Capturing Cardiff (The Points Anyway)

My Sporting Weekend 25-27^th of March 2011:

Warm-Up's:

Engage Super League (Rugby League):

Wigan Warriors V Warrington Wolves, Warrington were sublime as they easily beat rivals Wigan in a top of the table clash. Matty Blythe opened the games scoring, on 9 minutes, down the right wing after Wigan's Andy Coley gave away a penalty for a high shot. Wigan then got back in the game when Aussie Brett Finch, who was making his Wigan debut after having neck surgery in January, pulled off a fantastic piece of skill to get his first try. He kicked through towards the post and he then got on the end of the ricochet and went over virtually unchallenged. Joel Monaghan then got Warrington's 2^nd try down the right wing, after Blythe drew in the Wigan winger Josh Charnley, to silence the Wigan crowd. A 40-20 from Sam Tomkins gave Wigan good field possession towards the end of the 1^st half, but they couldn't covert this into points.

7 minutes into the second half Monaghan got his second try, after a high bomb from Lee Briers putting Charnley under pressure, Monaghan claimed the ball in the air and spun over. This was followed by 2 tries being knocked off by the video ref, 1 for each team, before Ritchie Myler got Warrington's 4^th try. After intercepting a pass from Sean O'Loughlin Myler ran 60 metres to get an easy score to seal the game. Brett Hodgson's goal kicking all game was brilliant converting all 4 of his kicks, including 2 from out on the right wing.

Wigan didn't play particularly bad, but they were just outclassed by a superior Warrington side, who look like they will dominate this season if they keep up this form.

Euro 2012 Qualifier (Football):

Spain V Czech Republic, Jaroslav Plasil had scored on 29 minutes to give the Czech's a 1-0 lead at half time, and as I turned on for the second half started they looked as if they were going to defend for their lives and hope to play out the game for a 1-0 win. Spain started the second half well, having most of the possession and creating a few chances, and after a few substitutions and formation changes they eventually got the breakthrough on 68 minutes. David Villa scored with a shot to the bottom right corner, beating Petr Cech, with a placing quite similar to Plasil's. Spain then seemed to step up a gear, their attacks looked more dangerous and 3 minutes later Jan Rezek took down Andreas Iniesta to give away a penalty, and Villa converted to give Spain the lead.

Czech Republic never looked like scoring and they didn't have a single shot in the second half, they did win two corners though, but they came to nothing.

International Friendly (Football):

USA V Argentina, Before the game started their was a moments silence for the disaster in Japan and ESPN did a pretty good job of positioning microphones that picked up the idiots shouting some stupid things, I don't see why they just don't mute the crowd mics for these situations, leaving TV viewers oblivious to these imbecile's. The pitch looked in pretty poor condition and this was probably because the temporary grass surface had been under a foot of snow earlier in the week, but this didn't matter to Argentina, who kept the ball well and passing it around at a fast pace. Argentina dominated the possession in the first half, but when USA eventually got the ball they moved it forward fast, looking to counter attack although this mostly came to nothing. Argentina eventually got the first goal on 41 minutes, after a good save from Tim Howard, the ball rebounded in Esteban Cambiasso's direction, who blasted it past the defenders on the line and over the stranded Howard, into the top of the net. Argentina controlled the first half having most of the possession and creating lots of chances, but Howard made some good saves that kept the USA in the game.

At half time USA brought on the New York Red Bulls striker Juan Agudelo and changed the formation from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2, but they still found it hard to create chances in open play. The USA did get an equaliser though ,on 59 minutes, after the Argentinian keeper, Mariano Andujar, fumbled a header off a Landon Donovan free-kick, Agudelo was the quickest to react and slotted the ball over the keeper. After that the USA did have more of the ball but could not get another goal, but they did have a good end to the game. In the second half Argentina didn't look as dangerous, but the game was played at a high tempo and was entertaining to watch.

If Argentina play like they did in the first half in the upcoming Copa America in July they will have a very good chance of winning, but they need to have a few more shots on target, and maybe the addition of Carlos Tevez, Gonzalo Higuain or Sergio Aguero could help that cause.

Qantas Australian Grand Prix (Formula 1):

The opening round of the 2011 Formula 1 season was a pretty boring race with only a few bits of action, with the one that had the most effect on the overall outcome of the race being McLaren's Jenson Button penalised with a drive through penalty for leaving the track to overtake Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and not conceding the place straight away. A few laps later Button was trying to hold back Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel to help his team mate, Lewis Hamilton, so that it might give him a chance of catching him, but Vettel made a good move to overtake Button, and after that Vettel ran away with the race, giving last seasons champion the best start to the new season. Further back in the field Mercedes 's had a pretty rough day with Williams's Rubens Barrichello taking out Nico Rosberg after trying to overtake him under breaking, and Michael Schumacher having to retire after receiving damage on the opening lap. British newcomer Paul Di Resta, racing for Force India, had a good day picking up a championship point on his debut, after the Saubers that finished in 7^th and 8^th were disqualified due to technical infringements. Hamilton, who finishing second, also had quite a good race, especially after damaging the floor plank and under-tray.

But overall I think something needs to be done to make Formula 1 more entertaining, with the main thing being increasing the amount of overtaking in a race. I think that this could be done by reducing the amount of development that goes into aerodynamics and taking away some pieces of the aero kit that the cars have on them. This would then allow cars to run directly behind another car without becoming unstable, and give them a better chance of being able to overtake.

Honda Grand Prix of St Petersberg (IndyCar):

The opening round of the 2011 IndyCar Series featured 4 British drivers, rookie James Jakes, as well as Mike Conway, Justin Wilson and last years champion Dario Franchitti. The race started with a big accident on the first corner with Marco Andretti going over Scott Dixon and landing upside down, Conway also received damage and had to retire. On the restart Franchitti went round pole-sitter Will Power on the first corner and then led until then end. The race was then stop-start until the 17^th lap when the first complete lap, under the green flag, was run. This was followed by a long green run, with the leaders starting to pit around lap 38, but on lap 40 Charlie Kimball broke his front left suspension, after clipping the wall on cold tyres, causing a full course caution. On the restart Danica Patrick damaged a second front wing putting her in last place of the cars on the lead lap, and after this their was then not much action on the track. The second set of pit-stops then came and went with no incident as did the rest of the race. HVM Racing's Simona De Silvestro had a great race keeping in the top 4 for most if the race, and eventually finishing 4^th. The racing was very close but their was not much overtaking, apart from on the main straight away, this was mainly because of the nature of the tight street circuit.

