Saturday review

Started the day with Goalissimo and Soccer AM as usual (great piece from Chris Kamara at Middlesbrough's Riverside stadium, which unfortunately hasn't turned up on their website, but is well worth a viewing if you get a chance.

Then I watched the first half of Southampton vs Blackpool, which Blackpool won with a penalty right on the stroke of half-time. The first half was an entertaining affair, with both sides going close at either end. Can't comment on the second half, as we made a mercy dash to the allotment to get some vegetables for tonight's tea, and ended coming away with a marrow, cabbage and some apples donated by other allotmenteers, brucey bonus.

Off to Christie this afternoon, where we lost 2-1 to Dagenham and Redbridge. The performace was much better than against Rotherham, but poor keeping at a free kick and failure to clear the lines in the box let Dagenham score two early in the first half, and it was uphill from there. Credit to the management, who changed the central midfield by bringing in Steward Drummond and Garry Hunter, which made a massive difference, and later we threw three up front by bringing on Diarmuid O'Carroll, who scored seconds after coming on. Despite late pressure, we couldn't get an equaliser, but the last 20 minutes or so bode well if we can utilise what we've learnt today - improvements must be made in defence to stop giving goals away so cheaply though. Credit today to Tony Roberts, the Dagenham keeping, who is always a tremendous laugh, responding to the banter from the crowd and providing a bit of a laugh when otherwise we might have been in the doldrums.

In the Premier League, it seems like normality has resumed already - Hull's fairytale start was brought crashing to the ground with a 5-0 home humbling from Wigan, who finally get something out of a game after playing well against Chelsea and West Ham. Everton's failure to add to the team in the transfer window showed as they were handed a 3-0 spanking at Goodison to Portsmouth, who showed they can't keep getting worse. Stoke showed last weeks win against Villa was probably not the norm as they went down 2-1 to Middlesbrough; Bolton drew 0-0 with West Brom, and although I haven't seen any highlights, I'm willing to bet it wasn't pretty.

As I type this, Arsenal are 2-0 up against Newcastle and showing the potential to run riot. Fabregas is back and showing just what a difference he makes to their side. Newcastle look hopeless outclasses and a win against one of the "big four" looks as far away as ever.