Rob Smyth's Blog, page 40
December 24, 2023
Wolves 2-1 Chelsea: Premier League – as it happened
Mario Lemina and Matt Doherty scored the vital goals for Wolves to move them level on points with Chelsea
4 min Sterling fires a pass into Palmer on the edge of the area. He cushions it out in front, probably with a shot in mind, but then Broja gets in his way.
3 min Sterling surges down the left and goes down after being leaned on by Lemina. The referee decides there isn’t enough contact for a foul, a judgement with which Sterling does not concur.
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India beat Australia by eight wickets in one-off Test – as it happened
94th over: Australia 239-6 (Sutherland 16, Jonassen 2) Three runs from Vastrakar’s over which included one that barely bothered creeping off the pitch.
Do let me know what you’re up to this Christmas eve, wherever you are. I’m on tanya.aldred.freelance@guardian.co.uk
Continue reading...Santa stops play: how Brentford’s Christmas plan proved cold turkey
It’s nearly 40 years since the plan to meet the Crazy Gang in a ground-breaking fixture hit the buffers
In a 47-year career at the BBC, Nicholas Witchell has covered a string of major events. The list includes the deaths of Queen Elizabeth and Diana, Princess of Wales, the Falklands and Gulf Wars, Lockerbie and Zeebrugge. On Christmas Eve 1983, it was his solemn duty to inform the nation of something less seismic: the final score in the Division Three fixture between Brentford and Wimbledon.
The 5pm news, tucked away between The Dukes of Hazzard and Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em, ended with a report from Griffin Park. The BBC had sent a crew to west London because it was the only professional game played in England. And though Leeds met Manchester United in the Premier League on 24 December 1995, it remains the last Football League fixture to be played on Christmas Eve.
Continue reading...December 21, 2023
West Indies beat England in fifth T20I to seal series – as it happened
Shai Hope’s immaculate 43 not out took West Indies to victory in a low-scoring series decider in Trinidad
4th over: England 32-1 (Salt 20, Jacks 1) Buttler ends a decent series with 161 runs at an average of 32, and with a strike-rate of 144. Meanwhile Salt, the leading runscorer on either side by a mile, gets four more with a deft steer to third man. As Ian Bishop notes on TNT Sports, West Indies are bowling very straight and so far England have struggled to time the ball.
A strength can also be a weakness, part 437241. Jos Buttler premeditates a ramp off Jason Holder’s second ball but scoops it straight to short fine leg, where Oshane Thomas takes a simple catch.
Continue reading...The Football Daily Christmas Awards 2023
Welcome to the second Football Daily Christmas Awards. This is the bit where, in our old guise, we would bang on about becoming so jaded that we’d lost count of how many years we’d been churning out this old tat. Hmm, all of a sudden, the penny’s beginning to drop. So OK, here we are, refreshed and ready to go! Pour yourself a pint of wine, throw your boots up on the desk, decompress, de-depress, and enjoy!
Continue reading...December 17, 2023
Arsenal 2-0 Brighton, Brentford 1-2 Aston Villa: Premier League – as it happened
Kai Havertz scored again for Arsenal, Aston Villa won a bad-tempered game at Brentford and Mohammed Kudus helped West Ham beat Wolves
8 min: Brentford 0-0 Aston Villa Emi Martinez has just made a superb save to deny Mikkel Damsgaard, who is starting a game for the first time this season.
6 min: West Ham 0-0 Wolves West Ham have started well, and a Ward-Prowse corner leads to a desperate game of head tennis in the Wolves penalty area. Eventually they get the ball away.
Continue reading...December 13, 2023
Football Daily | The cycle of Manchester United life and free beer for everyone
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The last time Manchester United came bottom of their Big Cup group was December 2005, when they ingeniously contrived to finish below a Lille team that scored one goal in six games. Old Trafford was a sad place to be back then. One of the United Trinity of the 1960s had recently died, an all-time great had just left the club under a cloud made entirely of their own nasal fumes (yes, yes, we know Cristiano Ronaldo left a year ago, but never let facts get in the way of a half-@rsed historical comparison) and an under-pressure manager looked like he’d happily extinguish half of the press pack with his bare hands. A club in crisis, just like today. In the next three seasons, Manchester United won three Premier League titles, a Big Cup and a Club World Cup. There you go, it’s all cyclical, let’s just chill out and enjoy the darts over Christmas. Que sera, sera everyone!
With a couple of Dion Dublin references in yesterday’s Football Daily (full email edition), plus a mention of losing the dressing room, it felt like the latest piece of art from Bryan’s Gunn would be particularly relevant” – Jim Hearson.
This summer I was in San Sebastian. The locals talk proudly of two things; their food and their football club. Real Sociedad is testimony to what local talent and passion can do. The sense of belonging is palpable. The same vibes you get from your friendly neighbourhood independent grocer compared to the TESCOs and ALDIs” – Krishna Moorthy (and no other Euro football correspondents).
Ahem, first of a different number of pedants here, but they were actually neither acronyms nor abbreviations (Football Daily letters passim). Those were initialisms” – James Yelland (and 1,056 others).
Continue reading...December 9, 2023
Manchester United 0-3 Bournemouth, Brighton 1-1 Burnley: clockwatch – as it happened
Bournemouth humiliated Man Utd at Old Trafford, Eintracht Frankfurt humiliated Bayern Munich and Jude Bellingham scored (yet) again
Wolves v Nottm Forest team news
Wolves (3-4-2-1) Jose Sa; Kilman, Dawson, Gomes; Nelson Semedo, Lemina, Joao Gomes, Hugo Bueno; Hwang, Sarabia; Matheus Cunha.
Substitutes: Doherty, Santiago Bueno, Traore, Silva, Kalajdzic, Doyle,
Bentley, Bellegarde, Chirewa.
December 7, 2023
Tottenham 1-2 West Ham, Everton 3-0 Newcastle: Premier League – as it happened
West Ham fought back to extend Spurs’ miserable run while Everton overwhelmed a weary Newcastle at the death
1 min: Everton 0-0 Newcastle Peep peep! Newcastle kick off from left to right as we watch.
“G’day Rob,” writes our Georgie Down Under, Chris Paraskevas. “Appreciate your dedication in foregoing the G-Sport Xmas Party. You’ve done yourself a favour, though: the Xmas Party has assumed an almost a mythological status in Australian work culture, as a place where even the slightest individual error is magnified, causing embarrassment, pain, introspection, defiance and anger.
Continue reading...December 5, 2023
Luton 3-4 Arsenal, Wolves 1-0 Burnley: Premier League – as it happened
Declan Rice’s 97th-minute header settled a seven-goal thriller at Kenilworth Road and put Arsenal five points clear
Hwang Hee-chan gets his ninth goal of an increasingly good season. Burnley tried to play out from the back and got in the kind of pickle that never befell John Beck’s Cambridge. Sarabia and Cunha combined to find Hwang, who dummied Dara O’Shea and sidefooted the ball calmly past James Trafford. That’s a nice finish.
“So, is Zinchenko the left-sided Alexander-Arnold?” says Joe Pearson. “A great asset going forward, a bit of a liability going backward.”
Continue reading...Rob Smyth's Blog
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