Brede Hangeland grabbed a point for Fulham at Craven Cottage with what was literally the last touch of what has been christened the “FxPro Derby”, nodding in a free kick at the far post in the 4th minute of injury time. That threatens to overshadow an awful lot of positives from a Villa side featuring two youngsters making their first starts in the Premier League.
Let’s address those positives first. Nathan Delfouneso, getting his first start thanks to being
Continue Reading
I don’t know whether it’s appropriate to keep referring to them as “kids”, I know I wouldn’t have appreciated it when I was their age, but regardless of the moniker, there’s a good deal to be optimistic when we see the batch of academy graduates long tipped for greatness finally becoming first team fixtures and also gaining recognition further afield.
Barry Bannan is reportedly about to be called up to the senior Scottish side and is receiving rave reviews from just
Continue Reading
Gérard Houllier probably won’t mind the two week break in the domestic fixture schedule as he continues to settle in, but he will be without several key players:-
Ashley Young and Stephen Warnock were called up to the England squad for Tuesday’s European Qualifier against Montenegro at Wembley.
Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso are with England Under 21s ahead of the play-off against Romania for next year’s European Under 21 Championship in Denmark. The first leg is at Carrow Rd on
Continue Reading
I don’t get to see the reserves live as often as I would like, but as they were playing Man Utd Reserves tonight, I was able to catch the first 80 minutes of the game bossed by Gordon Cowans before the stream died on me. A very good performance it was too, lead from the front by Barry Bannan, who was near faultless throughout.
Bannan opened the scoring just after five minutes with a curled free kick from just outside
Continue Reading
Ardhe Nuhiu 32′ | Barry Bannan 11′
YouTube Video
Blackpool have just beaten Cardiff 3-2 in a thrilling play-off final at Wembley to win promotion to next season’s Premier League, joining automatically promoted Newcastle and West Brom.
Besides the Premiership link, the game also featured ex-Villan Peter Whittingham, who has been one of Cardiff’s key players over the last couple of seasons, and also our very own Barry Bannan got a run out for Blackpool in the last couple of minutes.
This was the match recently christened “the £90m game” since
Continue Reading
Just days after I suggested that Aston Villa were making more loans than Barclays, we lend a couple more players out. Seriously, are we propping up some collapse in the player market?
Barry Bannon has joined Blackpool until late January and Chris Herd is joining up with Nathan Baker at Lincoln, but is due back a week earlier on Boxing Day. Both are great prospects and it goes without saying how useful this experience is for them. Good
Continue Reading