The Sporting Hack

Sheffield Wednesday 1-3 Brentford Nicky Forster, the Brentford boss saw his side take all three points in the Steel City as the Bees ran out 3-1 winners over strugglers Sheffield Wednesday. The visitors warmed up for their Wembley showdown in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final with Carlisle on Sunday by inflicting yet more pain on the Owls boss Gary Megson. Megson who was appointed in mid-January by owner Milan Mandaric has yet to see his side record a home win. “We’ve eight games to go until the end of the season and we’re going to have to grind out some results,” said Megson. “The standards I set myself and the other football clubs I’ve been at haven’t been attained here. Jermaine Johnson is the only one I will single out for praise and that’s because he deserves it.” Johnson was isolated when he came off the bench after 55 minutes with his teammates already 2-1 down after Michael Spillane and Jeffrey Schlupp’s goals, either side of loan centre half’s Rob Jones effort, had ...

Liverpool 0-0 SC Braga (0-1 agg.) Manchester City 1-0 Dynamo Kiev (1-2 agg.) Rangers 0-1 PSV Eindhoven (0-1 agg.) ______________________________________________________________ Hopes of a European trophy reaching these shores were dealt a severe blow tonight when half of the remaining British teams in continental competition were knocked out by a single goal. Jeremain Lens’ 13 th minute strike for PSV Eindhoven saw them overcome Rangers, while Liverpool were unable to overturn their 1-0 deficit against Portuguese side Braga and Manchester City, despite winning 1-0, lost 2-1 on aggregate to Dynamo Kiev. Aside from a disappointing night, it reflects the current state of not only the Europa League, but football in England and Scotland. None of our representatives were able to sell out and Manchester City’s woeful attendance of less than 28,000 showed either that a 6pm kick off was wrong or no one could be bothered – may be a bit of both. All of which leads me nicely to the abstr...

Huddersfield Giants 50-16 Bradford Bulls Down the years, sets of Bradford Bulls supporters would travel to Huddersfield Giants’ Galpharm Stadium, expecting their side to come away with the two points on offer. Sunday’s convincing 50-16 victory by the home side though, shows how times have changed. The Bulls’ ‘transitional period’ has long since expired and failure to reach the end of season play offs for a third successive season would represent a seismic power shift in the region. Giants’ Head coach, Nathan Brown didn’t afford the luxury of his side getting carried away though. Aware that they are top of Super League and there to be shot at, he spoke of areas to improve on. “We need to be more intense for the Wigan game on Friday night. We’ve just got to keep working hard and maintain our standards.” Said Brown. With the formidable Brough and [Kevin] Brown partnership at half back pulling many strings the boot is firmly on the other foot as the Giants take the initiative...

Huddersfield Giants 50-16 Bradford Bulls Tom Biltcliffe Huddersfield Giants strolled to the top of the Super League with a convincing 50-16 victory over West Yorkshire rivals Bradford Bulls. Nathan Brown’s men recorded an impressive nine tries to reach the summit, with the loss to Castleford in round 2, the only blot on their copybook so far this term. “I was pleased with our intensity from the off” said Brown, “We’ve worked on our discipline and when you have players such as [Danny] Brough and [Kevin] Brown down the other end, we know we’re always capable of scoring.” England prospects Jermaine McGillvary and Leroy Cudjoe got the Giants on the board with tries in the first five minutes before David Fa’aologo was the beneficiary of a fortuitous kick that he took in his stride to open up a 12 point lead inside the first quarter of an hour. Despite missing his first three attempts at goal, Brough didn’...

The scene of bald grown men with streaky St. George’s crosses down their faces and surrounded by dozens of empty pint pots was replicated from bars in Bolton to the hostelry around the corner of the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein. They simultaneously scratched where they once had follicles. Any attempts to sympathise and explain that the boys in red just weren’t good enough wouldn’t have ended too well. So many simply left them to it. Firstly, blame was aimed at a variety of places including the manager, before the players took the stick. Then when everyone had just about sobered up, the pundits on their high horses added a certain degree of rationale to the whole situation of capitulating 4-1 to our biggest rivals in the last 16 of a tournament we once won (apparently). Indeed many cottoned on to the idea that it was in fact the structuring of the game and the grassroots levels that were to blame. One thing struck though. It initially smacked of hypocrisy. Pe...