Championship: Doing the Double

The following list shows the number of times each club in the Championship won home and away against one of their rivals during the 2012/2013 Championship season. Every single one of the 24 clubs managed to achieve this feat against at least one of their opponents during the season.

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7

• Cardiff City: Millwall, Blackburn Rovers, Leeds United, Blackpool, Birmingham City, Wolves and Sheffield Wednesday.

6

• Hull City: Millwall, Derby County, Huddersfield Town, Ipswich Town, Leeds United and Birmingham City.

5

• Watford: Huddersfield Town, Leicester City, Birmingham City, Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest.

4

• Birmingham City: Bristol City, Peterborough United, Leeds United and Middlesbrough.
• Crystal Palace: Peterborough United, Derby County, Wolves and Charlton Athletic.
• Leicester City: Bristol City, Huddersfield Town, Burnley and Middlesbrough.
• Nottingham Forest: Peterborough United, Wolves, Sheffield Wednesday and Charlton Athletic.

3

• Burnley: Bristol City, Derby County and Wolves.
• Charlton Athletic: Bristol City, Blackpool and Leicester City.
• Huddersfield Town: Bristol City, Burnley and Wolves.
• Sheffield Wednesday: Millwall, Barnsley and Charlton Athletic.

2

• Barnsley: Millwall and Middlesbrough.
• Blackburn Rovers: Bristol City and Barnsley.
• Bolton Wanderers: Bristol City and Blackburn Rovers.
• Brighton & Hove Albion: Huddersfield Town and Burnley.
• Bristol City: Peterborough United and Middlesbrough.
• Derby County: Bristol City and Leeds United.
• Ipswich Town: Birmingham City and Bolton Wanderers.
• Millwall: Leicester City and Middlesbrough.
• Peterborough United: Barnsley and Cardiff City.
• Wolves: Bristol City and Birmingham City.

1

• Blackpool: Millwall.
• Leeds United: Bristol City.
• Middlesbrough: Blackburn Rovers.

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• No side did the double over promoted Hull City or play-off finalists Crystal Palace and Watford.
• Cardiff did the double over seven other sides but relegated Peterborough were the only side to do the double over the Dragons.
• Ten sides did the double against Bristol City which may explain why the club finished bottom.
• The three sides who did the double against only one other club finished in 13th (Leeds United), 15th (Blackpool) and 16th (Middlesbrough)

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Alliterative Footballers in the Premier League, Championship, League One and League Two

A list of footballers who have played in the Premier League, Championship, League One or League Two this season with their first name beginning with the same letter as their surname. Please let me know if you are aware of any others.

• Adebayo Akinfenwa (Northampton Town)
• Adebayo Azeez (Wycombe Wanderers & Leyton Orient)
• Ahmed Abdulla (Barnet)
• Akwasi Asante (Shrewsbury Town)
• Ali Al Habsi (Wigan Athletic)
• Almen Abdi (Watford)
• Andreas Arestidou (Morecambe)
• Andrey Arshavin (Arsenal)
• Antolín Alcáraz (Wigan Athletic)
• Barry Bannan (Aston Villa)
• Bartosz Bialkowski (Notts County)
• Billy Bodin (Torquay United)
• Brian Barry-Murphy (Rochdale)
• Chris Cohen (Nottingham Forest)
• Christopher Chantler (Carlisle United)
• Ciaran Clark (Aston Villa)
• Clarke Carlisle (York City & Northampton Town)
• Conor Clifford (Portsmouth & Crawley Town)
• Courtney Cameron (Rotherham United)
• Craig Cathcart (Blackpool)
• Craig Clay (Chesterfield)
• Craig Conway (Cardiff Dragons)
• Craig Curran (Rochdale)
• Cyrus Christie (Coventry Dragons)
• Damien Delaney (Crystal Palace & Ipswich Town)
• Danny Drinkwater (Leicester City)
• Darryl Duffy (Cheltenham Town)
• David Davis (Wolverhampton Wanderers)
• David De Gea (Manchester United)
• David Dunn (Blackburn Rovers)
• Diego De Girolamo (Sheffield United)
• Donervon Daniels (Tranmere Rovers)
• Dorian Dervite (Charlton Athletic)
• Ethan Ebanks-Landell (Bury)
• Frank Fielding (Derby County)
• Gábor Gyepes (Portsmouth)
• Gaël Givet (Blackburn Rovers)
• Gary Gardner (Aston Villa)
• Gianluca Gracco (Dagenham & Redbridge)
• Gordon Greer (Brighton & Hove Albion)
• Harry Hooman (Cheltenham Town)
• Heidar Helguson (Cardiff Dragons)
• Jake Jervis (Portsmouth, Tranmere Rovers, Carlisle United & Birmingham City)
• Jake Jones (Walsall)
• Jamie Jones (Leyton Orient)
• Jermaine Jenas (Nottingham Forest & Queens Park Rangers)
• Jermaine Johnson (Sheffield Wednesday)
• Joe Jacobson (Shrewsbury Town)
• Johnnie Jackson (Charlton Athletic)
• Jussi Jääskeläinen (West Ham United)
• Kei Kamara (Norwich City)
• Keith Keane (Preston North End)
• Leon Legge (Gillingham & Brentford)
• Leroy Lita (Sheffield Wednesday & Birmingham City)
• Marcus Marshall (Bury)
• Mark Molesley (Exeter City & Plymouth Argyle)
• Marko Marin (Chelsea)
• Marvin Morgan (Shrewsbury Town)
• Mathieu Manset (Carlisle United)
• Matt Mitchel-King (AFC Wimbledon)
• Matthew McClure (Wycombe Wanderers)
• Matthew Mills (Bolton Wanderers)
• Michael Morrison (Charlton Athletic)
• Modibo Maïga (West Ham United)
• Nyron Nosworthy (Watford)
• Olanrewaju Oyebanjo (York City)
• Osayamen Osawe (Accrington Stanley)
• Oulwasanmi Odelusi (Bolton Wanderers)
• Paul Parry (Shrewsbury Town)
• Pavel Pogrebnyak (Reading)
• Phil Picken (Bury)
• Richard Ravenhill (Bradford City)
• Robbie Rogers (Stevenage)
• Sam Saunders (Brentford)
• Sam Slocombe (Scunthorpe United)
• Sam Sodje (Portsmouth)
• Scott Shearer (Rotherham United)
• Scott Sinclair (Manchester City)
• Sean Scannell (Huddersfield Town)
• Sean St. Ledger (Leicester City & Millwall)
• Stéphane Sessègnon (Sunderland)
• Steve Sidwell (Fulham)
• Steve Simonsen (Preston North End)
• Steven Schumacher (Bury)

