BOXING- Price is Right & Freddie Wins on Debut

David Price retained his Lonsdale belt and Commonwealth Title at Aintree Racecourse, And in the process remained Unbeaten as Matt Skelton was Counted -out with a 2nd round Stoppage. Skelton couldn`t deal with the Power and boxing craft of the Liverpudlian in the 1 and bit rounds that happened.

1st round Skelton came straight at Price which as Price admitted afterwards Surprised him with the tactic, but Price weather it and had a few punches connect in succession and Matt Skelton raised his arms as if to use the Universial action "Didn`t hurt me at all".

2nd round Price then caught Skelton with a jab leading to the Crushing and bruising body shot which hurt him and tried to cover up, as he was on the ropes literally. Price finished him off with a flurry of punches and Skelton couldn`t carry on and took a knee and his Corner threw the towel in, which the ref didn`t see but  the referee counted him out as he knew he was trouble.

So with Skelton successful career coming a close, David Price career seems to be flourishing and looking the real deal at Heavyweight Division at the moment. He is lined up to fight a TOP Unknown American fighter in the U.S February time.  And should both fighter come through their fights, then that would lead to a possible fight against Bitter Rival and fellow Unbeaten fighter Tyson Fury in the Summer sometime.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile at the Manchester Arena, Freddie Flintoff made his Boxing debut against American Boxer Richard Dawson in a 4 ,2 min Rounds. A big crowd witnessed Flintoff win on points against the Oklahoma fighter, Flintoff boxing ability will hardly have the Klitschko brothers running scared.

As he spent most of the fight trying to find a big shot to send the America on the mat, He caught Dawson with some good jabs, and when he used the basic skills taught by Father & Son Trainers Shane and Barry Mcguigan. he looked abit compentant with the quick jabs before getting giddy and trying to hit him with a Knockout punch. His punches bordered on slapping more than proper punches thrown by Professional boxers.

He had the fans backing in the fight and Dawson wasn`t exactly a the most mobile of fighters. But he took his shots that was decent very well. 2nd round things didn`t go to script as when he came forward swinging away as he was off balance and moving back, Dawson caught him on Chin and Freddie hit the Canvas.

That seemed to possibly put an end to his 1st win, as he did look abit unsteady when the Standing 8 Count was given. He got through the round and was given instructions by his Corner to just use the Jab and be sensible. He came and still had rush of blood to the head though he did a great combo in the final round and at point he may have had in serious trouble if he better Boxing skills.

But the end of the 4th round came and so we went to the Judge Scorecard and had it 39-38 in favour to the ex-England Fast Bowler and has a record of 1-0-0!

DEL- Eisbaren die Mauler Adlers! ( Polar Bears maul the Eagles!)

EISBAREN BERLIN   5  -  2   Die Adler MANNHEIM 

pic: http://www.eisbaeren.de/

Wednesday evening saw a clash at the top of the German Elite League (DEL), As current league leaders Mannheim Eagles skated in the German Captial to take on 3rd placed Eisbaren Berlin at the O2 Arena,Berlin. And Eisbaren Berlin were hoping to avenge the 6-1 defeat in Mannheim in Week 2.


The 1st period ended  0-0 with both sides just feeling each other out to see what the other had. The 2nd period was a very bad tempered one, which started off well for the Home team as Darin Oliver scored the opener from a Wrap-around ,resulting from great play by the Berlin forward Julian Talbot as he skated from end to the other with some nifty Stick handling,but his effort was kept out by Mannheim Goaltender Dennis Endras. Olver had the awareness to pick the puck up along the boards and try the wraparound, Which Originally was whistled as no goal. But after going upstairs to the replay it was adjudged to have crossed the line and gave Eisbaren a 1-0 lead.



Eisbaren Berlin made it 2-0 when on the Powerplay following a penalty on James Sifers for BOARDING a great pass by T.J Mulock found Matt Foy at the back post to put it in and double the lead. Marcus Kink was given a MATCH Penalty for a leaping hit to the head on Thomas Supis, He left the ice in a bad way, and had all the Bears players wanting to get a few licks in on Kink.



Mannheim got on the scoreboard coming by the way of a Powerplay goal with Danny Briere sitting in the box for TRIPPING. Good vision by Matthais Plachta who picked the puck up behind the Eisbaren nets and found Craig McDonald skating in unchallenged right out in front of the Berlin goals and slotted it home for a 2-1 Berlin lead.



A couple mins later Mannheim were on the Penalty Kill with Denis Reul sitting for 2 mins for BOARDING, and Danny Briere made up for his penalty which gave Mannheim their PP goal, by scoring Berlin a POWERPLAY goal himself, a fast passing well worked Powerplay by the Polar Bears gave Briere plenty of time to control the puck and shoot it in for a 3-1 lead.

pic: http://www.eisbaeren.de/

Goal 4 came quickly in the 3rd period as Matt Foy got his 2nd of the game as he drove to the net an Eagles defensemen tripped him up using his stick as he was going down still had the awareness to get a shot off and score and take the Netminder with him too for a 4-1 Eisbaren Bear lead. Berlin extended their lead further when yet another POWERPLAY GOAL was scored this time by Jamie Arniel with a rocket of a Slapshot that beat Endras all ends up for 5-1 and Vincent Schlenker should have made it 6-1 when his 1 on 1 effort was saved by Endras.



Mannheim Eagles did pull a Consolation goal back from a Schlenker penalty, as they scored on a 4-on-3 POWERPLAY just to show they could score on the PP too. The Powerplay worked well as a pass to the back post for Cristoph Ullmann to put home made the score 5-2 in the last 2 mins.  So the top of the DEL looks abit closer

===================================================================                      
          Pld       PTS      
1. Adler Mannheim   23         44
2. Kolner  Haie            21         42
3. Eisbaren Berlin         22         39
4. Hamburg Freezers    22         37

England Thrash India to Level series!

PIC: bbc sports

England gave India an absolute Thrashing in Mumbai by 10 Wickets, In one of the Greatest performances seen by an England team in Sub Continent conditions for a long time. The Indians had won the Toss and chose to Bat and try to carry on where they left off in the 1st test, as they had outplayed England winning by 9 Wickets in Ahmedabad.

