Forest come close to a Cup upset, Steven Gerrard tells Bukayo Saka to toughen up and Leicester’s crisis looks to be overLiverpool may have been under full strength but even in defeat it was a test emphatically passed by Steve Cooper’s burgeoning Nottingham Forest side. The hosts displayed impressive defensive discipline and shape to keep Liverpool out for 78 minutes, and arguably should have had a penalty soon after conceding. They almost certainly would have been awarded a spot-kick had Ryan Yates altered his direction slightly and aimed to draw more significant contact from Alisson, the kind of trick pulled so often by Premier League forwards for the benefit of the video assistant referee. The VAR decision to rule Diogo...
Riverside’s sparse away end a symbol of visitors’ ongoing crisis, but also of the deep dysfunction at the heart of the gameThe Riverside has been no stranger to the sight of empty seats in recent years, but on Saturday those that surrounded the 700 or so Chelsea fans who had managed to buy tickets before Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK government told not of Middlesbrough’s troubles but a more poignant story of the state of English football.Football’s capacity to normalise the most ludicrous scenarios is remarkable. It is only three weeks since Abramovich declared his intention to hand over “stewardship and care” of the club to its trustees and yet that already feels at least two major news...
Charity match for victims of Covid-19 promises to be a wonderful wallow in nostalgia for Boro fansAnthems are invariably repetitive but the paean celebrating Middlesbrough’s journey to the 2006 Uefa Cup final took things to extremes. “Small town in Europe, we’re just a small town in Europe,” Teessiders chorused on the road to Eindhoven and defeat against Sevilla.The limited lyrics failed to prevent those seven words becoming an evocative, now rather poignant, soundtrack to the season when Gareth Southgate, Stewart Downing and the rest of Steve McClaren’s team annotated the town’s place on football’s European map. Related: Celebrating the great inventors who changed football forever Related: David Squires on … the Premier League and Project Restart Continue reading...
Minamino’s Merseyside derby baptism, Woodgate’s Tottenham reunion and non-league Fylde take on Sheffield UnitedConsidering they have been fairly regular visitors over the years, Derby’s record at Selhurst Park is pretty miserable. Indeed in their past 15 trips – a run stretching back to 1983 – they’ve won only once. That victory came in 2002 when Georgi Kinkladze scored the only goal of the game. A big-name big-money player past his peak helping the Rams to an unlikely win in south London? You might be able to spot where this is going. Wayne Rooney made his playing return to English football on Thursday night and played a full 90 minutes in the 2-1 defeat of Barnsley in which his free-kick supplied...
Ole Gunnar Solskjær is proving his tactical ability every week but Accrington’s manager could not see the magic of his Cup tieIt was a pity John Coleman saw fit to savage Jon Moss, stealing the headlines when his players’ tremendous performance against Derby deserved more attention. The referee did not get everything right but the Accrington manager was wrong to describe his decisions as horrendous, particularly as his supposedly worst call only led to the corner that resulted in the goal. Frank Lampard was on safer ground talking of the magic of the FA Cup. “We had 2,500 fans here and I thought it was great, it felt like a proper game,” the Derby manager said. “I’ve played in Cup...