Black and White Addicks

AAn interesting article on how a modern day football club seeks to keep discipline and injury free players while in the youth academy using an ‘old fashioned’ ploy;

Click here to see the article from BBC Sport

The IPL

Most people who know me, know I am a traditionalist when it comes to formats of cricket.

I love test cricket and wholeheartedly believe it to be the purest and most exhilirating form of the game, but I've been watching a fair amount of the Indian Premier League these last few weeks, and I think it is absolutely fantastic.

Great hits, great cricketers, and best of all, great catches.

Check this one out from David Hussey, my favourite catch so far...

This sort of cricket is wonderful, but I'm still more excited about the test cricket on offer in 2010. Bangladesh hop over briefly at the end of the month, followed by Pakistan, and then Strauss and his men pack their bags to go and give those Aussies a royal beating down under in December.

Black and White Army March On

Well, I’ll be honest here; this is undoubtedly the best season in a long time to be a Newcastle fan. I can’t remember these dizzy heights of joy since the Sir Bobby Robson reign.

For those of you far too interested in the higher echelons of English football to even warrant a glance at the Coca-Cola Championship, the Magpies are five points clear of second-place West Bromich Albion, and ten points and a game-in-hand above third placed Nottingham Forest with just eight games to go in the current season.

The season has gone through the motions with minimal fuss so far this season. At the beginning of the season, Alan Shearer declared that he was interested in what seemed to be a vacant manager’s hot seat at St James’ Park (or is that Sportsdirect.com@ St James Park Stadium?), but Chris Hughton has made the ‘poisoned chalice’ his with spectacular consistency in both performance and results, which has been lacking for a number of years.

Roberto Di Matteo’s West Brom have been superb on the attack, but questions are still be asked of their shaky defence which has seen them leak 42 goals in defence, in comparison to the 28 that Newcastle have let through.

It represents a remarkable turn-around in fortunes for the back four at St James’ Park. During Newcastle’s 17-year stay in the top flight, defence was the constant source of criticism from pundits all over the media. To name but a few of the defenders famous for leaking goals; Titus Bramble, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Craig Moore, Oguchi Onyewu, Claudio Cacapa, Olivier Bernard and many more.

But now stability has been found. Can it be retained in the Premier League next season? Only time will tell. Either way, it’s been a great season.

The authoritative voice of Nigel Adkins, Scunthorpe United manager, commented after their recent 3-0 loss to the Magpies; "That's a Premier League side you have just seen out there, end of story, so we don't need to get too disillusioned about the result because that is a Premier League side and a very, very good one."

While it is nice to hear of the fear that Hughton’s men are instilling in opposition teams, I cannot help but disagree with Adkins on this matter. We may just about qualify for Premier League quality at a stretch, but to say we are a ‘very, very good one’ is complete hyperbole. Andrew Carroll, Peter Lovenkrands, Nile Ranger, Leon Best and Shola Ameobi represent an astounding strike force in the Championship, but move them up a league and they are distinctly, distinctly average.

Looking back on my previous blog post about Premier League relegation, I still think that Burnley, Hull and Portsmouth will be ejected based on a lack of quality and ability to win matches that really matter. These three teams currently occupy the bottom three, and Burnley have been in absolute freefall since Owen Coyle left, and any side with an away form of one point out of a possible 48 is asking an improbable task from their home form to keep them up.

Tis the season to be 'olly

The Barclays Premier League is widely considered the best league in the world, and we certainly have a classic on our hands this season.

In the upper regions, we suddenly have a three-horse title race on our hands, following an Arsenal revival and a dip in Chelsea’s form. Carlo Ancelloti’s men also have the daunting prospect of losing several key players for the African Cup of Nations, which starts on January 10 in Angola. Man Utd don’t exactly look like settling the world alight with a distinctly average midfield by their standards. It will be interesting to see if Arsenal can keep up the pace on the front runners. It’s been impressive to see the form of Aaron Ramsey, Manuel Almunia, Abou Diaby and the rest. The problem seems to be in the forwards department, does Eduardo have what it takes to replace the goal machine Robin van Persie? Perhaps Arsenal will sign a forward in the January window, or we may see more of the young Carlos Vela in the new year.

There is an excellent contest for the much coveted fourth Champions’ League spot in the Premier League this season. Liverpool have played poorly and probably deserve the 7th position they currently occupy. Realistically it’s a wide open race, with Aston Villa, Man City, Tottenham Hotspur and dare I even add Fulham into the equation to contend with the Reds?

And at the bottom end, we’ve got all sorts going on! After the travesty of Newcastle going down last year, I’d like to see Hull get relegated, which is a realistic scenario in my humble opinion. Pompey are four points from safety but are looking much stronger since Avram Grant became manager. Only five points separate 19th placed Hull and 10th placed Sunderland; any of the teams between could go down, but my favourites for the drop are Hull, Portsmouth and Burnley. Everton, Blackburn, Stoke and Sunderland will pull well clear by May, and I think Bolton have enough about them to stay up. Wigan and Wolves are definite candidates to drop to the Championship.

And in Europe’s second best league, the Coca-Cola Championship, it looks as if Newcastle and West Brom are a cut above the rest. It would be interesting to see if Nottingham Forest can continue their good form; they look very solid indeed under Billy Davies. I think the funniest scenario would be to see the Tangerines (aka Blackpool) move into the Premier League, just to see Ian Holloway on Match of The Day.

And this is why...

Killing in the name of...

Christmas time is generally child-friendly in the UK. We have chocolate calendars, Cliff Richard’s music, Christmas tree fairies, Macaulay Culkin’s films and Santa Claus. In Carol Services, everyone loves having the kids on show doing the nativity drama.

I was thinking the other day about the real message of Christmas, which in many ways is anything but child-friendly. The nativity, although a lovely scene, isn’t the complete message of Christmas. Far from it. Christmas points to Easter for Christians, the birth of the Lord Jesus is in fact a pointer to his death. The Saviour comes into this world in the nativity. But he can only save us through his death on the cross.

Imagine an Easter ‘Nativity’ scene. There would be no baby Jesus, no manger and no smiling wise men with gifts. The baby Jesus has grown up! There’d be a full grown man with a beard, beaten and bruised, a crown of thorns, a wooden cross and an empty tomb. A brutal death instead of a cute birth.

The Bible calls this ‘good news of great joy’. Why? Because through the perfect life of Jesus, every human being who has rejected God (that’s all of us) can be forgiven and can begin a relationship with him. All of our wrong is exchanged for Jesus’ perfection, so God can see us as perfect. The relationship we were meant for can begin. And that my friends, is the greatest news in the world.

More on this good news... click here

L.E.P Mapping Locations

I have mapped four articles from an edition of the Lancashire Evening Post on Friday, November 6, 2009. This shows the variety of locations in which news items occur in one day.

View LEP Article Map in a larger map

Should the National Football Museum stay in Preston?

Below is a short video of an interview with Adam Johnson. He gives his opinion on where the National Football Museum should be located. The interview took place outside the Museum's current location next to Preston North End's football stadium, Deepdale.