England had a great start getting Gambhir out for 1 with James Anderson trapping him LBW after facing just 2 balls. Virender Sehwag then came to the crease to partner Cheteshwar Pujara as he was going along very well. But then that started the Monty Panasar show, as he got the wicket of Sehwag for 30 by knocking his off stump out. Not long later he got the prized Wicket of Sachin Tendulkar with a Fantastic delivery

Next to fall victim to Monty Spin bowling was Kohli as he was caught by Compton for just 19 runs. 1 run was added to the indians total when Graeme Swan bowled Yujah Singh as India struggling at 119 for 4. Indian captain MS Dhoni put up a bit of resistant with a innings of 29 before the Spinner duo combined to take his wicket too. As Swann caught him off the bowling of Panasar.

Ravi Ashwin and Pujara were the best pairing putting on a 100 Partnership in 180 balls, As Indian went from  169-6 to 280 for 7 after Ashwin innings came to an end when Monty got him LBW for 68 . Harabjan Singh had a cameo scoring 21 with 4 fours and 1 Six in it before falling to Swann by LBW. Eventually England got the Big Wicket of Pujara as he got stumped by Prior trying smash a Swann delivery and he great innings came to an end for 135 runs.

Zaheer Khan came in and scored an entertaining knock of 11 before, becoming Swann 4th victim of the 1st Innings and Bowling the home side out for 327 ALL OUT. As Monty had figures of 5-129, and Graeme Swann figures 4 -70.

England then had there turn to bat as all eyes on where on the batsmen, as their poor display in the 1st innings back in the opening test match brought them into scrutiny. So a good performance was needed much like their 2nd innings was. Cook and Compton started well reaching 66 before Compton was caught in the slips off the bowling of Ojha for 29 runs. Jonathan Trott came in to bat and faced 6 balls before being given Lbw for a Duck!

Kevin Pietersen came in with England in a semi collapse and him and Cook batted out day 2 and put on a partnership of 200 between them. India toiled as the batsmens pushed the score on, eventually Cook innings of 122 came to an end, it was his 4th test hundred in 4 matches and most got the record of Most Hundreds by an England Batsman with his 22nd in relatively short career. Ashwin was the bowler to get his wicket caught by Dhoni behind.
Bairstow poor form continued with the bat as he nervously played at one and got caught at Silly point by Gambhir off the bowling of Ojha. Pietersen on the other hand was looking in great nick as he slogged a Six to bring up his 150. Patel runs helped England get past the Indian score and a creditable score of 26 with Four 4s and a six was a nice little innings by him. His dismissal was off Ohja once again & squirm out to gully to with Kohli took the catch to make it 357-5.


Pietersen then tried to cut a delivery off Ojha but unluckily  for him went straight into the gloves of Dhoni and gave Ojha his 5 Wicket of the Tourists innings, plus England had now a lead of 55 runs.
The final 4 Wickets of England went for just 8 runs. Prior gave his wicket away after blocking a shot, he thought a run was on that never was and was run out by a few inches. Stuart Broad tour of India was getting worse as he was out for 6. Harbhajan Singh took his 2nd wicket in the his next over getting James Anderson out Lbw as it flicked the pad thought may have been going over.

Monty then came in 11 and his first ball face sweeped over the field for a brilliant 4 i think he was still giddy over his four as next ball tried the same beat the fielders near him, but not Zaheer Khan as he caught him to bring an end to the Tourists innings as they reached 413 and take a lead of 86.




India had hoped to set a difficult run chase for England, and make their Bowlers,Sweat and toil in the field  with the blisteringly hot weather in Mumbai. However things didn`t go to plan as Sehwag was was first to depart to the changing rooms for just 9, as Monty started the demolition job on the India side. A great delivery by Panasar turning it off the pitch and the ball bing diverted to the safe hands of fellow Spinner Graeme Swann with a low catch.
Pujara who was a thorn in the England side in the 1st innings was out cheaply for 6 as Bairstow took a great diving catch off the bowling of Swann to give England 2 early wickets. "The Little Master" Sachin Tendulkar came in to produce hopefully for the Indian crowd a innings to help India, But Monty would have none of it and for the 2nd time in the match got him LBW with another great delivery.


Kohli was next to go when a mistimed shot of Swann bowling found the SUB fielder Root in the field and straight to him for a measly 7. Yuvraj Singh then was caught at Silly point by Bairstow with Monty getting his 3rd Wicket of the Indians 2nd innings, but there was more to come from Monty.
Dhoni fell to the Masterclass Panasar was producing at Spin bowling as his shot carried to Trott in the slips & India were in Massive trouble with the scorecard reading 92-6!
Ashwin and Gambhir started a mini revival, As Ashwin put on 11 runs scoring the only 6 in the Indians innings. But he too was out to Panasar as skied his shot high high in the air and Sami Patel got under it and caught it. England were in dreamland now, Gambhir was the only batsman to come out with any credit as he carried taking the attack to the bowlers. Swann got on in the action as his delivery spun quicker and had extra bounce to deflect off the glove of Harbhajan Singh and easily to Trott in the slips for another catch making it 8 down for India.


Panasar completed his Wicket haul with 6 as he got Khan out when he tried to hit it out the ground but hopeless smashed it up in the air and Prior kept his eye on the ball and caught it for 9 down and England were on the verge of a great Victory in the Sub-Continent. England thought they`d wrapped up the game when an Inside edge off Ohja bat and pad found it`s way to Swann, but Umpire Aleem Dar wasn`t interested..but it was just delaying the inevitable. Swann then got the Indians Final wicket as his ball hit Gambhir in line..but seemed like he had nick on it first. But as India don`t like DRS they couldn`t review the wicket and so INDIA Collapsed to 142 ALL OUT.



England openers came out to knock the 57 off they needed for victory, And they comfortably got them inside in just over half an hour and needed just 9.4 overs to get the job done. As the winning runs came from a ball that Compton missed at and ran off to the boundary for 4 giving them a Great victory in Mumbai and Level the series at 1-1 with 3 to go with the next Test being played in Kolatta. Though England may change a couple of players for that Test.

Phoenix fail to rope in Bison!

 

Manchester Phoenix 3 - 4 Basingstoke Bison

It was a controversial ending in the TOP of the table clash at the Silver Blades ice rink Sunday night, as a Wash-out goal was the talking point come full hooter went.