Main Event:

Euro 2012 Qualifier (Football):

Wales V England, This was my second visit to the Millennium Stadium (1^st being the League 1 play-off final in 2005) and it is such a great venue where you are right on top of the action (sitting in the second tier, although the first tier looked a bit shallow). England had a fantastic start to the game putting the Welsh players under pressure as soon as the got the ball, as well as having some good, accurate, passing, and movement off the ball, as well as forcing Welsh errors. England had scored 2 goals in the first 14 minutes (Frank Lampard, 7, Darren Bent, 14) and from that point never looked like losing. During the second half England didn't look as sharp, but they never looked like conceding and the game turned into a bit of a non event, but I throughly enjoyed my second visit to Cardiff.

Overall I was pretty disappointed with Wales's performance and they hardly created any chances and didn't have a single shot on target. If Gareth Bale was fit and played the fear of what he could do could have changed England's approach to the game, and given Wales a boost but they would have still had to get the ball to him, and if England played like they did closing down quickly and putting players under pressure he wouldn't have even got a touch. Also I think that it is possible that the captaincy has been given to Aaron Ramsey so that he doesn't lose interest in playing for Wales, and starts pulling out of future squads for the smallest reasons.

England played with a 4-3-3 formation, and this worked well packing the centre of the field, as well as giving the opportunity for the full-backs to get forward to get the crosses in. The only real problem that I can see with the formation though it that Ashley Young played out wide on the right, and Wayne Rooney tucked in on the left, meaning that Ashley Cole was constantly pushing on out wide on the left, which may leave him exposed against stronger opposition, but I suppose with playing Scott Parker as a defensive midfielder he can always come across and cover. Hopefully we can they will carry on using this formation as it means that we can fit 2 fantastic centre midfielders (Jack Wilshire and Steven Gerrard) into the team without having to worry about 1 of them playing too defensive, or even worse sticking them out of position on the wing.

Cool-Down's:

Sheffield Eagles got their second win of the season, beating Toulouse on Saturday, by all accounts they had a fantastic first half, scoring 5 tries, but they were not very clinical in the second half, with the match finishing 34-16 to the Eagles. This weekend they are playing Halifax and they will need to put together a full match performance to have any chance of winning.

England, who couldn't even take a wicket, were hammered in their Cricket World Cup quarter final by Sri Lanka, but I suppose it is not as bad as South Africa who lost their quarter final and have now lost 3 out of the 4 World Cup knock out matches they have participated in. And they game they didn't lose they drew with Australia, but got knocked out due to having a poorer Super Sixes record.

 

Recent Results:

The Co-Operative Championship: Sheffield Eagles 34 Toulouse 16

Npower League 1: Dagenham and Redbridge 1 Sheffield Wednesday 1

Evo-Stick South: Stamford 2 Sheffield FC 2

ICC Cricket World Cup: Sri Lanka: 231-0 (39.3 overs)

                                       England: 229-6 (50.0 overs)

                                       Sri Lanka beat England by 10 wickets

Benzema Strikes Again

My Sporting Weekend 18-20 March:

Warm-Up's:

Npower League 2 (Football):

Chesterfield V Rotherham, This was Rotherham's first visit to Chesterfield's new ground, the B2net Stadium, and was played in front of Chesterfield's largest attendance for 20 years, a full house of 10,089 the match started off with an extremely fast pace, that hardly let up during the first half, 2 defensive errors led to Chesterfield's first 2 goals, for the first Callum Kennedy mis-kicked in the box, giving the ball away, and Dean Holden scored from the following cross, and for the second Ryan Cresswell played an awful back pass straight past the Millers keeper Any Warrington, and Craig Davis scored from the following corner, after some sloppy defending and a good flick on from Deane Smalley. Jack Lester then got the Spireites third, just before half time, with a fantastic solo effort, after a good through from Whitaker, Lester went round 2 players before curling the ball in to the top left corner. During the first half Chesterfield had most of the possession and created some really good chances, but Rotherham did create a few of their own chances, with Chesterfied's keeper, Tommy Lee, making a couple of good saves.

The second half started a bit slower with Rotherham having more possession, but they could not get the breakthrough, and Lester got Chesterfields 4th and 5th on 80 and 82 minutes, to complete his hat-trick and seal the victory. It now looks as if promotion is now virtually guaranteed for Chesterfield, and they also should easily win the championship if they carry on playing as well as they did. Rotherham are now struggling a bit, after being 2nd at Christmas they have steadily dropped down the league and are now 6^th and could easily fall out of the play-offs come the end of the season, they responded to this on Monday by sacking their manager, Ronnie Moore.

Evo-Stik League South (Football):

Sheffield FC V Leek Town, Leek opened the scoring on 14 minutes after a Dan Cope volley from the edge of the area that just sneaked inside the post, Sheffield then replied straight away with Ant Lynam scoring before they then took the lead 2 minutes later with James Gregory getting the goal.

During the second half after looking as if the game would finish 2-1 to Sheffield Leek got 2 quick goals of their own with Anthony Malbon and Dan Cope scoring on 76 and 80 minutes respectably. And the game wasn't finished their with Sheffield's Andrew Gascoigne equalising with a header from a corner on 89 minutes, Sheffield then pushed forward and as Leek defence panicked they conceded another corner and Gascoigne popped to get his second, with a volley, for Sheffield to take the lead in injury time.

The match was pretty dire to watch, with neither team really being able to hold the ball, move it round and create very much pressure, although the 7 goals did turn the game into a bit of a thriller with the lead quickly changing 4 times.

But the main incident of the day was the crowd trouble that stemmed from a couple of quite young Leek fans (if you can call them that) that had had far too much to drink, the slightest comment wound them up to a point of frenzy where they couldn't control themselves, and they surely made fools of themselves and the club they were representing.

Npower League 1 (Football):

Southampton V Sheffield Wednesday, During the first half the match was end to end but neither team really created anything, Wednesday loanee Isaiah Osbourne did have a good run but shot wide. Both teams found it hard to keep hold of the ball and Wednesday were playing ok in defence until they went to sleep and Fonte scored, on 60 minutes, from a Chamberlain corner, after this Southampton dominated the game. They then got their second on 66 minutes, with Lee Barnard doing well to shield the ball in the box from before crossing for Nicky Lambert to put the ball into the net, from that point Wednesday couldn't get hold of the ball in Southampton's half and never had any real urgency to get the ball forward to create any sort of goal scoring opportunity. Wednesday's best player was their débutante keeper, Richard O'Donnell, who made some good saves and kept the score down to only 2 goals.

