The players are Darren Bent, Charles N’Zogbia, Ciaran Clark and Gary Gardner. The fella with the hair and the mic is Lukey Moore from the Football Ramble (no relation to the lazy former Villa striker). The competition is IGN FIFA 12 pro player tournament. The venue is Bodymoor Heath.
The winner is…
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Gary Gardner, Nathan Delfouneso and Nathan Baker were called up for England ahead of two Under-21 European Champions qualifiers; Iceland in Colchester on Thursday and away to Belgium next Monday.
Here’s a two minute interview on the training ground with Gardner, pausing just briefly to allow Delfouneso to take a penalty in the background. Eventually.
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Shamrock Rovers left back Enda Stevens, who will be joining Aston Villa in January 2012, has been named in the Irish Premier Division Team of the Year and nominated for the Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland (PFAI) Young Player of the Year award.
21 year old Stevens has remained with Rovers whilst they compete in the Europa League. They currently sit bottom of Group A with ties against Rubin Kazan on November 30th and Tottenham on December 15th left to play.
Richard Dunne has confirmed what we already knew; he was heading for the exit door under Gerard Houllier. He’s yet another player to lift the lid on a testing atmosphere under the Frenchman last season.
Speaking to ESPNsoccernet ahead of Ireland’s vital Euro 2012 play-off match against Estonia the veteran defender said:
Last season was very difficult for me as I was not enjoying coming to work every day at Villa and there were some issues with the Ireland team as well.
It
Darren Bent’s brace against Norwich on Saturday took his Premier League career goal tally to 96, he’s just four short of joining the Ton Up Club.
It’s a pretty exclusive club with former Villans Dwight Yorke and Dion Dublin, plus current Villan Emile Heskey, among its 20 members.
Bent’s definitely got his eye on getting past the doorman, he told the official site:
I’ve still got a few things I’d like to achieve, like 100 Premier League goals. I’m only four off it.
Charles N’Zogbia has revealed that he prefers to play on the right, aims to qualify for Europe with Aston Villa and harbours ambitions of being on the French team plane to Brazil in 2014.
N’Zogbia spoke with The New York Times during a recent international break and showed his appreciation for the size of the boots he had to fill following the exits of Ashley Young and Stewart Downing.
Yes, big shoes. Now they bring new players. When you start the league
Two goals for Darren Bent, both set up by Gabby Agbonlahor who also helped himself to a goal and a deserved Man of the Match award. Those goals were bookended by goals from Anthony Pilkington and Steve Morison for Norwich in an entertaining encounter at Villa Park.
Both strikers now have five goals apiece so far this season and should be expecting a call from Fabio Capello ahead of England’s upcoming games against Spain and Sweden.
A much improved performance from Villa in a lively game led to a vital three points at home thanks to two goals from Darren Bent, and a goal for the provider of both those goals; man of the match Gabby Agbonlahor. Goals from Anthony Pilkington and Steve Morison bookended the home goals, and set up a nervous final ten minutes.
Norwich opened the scoring, slightly against the run of play at the time, thanks to a superbly hit free kick from
You have to go all the way back to 2004/05 to find the last time this fixture was played; a 3-0 win under David O’Leary. Alex McLeish could really do with something similar today.
Darren Bent has said that one goal could open the floodgates, and McLeish has “rubbished” silly rumours of a January sale. Jermaine Jenas is finally fit, Nathan Delfouneso makes space on the bench for him, and though Barry Bannan was welcomed back into the fold after his