Flying Kiwis – January 19
Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)
Interesting stuff from West Ham and manager Sam Allardyce, who left Winston Reid on the bench for the game against Hull City this week. Preparing for an imminent departure…?
Nah. He was just injured. Hence he didn’t play midweek in that ridiculous penalty shoot-out win over Everton in the FA Cup. But he’d trained a little since then so he was good enough for the bench. He had to be because James Collins came off injured soon after the second half started and so Winnie ended up playing 40 minutes anyway.
A good 40 minutes too. It had only just gone 1-0 when he went on, and was 3-0 by the finish as Hull couldn’t hold out. The first an Andy Carroll follow up tap in before Amalfatino and Downing added goals. Good win and one that keeps pace with results around them.
Also of immense note is Winston Reid’s new column for UK social media enterprise Fanbookz. It’s called ‘Reid All About It’ – dear lord… - and in his first instalment he addresses a few things regarding his murky transfer status.
Not much to go by with that, other than his seeming denial of any under the table deals. To be fair Sam Allardyce backtracked on those claims a bit since making them. This isn’t some tabloid graveyard for journalistic integrity so we don’t really care, so long as he does what he says and keeps playing well. Good on ya, Winnie.
Up Next: It’s FA Cup week next, and West Ham have a date with Bristol City, 3am next Sunday (NZT)
Chris Wood – Leicester City (English Premier League)
With Andrej Kramaric’s signing confirmed and his work permit granted, Chris Wood is basically dead wood at Leicester (no pun intended - seriously, this didn't get noticed 'til editing).
Newspaper reports are that (having just spent big, making Kramaric their highest ever transfer fee) LCFC have slapped a £5m price sticker on his forehead. Several Championship teams will be interested, Wolves, Ipswich and Leeds have all been specifically mentioned, but that’s a big fee for most Champo clubs. Which means a loan deal might be more enticing.
That’ll probably all ramp up this week. In the meantime Woody’s had to content himself with playing for the under 21s. He scored a screamer for them though, a lovely long range chip for the only goal in a 1-0 win over Everton U21s.
He also copped a little from his teammates for what was perceived as a bit of an excessive celebration.
The Leicester City first team fell 1-0 at home to Stoke. Kramaric made his debut off the bench but it was Stoke’s big offseason signing, Bojan Krkic, that scored the only goal. Chris Wood did a little media work for that one.
Up Next: Manchester United at Old Trafford. 4am Sunday. I mean, they beat them once, right? (NZT)
Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (English Championship)
Remember how Ipswich lost last week and dropped out of automatic promotion? (As if we can even bother worrying about that at this stage of the season). Well, forget it, they hit right back this week.
Ipswich went to Millwall – one of the most notorious away days in English football – and came back with a 3-1 win. After Derby fell 2-1 at home against Nottingham Forest. Millwall have been struggling of late and Noel Hunt scored twice in the first 15 minutes to get Town off to a superb start. The hosts pulled one back but with 13 minutes to play Jonathan Parr made sure of the points. Millwall never really looked like much and Tommy Smith had little to do.
It was a comfortable result and a return to winning ways after the loss last week, as well as the midweek FA Cup exit to Southampton. They held in there for the distance but were never able to counter Shane Long’s 19th minute goal, eventually falling 1-0. In fairness, Southampton should have scored more but a fairly strong line-up didn’t manage it, and losing Victor Wanyama midway through with injury was a problem for the Saints. Ipswich just weren’t able to hold the ball against one of the form teams in the Premier League and resorted to long balls and set pieces. It didn’t help. Still, a promising loss defensively at least. Tommy Smith played the distance.
Up Next: Away at Brighton, 8.45am Thursday (NZT)
Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)
The Eredivisie kicked back into action this weekend and the Zwolle lads must have been eating right on their trip to South Africa because they returned and immediately smashed NAC Breda 4-1.
An early Bart Van Hintum goal had Zwolle up at the break but second-to-lase placed Breda equalised in the 57th minute. That was the point at which the gloves came off and all of a sudden Zwolle scored three times in eight minutes to ease home. A solid game without the end product for Ryan Thomas came to a conclusion just after the third goal. He had 3 shots, all off target, and was fouled 5 times. The win keeps PECZ in fourth on the table, looking good for a European spot.
Up Next: 7.45am Sunday at home to AZ Alkmaar
Marco Rojas – FC Thun (Swiss Super League)
With the Swiss League still in hiatus, Thun have been playing friendlies all over. Right now they’re in Turkey where among others they are slated to play against Greuer Furth, Rojas’ old loan club! Grudge match.
That stuff’s basically impossible to find anything about unless you speak German, with some of these friendlies played in closed-stadium conditions anyway. So in lieu of any of that, here’s Marco’s profile on the Thun website. Lettuce! Really?
Up Next: More friendlies and a bit of a rest before the official league stuff returns next month