Let’s start with the news that England’s cricketers will progress to the final eight after South Africa demolish Bangladesh by 206 runs. It’s been an odd world cup really, England beats South Africa, the lose to Bangladesh from a winning position, only for South Africa to embarrass the Bangladesh with a 200+ run victory with over 23 overs to spare. India also beat the West Indies by 80 runs to place England third in the group which means that the Englishmen will face 1996 world cup winners Sri Lanka in the quarter finals. Oner thing is for sure; Andrew Strauss’ men will have to pull their socks up if they wish to progress to the semi final stage. England were fortunate to progress to the quarter finals given their league performance; England were one of only two teams to lose to Ireland and just about beat part timers Holland in their first round game!
Plymouth Argyle return to the bottom of the league after a narrow 0 – 1 loss to Rochdale at Home Park over the weekend, nothing really wrong with the Argyle performance, neither team deserved to lose based upon performance but that’s football. It seems that the curse of not being able to string a run of wins together is really biting Argyle’s collective butts right now as the gap to league safety increases. There is now six points to Dagenham and Redbridge but the Daggers have four games in hand, Yeovil and Tranmere have two games in hand in 19th and 18th respectively. With buyers still unable to reach agreement and financial security seemingly a million miles away, relegation is looking a certainty. Hopefully Argyle can start afresh in League 2 next season and climb from there with new owners in the same way they did under Sturrock and Stapleton!
Liverpool’s fortunes were better beating Sunderland 0 – 2 at the Stadium of Light; just as shame it was in contentious circumstances. John Mensah had fouled Jay Spearing on the edge of the box but the referee’s assistant ruled it as a penalty after the match referee had awarded a free kick. Dirk Kuyt put the resulting penalty into the back of the net. Steve Bruce was understandably annoyed by the penalty decision; the foul was clearly outside the 18 yard box, Spearing then tumbled into the box. There was no doubt about the second goal; Luis Suarez powerful shot from an acute angle doubling the lead, Suarez almost got on the score sheet again near the end of the game but was chopped down when clear on goal resulting in Mensah receiving a red card for a second bookable offence. Liverpool keep the pressure up on the top four teams with this victory!