Key events
Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth are level at Wayne Rooney’s former side Derby.
So much for that impenetrable Rams’ home record and insurmountable Argyle away struggle.
Keep your celebration icks coming in. This one is from Justin Madson:
One celebration I’d be okay never seeing again is putting the ball under the shirt and sucking the thumb. Just…. why?
As an expectant father myself, I semi-endorse this message, Jason. Choose one or the other. Doing them both simultaneously doesn’t make sense.
Bankers for your Saturday afternoon acca* as follows:
*Obviously one of these games will now finish 3-3.
More tetchy rumblings from supporters in Wolverhampton. Southampton are knocking on that door ahead of the half-time whistle, with new England callup Harwood-Bellis flashing a header wide from a Saints corner.
Championship: Lowly Portsmouth have a precious lead at home to Preston courtesy of Josh Murphy, while Sunderland have doubled their lead over Coventry through an absolute wordly by Dennis Cirkin. The Stadium of Light is absolutely bouncing!
It’s early days, but will anyone catch the Black Cats this season?
Talking of games lacking in excitement or eventfulness … Crystal Palace v Fulham is still locked at 0-0 with both defences in charge as it stands.
All the reports coming from West Ham v Everton centre on how lifeless and lacklustre it’s been so far. Seems to be no danger of an opening for either team in east London.
Another celebrations-related email, this time from Ken Coogan who joins me in raging against modern cellies.
The knee-slide brings out the rage in me I’m afraid to say. More and more, I find myself going back to watching YouTube clips of goals (mostly by Liverpool) from the 1980s, to marvel at such straight-ahead, no-nonsense goal celebrations. Most of which were signed off by a handshake. Not a single knee slide in sight.
BRING BACK THE HANDSHAKE.
League One: Will Collar has scored for Stockport to take the lead against Bolton in that all-Greater Manchester clash. Stevenage lead Reading 1-0 against the run of play. Incidentally, Will Collar uses the same barber as me. Big W.
Southampton are enjoying a heck of a lot of possession at Wolves and the home fans at Molineux, typically rather restless, are becoming … restless. Even though that Saints leveller was ruled out, the momentum seems to be withe the away team.
GOAL! Brentford 1-1 Bournemouth (Wissa ’27)
A long throw-in finds its way to Yoane Wissa, who fires Brentford level at the back post!
You just knew there’d be goals in this game didn’t you?
Let’s check in at the London Stadium … oh.
Absolutely dreadful start to this game from #WHUFC in front of a virtually silent crowd.
— Alex Crook ⚽️🎙 (@alex_crook) November 9, 2024
Carl Jenkinson … from one of the bright young things in the Arsenal academy to being sent off for League Two Bromley inside 25 minutes at Cheltenham. Gah.
Re: celebrations, David Mooney thinks he knows why we don’t see too many knee slides nowadays.
It’s such a dumb way to pick up a serious injury. I wouldn’t be surprised if managers are banning their players from doing it.
But I’m pretty old school about this sort of thing — for me you can’t beat the Alan Shearer hand-in-the-air celebration.
Not sure about this gif, chaps.
Championship: Sunderland are leading against managerless Coventry – oh for a Mark Robins figure in the dugout – with Wilson Isidor volleying home a sumptuous opener. Bristol City and Leeds have also taken the lead against Norwich and QPR respectively.
GOAL! Brentford 0-1 Bournemouth (Evanlison ’17)
Marcos Senesi has just missed a huge chance for the Cherries, but it won’t matter too much as Evanlison has just put the visitors ahead.
They’ve dominated the early stages at the Gtech.
League One: Wycombe are absolutely flying right now. They weren’t even in the playoff places during the October international break, but they’re top now and ahead today at Wigan.
That’s two games on the bounce that Wolves have got the rub of the green re: a contentious VAR decision. I’m sure Gary O’Neil will be thankful and appreciative.
Bang, bang, two goals already at Molineux? Southampton think they’ve levelled up through Ryan Manning, but VAR are going to check for a foul.
There’s no such thing given and it’s a proper good strike from the left wing-back. Oh, hang on … they are looking at it. The referee has gone to the screen – and it’s been chalked off after all! Wowsers, that’s a tough call on Russell Martin’s side.
Championship: Derby are good are home and Plymouth are woeful on the road so it should surprise nobody that the Rams have gone ahead inside 10 minutes at Pride Park, via Jerry Yates.
Is it just me or is every goal celebration these days either a faux-modest shrug of the shoulders or the mime of an archer’s arrow? Is the knee slide going out of the modern game?
Are Real Madrid back? Well if beating Osasuna 4-0, with Vinícius scoring a hat-trick and Jude Bellingham getting back on the scoresheet means that you’re ‘back’ – then yes, I guess so.
The Ian Holloway effect is real. It has taken Swindon even less time to score at MK Dons, going 1-0 up inside the first minute via Harry Smith.
Erm, why haven’t Brentford score yet? This is ridiculously poor from them.
GOAL! Wolves 1-0 Southampton (Sarabia ‘2)
A dream start for Wolves in their must-win game against fellow struggles. Superb stuff, a flowing move finished off by Pablo Sarabia.
