Saturday’s Results

A wholly uninspiring set of results yesterday. You can can get full match reports and details of the tedium elsewhere, so we’ll focus on a more abstract element of each game.

Stoke 1 Hull 1

A debatable 73rd minute penalty, won and converted by Ricardo Fuller, cancelled out Marlon King’s excellent strike on the stroke of half time in the battle of the promoted sides.

Dean Windass endeared himself further to the Hull fans – if that’s possible – by obstructing Rory Delap’s freakish throw ins from the bench. Twice he warmed up deliberately in the path of the ugly one’s mammoth run up – twice he was reprimanded, and once booked. Novel, if not exactly sporting…

Sunderland 1 Bolton 4

Goals from alleged-homosexual Matt Taylor, Gary Cahill, and Johan Elmander (2) won this for Bolton after Djibril Cisse’s early strike.

This game compounded Sunderland’s terrible recent form – 6 defeats in 7 games – and extended Bolton’s good run – 4 wins in 5, including three away from home. Roy Keane is now favourite to be next manager to go, at 11/8 – incidentally followed in the betting by two other Alex Ferguson proteges, Mark Hughes and Paul Ince.

Cahill reiterated the Fantasy Football dilemma; goalscoring defenders who do not keep clean sheets. He notched 14 points, but similarly to Hull’s Michael Turner, you can never back on the shut-out. I’m personally against them; you select a defender for a clean sheet, and there are only rare occasions you would back Bolton or Hull to keep one (maybe 4 or 5 games a season). If you rely on your defenders to score goals for points, you’re clutching at straws.

Wigan 2 West Brom 1

Goals from Henri Camara and Emmerson Boyce won this for Wigan after a trademark error from Titus Bramble let in Ismael Miller to give the Baggies the lead.

With Wigan’s remarkable inconsistency you wouldn’t have ruled out an away win here – evidence of that is that yesterday saw Wigan gain their first back-to-back Premiership victories under Steve Bruce, after a year / 39 matches.

Villa 0 – 0 Fulham

Villa are now unbeatable but cannot score – how much they need big John Carew back to get on the end of Ashley Young’s penetrating crosses. In this game, Gareth Barry missed three and Martin Laursen two chances created by the exciting young winger (no pun intended).

Roy Hodgson is doing a great job at Fulham; a shoestring budget and a threadbare squad, but a well-drilled, well-organised side that are difficult to beat.

In this game Brad Friedel broke David James’ record for consecutive Premiership appearances, making his 167th start in a row for Blackburn and now Villa.

Boro 0-0 Newcastle

Tyne and Tees were united in delight at Sunderland’s demise – but there was little else to warm the cockles in a dull game.

Obafemi Martins provided a rare moment of interest, throwing his armband to the ground and storming down the tunnel after being replaced towards the end of the game. After the abject performance of a patently unfit Michael Owen he was perhaps right to be aggrieved…

Let’s hope today provides us with a few more interesting genuine footballing highlights!