Showing posts with label Football. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Football. Show all posts

Sunday, 24 May 2009

Boro and Toon sink as Tigers and Sunderland Survive.

Middlesbrough and Newcastle have been relegated from the Barclays Premier league while Hull and Sunderland survived in the Top flight for atleast one more season.

Both the Magpies and Boro will join the already relegated West brom in the Championship next year.

Boro needed a clear victory to secure another season in the topflight.However,they failed and were beaten away at Upton park by a Westham team that has much changed since the appointement of Gianfranko Zola.The hosts put there noses infront after 33 minutes when Carlton Cole side footed the ball past Brad Jones but the visitors levelled back in the second through Garry O'neil (50')to give themselves a glare hope of wining the match and remaining in the league as their fellow relagation strugglers were all losing.However,this wasn't to be the case just after eight minutes the hosts were ahead again this time through Stanislas thus deminishing the hopes of many travelling Boro fans who hoped atleast for another more season.
There was not more after as the Boro camp lost their hope and it meant that their fate was sealed,thus ending their 11years as a topflight team with one league cup win and a Uefa-cup final appearance.The focus will now be on the manager,Gareth Southgate,as whether he will remain to coach the team and whether some of the senior boro players as will remain at the club or they have to be sold.

On the other hand,another long topfight team,Newcastle were sent back into the championship as they lost to Aston villa at Villapark.The Magpies needed nothing less than a win against Martin O'neils men and hoped that Hull lose to Man United,to ensure that they maintain their status in the league.The magpies started well and were up to battle for it however they were dealt a big blow just six minutes before the break when Damien Duff deflected the ball into his own net.The goal completely changed the match and the mood of the fans who were celebrating the fact that Man United have taken the lead at Hull.The misery was complete for the Toon when in the final minutes David Edgar was sent off .With Newcastle unable to find an equalizer at Villa park it meant that Hull stays in the topflight for another campaign.

The tigers though not directly in the drop zone were just a point above the Magpies and needed just a draw to ensure survival.As expected Sir Alex fielded a much weakend United side considering their next match,the Champions league final. The Home side started well and crowd was firmly behind them but on the hour mark a fantastic 35 yard strike from young mildfielder Darron Gibson put the tigers behind and left left deeply tight however as the match went on news were coming in that both the Magpies and Boro were loosing and the tigers were atleast happy and match ended 1-0.
At the end of the match the tigers manager Phil Brown whose side started so well their first season in the topflight described the survival as "the biggest thing i've ever done in my footballing career".Brown grabbed a microphone and told the crowd "this is the best trip i have ever been on" before telling skyports that "we fully deserved".

Meanwhile,Sunderland the only other side in danger zone, survived though they lost 3-2 at home to Chelsea.Nicolas Anelka gave the visitors the lead two minutes after the break before Kieran Richardson levelled back for the hosts.But Salomon Kalou gave the visitors the lead again in the 74th minute before Ashley Cole wrapped up the win in the final 9 minutes of the game.However,Kenwyne Jones netted in the final injury time for the black cats.

Finally,on the other matches of the day,Arsenal crasheh Stoke city by 4-1 at the Emirates,Everton defeated Fulham by 2-0 ,Blackburn versus West brom finished 0-0 at Ewood Park,Liverpool defeated Spurs by 3-1 to claim a second spot thus denying Spurs a place in the newly created Europa cup,Mancity defeated Bolton 1-0 while Wigan defeated Portsmouth 1-0 at home thus ending their three successive defeats .

That ended Super Sunday and the Season 2008/2009 of the Barcklays Premier league.See you next season for a very interesting and beautiful football!

Sunday, 26 October 2008

Super Sunday.

In the big game of the day,Liverpool defeated the Blues at Stamford Bridge to end their 86-games unbeaten home league record .

Xabi Alonso scored,(10minutes) ,the only goal of the game to help the Reds to a 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge when his shot deflected off into the net.

The reds became the first team to beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the league since Arsenal's 2-1 success in February 2004 to go clear at the top.

The win puts Liverpool three points clear at the top of the table and Benitez could not hide his satisfaction after guiding his team to their best-ever start in the Premier League.At the end of the match Banitez said ,"To win here and stay top of the table unbeaten is a massive message for the other teams,".

In the other matches of the day, Arsenal left it late to come up with a away victory from Upton Park. Emmanuel Adebayor came off the bench to inspire Arsenal to a 2-0 victory over West Ham. The Togo international created the breakthrough after 75 minutes when his cross-shot was deflected into the net by West Ham full-back Julien Faubert.

As the Hammers pushed for an injury time equaliser, Adebayor finished off an incisive counter-attack by rounding Robert Green to rifle home the second. West Ham finished the game with 10 men after Carlton Cole was sent off in injury time for a foul on Alexander Song.

Else where, British record signing Robinho completed his first Manchester City hat-trick to take sorry Stoke apart 3-0 at Eastlands. The £32.5million Brazilian opened his account just after 14 minutes, then added another from Daniel Sturridge's excellent pass just after the re-start. But the brazilian saved the best until last, finishing off a flowing four-pass move 17 minutes from the end with a clinical finish past Thomas Sorensen.

Astonvilla, crashed Wigan 4-0 at the JJB stadium.Goals from Gareth Barry(contravertionl penalty),Gabriel Agbonlahor,John Carew and substitute Steve Sidwel earned Villa the three point in a delightful manner while still continuing their fine form.

Tottenham,with a new manager Harry Redknapp took less than 24 hours after Redknapp's appointment to deliver what Spurs supporters had wanted all season - a victory to kick-start their Premier League campaign. Roman Pavlyuchenko and Darren Bent (penalty) grabbed the goals to sink Bolton 2-0 at White Hart Lane but all eyes were on Redknapp after his appointment to succeed Juande Ramos as Spurs boss. The spurs are still bottom of the table but they made up ground on the other strugglers with a first league win of the season at the ninth attempt. Bolton had Gavin McCann sent off in the second half after he was booked for the second time in the game.

Portsmouth began life after Redknapp with a frustrating 1-1 draw with Fulham on super Sunday evening's final game. Peter Crouch opened the scoring just after the hour-mark, firing home after unselfish play by strike partner Jermain Defoe. But the Cottagers never gave up hope until the last minute and they netted an equaliser three minutes from time when Clint Dempsey converted low past David James.

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The Battle for Survival--Super Sunday