Let’s start with the loss; and that loss belongs to Plymouth Argyle who lost their sixth straight game this season at St James Park. Plymouth went a goal down early in the game with the Pilgrims defending resolutely for the remainder of the first half. Then four minutes after half time, it looked like Plymouth may have hope of coming away from St James Park with a result as Karl Duguid scored an equaliser from close range. That hope soon evaporated with Kevin Nolan’s close range headed goal 10 minutes later to put the home team back in front. Andrew Caroll put the game out of Argyle’s reach six minutes before time. Luckily for Plymouth the two other teams sharing the drop zone could only manage to draw their respective games so the Pilgrims only fall one point further adrift. Argyle manager Paul Sturrock; who recently got the backing of the board said he is seeing signs of improvement from his players for the sixth game in a row. But signs of improvement do not win games; is it the players lack of talent or is it the managers lack of managerial ability. The rumour is that Sturrock has lost the dressing room. If that is the case then he needs to go as no player is going to play well if they don’t have faith in their own manager. How far adrift do Plymouth need to fall before action is taken, I have no faith that Sturrock can turn it around, he’s had almost two years to build a winning team and that still hasn’t transpired. Right now Argyle are looking like prime candidates to be playing League One football next season!
Liverpool however continued their winning streak after their early season wobble beating West Ham 2 – 3 at the Boleyn Ground. This victory elevates Liverpool to third in the Premiership after Manchester United narrowly beat local rivals Manchester City. Liverpool are ahead of the Mancunians on goal difference but City have two games in hand while United and Chelsea have one game in hand. The Hammers twice came from behind but were undone by a second Fernando Torres goal in the 75th minute. The Reds have a real uphill battle if they are to win the Premiership this season. Benitez’ men had their best chance of winning the Premiership last season and they blew it with a whole bunch of mediocre performances at Anfield. This season; the Premier League is more competitive than ever with Manchester City, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Arsenal looking in excellent form and all have at least one game in hand over Liverpool.
And the about bloody time belongs to the English cricket team who finally won a game in the seven game one day international series against Australia. England beat the tourists by four wickets as Graeme Swann claimed the second best ODI bowling figures in English history with 5 wickets for 28 runs. Australia got a taste of their own medicine as England knocked up the required 177 in exactly 40 overs. It’s too little too late but at least England avoided a 7 – 0 whitewash, 6 – 1 doesn’t sound quite so bad, not good but at least it’s not a total humiliation.
As Renault find out their fate later today concerning the “race-fix-gate” accusations, the head of the Spanish motorsport federation Carlos Gracia has been bitching about Piquet’s immunity from presecution. But he was completely silent when fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso received immunity in the McLaren “spy-gate” affair in 2007 despite being heavily involved in the scandal. And guess who is the lead driver in the Renault team; none other than the aforementioned Fernando Alonso who is under the threat of losing all his 2009 points should Renault be excluded from the 2009 Formula One championship. Am I the only person to think that this is Spanish sour grapes?