Sport-Blog.com

Saturday 16 Dec 2006

Reading 1 Blackburn 2
Even though Blackburn's South African striker, Benni McCarthy scored to help his team earned an important victory, he was not that happy after the match, especially with some of the decisions in the match. "I'm pleased and disappointed because I got a yellow card - my fifth this season - and now I miss our game at Arsenal on Saturday, so I'm not too happy about that," he said, "On top of that I scored four goals and three were disallowed. That's the first time I've ever had a hat-trick of disallowed goals in one game. In Spain and Portugal that's normal because the referees are shit but I never imagined that it would happen in England. Today was not my day. I've come across Graham Poll in the Champions League many times in Europe and he's a brilliant ref. I have a lot of respect for him. But his assistants? They'd better hope I don't get them in a nightclub." As for being off side so often, he said, "I'm always on the lookout for a chance to score and sometimes I'm probably too eager for my own good. Maybe I could time some of my runs a bit better."

Reading boss Steve Coppell said, "All the signs in the first 45 minutes were good as we scrapped and fought hard. I thought once we took the lead that we would be strong enough to withstand them. We lost our way after the break and it is the first half this season in which we have let ourselves down. Blackburn improved their game and they took advantage of our frailties and I was disappointed by our response."

Blackburn boss Mark Hughes said, "We had a real go in the second half - we were 1-0 down so we needed a reaction and we got it. The way we were playing and the attitude we had in the second half, we weren't to be denied." David's scored quality goals this season, but he'll be very pleased because that one won us the game."

Reading
Marcus Hahnemann, Ivar Ingimarsson, Graeme Murty, Nicky Shorey, Ibrahima Sonko, James Harper, Steve Hunt (Shane Long), Glen Little (John Oster), Ki-Hyeon Seol (Leroy Lita), Steven Sidwell, Kevin Doyle
Subs Not Used: Federici, Gunnarsson
Booked: Murty
Goals: Harper 41

Blackburn
Brad Friedel, Michael Gray, Jay McEveley (Shabani Nonda), Lucas Neill, Andre Ooijer, Andy Todd, David Bentley, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Robbie Savage, Kerimoglu Tugay, Benni McCarthy (Matt Derbyshire)
Subs Not Used: Brown, Matteo, Peter
Booked: McEveley, McCarthy
Goals: McCarthy 64, Bentley 84

Referee: Poll, G
Venue: Madejski Stadium
Attendance: 23,074

Wigan 0 Sheffield United 1
This was Wigan's first home defeat against a non top 4 side this season. After the defeat by Arsenal in the last match and then by relegation favorites Sheffield United now, Paul Jewell has to look forward to some very tough fixtures ahead: they will play Chelsea at home this Saturday and then Man U on boxing day.

Wigan manager Paul Jewell said, "We were disjointed and lacked endeavour, energy, cohesion and all the things you associate with Wigan. That was probably the worst first-half performance in four or five years since I have been here and there can be no excuse for that. Our home record isn't good and it's only ourselves who can dig us out of this."

Blades' boss Neil Warnock backed referee Peter Walton's move to reverse his penalty award, "It was the right thing to do. The linesman had the best view of things so it was the correct thing for Peter to consult him. If the referee thought there was any doubt he's got to disallow it."

Wigan
Chris Kirkland, Leighton Baines, Emmerson Boyce (David Wright), Arjan De Zeeuw, Fitz Hall, Kevin Kilbane (Svetoslav Todorov), Denny Landzaat, Josip Skoko, Henri Camara (David Cotterill), Emile Heskey, Lee McCulloch
Subs Not Used: Pollitt, Johansson
Sheffield United
Paddy Kenny, Claude Davis, Derek Geary, Rob Kozluk, Chris Morgan, Keith Gillespie, Phil Jagielka, Stephen Quinn (Chris Armstrong), Michael Tonge (Nick Montgomery), Rob Hulse, Danny Webber (Leigh Bromby)
Subs Not Used: Nade, Kazim-Richards
Booked: Morgan, Davis
Goals: Hulse 45

Referee: Walton, P
Venue: The JJB Stadium
Attendance: 16,322