Well I never! It's always strange when you meet someone from nearby your home town when you live over 100 miles away but particularly stranger when you meet someone who lives just down the road, yet supports the same football team as you. Now that may not seem such a co-incidence for Premier League supporting fans but when the team in question is Northampton Town, the weirdness increases! Click to continue reading...

A load of old Cobblers The F.A. Cup First Round proper kicks off this weekend and the Cobblers are thrown into the national spotlight again, this time on Setanta Sports against Leeds United. Stuart Gray's side go into the game as massive underdogs despite being in the same league as our hosts but hopefully the magic of the cup will work on our side again. Click to continue reading...

Wolves' unbeaten record is shattered After a full mid-week fixture list in The Championship, Wolves' superb start to the season was ended by fellow promotion hopefuls Reading but Birmingham failed to capitalise after being held away from home. Click to continue reading...

Sunderland manager Roy Keane has revealed that he has a zero tolerance policy towards verbal abuse. The Black Cats boss announced his policy following comments from the Sunderland crowd during the Carling Cup tie against Northampton last night. He said: "One or two supporters were abusing me and that is something I won't tolerate. Click to continue reading...

Another day, another form of competition.

Here are Tuesday's knockout stage scores in the Round 3 of the Carling Cup. All the home teams won.

Arsenal's teenage forward Vela (right) had a hat trick. Good for him.

Arsenal 6-0 Sheff Utd
Burnley 1-0 Fulham
Leeds 3-2 Hartlepool
Rotherham 3-1 Southampton
Swansea 1-0 Cardiff
Watford 1-0 West Ham
Liverpool 2-1 Crewe
Man Utd 3-1 Middlesbrough
Stoke 2-2 Reading (Stoke wins shootout, 4-3)
Sunderland 2-2 Northampton (Sunderland wins shootout, 4-3)

More tonight. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal v Sheffield United
Brighton and Hove Albion or Manchester City v Derby County
Burnley v Fulham
Portsmouth v Chelsea
Blackburn Rovers v Everton
Rotherham United v Southampton
Swansea City v Cardiff City
Ipswich Town v Wigan Athletic
Stoke City v Reading
Leeds United v Hartlepool United
Watford v West Ham United
Manchester United v Middlesbrough
Liverpool v Crewe Alexandra
Aston Villa v Queens Park Rangers
Sunderland v Northampton Town
Newcastle United v Tottenham Hotspur

Iscriviti all'RSS per essere sempre aggiornato! Click to continue reading...

It's goals, goals, goals and controversy After another weekend of exciting Football League action, we take a look back on a week that saw Wolves extend their lead at the top of the Championship, Oldham remain on top in League One and the League Two leadership change hands once again. Click to continue reading...

RESULTS Champions League Chelsea 4-0 Bordeaux Marseille 1-2 Liverpool AS Roma 1-2 Cluj Barcelona 3-1 Sporting Lisbon Panathainikos 0-2 Inter Milan PSV 0-3 A Madrid W Bremen 0-0 Anorthosis Basel 1-2 S Dontesk Championship Reading 6-0 Sheff Wed Burnley 2-0 Blackpool Bristol City 1-2 Birmingham Wolves 2-1 C Palace Barnsley 0-1 Cardiff Sheff Utd 1-1 Coventry Doncaster 0-1 Charlton Swansea 1-1 Derby County Watford 1-2 Plymouth Preston 2-1 Nottm Forest LEAGUE ONE Stockport 1-1 Northampton Cheltenham 2-1 Bristol Rovers Click to continue reading...

For me the initial raison d'etre behind collecting and analysing football statistics was to help my football betting. I reasoned that shot statistics would be especially useful in identifying which teams had been unlucky and therefore underestimated by the oddsmakers. As time went on I became more interested in what the data revealed about teams, players and strategies, rather than using it as a predictive tool. Click to continue reading...