La Liga (Football):

Barcelona V Getafe, I only saw bits of this match, and just after I turned on Danni Alves opened the scoring on 16 minutes with a fantastic volley from outside the area, after a poor clearance. Normally he would find it hard to hit the target but this was a fantastic finish, and the keeper had no chance. On 22 minutes the Barcelona fans showed their great appreciation, by clapping for a minute, for Eric Abidal, who on Thursday had successful surgery, to remove a tumor from his liver.

Towards the end of the match Getafe created a but of pressure by forcing 2 corners in a row, but nothing came of them and by this time with Barcelona winning 2-0 they didn't really look like getting back into the game. But on 87 minutes Getafe's Manu De Moral got on the end of a good cross and volleyed past Victor Valdes. After the goal Getafe put pressure on Barcelona forcing them defend deep and hang on to their lead, but they could not get the equaliser and the game finished 2-1.

WBC Heavyweight Title (Boxing):

Vitali Klitschko V Odlanier Solis, Klitschko got the victory at the end of the first round when he knocked Solis down with a short right jab. On his way down Solis twisted his knee, potentially tearing a ligament, and couldn't get up without the help of the ropes, and the referee stopped the fight straight away. Klitschko had taken control of the centre of the ring, and Solis had matched him up to that point, but made the mistake of walking onto Klitschko's powerful right jab. This was an extremely disappointing fight after the build up that it had being given in the commentary, leaving the capacity Cologne crowd jeering and Klitschko looking on as if he couldn't believe that the fight had ended.

Qatar Grand Prix (Moto GP):

The opening round of the Moto GP season was a visit to Doha for the night race at the Losail International Circuit. Cal Crutchlow made his debut in Moto GP for the Yamaha satellite team Monster Yamaha Tech 3, and became the first Brit to race in the series since James Toseland in 2009, Valentino Rossi was also making a debut, for his new team Ducati, and Casey Stoner has moved to Repsol Honda. Stoner had the pole but last seasons champion Jorge Lorenzo had a good start and was leading by the end of the first lap. After a few laps the 2 Repsol Honda riders got themselves into the first 2 places and pulled away from the rest of the field before battling between each other for the lead, but Dani Pedrosa had a bad lap and dropped away, leaving Stoner to win the race. Pedrosa was then overtook by Lorenzo, and he was lucky not to drop back any further and finished 3rd. Further back in the field Rossi and Ben Spies had a good battle for 6^th place and Crutchlow finished in 11^th, after overtaking Hector Barbera on the last lap.

The Honda's look as if they will dominate this season, and it also looks as if it will take some time before Rossi has his Ducati up to scratch

Main Event:

La Liga (Football):

Athletico Madrid V Real Madrid, Real started the game using 3 more defensive minded midfielders, instead of the usual 2, leaving Di Maria out of the starting line up, and playing with more of a 4-5-1 formation instead of the usual 4-2-3-1. Real got the first goal of the match on 10 minutes, after a good through ball from Laasana Diarra and a nice flick off Sami Khedira, Karim Benzema slotted the ball into the back of the net. Athletico then had most of the ball and were unlucky not too score, but Real did score, on 31 minutes after Marcelo pulled the ball back for Mesut Ozil and Athletico keeper David De Gea couldn't get his hand behind the ball. In the build up Cristiano Ronaldo was fouled by Tomas Ujfalusi in the box and a certain penalty was waved play on, but Real got what they deserved and straight after the kick off Sergio Aguereo was booked for Athletico for diving in the box, trying to win a penalty.

During the first half both teams had lots of good attacking chances, with each keeper having to make some good saves, but Athletico were not that good in defence, allowing Real to get 2 goals, but the attacking nature of their game kept them in the game.

During the second half Real took their foot off the pedal and didn't create as many chances as they did in the first half, but they still defended well, keeping their shape and making it hard for Athletico. As Real were looking to play the game out by keeping possession Aguero eventually scored for Athletico on 85 minutes after a good one-two with Koke Merodio, but they couldn't get the equaliser and Real extended their unbeaten league record against Athletico to 19 games.

This was a very enjoyable game of football to watch with both teams making some good opportunities as well as playing good football. Benzema had another good game and extended his tally to 10 goals in his last 8 games and 21 for the season. Also Ronaldo went off injured again, with his hamstring, and may miss the Champions League game against Tottenham.

Cool-Down's:

England had another dramatic win midweek in the Cricket World Cup, but two matches this weekend decided their future in this years tournament, the first South Africa beating Bangladesh, meant that England went through to the quarter-finals stage, and the second India beating the West Indies meant that England will play Sri Lanka in the next stage of the competition. The only issue with this is that it to be played on Saturday and clashes with the Wales v England football match in Cardiff.

Recent Results:

The Co-Operative Championship: York City Knights 10 Sheffield Eagles 28

ICC Cricket World Cup: England: 243 (48.4 overs)
                                       West Indies: 225 (44.4 overs)
                                       England beat West Indies by 18 runs

On a lovely, warm, spring day in Sheffield...

My Sporting Weekend 12-13^th of March:

Warm-Up's:

Evo-Stick South (Football):

Sheffield FC V Rushall Olympic, Rushall started the match well as they created some good chances before Nick Amos scored from a header, off a corner, on 13 minutes. Soon after Sheffield's keeper, Dan Whatsize, came rushing out to clear a high looping ball, before mis-timing his jump and flicking the ball back towards his own goal, two

Rushall players were through on goal and Danny Lennon shot from just inside the area, but the ball rolled wide of the open goal, it what was probably the worst miss I have ever seen. Rushall were dominating at this point but Sheffield got themselves back into the game after an intelligent free kick from Chris Adam on 35 minutes. The Rushall keeper, Chris Gemmell, was shielding the ball out for a goal kick, but pressure from Adam caused him to bring the striker down, Adam then took a quick free kick, from an incredible tight angle by the byline, that looped over the retreating keeper and curled into the open net. Sheffield were lucky to be going into halftime with the scoreline of 1-1 as Rushall had most of the play and Sheffield hardly created any chances.

During half time an announcement was made for an officially qualified referee to step forward, and after a slight delay the announcer stepped up the mark and took his position on the side line, vacated by the lineman who was now reffing the game. The second half started pretty even until Rushall's Matthew Lewis scored from a penalty, after Ahmed Obeng was taken down in the box, on 61 minutes. Rushall then got their 3rd 3 minutes later after Obeng had good control in the box, before turning and pulling it back for Danny Ashton to put it in off the crossbar. After that point Sheffield had a lot of the ball, and made a couple of chances but never looked like scoring. The match was looked as if it was drawing out to a 3-1 Rushall win, until Sheffield won a free kick, on 87 minutes, on the edge of the area and a deflection off Rushall's Ashton found its way past the keeper. For the final few minutes of the game Sheffield pushed players forward but never created anything leaving them to lose the game 3-2. Rushall played well and deserved the win as Sheffield never really were on top during the game, apart from the start if the second half, and on another day Rushall's Lennon could have scored several goals but today he had no luck and had some pretty poor misses.

The FA Cup (Football):

Manchester United v Arsenal, Arsenal started the match on top having most of the possession and creating a few chances, as Man U dropped back and allowed Arsenal to attack them, but Man U got the breakthrough, on 27 minutes, with Fabio scoring after a blocked shot from Javier Hernandez. Man U were playing a 4-4-2 formation but Rooney was coming back too deep leaving Hernandez isolated on his own up front against the Arsenal defence. Antonio Valencia made his come back from a broken leg coming on at half time for Fabio as Man U switched to a 4-5-1 formation with Rooney playing on the left wing. Man U doubled their lead 4 minutes into the second half with Rooney scoring a header, from another blocked Hernandez shot. Arsenal played out the last 10 minutes of the game with 10 men as Johan Djourou had to be stretchered off with a shoulder injury and they had used their allocation of subs. Arsenal had created the most chances during the match but Man U keeper Edwin Van Der Sar had a great game keeping them out. Even though Man U have had injury problems, playing 3 defenders in midfield made it look as if they were not taking the match that seriously, and were looking towards the Marseille match midweek, but they played better than last weeks performance against Liverpool and quite comfortably beat Arsenal in the end. Arsenal's season is currently falling apart, from having the chance to win 4 trophies 2 weeks ago, they can now only win the league. But last weeks draw at home to Sunderland was a missed opportunity to catch Man U even further as they lost to Liverpool, but they do have a game in hand and are only trailing by 3 points, so if they can put together a good run and keep key players fit they may have a chance of lifting the title.

La Liga (Football):

Real Madrid v Hercules, Real Madrid dominated the first half with Kareem Benzema scoring on 23 minutes after some good passing play through the box, but Hercules did create a few chances, forcing Iker Casillias to make a couple of saves. In the second half Benzema got his 2nd goal, after cutting in across the box from the left wing, before firing into the far corner, after the second goal Hercules never looked like scoring and Real Madrid didn't really create that many more chances. With Christiano Ronaldo out injured Emmanuel Adebayor played the full game but didn't have much of the ball and when he did he never looked dangerous. Benzema did have a good game, as he has done over the last couple of weeks, and will surely be pushing Gonzalo Higuaín, when he is fit, for a place in the starting line-up.

WBO Super-Featherweight Title (Boxing):

Ricky Burns V Joseph Laryea, This was Ricky Burns's second defence of his WBO title, fighting the Ghanaian Joseph Laryea, in front of a partizan Glasgow crowd. Both boxers are quite tall and spindly and they looked at bit out of place fighting at this weight. The fight started quite tight and slow with a lot of short jabs, the early rounds were close with Burns just edging it, Lareya had a good 4th round, but Burns came back in the 5th, and started to dominate the fight and in what seemed quite a shock decision, at the time, Lareya retired after the 7th round, but it turned out he had injured his hand, breaking a knuckle. This gave Burns the victory and he is now looking towards a possible unification fight.

Main Event:

The Co-Operative Championship (Rugby League):

Sheffield Eagles V Widnes Vikings, The 2011 Championship season kicked off on a lovely sunny afternoon at Bramall Lane with Sheffield Eagles being the first pro sports team to wear a kit promoting a anti-homophobic message with the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans History Month, Pride Sports and “Homophobia: Tackle It!” logos emblazoned across the shirt.

Widnes started the game well, having all the possession and forcing 2 drop-outs before Steve Tyrer went over for the first score of the game on 7 minutes, when Sheffield eventually got hold of the ball they won a penalty before Dane McDonald got a try on 13 minutes. A dummy from Widnes's Thomas Coyle left a big gap in Sheffield's defence and Simon Finnigan went over for an easy score on 22 minutes, and 4 minutes later Sheffield's sliding defence couldn't keep out Tyrer for his second try as he stepped inside. Widnes then got their 4^th try of the game, 3 minutes later, when Kirk Netherton went over from dummy half on the goal line. A penalty for a high tackle gave Sheffield field position and Alex Rowe went over on 32 minutes, and Corey Hanson went over soon after, after a break from New signing Quentin Laulu-Togagae and a cross-field kick from Simon Brown, but this was chalked off as the furthest official from the action ruled a Sheffield player was offside.

The Half-time score was 12-22 with Widnes dominating most of the first half, but Sheffield's two trys kept them in the game and they had some good play towards the end of the half. After a handling error by Sheffield, Widnes's Allen got over on their first possession of the half for their 5th try of the game. A 60 metre run from Widnes's James Ford was stopped by a fantastic try saving tackle from Tim Bergin, but Sheffield's defence couldn't regroup and Finnigan got over for his second try of the game, and a seemingly unassailable 20 point lead. Sheffield did get another try, responding straight away with Corey Hanson going over down the right hand side on 63 minutes. But another error off the kick-off gave Widnes the ball back and Allen went over 2 minutes after the last score, Allen then completed his hat-trick on 74 minutes. The game finished 44-16 to Widnes but to an extent Sheffield played well in defence in patches, but giving away silly penalty's gave Widnes the ball back in good field position, and a team that has that much possession is always going to score, no matter how good the defence is. Also Sheffield didn't look that dangerous going forward and their kicking within Widnes's 20 metre line was pretty poor, not being able to force any drop-outs and the 2 good kicks led to an offside and a knock-on by Sheffield players. Sheffield's next match is away at York on Thursday night, in front of the Sky cameras, and with Menzie Yere and maybe a few of their dual-registration backs, from Bradford and Huddersfield, in the team hopefully they can put on a good performance and get the win.

