Wigan seek to wreck Hughes’ Saints debut, FA Cup a big deal for Chelsea and Leicester, and Zaha returns to lift Palace’s spiritsIt is tempting to suggest that Mark Hughes has already made the biggest contribution that he can make to Southampton’s fight against relegation – in the form of his final 18 months at Stoke – but Sunday’s FA Cup joust with Wigan gives him a chance to start showing that he has the knowhow to stimulate an improvement at his new club. At Stoke he initially wrought good performances from mercurial types and he will have to do that quicksmart with Southampton, where the likes of Dusan Tadic, Nathan Redmond and Sofiane Boufal have lacked consistency all season....
Bitter rivalry, free-scoring marksmen, stretchers, rage and Peter Enckelman: half a dozen Second City derby storiesVilla dominated the Football League during its Victorian infancy – they racked up five titles by 1900 – so their early command of the Birmingham scene is no great surprise. In November 1887, they met the club that would become bitter city rivals in serious competition for the first time: Small Heath Alliance were dispatched 4-0 in the FA Cup second round. It was payback for the first friendly between the clubs in 1879, which Alliance won 1-0 at their Muntz Street ground. Villa – already a grand, bordering on aristocratic, institution despite being just four years and nine months old – complained bitterly that...
A 2-1 loss and some unpleasant vitriol from the stands made it a day to forget for Boro’s manager on his first visit back to Elland RoadAs football soundbites go, the summer declaration by the Middlesbrough owner, Steve Gibson, that his club would “smash the league” in their attempts to return to the Premier League this season is slowly but surely looking like one of the more misguided utterances.It certainly threatens to become a millstone around the neck of his manager, Garry Monk, whose return to Leeds United – the club he left in controversial circumstances to work for Gibson following Middlesbrough’s relegation last season – ended in a defeat that ended his team’s recent mini-revival. Related: Leeds United 2-1...
Simon Grayson was sacked on Tuesday after one win in 15 league games at a club where good managers suddenly seem to lose their touchSimon Grayson readily agreed his record of one Championship win all season was not too hot but demanded it be viewed in grisly context. “I can’t think of too many people in football at this moment who could do a better job than I am,” he said on Monday.By Tuesday evening he was gone, having been sacked by Sunderland within 15 minutes of the final whistle following a 3-3 home draw with fellow strugglers Bolton Wanderers. Related: Simon Grayson sacked as Sunderland manager after draw with Bolton Related: Football rumours: Peter Reid ready to save Sunderland?...
James Maddison struck the only goal as Norwich City won 1-0 at Ipswich Town to stretch their unbeaten sequence against their East Anglian rivals to nine matchesMick McCarthy walked into the Ipswich press room an hour after full-time, cup of tea in hand, and offered to avoid wasting anyone’s time. “If someone asks me, ‘Am I disappointed with that result?’ then I’m out of here, right?” he threatened. “I’ve just done interviews and been asked the most senseless questions.”He was generous enough to hang around but in any case Norwich City had already provided the afternoon’s most pertinent answers. Their hold over the East Anglian derby in the last decade might have come from nowhere but it is total: this...