90 minutes on the pitch!: Premiership : Saturday(23-08)

Premiership second round of games as played on 23rd August,2008.

The games taking place were :

Blackburn Rovers - Hull City
Liverpool - Middlesbrough
Newcastle United - Bolton Wanderers
Stoke City - Aston Villa
Spurs - Sunderland
West Brom - Everton
Fulham - Arsenal

All games were played simultaneously except for the London derby between Fulham and Arsenal which was a late kick off.

Blackburn Rovers 1 - 1 Hull City
(Roberts 38',Garcia 40')

Jason Roberts made most of his opportunity to start for Paul Ince's side.Rovers opened the proceedings in the 38th minute after Roberts beat the offside trap and made a cool finish to beat the keeper.
The lead however was short lived as Hull City equalized with a looping header from Garcia which was probably a header towards the centre of the goal but went over the Rovers keeper who couldn't do anything to stop it.

Liverpool 2 - 1 Middlesbrough
(Mido 70',Pogatetz(o.g.) 85',Gerrard 90+4')

The first half was as dull as you could expect from a game.Liverpool weren't slick and last week's lack luster performance wasn't getting any better.Middlesbrough were good in defence and kept Torres,Keane,Kuyt at bay.Benayoun looked lost in midfield for much of the game.
Scores however were changed for Middlesbrough as Egyptian international,Mido cancelled the dead lock with a long range strike in the 70th minute which Reina made a despairing dive to but wasn't successful.
In the 85th minute,what seemed like handball from an Alonso cross fell to Carragher who shot towards the goal which took a wicked deflection off of Pogatetz to land in the back of the net.Own goal to Pogatetz.
As the game was drawing to a close,a game which Middlesbrough would have been happy to get a point out of came the screamer from the captain,Steven Gerrard.4th minute of stoppage time and Middlesbrough's hopes were dashed.
What would otherwise have been a deserved three points or even one point for Middlesbrough came down to nothing.

Newcastle United 1 - 0 Bolton
(Owen 71')

Newcastle United won their first game of the season at St.James' Park with a 70th minute goal from Michael Owen who returned from injury to earn Kevin Keegan's side the first three points of the new campaign.
Result however could have been very different had Kevin Nolan converted the penalty earned by Gary Megson's side in the 59th minute.His penalty was saved by Shay given to keep Bolton without a goal.
In the 70th minute though,Geremi's cross was met by Michael Owen who headed in beyond the keeper who couldn't do anything about it as the defense was to blame.

Stoke City 3 - 2 Aston Villa
(Lawrence(pen) 31',Carew 63',Fuller 80',Laursen 84',Sidibe 90+4')

Stoke City won their first game in the top flight and what a dramatic end it was indeed!
Britanni stadium witnessed their side take the lead in the 31st minute after Lawrence converted the penalty from what looked to be 3fouls in the box.
John Carew brought Villa equal with a neat finish in the 63rd minute to make the scoreline 1-1.
Fuller then again put City ahead with a superb finish after a fabulous turn to make it 2-1 to Stoke.
Stoke were again made to pay within four minutes as Laursen finished from close range.
Villa's one point however was slashed off in as late as the 94th minute when Sidibe headed in from a throw in to earn Stoke their three points.

Spurs 1 - 2 Sunderland
(Richardson 55',Jenas 73', Cisse 83')

Spurs continued their woeful run in the Premiership after a loss last week against Middlesbrough.They lost to the Black Cats at White Hart Lane.Biggest news story here was the missing Spurs striker,Berbatov who wasn't part of the squad as he "wasn't focused enough" as per manager Juande Ramos.
Spurs dominated the possession in the first half and had many chances to boast of but the scoreline didn't change.
Sunderland were a changed team after half time which was shown in the 55th minute when Richardson had a long range powerful hit in the right hand corner.
Spurs equalised however in the 73rd minute after a scrappy affair in the box with Jenas being the goal scorer.
Sunderland however got the three points they deserved when Cisse headed in Daryl Murphy's cross to get the win.The defense was absolutely woeful to let the goal in from which was possibly Cisse's first touch.

WBA 1 - 2 Everton
(Osman 65', Yakubu 76', Bednar(pen) 89')

Leon Osman and Yakubu were on hand to earn Toffee's a hard fought three points.
Osman had a snap shot after good work from Arteta to get Everton the lead in the 65th minute.
Yakubu's header in the 76th minute made it 2-0 to Everton.
Bedner's goal in the 89th minute however proved to be immaterial after he scored from the penalty spot to make the scoreline read 1-2.

Fulham 1 - 0 Arsenal
(Hangeland 21')

Fulham beat their London rivals and title contenders Arsenal through a 21st minute goal from Hangeland after a cross from Jimmy Bullard.
Arsenal who missed the presence of Fabregas in midfield had very little chances of scoring and were up against a resilient Fulham defense.
This is the second win for Fulham against Arsenal in 43 years if the commentators are to be believed.