Manchester were coming into the game on the back of a defeat down at the Link Centre saturday night in Swindon going down 4-2 in a return of the previous weekend match against Swindon Wildcats.

The Bison however carried on there run beating the Bracknell Bees 5-2 at the Basingstoke ice rink.

Phoenix really needed to win the game not only to go level on points with their rivals but also if it came down to Head to Head, as the Bison were currently 2-0 up in games with Phoenix. Bison took an early lead at 1-22 when recent new signing Jaroslav Cesky combined with Greg Chambers to put Greg Owen through on a 1 on 1 and put it high in Fone net for a great start for the Current league leaders.

Phoenix had the Majority of possession but couldn`t find a way past Stevie Lyle in Bison goals, shots rained down on him and he was always equal to the task. Best chance for Phoenix fell to Duggan have a Bison Defensive error lead Duggan 1 on 1 with Lyle but was turned away by the ex- Great Britain Netminder.

The home side struck the bar and and base of the post and couldn`t create a decent shot.

Then at 16:53 Totally against the run of play Bison broke on a breakway and was a complete replay of the first goal, Cesky and Chambers put Owen through yet again 1 on 1 & yet again scored in the same part of the goal and send the Bison fans overjoyed with their lead as the Period ended.

END OF 1ST PERIOD  Phoenix 0 - 2 Bison

Second period was much like the 1st period, All Phoenix with the possession and trouble was they couldn`t turn it in a goal. As the well drilled Bison team coached by ex-Sheffield Steeler and Slough Jet player-coach Doug Sheppard, he has driven into his side discipline and work ethic that has worked wonders for the Basingstoke outfit and the Road game they were playing was working fantastically well and even he couldn`t believe how well it was getting when another Bison attack ghosted past a non- existent Phoenix defense, 

As Tony Redmond  passed to player coach who waited and waited for Cesky to skate back post and slid back post onto the tape stick on the ice as Jaroslav Cesky made it 3-0 at the 30 mins mark. 

Phoenix looked down and out Bison looked to be cruising at 3 up, Then finally the home side made the breakthrough as Rob Schnabel and Michel Psurny set up Flaten who fired a shot low and hard past Lyle at 36-51.

Phoenix carried on the pressure and looked to get another goal heading towards the end of the period. But still shots didn`t carry any really substance. 

END OF 2ND PERIOD  Phoenix  1 -  3 Bison

3rd period started with both sides attacking more and Manchester hoping if they could get another quick goal then it would unsettle the Bison side. End to end the game became and a bouncing puck where the Bison D lost it, it feel to Michel Psurny and scored to make a 1 goal game and had the fans believing in a unlikely comeback at 50-28. 

Phoenix fans had hardly had chance to sit down before Joe Rand jumped on a loose puck and skated unopposed to deke Fone and slide it in to regain the 2 goal cushion for the Bison at 50-43.

Time ticked down and at 54-26 after good recycling down in the Bison end Hand waited and looked for a pass and found James Archer skated towards goal as he tipped it past Lyle for 3-4 with nearly 5 and bit mins left. Then came the Controversy, Phoenix pressured looking searching for the elusive tying goal. The Phoenix thought they had tied the game with 3:54 left in the game when Flaten effort went in the goals. But referee Miller decided the goal could not stand due to the net off of the moorings. And Lyle was accused of knocking the nets off when a Phoenix player skated round the nets to try and get a good shot off. 

Phoenix fans were in no doubt of what they thought happended as "cheat, cheat cheat" chants was aimed towards Stevie Lyle in nets as he skated to the bench and back again. Play resumed to booing and did so for a few mins as the Home fans felt a injustice had befell their side.

Phoenix had a couple more chances and with 1 min left, A Time out was taken by Manchester Coach Tony Hand, And from the face-off Phoenix battled to gain control of the puck and pull Fone for the Extra Skater. Bison was all hands to the pump and Phoenix tried to find a man to score the goal, but a bad pass by Hand sent the puck over the blue line and with 10 seconds left gave the Visitors the 2 pts and extend the lead at the top of the table to 4pts and Look at this point in the season to be Champions elect already and were not even Halfway through the season yet!

Final hooter went to a chorus of Boos from the Phoenix fans at the decision to not allow the goal to stand and also vent their anger at Lyle as he skated to collect his stuff from the nets and on the way round to applaud the players Boos rang as he skated round leaving many of the Bison players why they were booing so much at them. 

Phoenix will try to put their first Pointless weekend to back of their minds as they travel to Basingstoke next Saturday and try to gain Revenge!

FINAL SCORE:  MANCHESTER PHOENIX   3  -  4  BASINGSTOKE BISON

More from other Phoenix based:

http://manchesterphoenix.podbean.com/2012/11/26/by-hook-or-by-crook/

http://theangrybudgie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/phoenix-v-basingstoke-bison-25th.html

Hatton Comeback "BODY BLOW" !

PIC: bbc sports

RICKY "THE HITMAN" HATTON  v Vyacheslav Senchenko @ Manchester Arena

Saturday night saw the Return of Manchester Favourite Son Ricky Hatton up against Ukrainian Vyacheslav Senchenko in his come back fight at the Manchester Arena. The Ukrainian had a impressive record of 31w 0 D and 1 Lost.  That Lost coming in his last fight 6 months ago to the Magic Man Paulie Malignaggi in his home country.

The Sold out Manchester Arena was rocking with chants of "There`s only one Ricky Hatton" ringing around the arena all evening. Senchenko came out to his ringwalk to boos from a Pro-Hatton crowd and just to the fans even more he had under his Robe a Manchester United shirt! 

Hatton came out to a Raucous reaction from the 20,000+  fans as Blue moon was belted out.

As the referee gave the instructions both looked focused at the stare down and returned to their respective corners for last second advice. The early rounds Hatton shaded it with being more of the offensive Boxer of the two. 

Senchenko used his extra reach advantage to good use with stinging jabs which Hatton got caught with a fair few times in the fight as the Ukrainan fighter got into it from the 3rd round and as the fight went on so did the fighter from Donetsk. Hatton showed glimpses of the old Hatton magic with a couple of combos and hurt him a few times to which he gave a smile and waved him in.

