Mark Robins’ eye-catching Coventry deserve their headlines, Liverpool have a bargain in Andrew Robertson and Wolves are already good enough for top flightAmid all the hoopla over the departing Mark Hughes, it is right to take a moment to praise Coventry City. They were deserved winners of the third-round tie at the Ricoh Arena, despite giving up the greater number of chances to the visitors. The Sky Blues played with a determination and energy you might expect of a team assuming the David role in a Goliath encounter. But they were also calm on the ball and often quite cute on it, too. Their play was all the more striking, given the starting XI had an average age of 24...
As good as Sheffield United were in trouncing their Steel City neighbours 4-2, Sheffield Wednesday’s tendency to disappear in big games is a concernWith a few minutes remaining of the first Sheffield derby in five years, Chris Wilder congratulated and high-fived everyone on the United bench. By that point the job was done, the scoreline at 4-2 and Wednesday’s spirit crushed: this was United’s most comprehensive derby win in 25 years and the first time they have scored four at Hillsborough.Unsurprisingly Wilder, a Blades fan who watched his first derby from the terraces 37 years ago, described it as the proudest moment of his career. Related: Football League: Alfred N’Diaye winner sees Wolves keep pace at summit There's a delay...
Thirty-seven years after going to his first Sheffield derby, the lifelong Blade is relishing locking horns with the enemy for the first time from the dugoutChris Wilder’s first Sheffield derby was in April 1980. He was at Bramall Lane as a 12-year-old to see his United draw 1-1 with Wednesday, Terry Curran curling a brilliant shot into the corner of the net after John MacPhail gave the Blades the lead. He didn’t go to the game earlier in the season at Hillsborough, which was probably just as well as Wednesday won that one 4-0.On Sunday, 37 years on and the day after his 50th birthday, Wilder takes charge of his boyhood club in a derby for the first time. A...
The League One clash of Blades and The Iron, two resurgent sides, at Bramall Lane ended in a vibrant, heavy-metal 1-1 drawScunthorpe could take a leaf out of Lincoln City’s book. At Burnley the Imps had the nous to score in the 89th minute. At Bramall Lane The Iron, the county’s only League club for five seasons before Grimsby’s return, had the cheek in League One’s top-of-the-table match to take the lead straight after an interval they had reached in ragged relief at level terms. Two minutes later Sheffield United equalised and so it stayed, with each side hitting a post in the closing minutes, Scunthorpe again first, and honours even from a contest fit for a fine old stadium...
The beautiful game is littered with beautifully strange, funny and famous tales. Journalist Nick Szczepanik has compiled many for his new book, Pulp Football. Here are five of Guardian Sport’s favouritesPerhaps the most notorious football mascot, and certainly one of the breed’s serial offenders, is Cyril the Swan. The 9ft Swansea City mascot’s antics have resulted in more than one four-figure fine from the Football League and even a touchline ban – usually a sanction reserved for errant managers and coaches. Related: Mascot fears soccer beaks Continue reading...