Gary O’Neil will be chuffed. Talk about flying out of the blocks.
KICK OFF
Is that a collective ‘peeeeeeepp’ I can hear? Yes, I believe it is. We’re off.
Down in League Two, good ol’ Ollie is preparing for his first league game in charge of Swindon. He’s two from two in the cup competitions so far and has already shaken up the League Two press conference scene, naturally.
Here’s another good footballing read for you to enjoy with a coffee before this afternoon’s games get under way.
It’s objectionable when two teams play in reverse colours (blue and white v white and blue) like this, but that’s not the most heinous crime on the teamsheet.
Our resident Fitba correspondent Simon McMahon gets in touch with a nice preview of this afternoon’s action north of the border:
Afternoon Dominic. Dundee United, still fourth in the table despite picking up only a single point from their last three games, welcome Ross County to Tannadice today. United, with manager Jim Goodwin having signed a new deal this week, will be looking for all three points against the Dingwall side who sit ninth, but are only four points worse off. Elsewhere, struggling Hibs – bottom of the table with just one win in 11 games – are at home to St. Mirren, Motherwell play St. Johnstone and Jimmy Thelin’s
BarcelonaAberdeen face Dundee in the teatime kick off.
Thanks as always Simon. Celtic and Rangers are both in action on Sunday.
Full time in the early kick-offs around the country. Here are those scores, starting with the trio of Championship fixtures:
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Cardiff 1-3 Blackburn
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Middlesbrough 5-1 Luton
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Stoke 1-1 Millwall
And now League One:
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Burton 2-0 Shrewsbury
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Wrexham 1-0 Mansfield
League Two:
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Harrogate 1-2 Morecambe
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Salford 0-1 Carlisle
Game over. Lewis Baker with a bolt from the blue for Blackburn on the break. 3-1 and that will sink the home side.
Cardiff 1-2 Blackburn: This cracking game is now getting the cracking finale it deserves, with Cardiff now piling on the pressure in search of an equaliser. John Eustace is wearing a worried look on the touchline as his team try to keep out the baying Bluebirds. Five minutes to go plus addeds.
Here’s our big preview of the weekend’s Premier League action, as usual.
Elsewhere in the Championship, Middlesbrough are running riot at home to Luton – it’s 4-1 to the hosts at the Riverside – while Ben Gibson has levelled up for Stoke at home to Millwall. One-each in the Potteries.
Now the team news is taken care of (it comes earlier these days), I can focus on Cardiff v Blackburn. It’s been a very watchable game so far with the visitors scoring two slick goals through Andi Weimann before Cardiff – full of effort and bluster but lacking a little in quality – pulled one back via a David Turnbull penalty rebound. Game on with 15 minutes remaining.
Wolves v Southampton team news
Wolves (3-4-3): Sá; Bueno, Dawson, T.Gomes; Semedo, J.Gomes, Lemina, Aït-Nouri; Sarabia, Strand Larsen, Cunha.
Southampton (3-5-2): Ramsdale; Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Stephens; Walker-Peters, Downes, Lallana, Fernandes, Manning; Archer, Armstrong.
West Ham v Everton team news
West Ham (4-3-3): Fabianski; Wan-Bissaka, Todibo, Kilman, Emerson; Soucek, Rodríguez, Paquetá; Bowen, Antonio, Summerville.
Everton (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Young, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Mangala, Gueye; Ndiaye, Doucouré, Lindstrøm; Calvert-Lewin.
Crystal Palace v Fulham team news
Crystal Palace (3-4-3): Henderson; Clyne, Lacroix, Guéhi; Muñoz, Chalobah, Devenny, Mitchell; Sarr, Kamada, Mateta.
Fulham (4-2-3-1): Leno; Tete, Andersen, Bassey, Robinson; Berge, Pereira; Nelson, Smith Rowe, Iwobi; Jiménez.
Brentford v Bournemouth team news
Brentford (4-2-3-1): Flekken; Van den Berg, Collins, Pinnock, Janelt; Nørgaard, Jensen; Mbeumo, Damsgaard, Lewis-Potter; Wissa.
Bournemouth (4-3-3): Kepa; Smith, Zabarnyi, Senesi, Kerkez; Cook, Christie, Adams; Semenyo, Evanlison, Kluivert.
Preamble
Good afternoon, and welcome to a 3pm (GMT) Saturday featuring the squeezed middle of the Premier League, though West Ham and Everton both teeter at the bottom. Brentford have a fantastic home record, while being the worst away side, but are at home to Bournemouth, recent conquerors of Manchester City AND Arsenal. Something’s gotta give there. Crystal Palace v Fulham is a case of a London club being safely in mid-table and it perhaps not being the club you expected, even if Marco Silva continues to show what a fine manager he is. Palace are improving but still not out of trouble. And as for Wolves v Southampton, this is this week’s six-pointer. Saints won last week, and Russell Martin can all but finish off his old pal Gary O’Neil if his team follow that up.
All that, plus the latest and greatest from the EFL and Europe, with second tier promotion frontrunners Sunderland and Leeds among those in action. We’ll also run through the latest from the 12.30pm kick-offs, which are nearing their denouement. Join me.