Fryatt...gratuitous Leicester picture #1



Shot Differential

Team Shots For Shots Against Shot_Diff League Position Leeds Utd 87 45 +42 6 Peterborough 82 47 +35 12 Leicester City 55 27 +28 3 Oldham 56 39 +17 1 Walsall 67 52 +15 10 Huddersfield 52 47 +5 17 Tranmere 48 43 +5 13 Brighton 45 40 +5 8 Millwall 35 31 +4 7 Northampton 38 35 +3 20 Bristol Rovers 56 55 +1 15 Hereford 61 65 -4 21 MK Dons 52 56 -4 5 Swindon 47 52 -5 11 Hartlepool 42 47 -5 14 Colchester 24 30 -6 16 Southend 52 60 -8 22 Leyton Orient 57 66 -9 9 Yeovil 39 50 -11 19 Carlisle 52 66 -14 2 Stockport 32 51 -19 18 Crewe 63 84 -21 23 Scunthorpe 49 75 -26 4 Cheltenham 52 80 -28 24


Shot Efficiency

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Real football in the football league So we're a month into the new season in the Football League and already fans are setting their sights high after their best start in 87 years or drowning their sorrows after another below par start to the season. It's been as tight, surprising, dramatic and entertaining as usual in the Football League and here's a look back on the first month of 2008/09. Click to continue reading...

Notable arrivals: Mark Bunn (Northampton), Vince Grella (Torino), Keith Andrews (Milton Keynes Dons), Julio Santa Cruz (Cerro Porteno), Danny Simpson (Manchester United, loan), Paul Robinson (Tottenham), Carlos Villanueva (Loan). Notable departures: Paul Gallagher (Plymouth, loan), David Bentley (Aston Villa, Tottenham),. Click to continue reading...

Can't deny it for much longer. Two bad losses, one was a missed penalty at the Toon and the other was a 2-1 loss to a lowly Northampton. It looked so positive last week but these losses are making us look like Bolton of last year. I just want Jimmy Bullard and a bolstered midfield. I'm sorry that I haven't been writing but these games rarely come on over here.

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There were a few shocks in last night's (Tuesday) Carling Cup ties. No fewer than THREE Premiership Clubs were knocked out by lower League oppositon. Northampton won at Bolton 2-1 Hartlepool beat WBA at home 3-1 Swansea beat Hull City at home 2-1 and surprise, surprise Derby County ACTUALLY won a match! Click to continue reading...

Soccerword's League One Predictions
1. Leeds
2. Huddersfield
3. Leicester City
4. Brighton & Hove Albion
5. Colchester
6. Scunthorpe
7. Oldham
8. Carlisle
9. Peterborough
10. Northampton
11. MK Dons
12. Southend
13.

Click to continue reading...

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QPR Official Site RAMAGE READY FOR W12
Defender Peter Ramage is already looking forward to making his debut at Loftus Road - and the summer signing will be hoping it arrives on Saturday against Chievo.
Iain Dowie has made no secret of the fact that he intends to play the same starting XI against the Italians as he will do seven days later when the R's kick off their Championship campaign at home to Barnsley. Click to continue reading...

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The past week saw many rumours about player signings but no actual signings or departures. Squad Numbers were announced. The new away strip was officially displayed. The week saw a friendly win at Northampton and ended with a defeat in Scotland, Matt Connolly carried off. Rather prematurely, at least some fan were calls for Ian Dowie's sacking. Click to continue reading...

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Dave McIntyre/BBC 606 - Winging it
Emmanuel Ledesma's cross for Dexter Blackstock to score the winner at Northampton could be a sign of things to come.
After featuring in central midfield at Stevenage on Saturday, Ledesma played out wide in last night's game – and that's where he will play from now on. Click to continue reading...

Coca Cola leagues The second of a series of blogs looking at the goings on in the Coca Cola leagues...if you're not into that sort of thing, do join us anyway...it's a magical land of goalmouth scrambles and ageing old footballers looking for a last pay packet. I'll buy you a Toffee Crisp if you come along for the ride. Click to continue reading...