Cool-Down's:

England's loss to Bangladesh in the Cricket World Cup left them needing to beat the West Indies in their final group match, and other results to go their way, to have any chance of getting through to the quarter finals.

Also over the weekend the ECB announced that they have agreed with Cricket Australia to shorten future ODI series's, but will this really help to reduce burn out. Yes I think that a 7 game series is too long anyway as from a general fans perspective it is too many games to hold their attention, also potentially playing in 3 dead rubbers does not look too good for an outsiders perspective. If the last series in Australia was reduced to 5 games it would have meant that the players would have got home a week earlier, but is an extra weeks rest going to make that much difference going into a 6 week long World Cup, after a 3 month tour of Australia. Another thing they are doing in the future is moving the cycle of Ashes series backward a year so that they do not clash with world cup years.

But on of the things that I think should be looked at the playing of shorter series inbetween tours, for example last year they visited the UAE to play Pakistan in 2 T20 games before going to Bangladesh, even though Pakistan were scheduled to come to England later that summer and play in a series that included t20 games and they also played Australia, in England, in a 5 game ODI series, even though they had played Australia in a 7 games series the previous year, in England. Surely these periods would be better used as rest periods, also these matches seem to be played to extract the maximum amount of money out of the England fans.

Recent Results:

Npower League 1: Sheffield Wednesday 0 Notts County 1

ICC Cricket World Cup: Bangladesh: 227-8 (49.0 overs)
                                       England: 225 (49.4 overs)

                                       Bangladesh beat England by 2 wickets

Kuyt Flies On Merseyside

 

My Sporting Weekend 4-6^th March:

Warm-Up's:

Aviva Premiership (Rugby Union):

Leicester Tigers v Saracens, the game was pretty evenly matched with a tight start and a 6-6 scoreline until Manu Tuilagi got the first try on 28 minutes after receiving the ball just inside Saracens half and beating 4 men down the left hand side. This was followed by each team scoring a penalty, with the Tigers going into half time with a 14-9 lead.

Saracens started the second half well but good defending from Leicester kept them out after 23 phases in their own 22, with the Tigers players celebrating winning a penalty like they had scored a try. Saracens had virtually all the field position and finally got the first points of the second a half with a Alex Goode penalty on 64 minutes, but then the Tigers finally got into the second half, missing a penalty, but having some possession and field position of their own. Alex Goode then scored another penalty, from 40 meters, for Saracens to take the lead on 74 minutes, Leicester put the pressure on and Saracens gave away a penalty, for being offside, with 30 seconds to go. Replacement Billy Twelvetrees stepped up but missed with the last kick of the game, giving Saracens the victory.

The first half was pretty even, with the Tigers getting the break though with the only try, but Saracens played well in the 2nd half, keeping the Tigers pinned in their own half, and deservedly won the game.

Barclays Premier League (Football):

Manchester City V Wigan, the game was pretty evenly matched, with Wigan playing well, until an awful error from Al-Habsi on 38 minutes, letting a shot from David Silva through his legs, gave City the lead. The second half was pretty uneventful with neither team really creating any goal scoring opportunities, but Wigan did play some good football, keeping possession well, and City looked as if they were playing for a 1-0 win from the moment they scored. Man City had a lot of the ball but didn't play fast enough to put Wigan under any real pressure, as they had time to get men behind the ball.

British Super-Featherweight Title (Boxing):

Gary Sykes v Carl Johanneson, this all Yorkshire bout pitted Dewsbury's British champion Gary Sykes against Leeds's challenger Carl Johanneson, who was looking to kickstart his career, at the Huddersfield Leisure Centre. Sykes dominated the opening rounds with his fast movement and quick punches, but Johanneson came back into the fight during the 4th round, before taking control during the 6th with his big hits. The pair were then evenly matched until Johanneson knocked Sykes down in the 9th and tried to finish the fight straight away, Sykes controlled himself and came back into the fight as Johanneson tired, ending the round on top. Sykes then took control during the 11th putting the pressure on for the final 2 rounds. The fight pretty even and was boxed at a fast pace throughout, with Gary Sykes winning on points. This was a really exciting and hugely entertaining fight between 2 evenly matched boxers, with Gary Sykes now looking towards a European Title fight.

Cricket World Cup:

England V South Africa, I turned on to see that South Africa needed 100 from 23 overs and thought that the game would all but over pretty soon with England losing too easily. But they fought back and with the help of a slow pitch, some good, economical, bowling and good wicket keeping from Matt Prior England got themselves back into the game. South Africa started to fall apart from the 32nd over, losing 4 wickets for 3, over 5 overs, South Africa steadied themselves and picked the run rate up, leaving them needing 30 from the last 60 balls with 3 wickets in hand. After 10 overs without a wicket England took control of the game with Tim Bresnan getting the 8th wicket with 22 balls to go, and Stuart Broard finished the game getting the 9th wicket with 17 balls to go and the 10th 3 balls later for England to win by 6 runs. What I saw was really entertaining with the slow pitch playing a huge part in that, hopefully England can now kick on and put together full team performance's for the last too group games, against Bangladesh and the West Indies, and qualify for the quarter-finals in a good position.

Main Event:

Barclays Premier League (Football):

Liverpool V Manchester United, Liverpool started well with some good passing and movement, with United not being able to keep up with them.

Liverpool got the first goal after some good control in the box from Luis Suarez, taking the ball round 3 players, and crossing the ball for an easy tap in for Dirk Kuyt, Kuyt also got the second goal after pouncing on a mis-timed header back towards the United goal from Nani. Their was a bit of a bizarre incident just before half time, after being on the end of a bad tackle from Jaime Carragher, where he studded him on the shin, Nani got up and walked around before diving/collapsing in front of the ref, and requiring to be stretchered off, leaving the rest of the players squaring up to each other. Liverpool did excellent in the first half, playing with confidence and having lots of possession in the Man U half and creating the better chances. Man U had a lot of possession around the half way line but didn't really create anything going any further towards Liverpool's goal.