As the fight reach round 6 the fight was getting away more from Hatton as he wasn`t doing the basic things and his opponent was catching him easily and the support from the fans was changing from Super energized to flat. Little bursts of "One Ricky Hatton" and "walking in a Hatton Wonderland" was sung more in hope to sting him into action as he was losing his way in the fight. As Hatton was again showing his difficulty in the Welterweight division much as he did when he was in him prime. 

Hatton was still coming forward, buy lacked his power punching he always had and never really troubled Senchenko, As the 9th round came Hatton may have arguably been ahead on points, but ONLY JUST. So when he was trying to find an opening Senchenko landed with the jab a couple of times and then landed his own crushing right body shot to the lower rib cage of Hatton who took it full on and had no choice but to take a knee and as he tried to stand up as the count got to 7 he realised he wasn`t going to be to carry on and let the ref Count to up to 10 and call for the end of the fight and Stun the whole arena into Silence.

After the fight there was little scare with Hatton as the paramedics came in as the punch to the ribs really did hurt the Manchester fighter. And as the Ukrainian celebrated the Fans sung songs towards their fallen hero and the fight shown as much heart and guts he had, he just looked outclassed by the Master .

After the fight he said in the interview 

 "I needed one more fight to see if I had still got it - and I haven't," he said. "I couldn't have done any better.

"A fighter knows and I know it isn't there any more. I have got to be a man and say it is the end of Ricky Hatton."

He didn`t disgrace himself in the fight and can hold his head up high and now Concentrate onto promoting the Young up and coming fighters he has. As one door closes shut for the ex World champion another opens in promoting and training his fighters.

Manchester City 1-1 Real Madrid - City Knocked out

MANCHESTER CITY FC  V  REAL MADRID CF  @ Etihad Stadium 

Wednesday Night saw One of the Biggest names in European football makes it`s first ever trip to the Etihad stadium, As the Most Successful team in European Club football History, Champions of Spain Real Madrid CF playing the English Champions Manchester City. 

Yet again if the Manchester Team had any hopes at all of Qualifying for the next they needed to play a great game and beat the Spanish Giants and not let them in the game. Of course City being City the first 20 mins was all Madrid pressure and was run by some Portuguese player called Ronaldo!  He was given the usual treatment given out ex-United player, but more so than ever that night. He was beating the City players all ends up using him normal trickery and slick passing and cutting them shreds. 

And for so long City had repelled all Madrid pressure, Then in the 10th a cross by Di Maria played to the back post over the City Defenders and Karim Benzema ran onto fire it past Hart in goals for 1-0 lead, as Maicon stood there as if he someone forgot to control him like on Fifa game!

City then had their first attempt on goal from Argentine Sergio Aguero as his shot was saved from Iker Casillas in Madrid goals. But Madrid for all the possession couldn`t get the 2nd goal as Khedira had a couple of chances to score but couldn`t find the target. Then a ball that was quickly pounced on by Ronaldo as he broke away from the City defenders, he brought Joe Hart out of goal and flicked it past him towards goals as luckily Nastastic cleared the slow bouncing ball off the line much to the Frustration of Ronaldo and every City fan. City changed formation YET AGAIN, By going from the Controversial 3-5-2 that has led to many problems and comments by plenty of people, And revert to the normal 4-2-3-1 formation they used last season when they landed the League Championship.

At Half time City escaped being 1-0 down as the scoreline could easily have been 6 or 7! 

HALF TIME : Manchester City  0- 1 REAL Madrid

Second half started with a substitution with Alesander Kolarov being replaced by Javi Garcia as City came out and played the best they had in the Champions League since losing to Madrid at the Bernebau in September. 

If the First half was about Ronaldo then the second half for me was about City Star and Spanish International David Silva as he ran the midfield as he brought City into the game more and had ex-Barcelona player Yaya Toure to help out. City were more threatening but equally wobbly at the back too as a couple of times Madrid got passed City far too easily. 

With City trying to speed up play abit with quicker attacks it was always being held for some of the most Embarrassing theatricals i`ve ever seen. I thought Tottenham a  few weeks ago were extremely bad when they went to ground so easily, But European side and especially Spanish teams they when down as if they had been Hypnotised when they ran towards a blue shirt. Was extremely annoying and disgraceful, as a few City player were charged hard in the back and the kicked lumps out off by ex- Liverpool players Alonso and Arbeloa. 

The Italian official was terribly poor for both sides, as a couple of fouls on Ronaldo when unpunished, a fair hard tackle by Zabeleta on his Argentina team mate Di Maria, when he slid and won the ball clearly. Had Card happy ref brandishing yellow cards Left right and centre. I think i counted about 10 Yellow Cards between the side as it was far far away from a Dirty game at all.

City fans felt the Ref was against them 90% of the time, and when a yellow for no reason was given to a City player. A Madrid Blantantly dives in the area and Ref gave nothing to which Aguero asked why he wasn`t given a card for diving as it was either a Penalty or a booking! Aguero thought he`d mad it 1-1 when at the back post shot it goalwards but was kept out with the ribs of Casillas and cleared away.

City was then handed a lifeline as Arbeloa was given a 2nd Yellow for tangling with Aguero in the Penalty area and awarded a Penalty to the Home side. To which the Argentinian striker stepped up and side footed it to the keepers left and equalised for 1-1 and made the 17 mins interesting. 

Kompany looked to be fouled but decision went other way and picked up a worrying injury ahead of Chelsea on Sunday. He came back on limping and City pressed for the Winner as Silva was pulling Madrid apart with his play, a change was made with Tevez on for Sergio. It baffled many as he was the most threatening striker between him and Dzeko to score! 

Game went end to end and the board was Held up for 5 min, as all the Time wasting by Madrid must have been added on. Mourinho applauded sarcastically for the amount given and was given a rendition of "That Coat from Matalan"

Into Injury time a pass to Yaya Toure who proceeded to launch it into space and probably go when the Space jump happened not long ago

Whistle blew for Full time and City were Knocked out and Madrid qualified

FULL TIME: Manchester City 1 - 1 Real Madrid

Manchester Phoenix 5 - 4 Swindon Wildcats (After Overtime)

Sunday Night saw the 2nd placed, Manchester Phoenix entertain the depleted Swindon Wildcats at the Altrincham ice dome. The Wiltshire outfit were missing their complete 2nd line with Lee Richardson, Jamie Haynes, Thomas Murdy, Nicky Watt and Import forward Matias Perkkio not icing and had player coach Ryan Aldridge dressed for his 1st start of the season.