 

African Champions League Preliminary Round Review

Last week the Prelimiary Round of the CAF Champions League was completed. 23 sides from across Africa will now join the 9 seeds in the First Round proper that kicks off on the weekend of the 19th March.

It’s been a turbulent time in Africa for many of the North African teams involved in the competition. Zamalek’s match against Kenya’s Ulinzi  Stars was supposed to take place in Cairo, before the troubles began, it was then re-scheduled to be played in Libya (of all places). Mercifully for Zamalek the Egyptian government was toppled and the match eventually went ahead in Egypt with the Cairo giants winning the match one goal to nil in front of a jubilant crowd, having already secured a four goal victory in Kenya a two weeks previously

Zamalek's fans wave banners "We rule Egypt" and "Libya's people flag"

The biggest win of the Preliminary Round was in Morocco where Raja Casablanca defeated Tourbillon by a startling 10 goals to 1 in their first leg tie. In fact, the Chadian side were so upset with their first leg performance they decided to withdraw from the competition (despite being in possession of a vital away goal). It was an incredibly disappointing performance from Tourbillon who will have been well aware that fellow Chadians Gazelle FC made it through to the first round in last year’s competition.

Zanzibar Ocean View‘s CAF dreams came to an end after losing their return leg to AS Vita Club of DR Congo by three goals to nil. Ocean View were only founded a couple of years ago so can be proud of holding the DR Congo Champions to a 1-1 home draw before finally bowing out of the competition. One of the best known African clubs in the UK (due to the production of players such as Solomon Kalou, Eboue and the Toure brothers) are ASEC Mimosas, and they made easy work of their preliminary round tie winning it 9-0 on aggregate. Antoine N’Gossan (who is currently on loan from Charlton Athletic to the Ivorian side) scored ASEC’s second goal in their 2-0 second leg win over CF Cansado in Mauritania, which must have felt about as far from The Valley as is possible to get.

To prove that the World Cup 2010 lives on, Supersport of South Africa made the second round with a player by the name of Jabulani Maluleke (please insert your own joke about how the player moves here) scoring a goal in a 2-0 first leg victory over Lesotho’s Matlama. The South African side lost the second leg 2-1 in Lesotho which was just about enough to sneak them through into the first round.

Ghanaian sides continued their recent poor form in European competition as Aduana Stars went down 3-1 over two legs to Moroccan Botala Champions Wydad Casablanca. Despite their dominance of the African international scene Ghana can’t boast the same sort of quality in their domestic leagues, it’s been twenty years since a Ghanaian side made it to the semi-finals of this competition and you have to go back as far as 1983 to find a Ghanaian winner of the CAF Champions League. Another international heavyweight Cameroon could find themselves in the same position as Ghana at the end of Round One with no teams left in CAF’s premier club competition as their only remaining team Contonsport face the daunting challenge of current African champions TP Mazembe and look almost certain to crash out.

CAF Champions League Round 1

1. JC Abidjan (CIV) vs Ittihad (LBY)
2. US Bitam (GAB) vs Enyimba(NIG)
3. Dynamos (ZIM) vs MC Alger (ALG)
4. Al-Merreikh(SUD) vs Inter Luanda (ANG)
5. Diaraf (SEN)  vs  Djoliba (MAL)
6. Espérance ST (TUN) vs  ASPAC (BEN)
7. Motor Action (ZIM) vs  ASEC Mimosas (CIV)
8. Stade Malien (MAL) vs  Raja Casablanca (MAR)
9. Club Africain (TUN) vs Zamalek (EGY)
10. Al-Hilal (SUD) vs  Recreativo Caála (ANG)
11. TP Mazembe (DRC) vs K Simba (TAN)
12. Wydad Casablanca (MOR) vs Kano Pillars (NIG)
13. ES Sétif (TUN) vs ASFA Yennenga (BUR)
14. AS Vita Club (DRC) vs Cotonsport (CMR)
15. Al-Ahly (EGY)  vs Supersport United (SAF)
16. ZESCO United (ZAM) vs  Young Buffaloes (SWA)

Countries with two sides in Round 1: Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Sudan, Angola, Mali, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and DR Congo.

Countries with one side in Round 1: Libya, Gabon, Senegal, Benin, Tanzania, Burundi, Cameroon, South Africa, Zambia and Swaziland.