Man U started the second half well but could not get the break through, and when Kuyt then completed his hat-trick, on 64 minutes, following up a Suarez free-kick that Van Der Sar couldn't keep hold of, the game was all but over and the Man U players were left standing still with their hands in the air. Hernandez got a consolation during injury time, from a header off a Ryan Giggs cross where he was poorly marked. To an extent the second half was a bit of a non event, and after Liverpool got their 3rd goal they never looked like losing, as Man U didn't create anywhere near enough good chances to get themselves back in the game. Suarez had a excellent game, putting defenders under pressure and creating good goal scoring chances, and with Andy Carroll finally making is Liverpool debut, they could potentially form a good partnership, depending on what formation is played around them. Man U had a bit of a patched up team with Wes Brown and Chris Smalling starting at center halves, but this shouldn't be an excuse as Smalling has been playing well and Brown has lots of experience at the highest level. Also with both Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes starting Man U didn't have any impact players on the bench that they could bring on, apart from Javier Hernandez who replaced Nani, that would make a difference.

Cool-Down's:

Eric Cantona was back in the UK media this week with his interview for Football Focus, where he mentioned that the karate kick was his career highlight, but his position of Director of Soccer and the future of the New York Cosmos is of more interest to me. At the moment all that New York Cosmos is a name, they want to join Major League Soccer (top tier in the US), but they currently do not have a first team. They teamed up with 2 existing clubs, Blau Weiss Gottschee, based in Queens, NY and Los Angeles Futbol Club, based in Pasadena, CA, (who have recently severed ties with the Cosmos and changed their name), but all they have done is change the names of the youth teams and gave them nice shiny new kits. Yes they may have put money into these clubs to help with running costs and other expenses, but surely they should be starting their own youth teams from scratch, and develop it into their own style of academy, and not just jump on board a club that may already has a good setup and take the credit for it. Another issue I have is that recent teams that have joined, or are joining, the MLS, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver and Montreal, ran teams at lower levels of the American professional structure to build up fan bases and links with the local community, as well as developing their own stadiums and training facility's, but the Cosmos do not have any plans to join lower levels of the American structure, or build their own facilities. There is precedent set with teams joining the league without playing at a lower level, Philadelphia is the most recent, but Cantona talked in his interview about academy players playing professionally in 5 years time and surely for a club to grow this way they need to be fielding teams at a lower level than the MLS before stepping up so that they know the standard of player they need to be producing. After looking around for the Cosmos future plans I have found virtually no information, apart from that they want to play in the MLS and that they want to produce their own players. Now there are lots of different teams, in different sports, in America that come and go each year all thinking that they can establish themselves and at least break even, but the Cosmos have the history of their name and hopefully they can establish themselves as a viable team in the US, and are not just owned by someone looking to make some quick cash off a historic name in American soccer.

Sheffield Wednesday were back to losing ways this week with a defeat to bottom club, (albeit because of a 10 point deduction for going in to administration), Plymouth, and it seems nothing has changed over the last few years. Excuses such as players are not interested, manager is not good enough, it is to intimidating to play at Hillsborough, board/chairman don't know what they are doing are becoming boring, maybe we should all support someone else and their would be no complaining then.

Recent Results:

Challenge Cup (Rugby League): Sheffield Eagles 82 Leeds Met 0

Npower League 1 (Football): Sheffield Wednesday 2 Plymouth 4

Evo-Stik League South Division (Football): Sutton Coldfield Town 4 Sheffield FC 2

On a dark, cold, winters night in Wigan...

My Sporting Weekend 25-27^th of February:

Warm-Up's:

Super League (Rugby League):

St. Helens V Warrington Wolves, This was Saints first game at their new, temporary, home of the Stobart Stadium in Widnes, but the vocal support of the Warrington fans made it sound more like a home game for them. Warrington made a great start with Lee Briers getting 2 trys and 1 for Richie Myler to open up a 18-0 lead within 20 minutes, Saints came back with 5 back to back sets, but fantastic goal line defence from Warrington, kept Saints out. holding up St Helens 3 times in the first half Louis Anderson got the first try of the second half, after 13 minutes, extending Warrington's lead to 24 points as the rain started to fall and both teams started to make handling errors. Michael Shenton finally got Saints first try on 66 minutes, but a drop goal on 70 minutes form Lee Briers all but sealed the 2 points for Warrington. Chris Flannery and Lee Gaskell got consolation trys Saints in the last 5 minutes, but the final score, of 18-25, did not reflect on how good Warrington's defence played throughout the game.

6 Nations (Rugby Union)

England V France, even though each team had only played 2 games before this match this was seen as the decider for the 6 Nations 2011. Penalty's dominated the scoring in the first half with both teams scoring 3 each, towards the end of the first half France had more of the possession and started to dominate the match, as mistakes leaked into England's game. England started the second half strong with Ben Foden getting the first try of the game on the 41^st minute, England then had two other close try scoring opportunities, with Chris Ashton being pulled back for a forward pass from Toby Flood and Mike Tindall's effort chalked off after English players were off their feet at the previous ruck. France didn't really create any good scoring opportunities during the match, and England always looked like they were going to win after getting the try early on in the second half.

A win in two weeks against Scotland and England will have all but won the 2011 title and they would have put themselves in a fantastic position to complete the Grandslam.

La Liga (Football):

Mallorca V Barcelona, on 40 minutes a fantastic piece of skill, chesting the ball on the run before a looping header over the keeper, from Lionel Messi, after a good flick over from Seydou Keita gave Barcelona the lead. Up to that point Mallorca played well in defence, not allowing Barcelona to create many chances, but after that Barcelona had virtually all the possession for the rest of the first half, creating a couple more good chances. In the second half Mallorca's defence couldn't catch out David Villa with an offside trap as he went through to score a 1-on-1 with the keeper, up to that point Mallorca's defence played quite deep, which helped to cut out Barcelona's forwards runs through the defence. Barcelona were in complete control after their second goal and Pedro got his 20^th goal of the season on 66 minutes with a looping shot from outside the area.

Barcelona were missing several key players, Xavi, Victor Valdes, Danni Alves, and at time's this made a difference, like the incisive, defence splitting, passing of Xavi, Alves creating 1-on-1's down the right hand side by pushing forward, and way Valdes plays the ball to his defenders feet, but a win was never in doubt.

Cricket World Cup 2011:

India V England, this was going to be England's big match, going to India's home of cricket the 90,000 capacity Eden Gardens, Kolkata, to take on the hosts, but after building delays the match was move to the smaller, 40,000 capacity, M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, but the atmosphere was just as hostile with the Indians cheering their team on all throughout their innings, but they calmed down as England started to catch India's score and came back alive towards the end of the game. India built their innings well with Sachin Tendulkah getting his 5^th World Cup century , but England failed to take enough wickets, to slow down India's scoring, until the last 5 overs when they got 7 to bowl India out for 338, 1 ball short of 50 overs. Tim Bresnan's bowling at the end of India's innings was excellent taking 4 wickets in his last 2 overs, as well as Virender Sehwag's opening wicket early in the game, but James Anderson was poor again taking only 1 wicket and being hit for 91 off his 9.5 overs. England started their innings well with the opening partnership of Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen put them in a good position to catch India's score, until a fantastic catch from bowler Munaf Patel dismissed Pietersen for 31 off 22 balls. Spin slowed down England's run rate and India got their 2^nd wicket with Piyush Chawla getting Jonathan Trott out for 16. Strauss and Ian Bell formed a good partnership, lasting 26 overs, with Strauss getting his 1^st World Cup century, but they both fell in the 43^rd over to Zaheer Kahn, Bell for 69 and Strauss for 158. Collingwood and Prior came and went pretty sharpish before Michael Yardy and Bresnan steadied the ship, for 2 overs anyway, until Yardy was dismissed for Patel's second wicket, at this point it looked as if India had the victory as England needed 32 of 15 balls to win. After 15 runs and Bresnan's wicket in the 49^th over England needed 14 to win, in the last over Graeme Swann got 3 off the first 2 delivery's before Ajmal Shahzad hit a 6 facing his first delivery, a bye followed next before Swann got 2 more, on the last ball England needed 2 to win but all they could get was a single. A draw was probably a fair result with Zaheer Kahn and Tim Bresnan being brilliant with the ball and Sachin Tendulkah and Andrew Strauss excellent with the bat.

Main Event:

World Club Challenge (Rugby League):

Wigan Warriors v St George Illawarra Dragons, the big rugby match of the weekend, pitting together Southern Hemisphere champions St George Illawarra Dragons against Northern Hemisphere champions Wigan Warriors. After a great start from Wigan, with George Carmont scoring after a pin-point accurate kick from Paul Deacon, the Dragons came back with Brett Morris and Matt Cooper getting a try each down the left side. Carmont then got his second try after a fantastic weaving 40 metre run, but Bret Morris also got his second try out on the left wing, the half then finished with a drop goal from Sam Tomkins, for Wigan to take the lead 15-14.

The Dragons got the next two scores with Cameron King scoring the first try of the 2^nd half on 54 minutes, after a knock on from Darrell Goulding who was attempting an interception, and a drop goal from Jaime Soward on 68 minutes. This meant that Wigan needed a converted try to tie the scores. Wigan then put the pressure on during the last 10 minutes, with Morris having to make a try saving tackle on Goulding, but after back to back sets they could not get a score.

This was a great game of rugby league played at a high standard with both teams playing well, but Wigan just didn't have enough to crack the Dragons defence in the second half, who had a fantastic performance, and the Dragons came away with a 21-15 win to win the World Club Challenge.

Cool-Down's:

Gary Megson got his first win as Sheffield Wednesday manager, but getting into the play-offs now looks like an impossible task, so it looks like they are now building for next season.

Well done to Birmingham for winning the Carling Cup against Arsenal, I was glad they won after during the build up to the game everybody thought that Arsenal would just turn up and win their first trophy in 6 years and now Birmingham have playing in Europe next season to look forward too as well.

After a 3^rd loss in 4 games Sheffield Eagles are now out of the Northern Rail Cup as the group stage is now complete. Next week they are playing Leeds Met University in the Challenge Cup, at home, which they should defiantly win and the week after the regular season starts, and hopefully the team will be up to speed ready for a good go at trying to win the Championship Grand Final.

I read a story, here, from the NASCAR website over the weekend about Joe Denette who won the Virginia lottery in 2009 and now owns a Camping World Truck Series team and this got me thinking if I had a big win in what ways would I spend the money. Now I am not a big fan of 'Sugar Daddies' in sport and I think that teams, leagues and organisations should be self-sufficient so I don't think that I would put any money into any teams I support, apart from buying seasons tickets to all my local teams, (but not Sheffield United, obviously) and I would just probably travel going to watch different sporting events and matches all around the world.

Recent Results:

Npower League 1 (Football): Carlisle 0 Sheffield Wednesday 1

Evo-Stik League South Division (Football): Sheffield FC 3 Shepshed Dynamo 2

Northern Rail Cup (Rugby League): Sheffield Eagles 12 Hunslet Hawks 16

Uploaded by enemyofreality, 28^th of February

The Cup Is King

My Sporting Weekend 18-20 February 2011:

Warm-Up's:

Super League (Rugby League):

Hull FC V Leeds Rhinos, before the game started the Hull crowd sang 'Old Faithful ' in tribute of David Kirkwood, the club president who died during the off season. Personally I think that a sing-song or a round of applause is a far better tribute than a moments silence at a sporting event, and one of the benefits is that it drowns out any inconsiderate arsehole that feels to need to boo, or be disrespectful in any other way. Hull played the same way they played in Cardiff pretty poorly, the game was played in quite good conditions, for a Friday night in February anyway, but Hull didn't create many chances and their kicking game was pretty non-existent. Individually they had a few good performances, with Tom Briscoe looking dangerous on the few occasions he got the ball, Will Sharp got his 2nd try in 2 games for his new club and Richard Whiting who made a try saving tackle in the first half. In the first half Leeds opened the scoring with a try from Brent Webb, after a good run and off load by Keith Senior. Mark O'Meley then brought Hull level with a try before scores from Ryan Hall, Rob Burrow, and a fantastic 70 metre try from Ben Jones-Bishop extended their lead. Chris Clarkson opened the scoring in the second half for Leeds, and then Hull responded straight away, winning the ball back from the kick-off, with Mark O'Meley going over for his 2nd try of the game. Weller Hauraki got a try on his debut for Leeds, before Will Sharp got the final try of the game, for Hull. Towards the end of the second half Leeds started to tire as they ran out of interchanges and fit players, and the game petered out, as Hull couldn't get hold of the ball and Leeds had numerous drop-goal attempts, to a 32-18 win to Leeds.

La Liga (Football):

Real Madrid V Levante, an easy win for Real, Levante allowed Real to attack them by dropping deep and playing with a back 5 and 2 defensive midfielders. But as Real play with only one forward and don't commit that many players forward, as say Barcelona, there was always spare defenders crowding the final 3^rd of the pitch, this may be a tactic to help track attacking runners more easily, but it just allowed Real to keep possession around the center of the pitch. If Levante were more attacking and moved the full backs further up the pitch they would have a better chance of holding on to the ball and creating better attacking play. Levante did go forward a bit more in the second half but at 2-0 down they were never going to get back into the game, and the match finished with a final score of 2-0.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (Stock Car Racing):

Daytona 500, the biggest race of the year also kicks off the season with a trip to the spiritual home of NASCAR, the Daytona Speedway. The newly repaved surface led 2 car drafts easily outrunning large packs, leaving the spotters running around to find partners for their drivers to draft with. The big one happened on lap 29 with about half the field involved after Michael Waltrip took out team mate David Reutimann, during the incident 3 of Hendrick Motor Sports cars sustaining damage, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin. During lap 107 Juan Pablo Montoya spun his car coming off turn 3, but made a great save to keep control of the car and not to go a lap down, he then crashed again on lap 143 after a coming together with Greg Biffle, but didn't lose a lap. Overall the race was a bit tedious with the amount of caution flags, a record 16, and the shortness of the green flag runs, with the longest being only 19 laps. But the last green flag run, before the Green-White-Checker finishes, produced some exciting racing with several lead changes and a group of, up to, 14 cars battling for track position up front, until an accident on lap 197. After a crash on the first attempt of the Green-White-Checker finish pre-race favourite Dale Earnhart Jn was left wrecked and the race was completed on the 2^nd attempt of the G-W-C with Trevor Bayne taking the win on his Daytona 500 debut and only his 2^nd Sprint Cup race. JP Montoya finished 6^th.

Main Event:

FA Cup 5^th Round (Football):

The FA Cup, one of my favorite competition's in sport, it gives the opportunity for tiny clubs to play huge clubs on a field behind the local sports center, or in a modern day amphitheaters of sport. Some people say that it has lost of the glamour of days past, but I disagree, anyway the time of the year has come around again when the it is belittled and various suggestions are made to jazz it up by the media and the FA, mainly to earn them even higher profits out of football. The only change that I think could benefit the tournament would be to scrap replays and for games to be completed on the day, just like the semi-finals and final. And the only reason for this would help with fixture congestion at all levels of the pyramid, as clubs in the qualifying rounds regularly lose money by having to travel, further than normal, to play mid-week games in front of small crowds. Obviously there wouldn't be results like Leyton Orient drawing with Arsenal or Notts County drawing with Manchester City to force replays, but how many of these lucrative ties crop up in a season, 2 or 3 at most. But I think that the main issue that should be looked at with the FA Cup now is the selection of games for TV, Manchester United have had all their 3 ties broadcast by ITV up to now and their next game is virtually guaranteed to be on against Arsenal or Leyton Orient, these games should be shared out, with more teams being on in a season. Also a 4^th round replay shouldn't take the place of a 5^th round match, especially when the original match was on that channel as well.
Birmingham City V Sheffield Wednesday, I started to watch this as Obafemi Martins put the ball into the back of the net, on 17 minutes, for Birmingham's second goal, leaving Wednesday a huge task to get anything out of the game. The game was then pretty even up to half time with each team creating a few chances each. In the second half David Murphy's goal on the 52^nd minute, for Birmingham, all but ended the game as they then cruised to the final whistle with a 3-0 win. Their was very little fightback from Wednesday as they found it hard to pass to team mates and to go forward with any attacking flair whatsoever, the Wednesday supporters, about 5,000 of them, gave a better account of themselves by travelling well and singing and chanting non-stop throughout the game.

Manchester United V Crawley Town, this had been billed as a proper FA cup tie, but is it. In some ways it was, with a non-league team, Crawley, taking the opportunity to go to a big team and try to get a result with a large support following them and enough of the gate receipts to keep them running for a few years. And in some ways it was not, with Man U fielded a second string team (yes all of the players would walk into top tier teams all around Europe and some are regular internationals), showing that their upcoming tie in the Champions League is obviously more important and the fact that Crawley are not your normal perceived non-league team. With a full-time squad and backing from rich owners (for that level anyway) the non-league team actually playing football and just didn't try to hold out for a draw and a lucrative replay.

Crawley played well, and kept Man U scoreless until Wes Brown scored on the 27^th minute, and even had some good attacking play of their own, and even at 1-0 down at halftime they were still in the game. During the second half Man U didn't really gel as a team and they allowed Crawley to have the ball and attack, while not really creating very many good opportunity's to score themselves. The game finished 1-0 but Crawley seemed to shrink the 4 division gap between two the teams with a excellent team performance with lots of good attacking play.

Cool-Down's:

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats finally sealed a deal with new owners and came out of administration, but after losing some key players, and signing a couple of good loan players, they went down to Perpignan and hammered the Catalan's 38-14. This was a great result for Wakefield, but Catalan's could be in trouble this season, even after the last season was meant to be the one of transition.

Sheffield Eagles suffered a very heavy defeat to Leigh losing by 62 points, but a win against Hunslet next week should be enough to book a place in the quarter finals. The 3 results this season do seem pretty worrying, only beating Gateshead by 12 when they got hammering's in their other 2 games, Drawing with Whitehaven, who have lost to Workington twice, and now taking a hammering in Leigh. If they want to have a good finishing in the league, and a good run in the playoffs they need to improve fast, maybe not playing any pre-season friendly backfired, and more playing time is required before the team is up to scratch.

Recent Results:

Evo-Stik League South Division (Football): Spalding United 3 Sheffield FC 2

Northern Rail Cup (Rugby League): Leigh Centurions 68 Sheffield Eagles 6

Comebacks In Cardiff

My Sporting Weekend 12-14^th 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 60^th 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 77^th 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 51^st minute try from Adam Milner Wakefield started to fight back with some good defence and trys for Dale Ferguson, on the 58^th minute and Luke George on the 63^rd 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 3^rd, 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 63^rd 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 70^th minute, Wigan them came back into the game with the majority of possession until Francis Meli got St Helens 3^rd 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 2^nd place Shrewsbury take on 3^rd 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