -23   39
20   West Ham 38   -26   33

[Nick Ink]

Surreal scenes at Wolves where an enormous cheer breaks out around the game whilst bemused Blackburn players tap the ball around across the 18 yaerd line. The reason? Birmingham have gone 2-1 down at Tottenham in injury time, and are down, along with Blackpool.

Wigan win and get out of it, while Wolves fight back to score twice in the second half, and stay up by a point despite losing the match.

edit: required due to a combination of my over-excitement/inability to do maths

[Nick Ink]

I know this is a bit old, but still gets me everytime: