My Sporting Weekend 12-14th of February:
Warm-Up's:
Premier League (Football):
Manchester United V Manchester City, A lucky win for Man United as Man City had a really good team performance, with Yaya Toure and David Silva working well as outlets for the defence, they creating good attacking chances and committing players forward, unlike in previous games. Both teams started the game playing 4-5-1, but Man United were the more defensive team and didn't really hold the ball well especially in the first half. Luis Nani scored the first goal of the game from Wayne Rooney's flick on off a Edwin Van der Sar clearance, Zabaleta was just not fast enough to track Nani across the pitch and Vincent Kompany got stuck in no mans land in between Rooney and Nani. In the second half Man City changed tactics and went to 4-4-2 with Edin Dzeko coming on for James Milner, and Yaya Toure dropping deeper into the midfield, on the 60th minute, this gave Carlos Tevez the opportunity to drop deeper to pick the ball up, bringing him more into the game. Silva scored soon after with a lucky deflection, Dzeko took a shot that ricocheted off Silva's back into the top left corner, giving Van der Sar no chance to make a save. Man United then went to 4-4-2 with Dimitar Berrbatov coming on for Oliverira Anderson, on the 77th minute Rooney scored a spectacular overhead kick off Nani's cross. Man City deserved at least a draw but Man United took their chances and came away with the win.
Evo-Stik League (Football):
Sheffield FC V Carlton Town, Sheffield started the game well having most of the possession and some good attacking play until Carlton's Terry Hawkridge picked the ball up on the wide right edge of the area and cut across the box, unchallenged, before easily slotting past Sheffield keeper Dan Whatsize. For the rest of the half possession was about equal with both teams creating a couple of good chances, with the best one being a penalty for Sheffield, Carlton's keeper Neil West brought down Sheffield's Robert Clark as he was going away from goal, earning him a yellow card. But Cusworth shot straight down the middle into West's body, and the follow up shot went 10ft over the bar. Sheffield's main problem was that they did not have any width, apart from Matt Roney who started on the right wing and swapped to the left mid-way through the first half, so their was no outlet when going forward leaving the middle of the pitch too crowded to play through. The second half was dire with each team only creating 2 or 3 genuine goalscoring opportunity's each as the pitch deteriorated and most of the game was played in the middle of the the pitch. Before the game their were a few ruts already on the pitch, and it started to cut up straight away, an excuse of the amount of games played their could be used but I think it is because the drainage is obviously inadequate because of how wet the pitch was. Cusworth saved a point for Sheffield, deep into injury time, with a overhead kick that was not as technically brilliant as Wayne Rooney's earlier in the day but just as spectacular.
Main Event:
Millennium Magic Weekend, Super League 2011's opening weekend:
Game 3, Castleford Tigers V Wakefield Trinity Wildcats:
The first half was quite tight until Sam Obst was sin-binned for Wakefield, and Castleford then looked like they were going to run away with the game. But after Castleford's 51st minute try from Adam Milner Wakefield started to fight back with some good defence and trys for Dale Ferguson, on the 58th minute and Luke George on the 63rd minute to take the score to 28-20. Daryl Millard was sent for the sin-bin for persistent offences and Paul Jackson got a try Castleford soon after, all but sealing the game for the Tigers. The game finished 40-20, but Wakefield played well in patches and it would have been a lot closer if they could keep 13 men on the pitch for the full game.
Wakefield are going to have a tough season ahead of them after going into administration, and losing some of their better players, but at least it will give opportunity's to their youngsters which is only good for the game overall.
Game 4, Wigan Warriors V St Helens:
The replay of last years Grand Final, was going in Wigan's favour after getting two trys in the first half, with Ryan Hoffman and Harrison Hansen touching down, and a 3rd, from George Carmont, 9 minutes into the second half. Wigan were playing well, especially their defence as they kept St Helens from scoring until the 63rd minute, but a great offload from James Roby created a gap for Jon Wilkin to get their first try. Play then swayed in St. Helens favour with Tony Puletua getting a try on the 70th minute, Wigan them came back into the game with the majority of possession until Francis Meli got St Helens 3rd try of the night, with Jaime Foster missing the conversion from out wide on the left taking the score to 16-16. Sam Tomkins had a go at a drop-goal from 40 meters with 2 minutes left, for Wigan, and missed, and Kyle Eastmond also missed a drop-goal attempt, for St Helens, with the last kick of the game. St Helens did excellent to come back in the last 15 minutes and earn themselves a point in the Magic Weekends first every draw, but Wigan must be truly disappointed at throwing away a game they look set to easily win 15 minutes from time.
Game 5, Crusaders RLV Salford City Reds
Crusaders sporting a retro style kit on their return to south Wales for the first match of day 2 of
the weekend. The Welsh team started off well with a good cut out pass by Clinton Schifcofske to Welsh international Reece Williams on the wing for their first try on 5 minutes, Daniel Holdsworth scored Salfords first try on 11 mins with their first sustained attack after Crusaders had dominated the game up to that point. Michael Witt and Stuart Reardon scored Crusaders second and third trys respectively. A good set play from the 10 meter line with a chip through by Matty Smith on the last tackle led to Luke Patton getting his first try for Salford. Crusaders finished the scoring in the first half with a Clinton Schifcofske penalty from the 40 meter line. In the second half Salford started with some good, strong, defence until Jason Chan scored on the 53 minute, fighting through 3 players to get the ball over the line, Crusaders then started to run away with the game with 2 try's from Michael Witt on the 60th and 62nd minute, and a try from Stuart Reardon, on the 70th minute Salford had a really poor 2nd half and only really created two or three good opportunity's, without scoring any points. The game ended with between Salford's Wayne Godwin getting sent off for coming in late with a punch on Clinton Schifcofske, the game finished with a final score of 42-12.
Crusaders played well and should be exciting to watch this season as Iestyn Harris seems have to invention to have his team try different thing, ie short kick offs.
Game 6, Leeds Rhinos V Bradford Bulls
Ben Jones-Bishop got the opening score of the game with a try out on the right wing for Leeds after some good passing play. Bradford responded well putting pressure on the Leeds goal line on the back of consecutive penalty's and Brett Delaney being sin-binned with Elliot Whitehead scoring on the 11th and 19th minutes. Patrick Ah Van got in a good position for an interception and 70 meter run to get his first try for Bradford on his debut on the 22 minute, Ryan Hall being just short to make a try saving tackle. Ryan Hall then responded with his own try and Kevin Sinfield pulled the score back to 10-16 with a penalty with the last kick of the half. Bradford started the second half strong with Matt Diskin getting their first score of the half finding a gap in Leed's defence on the goal line, and Elliot Whitehead got his hat-trick on the 52nd minute from a cross-field kick that the Leeds defence let bounce and Whitehead picked up and went over for a pretty simple score. Patrick Ah Van nearly got Bradford's third score of the half but it was ruled off by the video ref for a knock on. Trys from Ben Jones-Bishop, on the 62nd minute, Kylie Leului, on the minute 65th, and Rob Burrow on the 68th minute brought Leeds back into the game with a score of 28-26 to Bradford. For the final 10 minutes Leeds had all of the possession and were awarded a penalty try after Gareth Raynor tackled Ben Jones-Bishop after he had kicked the ball into the in-goal area in front of him, to give Leeds a lead of 32-28.
Bradford's new signing Kyle Briggs fitted in well after stepping up to Super League from Championship side Featherstone Rovers, proving that 2nd string Aussies are not always the best option, and that their is talent out their in the lower divisions of the UK, as well as the Super League academy sides. Leeds did well to come back, but Bradford were unlucky not to win and played well.
Game 7, Hull FC V Hull KR
Hull FC's Kirk Yeaman got the first try in the final game of the weekend, with Lee Radford scoring soon after to give FC a 12 point lead over their city rivals. After a flash point between KR's Scott Murrell and FC's Craig Fitzgibbon, Danny Tickle kicked the penalty to further extend FC's lead. Momentum then switched in KR's favour with Blake Green getting their first try on the 21st minute, after some good play keeping the ball alive. Clint Newton then got KR's second try on the 29th minute, and Ben Galea got their 3rd on the 31st minute to take the lead. Ben Galea got his second try in the second half, and Kris Welham extended their lead even further with a try on the 56th minute. FC started to get back in the match but had a try disallowed for being out of touch, handling mistakes cost them field position, but they eventually got a try on the 69th minute with Will Sharp scoring out on the right hand side. Kris Welham got his second try on th 75th minute to seal the victory for KR. Kirk Yeaman also got his second try on the 78th minute as a consolation for FC, with the game finishing with a final score of 32-22.
After a fantastic start to the match Hull FC faded and never really created any try scoring opportunity's, allowing Hull KR to come back into the match and take the victory.
From the games that I saw the quality of rugby league on show was good, and playing under the roof led to some good kicking, skillful runs and not many handling mistakes, that wouldn't normally be seen at the start of February, domed stadiums and retractable roofs are surely future for rugby league as I don't really like getting wet also.
About 30,000 people turned up each day, but the biggest disappointment was that the crowd looked quite sparse during the Crusaders game, I don't know what kind of promotion was done in the local area but I've read in a few placed that it was not much, although on the other hand if people are not interested in going to watch rugby league then it doesn't matter how well promoted or how cheap the tickets are, people aren't going to turn up, even if their is a lot of quality on show.
In the other 2 games of the weekend Huddersfield beat Warrington 28-18 and Harlequins beat Catalans 11-4.
Cool-Downs:
After Monday night's 0-0 draw with Fulham, Chelsea's title hopes look all but over, and they were lucky to even got a point after Clint Dempsey's penalty miss during injury time.
Chesterfield lost on Friday night, extending their non winning run to 4 games, they are still 4 points clear at the top of the table but if they don't start picking up wins soon they will start to slip down the league, this upcoming weekend 2nd place Shrewsbury take on 3rd placed Rotherham which may give Chesterfield a chance to extend their lead at the top of the table if it ends in a draw.
And finally Sheffield Wednesday also extended their non winning run to 8 games in the league, and this weekends FA cup tie against Birmingham looks like an impossible victory, unless they are just luring them in to a false sense of security and are easily capable of beating anybody and are looking to win the cup.
Recent Results:
Npower League 1 (Football): Rochdale 2 Sheffield Wednesday 1
Northern Rail Cup (Rugby League): Sheffield Eagles 16 Whitehaven 16
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