Phoenix were at Full strength and welcomed back Player Coach Tony Hand Fresh from his Fantastic efforts in Japan after he coached the Great Britain side to the next Qualifying round for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia. And as the teams took to the blue line for the National Anthem, he had a tremendous ovation from the whole crowd as they applauded his achievement.

The Phoenix were coming into this game after a great 4-1 win down in Milton Keynes Saturday evening, so with that victory confidence was flowing through the team and the it showed as they came out on fire,With Flaten going close under a min and then good play by Psurny and Flaten layed it on for Pozivil who continued his Scoring exploits with a wristshot past Skinns in the net and gave a Jaromir Jagr Salute to celebrate and make it 1-0 at 1:47.

Swindon were all at sea and Phoenix punished them as Archer jumped on a loose puck, feed it Hand who steamed in put it on the stick of Psurny and used some nifty stick handling to have the Skinns in nets hypnotised and he put it high in the net for a 2-0 lead at 3:50 in the 1st. Swindon had no game plan it seemed as players were clueless on roles or what to do as Phoenix were running ring around them and Skinns was very Vulnerable in between the pipes as Phoenix were in search of another goal.

And at 11:10 gone Phoenix pressure produced another goal as work from Bentham and McKinney found Ciaran Long who hit hard and high in Swindon net for a 3-0 lead. Phoenix well and truly dominated play in the 1st period on both sides of the game ,Fantastic defensive work with the forwards back checking and the D Staying strong. Making it difficult for the Wildcats to get a foot in the game at all and as the 1st period ended a 3-0 lead you would have thought would have sewn the game up.

End of 1st Period :PHOENIX  3 - 0 WILDCATS

2nd period started where Phoenix left the 1st as at 23:36 Duggan latched onto a pass from Hand on the right wing and buried it with alow strike between Skinns legs it looked like. But then Swindon turned up and Phoenix WELL AND TRULY took their foot of the gas. Phoenix looked like they seemed to be play out the 2nd period as there was no urgency from the home side and Swindon started to play abit more like a unit and the Hitting game got going as the period went on.

And the Wildcats "Clawed" their way back into after chaos infront of Steve Fone in the Phoenix nets a mad scramble sticks prodding and slashing bodies piling in when Nell had the sense to knock it to Baird his slapshot from the blueline was pushed blocked and fell to Michal Kapicka unopposed to roof it past Fone to get them on the scoreboard at 31:58.

A penalty called by Referee Steve Wardell on Michal Psurny for Tripping sent Swindon the Powerplay and on the result Powerplay Swindon scored after Fone failed to stop the puck slowly Trickle in after he made a save from Jones shot after Kapicka and Nell assisted on the 2 Wildcats Goal timed at 37:20. Swindon had their tails up and after "Mr Reliable" normally Luke Boothroyd made Defense error passing it straight to Kapicka who Rifled it past Fone for a 4-3 scoreline at 38:29 and was very well deserved as Phoenix had just completely lost Concentration for the 2nd period on a whole.

End  of 2nd period: Phoenix 4- 3 Wildcats

3rd period Phoenix seemed to gain some composure as they tried to get an Insurance goal and have a 2 goal cushion back. But they just couldn`t find Twine and the game became end to end with both sides having chances. With time winding down Swindon much to their traveling fans delight tied the game unbelivably, as at 51:07 Melichar and Hoog combined to find that man again Kapicka and he found the net for 4 - 4!
So with the final seconds of the 3rd both teams decided to settle to fight the extra point, except a misjudged line change by Manchester with 11 seconds left for "Too Many Men" left Hand venting his anger by going ballistic smashing his stick on the bench and red faced than normal. So for the first 2 mins nearly Swindon were on the POWERPLAY.

End of 3rd Period:   Phoenix 4- 4 Wildcats

Overtime started with Swindon on the Powerplay and they couldn`t make the 4-on-3 man advantage count and Phoenix killed the Pen off. And with it seemingly looking like it may go to pens, Psurny pressured the Wildcats player on the boards, Hand skated across dug it out and with "Sniper" Luke Boothroyd skating into  space from the bench Hand fed him the puck and he coolly Slotted it home and make up for his error earlier in the game for the Overtime Game winner, To send the Home fans delirious and the Phoenix side breathing a huge sigh of relief after knowing they got away with it tonight.

But they know next week they won`t be able to play like tonight ,as they face Swindon again down at the Link Centre and then onto the Top of the table clash at the Ice dome next sunday with Basingstoke as a win is vital, as they have lost the 2 previous games to the Bison and know they need to start winning against them if it came down to Head to Head come end of season.

MAN OF THE MATCH:

Swindon: Michal Kapicka  & Manchester:  James Archer

Carl Froch dismantles American

Saturday night saw Carl Froch defend his IBF Super Middleweight title infront of his home town of Nottingham at the Capital FM Arena. The Pre fight comments made by Yusaf Mack would come back to bit him on the backside when he said to Froch " Your a fake Joe Calzaghe" Nothing like a showing a red flag to a bull ! 

So the fight started with Froch jabbing and take him apart and put him down in the 1st Round with a good hook and took full control. He also had him down nearly again in the last 10 seconds of the 2nd round as the Yank survived the barrage of punches thrown by Froch. 3rd Round a great body punch by Froch floored Mack again, as he dodged the oncoming punches as he shot straight down, as the Body punches were too much for him to take and stayed down for the Count, and gave THE COBRA a great win and probably now will face Lucien Bute in a Rematch in Montreal for the title he won this year, when he out boxed and destroyed him.

Manchester City 5-0 Aston Villa

PIC: bbc sports

Saturday saw Manchester City move above their cross City rivals with a thrashing of Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium. City had the chance to move top of the table temporary till United game later that evening, And went about it with fantastic team play and had all the possession in the opening 20mins as it was 80-20 in favour of City. City just couldn`t make any headway as Villa frustrated them with their defending and City were struggling to get a real shot on target.

Maicon on the City right was a real threat with his runs down the touchline,his fizzing crosses across the Villa penalty area had Villa players finding it hard to deal with them and unfortunately couldn`t find a sky blue shirt either. But the home side nearly took the lead from Nasri corner whipped in, which Aguero looked to be having his shirt tugged back knocked it goalwards and Tevez tried to flick it in but just went over the bar.

City who pressed and pressed Villa nearly came unstuck, when Villa first meaningful bit of play in the game down the City left almost brought the first goal of the game. A cross fired in by Lowton in a dangerous area between Keeper and defender was nearly turned in by Captain Vincent Kompany and had Joe Hart to thank as he had to quickly move the opposite way he was going to stop it going in, And Kompany spreaded himself on the rebound to block income shot but much to City relief, The Linesman gave offside against Benteke.

City then had Hart to thank again as a downward header from Benteke was saved brilliantly by the England no1 and Villa clawed their way back into the game slightly. The home side began to show their frustation as Long shot were being fired by Tevez and Yaya Toure as City trying to walk the ball methods weren`t working. Another chance fell to them as a Maicon cross was flicked away by a Villa defender to the path of Sami Nasri and he attempted volley was scuffed and was saved easily by Brad Guzan in Villa goals.

Then Tevez picked up the ball in the area and tried to danced  his way from the defenders got a shot away towards the near post and was tipped round the post by Guzan. THEN finally the breakthrough before Half time,  another great corner by Nasri on the Villa right was headed by Kompany, miskicked by Tevez and eventually poked home by David Silva coming in and gave the City a deserved lead. They could have made it 2 shortly after as Silva latched onto a Tevez pass and his near post was stopped by Guzan.

HALF TIME:     CITY 1-0 VILLA

2ND HALF was much of the same City doing all the Attacking and the visitors finding it hard to contain the home side. Tevez nearly made it 2-0 when a pass by Silva and the defenders backing off gave him a chance to shot and wasn`t far away as it went past the post.

Then a Bizzare Penalty award for Handball oin the 54min as their didn`t seem to be a handball by Wiemann, (but apparently was for a handball at the near post on later viewing.)  Aguero stepped up to take the penalty and  he placed it to the dispairing dive of Guzan who guessed right, but had no chance. Villa then took of their best player off i thought, ex City player Stephen Ireland who did his all the running and defending for Villa. Villa for me completely lost their heads after the 2nd goal.

City then was awarded another penalty in the 64th mins, as Silva tried to cross the ball and Bannan the Villa defender slipped and the ball was knocked away with his arm, but not intentionally. Tevez then decided to take the Penalty and sent the keeper the wrong way for a 3-0 lead. Goal 4 came 2 mins later as Sergio Aguero scored at the near post with a deflected shot that beat the Villa keeper completely and man Men against Boys now. Aguero was substituted to a Standing ovation by the City fans and missed out on a Hat- trick.

 Then to cap off a miserable day at the Etihad Stadium for the Birmingham side City completed the rout with a 5th in the shape of Carlos Tevez getting his 2nd of the match. Tevez started the move and have the ball deflected off his shins the ball broke to Substitute Edin Dzeko who passed it Sami Nasri and his lovely rolled ball across the area was met Tevez at the back post to tap in .

Sinclair made an appearance and should have made it 6 when his shot was straight at Guzan and tipped over when he had 80% of the net to aim at. he had another chance soon after and managed to somehow put it over from 3 yards with a defender on him. The 6th goal just wouldn`t come for the Home team and was unlucky when a Kolarov delivery was whipped in and neither Tevez or Dzeko could get the final touch needed. But Whistle went for 5-0 win and onto Wednesday night when the City play Spanish Champions Real Madrid in the Champions League.

FULL TIME: Manchester City 5 - 0 Aston Villa

Manchester Giants 71-82 Leicester Riders

Friday night saw the League leaders Leicester Riders travel into the Wright Robinson Sports College for the SKY TV game against the Manchester Giants. Leicester were hoping to return to winning ways after losing their 1st game of the season against the Surrey Heat last weekend. While the Giants were trying to snap the losing streak of 6 that the Giants were on and was always going to be difficult against a very well drilled Basketball side in Leicester.


The start of the game started well for the Giants as they came out the blocks quick and was in the lead for the early part of the 1st Quarter, but after a timeout taken, things then changed from there. As Leicester took control as proceeded to punish the Giants on both ends of the Court as Leicester started to pull away and come end of 1st it was 16-20 to the Riders.


2nd quarter you could say was where the game really was arguably won as Leicester cut through the Giants "Matador" like Defense, as the Giants were hapless to stop the oncoming onslaught of the Leicester players. The lead ballooned to 16 as Leicester had a 32-16 lead early on in the 2nd Quarter, as the Giants with the inability to score when attack was hurting them more than the Defense side as Leicester cut Manchester to shreds. Leicester had a lot going their way even a shot that missed bounced off the top of the backboard and dropped in.


A timeout was taken by Giants Coach Jeff Jones and some stern words given and that brought a bit of an improvement by the Giants, But the amount of turnovers and lack of rebounds were killing the G-Me but did well cut the score to 31-42 to Leicester. As Leicester coach Paternostro Seething with his players as they had complete control and then last couple of mins left in Quarter, Manchester slowly mounted a comeback to make it 11 points down at half time. When they were pushing 20 point lead. So as team left to the locker room, the Leicester coach face was as red as the Leicester players uniform.



half time: MANCHESTER GIANTS  31-42 Leicester riders



3rd Quarter was much like the 2nd with Leicester obvious still ringing from their coach half time pep talk, they came out and put his words into action as the lead moved to 14pts and the Giants really struggling to find any baskets. But the game almost changed when Devan Bailey was introduced to the fray as he almost single handed guided a Giants revival. As a 16pt lead was cut down to 9pts with some play by him and from David Aliu who started to get hot throwing a 3pt and Bailey driving hard to the basket to bring the end of 3rd Quarter to 50-59 still to Leicester.


