First Day Frenzy

Saturday 14th August

The first day of the Premiership is over with shock results, great goals and dubious refeering decisions. Yes ladies and gentlemen, the Premiership is back in town.

The season kicked off in north west London at White Hart Lane with Spurs and Man City providing a brilliant first half of football which may as well have been renamed "The Joe Hart and others show" as he pulled off a number of impressive saves. Something that seemed to be lacking in summer at the World Cup. I remember now, he didn't play. Looking a poorer decision by the week currently from Fabio there. The second half was slightly more even with Man City trying to gain a smash and grab three points but ending up having to settle for a 0-0 draw in the 4th spot battle.

The 3pm kick offs saw 6 matches kick off, with the first goal going in at Wigan, with the new boys Blackpool taking a shocking lead, after many people tipped them to go down with the least amount of points ever this season. They went on to score three more times, and even had a goal ruled out from a poor decision, as they hammered Wigan 4-0 to put them top of the table on goal difference. Another team who got hammered was West ham who feebly went down 3-0 away to Aston Villa, who without a permanent manager looked very solid and had eleven corners in the first half alone.

Wolves managed to gain a win on the first day of the season for 11 seasons beating Stoke 2-1 at Molineux, with record striker Kenwyne Jones going off injured for Stoke. Fulham meanwhile kept their away record of not managing to win away for 19 games with a 0-0 draw away to Bolton. Blackburn managed a convincing 1-0 at home to Everton with Tim Howard giving a goalkeeping lesson in how to blunder. Sunderland in the last of the 3PM kick offs were at home to Birmingham who went 2-0 down before coming back and drawing in the last 5 minutes to gain a point with a 2-2 draw. In the last kick off of the day, Chelsea smashed West Brom 6-0 with Drogba getting his first hat trick of the season, and what is unlikely to be his last.

The Championship saw the second managerial casualty in as many games as Kevin Blackwell was sacked after losing at home to QPR 3-0 in a poor defensive display. Millwall carried on their 100% record as they stuck 4 past Hull leaving them top of the table joint with QPR. Coventry who lie 3rd came back from 2-0 down at Watford in the last three minutes of the match to draw 2-2, and almost snatched it. Barnsley picked up their first win of the season as they defeated Crystal Palace 1-0. Derby went down at home 1-2 to Cardiff who will have been more concerned with the possible injury to McNaughton. Doncaster vs Bristol, Reading V Portsmouth and Ipswich V Burnley all contained late equalisers for the away teams which saw all three games end 1-1. Norwich snatched the three points at Scunthorpe winning 1-0, whilst Swansea pummeled Preston 4-0 at the Liberty Stadium. Leicester and Boro played out a scoreless draw at the Walkers.

League One this week had two postponements with both Exeter and Southampton suffering losses within the club this week their games with Dagenham and Redbridge, and MK Dons respectivley were both postponed. In the games which did take place, the shock result was at Dean Court with Bournemouth smashing 5 past promotion chasing Peterborough, with The Posh only managing a single consolation goal. Walsall picked up their first points with a 2-1 win away to Brentford, sending them to 2 successive losses. Brighton led twice against Rochdale but were pegged back both times and drew 2-2. Bristol Rovers almost threw 3 points away against Yeovil as they got a 90th minute equaliser, before Anthony scored in the 94th minute to give them a 2-1 win.
 Colchester United held Sheff Weds at home to draw 1-1, another draw took place at Hartlepool who threw away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with Swindon. Huddersfield were held 0-0 with Tranmere, whilst Oldham showed Notts Count playing away from home is just as tough as playing at home in league one with a 3-0 scoreline proving that. Plymouth came from behind against Carlisle to draw 1-1.

League Two today saw Torquay keep yet another clean sheet and a win 2-0 away to Lincoln to see them top of the table. Shrewsbury join them on 6 points after a 1-0 away win against Macclesfield. Wycombe hold 3rd place in this early stage after a 0-0 draw against recently relegated Stockport. Cheltenham beat Crewe 3-2 in an entertaining match to leave them fourth. Bradford beat the league's new boys Stevenage 1-0 at Valley Parade, whilst the other promoted club, Oxford managed to lose 2-1 at home to Bury. There was 0-0 draws at Barnet, Hereford, Morecambe and Northampton, with League Two having 5 0-0 draws this weekend, it is was devoid of goals.


This weekend of the football season has seen a shocking result with Blackpool managing to topple Wigan with the party on the coast probabaly heading on long into the night, whilst other clubs such as West Brom have already managed to end up where they expect to be for the majority of the season, in the relegation zone.