There’s a busy schedule of friendly games this weekend, although a number of Premiership sides have already kicked off their pre-season this week. Reading and Bolton played their first games in the Peace Cup in Korea, while Spurs and Blackburn were also in action. Here’s my round-up and notable team news from this week’s games…
On Tuesday night, Blackburn looked to sharpen up for their forthcoming Intertoto Cup campaign with a visit to Wrexham. Blackburn fielded what appeared to be a first choice eleven, with the possible exception of Derbyshire who was nursing a foot injury. They ran out 2-1 winners with Roberts and Savage the scorers. Savage was back in a Blackburn shirt having missed the majority of last season with a broken leg. Andre Ooijer also returned to the side having missed much of the season with a break. Blackburn also gave a debut to new signing Maceo Rigters but it was Jason Roberts who provided the chief threat, continuing where he left off last season, scoring a goal and winning the penalty with Savage converted.
Blackburn Lineup: Friedel, Ooijer (Khizanishvili 46), Warnock (Berner 62), Samba, Tugay (Mokoena 46), Nelsen (Henchoz 46), Savage (Dunn 46), McCarthy (Rigters 62), Bentley (Jeffers 86), Pedersen (Peter 72), Roberts (Gallagher 70).
Spurs followed up on a 3-1 win at Stevenage in which Darren Bent scored his first goal in their colours, with a 1-0 win again St Patricks Athletic in Dublin on Thursday. Robbie Keane netted the winner in a game which saw both Gareth Bale and Younes Kaboul made their debuts. Bale limped off with 10 minutes to go with a dead leg which isn’t expected to keep him out of the friendlies to come.
Tottenham lineup: Cerny, Rocha, Bale (Ifil 82), Kaboul, Gardner (Dawson 46), Taarabt (Maghoma 46), Murphy (O’Hara 57), Zokora, Malbranque, Bent (Barnard 69), Keane.
Over in Korea at the Peace Cup tournament Bolton were held to a 1-1 draw with Seongnam. Significantly, Sammy Lee looks as though he has his own, new ideas for Bolton this season as they lined up in an unfamiliar 4-4-2. Stelios and Davies were set to lead the front line in the absence of Anelka, although Stelios pulled out with a calf injury so Slovakian Zoltan Harsanyi made his debut for the Trotters. Elsewhere, skipper Nolan was employed on the left of midfield. Guthrie, on loan from Liverpool made his debut on the right while McCann occupied the centre of midfield with Speed. Gerald Cid also made his debut alongside Meite in the centre of defence, as did Samuel at right-back. Bolton’s lineup in future games will be worth watching for then. In this match, Nolan grabbed the goal, hinting at his possible potential to Fantasy Manager’s next season. Elsewhere, Ricardo Gardner appeared as sub only to be stretchered off with a hamstring. Both he and Stelios were undergoing scans to assess the damage today. Nicky Hunt meanwhile earned himself a red card after coming on for Samuel, a sending off which could earn him a 3-match ban if reported to the FA. However, Bolton have been reassured that previous dismissals in the tournament have not been reported back and bizarrely, they’ve bought their way out of his suspension for the remainder of the tournament by paying a $500 fine which is donated to youth football projects in Korea.
Bolton lineup: Jaaskelainen, Samuel (Gardner 45) (Michalik 69), Cid , Meite , Hunt, Nolan, Speed, McCann, Guthrie (Sinclair 45), Harsanyi (Campo 65), Davies.
Reading were also competing in the Peace Cup earlier this week and suffered a 1-0 defeate to River Plate yesterday. They fielded a strong side with 18-year old winger, John Halls and Hal Robson-Kanu the only new names in a familiar lineup. Kitson and Doyle occupied the frontline while Korean Seol Ki-Hyeon was missing from the lineup with Coppell commenting after the game that he was still rehabiltating from surgery. Seol could well appear in Reading’s next game in the tournament on Monday when Reading face Lyon.
Reading lineup: Federici, Halls (Cisse 74), Shorey, Ingimarsson (Duberry 60), Bikey, Harper, Gunnarsson, Oster (Hunt 64), Robson-Kanu (Henry 84), Doyle, Kitson.