4th quarter Giants were still huffing and puffing at the Leicester door and at point the lead was down to 5 pts and the Giants had the momentum and Riders were stunned and struggling to score themselves now. Then with 2:07 left in the game the lead was down to 3pts and a Excellent recovery was well and truly on. Then Giants hit foul trouble with 2 players fouling out and a 3pointer by Taylor and gaining a foul too,lead to Leicester then going to the free throw line and get the extra point to make a 4point play. And so With time winding down the Giants ran out of steam and couldn`t keep up and condemned Manchester to a 7th Straight defeat but a very valiant effort. And gave the Giants and their fans hope that a Win is just around the corner.

Giants now travel to Crisis club Cheshire Jets Sunday and hopefully win their 1st Road game this season and snap the losing streak too!

GIANTS: Aliu 19; Gill 16; Bailey 13, 8 rebounds, 5 assists; J Jones 11; Eaves 6; Watts 4; Bernard 2.

Final Score: Manchester Giants 71- 82 Leicester Riders

TEAM GB ONE STEP CLOSER TO RUSSIA 2014

Well done on Great Britain beating Japan in their own backyard to see GB move closer to Olympic qualification!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/ice-hockey/20287200

BEFORE UNBIASED reports* Manchester City 2-1 Tottenham Hotspurs

Well the Visit of Tottenham Hotspur to the Etihad Stadium, Was one hell of a frustrating game indeed.
When you play Spurs you need abit of luck and your team to play to be up for it. Thats how the game started with CITY in complete control for the first 20 mins not creating many goal scoring chances at Spurs goal. But City being City especially this season, you know they`ll find a way to shoot themselves in the foot somehow and undo the good work.

And they did when a Free kick on the right side was crossed in and Caulker the Spurs defender headed unmarked towards Joe Hart in goals and the City Keeper made a rare error and it found it`s way in the net as it was a totally against the run of play.  City tried to get regroup and everytime they went forward they had found the Linesmen in the mood to flag them Offside all the time. Then from an attack the ball was in Spurs Penalty area and from our view Gallas caught it and knocked it away with his arm, with Aguero, Yaya Toure and a host of players in Blue shirt appeal along with 45,000 Mancunians screaming for "HANDBALL"

But the ref and lineman didn`t call it, then a few mins later a ball put through for Zabaleta to run on to was Taken out in the penalty area for a CLEAR CUT PEN but as before officials didn`t see anything wrong with it! City fans chanting " You don`t know what your doing!" as decision upon decision went for Spurs as they proceeded to fall to ground way way too easily! And to infuriate the crowd more, Adebayor making his first return to the Etihad stadium since his move FINALLY from us to Tottenham.Was a thorn in the side of the City players and especially fans with his constant going to ground to easily routine.

Now i`m no expert but i don`t see how a 5"11 player can out muscle a 6"4 player!? But a tackle by Pablo (zabaleta) could never bring a tall strong player down so easily. This lead to pablo losing it shouting down at Adebayor while he was on the ground. Then 1 min after Adebayor does some skill to keep the ball in the play from 2 city players. Caught Pablo coming behind him from the corner of his eye and he proceeded to do a dive that Tom Daley would be proud of. More renditions of  "The referees a W****r!" & "your worst than Clattenburg!!" Sung loudly by the City faithful.

More falling to ground from the North London diving squad and the hapless ref ONLY TOO happy to blow for fouls. Silva, Tevez, Toure get dirty challenges un punished by the ref & linesmen. Spurs nearly make it 2-0 when Huddlestone puts his shot wide of Harts post.

HALFTIME Came to a chorus of BOOS aimed the officials with CITY 0 SPURS 1.

2ND HALF was just like the 1st more bad decisions by the ref and linemen flagging offside everytime we seemed to get the ball to Tevez or Aguero. Spurs rarely threaten the City goals but did give the defenders a bit of work to do at times. Gareth Bale who was the man to watch as always from Spurs was non-existant all game.  CITY made their first change bringing Serbian Matija Nastasic OFF for for Maicon making his HOME DEBUT for though we signed him in September!! This brought the Spurs fans applauding the move as the last time he played against Tottenham was with Inter Milan when Bale ran rings around him.

So first 2 mins he seemed like a duff subsitution then he produced a great fizzing cross across goal with no one to add the finishing touch. and did some great crosses that sadly no one was tall enough to get on to. Then CITY pressure finally paid off when a Silva run knocked onto a Yaya run was and deflected into the path of Sergio Aguero and turned a defender, and from near the spot he won the Premier league title from last season, Cooly sidefooted it to the far post past the dispairing Brad Freidel in goals for 1-1.

This then lead to another change when the Bosnian Hitman EDIN DZEKO entered the fray at the cost of Carlos Tevez. Who alot of thought what was Mancini playing at. City were in control now with the Crowd right behind and not even a dodgy ref and officials could stop us now. Though Zabaleta played a pass to Barry and was elbowed in the nose by Adebayor, who acted like nothing happened. City fans were furious with it. Play carried on and eventually about 4 mins later Oliver decided to go back and book him as he laughed in disbelief that an elbow to someones face was a yellow card offence.

More pressure from City who just couldn`t find a way or create a good chance, a cross by Maicon was headed inches wide by Dzeko. And then..FINALLY Dzeko picks up the ball, runs at the Spurs Defence passes it to the returning David Silva,Who saw a pass no one else sees and chipped it over the top for Dzeko to get onto and Strike it past Freidel and hit the back of the net for a 2-1 City lead in 88th min.

Spurs now decided to speed up taking goal kicks as Freidel has spent 10-15 seconds on EVERY goal kick, now he was taking 3 seconds to kick. So when 5 mins of Injury time was held up, the ref was now giving order to Joe Hart to speed up and stop time wasting when Tottenham did it all game! The ref was really clueless incase you didn`t tell!

Finally after late surge of attack by the North London side for the 5 mins, ref blew to signal FULL TIME! and 3pts to Manchester City and to Stay Unbeaten in the league Still.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxZB1-nhSJ8   Middle eastern comm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUJcf4yh54g   English comm
  

MANCHESTER PHOENIX 7-5 PETERBORO PHANTOMS

Saturday 10th November 2012, Phoenix missing their Player coach Tony Hand who was away on International duty with the GB squad took on Peterborough and wanting to avenge the shootout lost a couple of weeks back down in Bretton.

