Chavski hosting Spurs, Sunday Aug 31st, 2008

Game is on Setanta at 8:30 am Eastern. Liverpool plays at 11 am so Penny Lane may be open for the game. I know a bartender there is a Chelsea Supporter from England and may be there. I'll call and check even though I will be out of town this weekend. Hopefully some of you can make it to the pub and watch the game. Hopefully better results though.

Penny Lane is closed for the Labour Day weekend.

Lee transfer to Dortmund

Courtesy of Official Site-

The Club can announce that we have reached agreement for the permanent transfer of Young-Pyo Lee to Borussia Dortmund.

The South Korean international full-back played 93 times for us following his move from PSV Eindhoven in August 2005.

We wish Young-Pyo well for the future.

Linked here.

Recent Loan Activity

Courtesy of Official Site-

Leigh Mills' loan spell at Gillingham has been extended until January.

The young defender initially joined the League Two side for a month and made his debut against Luton Town on August 16.

Linked here.

Charlie Daniels has joined League Two side Gillingham on a one-month loan deal.

The left-sided defender/midfielder, now 21, enjoyed a successful season-long loan spell at Leyton Orient in 2007-08.

In doing so, he built on his previous loan experience at Chesterfield with 37 appearances in all competitions for the Os, scoring twice.

Linked here.

The Club can announce that we have reached agreement for the loan of Tomas Pekhart to Championship side Southampton until January.

The young striker, 19, was top scorer for our reserves last season.

Tomas joined us from Slavia Prague during the summer of 2006 and is now a regular in the Czech Republic Under-21 squad.

Linked here.

Spurs 1 - Sunderland 2

Courtesy of Official Site-

Juande Ramos was left to rue missed opportunities as Sunderland snatched a 2-1 victory at the Lane on Saturday.

The visitors took the lead 10 minutes into the second half via Kieran Richardson's rocket but the tide turned in our favour after that and it was no surprise when JJ slotted home after Luka Modric's shot was parried by Craig Gordon.

A host of chances came and went both before and after that goal - Gordon saved twice from David Bentley and once from Darren Bent, Gareth Bale headed over and Jonathan Woodgate and Modric somehow combined to miss from six yards - so it came as quite a shock when substitute Djibril Cisse nodded home the winner for the Black Cats with eight minutes left.

"We knew it would be difficult," Juande told us exclusively afterwards. "We tried to play the best football we could to get the victory but unfortunately it was Sunderland who scored the second goal.

"At 1-1, I thought we would win. We had a good spell and created some clear goalscoring chances but it wasn't to be on this occasion."

Meanwhile, Juande insisted that defeat was not down to Dimitar Berbatov's omission from the squad. "It's not about individuals," he stated. "The blame is with the team and we accept that blame together. He wasn't in the squad because he wasn't in the right condition to play."

Linked here.

Gardner Loan made Permanent

Courtesy of Official Site-

The Club can announce that Anthony Gardner has today completed a permanent transfer to Hull City.

The defender, who had initially moved to the KC Stadium on loan earlier this summer, joined us from Port Vale in January 2000 and made 144 appearances during his time at the Club scoring three goals.

We wish Anthony all the best.

Linked here.

Report: Boro 2 Spurs 1 8/16/08

Courtesy of Official Site-

Two second half goals saw to it that Middlesbrough claimed the points in our first Premier League outing of season 2008-09.

Once again it was not a happy away day on day one as David Wheater and former Spur Mido netted the goals that sent the home fans home happy. It was a Boro head that contributed our injury time consolation.

The sun was out to welcome in the new season in the north east on a humid afternoon in front of close to a full house at the Riverside Stadium. The Spurs thousands were grouped behind the goal defended by Heurelho Gomes in the first half - clearly the noisiest area of the stadium.

It was the team sporting white shirts that made the more enterprising beginning, with Luka Modric and Giovani dos Santos dipping their toes in Premier League waters for the first time, while David Bentley and Heurelho Gomes were also making competitive first starts.

The more cohesive football was coming from Spurs in the opening ten minutes or so before Boro asserted themselves a little and began to rouse their bumper opening day crowd, with Afonso Alves attempting to impose himself.

The nimble feet of Giovani were dancing to their own beat at the other end, the Mexican international - also of Brazilian stock - was probing for creative openings and twice early on provided Bentley with half-chances that were pinged wide.

There were gasps of disbelief from the Boro fans 18 minutes in when Tuncay cleverly lofted the ball over Benoit Assou-Ekotto and darted into the area before unselfishly squaring to the unmarked Alves in front of goal. The Riverside was ready to rock to their celebratory tune before Assou-Ekotto propelled himself in front of the Brazilian striker, doing enough to deflect over the bar.

There was a bigger scare just after the half hour point when a Stewart Downing corner was powerfully headed into the net by David Wheater. There was a bit of tugging between him and Michael Dawson, but it was hard to tell why referee Mr Atkinson ruled out the effort.

Downing and Alves combined moments later as Middlesbrough established themselves as the game's aggressors, the England man's low centre being fizzed just over by the tall striker.

The team needed a shot in the arm and no doubt a few wise words were imparted at the break, where there were no changes made on the day when the choice from seven substitutes was available to managers for the first time in the Premier League.

A swirling shot from Bentley tested Brad Jones via a deflection after the re-start, Aaron Lennon and Giovani persisted in trying to pick a way through Boro's defences before Alves sprinted away on the counter-attack and Assou-Ekotto rode to the rescue once again.

Jonathan Woodgate threw himself in the way of a Tuncay blast just after the hour, which proved the cue for changes and the entry of Dimitar Berbatov and Gareth Bale. Giovani and Lennon made way.

Berbatov made an impact straight away by playing Jenas through, but Jones advanced and blocked the captain's effort when a lead looked almost inevitable.

The balance of power in the game remained difficult to detect until Boro struck with 20 minutes left on the clock. A low centre from Downing was diverted onto goal by Alves, which bought out a superb reaction from Gomes, but the the ball flew up onto the bar and landed at the feet of Wheater, who joyfully slammed home.

Darren Bent flashed a shot narrowly wide as the response was mounted, before third sub Jamie O'Hara attempted to capitalise on hesitation between Wheater and the goalkeeper - hurting himself in the process.

Four minutes from time defeat was confirmed when Mido was on hand to re-direct a miscued shot from Didier Digard past Gomes to make it 2-0.

Robert Huth reduced the deficit via an own goal from Bentley's free-kick in stoppage time, but it was too late to affect the destination of the points.

Linked here.

On another note, while the result sucked. Many thanks to Dan and Laura for coming out on such short notice. Hopefully we can make larger group meetings for the games more frequent than in the past.

Squad Numbers

Courtesy of Official Site-

David Bentley will wear number five next season with Luka Modric taking 14 and 17 for Giovani dos Santos.

As expected, goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes is number one with latest signing and fellow keeper Cesar Sanchez taking 21.

Here is the list...

1 - Heurelho Gomes
2 - Alan Hutton
3 - Gareth Bale
4 - Didier Zokora
5 - David Bentley
6 - Tom Huddlestone
7 - Aaron Lennon
8 - Jermaine Jenas
9 - Dimitar Berbatov
10 - Darren Bent
11 - Gilberto
14 - Luka Modric
16 - Chris Gunter
17 - Giovani dos Santos
20 - Michael Dawson
21 - Cesar Sanchez
24 - Jamie O'Hara
26 - Ledley King
32 - Benoit Assou-Ekotto
39 - Jonathan Woodgate

Linked here.