Harry Pearson and football fantasies. It's own up time.

Matt Dickinson compares the Capello’s manner to that of Sir Alf Ramsey.

A piece on Anguilla’s World Cup second leg qualifying match against El Salvador.

Stephen Brunt writing a couple of days before Toronto FC opened the season with a loss to the Columbus Crew.

John Cushley who spent much of his Celtic career as a back up to Billy McNeill has died from Motor Neurone Disease, the same illness that took Jimmy Johnstone. Cushley spent sometime with West Ham in the late 60s.

Sport Science and the Premiership.

A look at Sporting Lisbon’s talent for producing talent.

Watching England on TV away from home.

David James on penalty kicks – and to think that you still hear some people talking about what a lottery it is.

Regarding Diaby's red card. As has been pointed out there has been a stunning silence on the blog from those ready to have Martin Taylor hung, drawn and quartered a few weeks ago. Even though Arsene Wenger seems to be able to differentiate between the two incidents the only difference I can see is that Eduardo was unfortunate that his foot was planted while Steinsson was on the move and got lucky.

If everything goes well I should be making a midweek appearance on Wednesday's Fox Soccer Report - Champions League edition.

Germaine Greer says that Football counts as culture just as much as opera does. And what's more we have more divas.

CONCACAF 2010 World Cup qualifying second leg results.

A former director of Norwegian club Lyn has been found guilty of fraud in dealings with John Obi Mikel.

Michael Henderson provides a dissenting opinion on the “old pros” excuses for dissent.

Alan Pardew admits that his transfer moves have backfired.

A great story from Robert Philip.


For this weekend preview it was a toss-up between the Old Firm derby and the Merseyside derby and the coin landed on an edge.

Rangers vs. Celtic
This will be the 286th Old Firm league derby. Rangers have 111 wins, Celtic 92 wins and there have been 82 draws.

This season Rangers currently lead Celtic by three points with a game less played and five games remaining until the league splits. Even so, these two have to play each other another three times before the season wraps up and it has been five months since they last faced off – an eternity in Glasgow.

Rangers supporters have been chomping at the bit wanting an opportunity to extend a run that has seen their team win 1-0, 2-0 and 3-0 since the return of Walter Smith in January 2007. For Celtic fans it is the polar opposite.

When you add a draw in December 2006 it adds up to the worst run for Celtic in SPL Old Firm games since 1995-97 when they went ten games without a win – losing six and drawing four. The draw in December 2006 brought an end to a Celtic streak that had brought three wins and a draw with Rangers being held scoreless in all four games.

During that run Alex McLeish stepped aside as Rangers manager, and his replacement fared no better. Not long after McLeish’s demise, Paul Le Guen became the shortest serving manager in Rangers history and the only one to not complete a full season. And so having been the instrument that led to two managerial terminations at Ibrox, Cetic’s Gordon Strachan now finds himself a potential victim of the same syndrome – being second in a league of two teams.

Strange when you consider that Strachan is still within striking distance of becoming the first Celtic boss since Jock Stein to win three consecutive league titles but a fact nonetheless. Four pieces of silverware in his first two seasons in charge means nothing in a city where “what have you done lately” means when did you last beat the other lot and if you did, you had better beat them again….and again.

What is more with defeats in the Champions League and the Scottish Cup there is nothing for Celtic to fall back on except the SPL.

The phenomena of Old Firm managers going head-to-head with only one left standing is not new. Jock Stein brought an end to Scot Symon’s thirteen year stint at Ibrox in 1967. Symon’s years in charge had brought Rangers fifteen trophies and they had twice made it to the final of European Cup Winners Cup Final.

Even the great Jock Stein was pushed aside in 1978 after Jock Wallace’s Rangers gained the upper hand although Wallace unexpectedly bolted for Leicester around the same time. Graeme Souness saw off former Lisbon Lions Billy McNeill and Davie Hay between 1986 and 1991 while his successor Walter Smith was the principal reason for the demise of Liam Brady, Lou Macari and Tommy Burns.

Smith came a cropper as Wim Jansen spent his one season at Parkhead breaking Rangers run of nine consecutive league titles. #### Advocaat enjoyed initial success at the expense of Josef Venglos, John Barnes and Kenny Dalglish until Martin O’Neill came along to push the Dutchman over the edge in 2001.


Liverpool vs. Everton
After last weekend’s controversy at Old Trafford perhaps the most important starter will be referee Howard Webb. (In his 30 games in charge this season Webb has sent off only one player and issued 100 yellow cards).

With seven games left Liverpool leads Everton by two points and are hoping to complete a league double over Everton. The comparable match last season finished scoreless as have two others in the last five seasons and Everton have not won at Anfield in their last seven visits.

You have to go back to the last century to find the Toffees last win. It came in 1999 when an early goal from Kevin Campbell decided the game. Tim Cahill (3), Andy Johnson (2) and Lee Carsley from the present Everton squad have scored against Liverpool but Cahill will miss the game – and possibly the rest of the season after reinjuring a foot.

Everton’s leading scorer is Yakubu Aiyegbeni and he is only one goal short of becoming the first Everton player since Peter Beardsley in 91/92 to score 20 goals. However, Yakubu has failed to find the mark against Liverpool in any of his appearances against them.

On the other side Steven Gerrard, Harry Kewell and Dirk Kuyt have all scored two in the derby games while Peter Crouch has a single. After scoring twice from the penalty spot back in October Dirk Kuyt is trying to become the first Liverpool player since Emile Heskey in 2000-01 to score in both meetings in a season.

A draw or win for Everton would mean the battle for fourth would continue unabated. A victory for Liverpool would open a sizeable five point gap with only six games remaining.

Both sides have to play Arsenal and Birmingham away from home. Liverpool must also visit Craven Cottage to play Fulham, and finish the season away to Spurs. There are also home games against Blackburn Rovers and Manchester City.

Everton have four home matches against Derby County, Chelsea, Aston Villa and on the final day of the 2008 season Newcastle United.

Some statistics and tidbits gleamed from the Liverpool FC website, Evertonresults.com and various other places. You can find more by clicking on the links.


This will be the 178th Merseyside league derby - Liverpool 66 wins, Everton 56 wins, 55 draws.

League results at Anfield have brought Liverpool 37 wins, Everton 23 wins, and 28 draws.

The last 'derby' hat-trick for Liverpool saw Ian Rush score four in a 5-0 win at Goodison in November 1982, while for the Blues Dixie Dean hit three at Anfield in September 1931 in a 3-1 win.

Should Fernando Torres score he will equal the club record of scoring in six successive top-flight home games. It has been achieved by Fred Pagnam (1919), Roger Hunt (1964), Ian Rush (1983) and Michael Owen (1999).

14 red cards have been issued in the last 17 derbies with seven being brandished in the last six games. (21 have been sent off in the history of the fixture).

Yakubu now has 13 League goals for Everton this season, better than anybody since Andrei Kanchelskis got 16 in 1995/96 and he has 19 in all competitions, last achieved by Tony Cottee in 1993/94.

Yakubu has been substituted in 15 of his 20 starts in the Premier League this season

Eighteen of Torres’ goals have come at Anfield – only two away at Derby and Boro.