It took 27 seconds into the game for Phoenix to strike first thanks some good board play by Andy Mckinney who was moved to to the 1st line in Hands absence, and Michel Psurny who slid it outfront and Flaten pushed it goalwards and went through the five-hole of King in Phantoms nets.

Phoenix dominated the early part of the period in peppering King with shots in a rather dull period to be fair. Phantoms slowly got into the game and after a Defensive error Ondrej Lauko scored a fantastic goals wristing it top corner pass Fone in goals for a 1-1 game and how it finished after 20mins.

2nd period Phoenix started off like the 1st scoring just after a min with a Rob Schnabel shot not being stopped by King and going in net for 2-1. A couple mins later Phoenix pressured the Phantoms again and when the puck came to Schanbel he had time to set himself and BLAST the puck with a Hard slapshot ringing of the pipework and extend lead to 2 for a 3-1 lead assisted by EX-Phantom Richard Bentham in the 23min.

Mckinneys play brought him a well worked goal which he shot to make it 4-1 at 35min with Joachim Flaten and Michel Psurny assisting on it.
At 38 mins it was that man again Andy McKinney scoring for 5-1 with Flaten assisting, Peterborough seems to have lost hope and the points staying in Manchester. So you`d be forgivening for thinking it may be another 9-1 win or may hit 10 on current play after the period ended..

Oh how wrong we were.. a TOO MANY MEN penalty called on Phoenix lead to the Phantom going on the Powerplay and James Ferrara scoring for 6-2 at 44mins.
A few mins later at 49mins Jeff Glowa scored at close range for 6-3 and lead to Phoenix calling a TIMEOUT to try and stop the momentum and talk things over.

Phoenix were still rattled a bit at this point and when Cieran Long attempt bounced off the underside of bar and just over the line you`d think that would kill any hopes Peterboro had..

Peterboro struck back shortly after with Sladok and James Ferrara assisting for Tom Norton to score to cut the deficit to 2 and get a another consolation goal.

Then came the Turning point, REF made a DODGY CALL on Long for “CLIPPING” when it was a perfect Hip Check. Leading Rob Schnabel and a few Phoenix players remonstrating to the official over the call .Phantoms went on PP again & and like before scored less than a min into it for a 6-5 Scoreline at 55:18 . And lead to Schnabel lose his cool and got a Misconduct from Pering who for the 3rd game in a row at home Kick one of our players out.

Schnabel got a 10+GAME for Abuse of Official and Phantoms took it to Phoenix then with 42 seconds left in the game. A Tom Duggan shot was saved by King but a loose puck not covered by netminder fell to James Archer and poked it home to FINALLY see off Peterboro, though a couple of theirs wasn`t happy with refs decision. Horn sounded for a 7-5 Win and one they can puff theirs cheeks at as one they nearly threw away again v Peterboro.

MOTM : PHANTOMS – 67# Ondrej Lauko, PHOENIX- 91# Andy McKinney

Phoenix sit 2nd but joint top with Basingstoke Bison who lead on Head 2 Head with phoenix. with them 2-0 in series.

TOMORROW Phoenix travel a couple of hours down to Shropshire for the Bottom placed Telford Tigers though Telford ALWAYS ALWAYS RAISS their game more for us than anyone it seems. And Bison play the 2nd of their Double header with Reigning League champs Guildford Flames @ The Spectrum in Guildford.

ABOUT ME!

WELCOME TO MY Absolute twaddle, rubbish, garbage nonsensical ramblings i like to call my Blog!

1st attempt at trying to do a blog like this so be gentle.

Right abit about me, i`ll start off with the bad side of me and try to get better. I`ve Suffered from Asthma from 16 & i also suffer from Depression too. It does make me down quite a lot. But i try to be open about it, as it`s not something to be ashamed off. As it`s just a part of my make-up and i`m just trying to get over it, though it`s a slow and depressing illness.
As when you think you`ve got over it, comes back to bite you on the backside. And you feel worse than before. AND TRUST ME you do.

I`m a mad Comedy fan, love to watch funny thinngs and have even written Jokes.. or i TRY to write them.

Very dry sense of humour at times, favourite shows include The Inbetweeners, Mock the week, Fresh Meat Not Going Out and Russell Howards Good News. Family Guy

Love Stand Comedy  Mixed variety of comedy i like. Dara O Briain, John Bishop, Jason Manford,Greg Davies, Russell Howard,Lee Mack, Tim Vine. Jeff Dunham. And older ones like Jasper Carrott, the late George Carlin, Billy Connolly, the great Tommy Cooper too.

Films wise can watch anything barring Horror films. just how i am. So the idea of watching a Horror film with a girl and when its scary she clings on me.. will never happen sorry to say.
Films i like watching The Hangover 1 &2, Lethal Weapon 1-4, Slapshot 1 &2, GOON, Four Lions ,Batman Series, Spiderman series.

I`ll admit i`m a part-time Wrestling fan, not as big as i was years ago, but i`m kind of drawn to it still, as i`ve got a CM PUNK shirt.



And my sporting creditenals, I`m a Mad Sports fan, i support the Manchester Giants Basketball team, Manchester City football club, Droylsden football club, Belle Vue Aces speedway team. And of course Manchester Phoenix Ice Hockey Club and years and years ago was a Religious follower of Manchester Storm ice hockey team too. I also support New York Rangers & Phoenix Coyotes in the big North American league the NHL ( National Hockey League). I`ve also got a soft spot for Finnish side TPS Turku as a Friend of mine from Finland supported them and istarted to followed them too. And my new New team i`ve adopted in the Hockey world, is EISBAREN BERLIN (Berlin polar bears)


Been to loads of different sporting events: Ranging from Cricket, rugby league, speedway, ice hockey, basketball,football. Would love to see the NHL & NFL live as well New Zealand All Blacks rugby live to ,just to say i`ve seen the HAKA in person as i love the tribal dance!

Any thing sports wise i`ll watch and communicate with, as i`m a member of the OFFICIAL Manchester Phoenix podcast Crew" http://www.phoenix-podcast.com/" Where we chat about all things Phoenix and you get now and then free Gardening tips too!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Sporting Acheievements are too the (1998 YEAR 7 Basketball player of the year) at my old school!
Five a side School Champion,