TOP 100 SPORT SITES
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| 2,500 seats remain for Bills-Colts tilt The Buffalo Bills have announced that approximately 2,500 tickets remain for their 2009 season finale Sunday afternoon against the Indianapolis Colts. bizjournals.com |
Sheffield Wednesday 1-2 Crystal Palace Calvin Andrew, the Crystal Palace substitute, heaped more misery on managerless Championship rivals Sheffield Wednesday by firing a second-half winner to send the Owls tumbling out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle.Andrew cashed in on some poor defending to finish clinically from the edge of the penalty area soon after replacing the injured Sean Scannell in front of a paltry Hillsborough crowd of 8,690.Palace, whose players have not yet been paid their December wages, put their off-field troubles behind them to take a 19th-minute lead through Neil Danns.Although the Owls drew level thanks to Palace defender Clint Hill's own goal just before half-time, Andrew booked the Londoners a place in the fourth round with a well-taken 68th-minute winner.Wednesday chairman Lee Strafford, who sacked manager Brian Laws in early December, had urged fans to get behind their side in the build-up to the third-round tie, but there was little response from the blue-and-white half of the city after a run of 11 matches without a win before kick-off.That has now been stretched to 12 in all competitions, with the Owls without a victory since a 2-0 success against Coventry on 17 October.Palace dominated the first half-hour after taking the lead through Danns's opportunist strike. The former Birmingham midfielder pounced on a defensive lapse on the edge of the six-yard box and swept the ball home, right-footed, into the bottom corner in the 19th minute.Danns volleyed wide from 20 yards soon after grabbing his fourth goal of the season, while midfield team-mate Darren Ambrose had gone close when trying his luck from long range in the fifth minute.Wednesday had mustered just one chance on goal until Palace's breakthrough, with striker Francis Jeffers, back in the starting line-up for the first time since being sent off in a Carling Cup defeat at Port Vale at the end of August, seeing his angled drive blocked by Palace defender Jose Fonte.But the Owls were back on level terms a minute before the interval. Jeffers and Leon Clarke had successive shots blocked and following the latter, Palace defender Hill inadvertently turned the ball beyond his own goalkeeper, Julian Speroni, from six yards.Wednesday wrestled back an equal share of possession after the break, but still found chances hard to come by, while Palace were dealt a blow when Scannell was forced out of the action through injury and replaced by Andrew in the 58th minute.But Palace were untroubled by Scannell's loss and it was Andrew who regained his side the lead after more hesitancy at the back from Wednesday.Owls defender Frank Simek failed to clear a long ball forward on the edge of his penalty area and Andrew nipped in to steal the ball and fire a low, left-foot shot into the bottom corner.Jeffers, Marcus Tudgay, Jermaine Johnson and substitute Etienne Esajas all had shots blocked or saved in the closing stages, but the Wednesday caretaker manager Sean McAuley was left chasing his first win after three matches in charge.FA CupSheffield WednesdayCrystal Palaceguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
USA TODAY interview: McGwire details steroid use Mark McGwire finally came clean Monday, admitting he used steroids when he broke baseball's home run record in 1998. rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
Sir Alex Ferguson says Michael Owen must not give up his England hopes just yet Michael Owen may have felt that his chances of securing a seat on England’s plane to the World Cup in South Africa this summer were diminishing with every moment he spends on Manchester United’s substitutes’ bench, but Sir Alex Ferguson breathed fresh hope into his international ambitions yesterday. feeds.timesonline.co.uk |
Lawrence Donegan: Quiet please, Monty The incessant and premature talk about the Ryder Cup is not 'promoting the event', it is self-aggrandising drivelMartin Kaymer, a certainty for Europe's Ryder Cup team later this year, gave an interesting insight into how he and his colleagues view the contest with the United States in this Q&A session with Golf.com. My eyes were drawn to this section in particular:Q. The fans are already thinking about the Ryder Cup. When do the players start taking it seriously?A. After the U.S. Open — the second major. We have big tournaments in Europe at the beginning of the year so after the U.S. Open everybody has a proper look at the rankings and can see where he is standing and then it gets serious.The US Open is in June. Which prompts me to ask why on earth Colin Montgomerie - he's European captain this time round, don't you know! - never misses an opportunity to drone about October's event at Celtic Manor. He was at it in Thailand a few weeks ago, where he was captaining a "Europe" team against an "Asia" team in some meaningless event, and he was at it again in Abu Dhabi last week. Here is a sample from the Daily Telegraph:"The team is looking extremely strong. They all want to make the team so badly. I know that. They've told me. It's very exciting."I will have an issue with my three picks. I'm going to have 10 potential clients for three spots, all feeling that they have a right to be there. It's going to be difficult. This year I'm going to be talking team set-up and not trousers, shirts, menus and rooms."And previous Ryder Cup captains, unlike Field Marshal Montgomerie, concentrated on the trousers rather than the important stuff, like team set-up? Please. No doubt there will be more of the same this week, and next week and the week after that, all the way until October. It's hardly Montgomerie's fault if he is asked about the Ryder Cup. But does he really need to frame every shot, every moment, of the golfing year in the context of an event that won't take for another eight months? He could respond by saying that if, as Kaymer points out, the players don't take subject seriously until June, it would be best if everyone else adopted the same approach. That way no-one will grow weary of the subject. Nor will they start to form the impression that all this premature Ryder Cup chatter has less to do with promoting the tournament than it does with his fulfilling a need Montgomerie has to see his name in the paper every day.GolfColin MontgomerieLawrence Doneganguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |