Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)

Will he play or will he stay home? It was a question that divided many West Ham fans as the Winston Reid injury return dragged on another week. But rumours of a re-injury were confidently dashed by Slaven Bilic:

But the chances of Winnie kitting up against Manchester United, an opponent he tends to do well against, were dashed by Chairman David Gold:

Not great news ahead of a crucial FA Cup tie. As the final game of the sixth round, they had already seen Crystal Palace dismiss Reading, the final non Premier League contender, as well as big guns (sort of) Chelsea and Arsenal eliminated by Everton and Watford. Suddenly this had become a very winnable competition for the Hammers, being the highest ranked league team left. Oh, and what’s this? A miracle recovery/change of plans!

Come on Goldy, get it right son.

So, yes, Winston Reid is back and he was fit enough to make the starting XI at Old Trafford. He needed to be, with a few other injuries in the squad. Reid went ahead and marked his return in true defender’s fashion, absolutely smashing Anthony Martial 90 seconds in to pick up a yellow card. Welcome back, bro.

In a tight first half, neither team really threatened, though Man Utd had the better of field position and possession. As we’ve seen this season, that doesn’t often matter with them. Ander Herrera linked up well from midfield, however Winston dealt with young Marcus Rashford pretty physically and confidently. Anthony Martial looked dangerous on the left. However the Hammers had a couple very decent chances too, using the power of Andy Carroll and Emmanuel Emenike to good effect.

Second half and Winston was involved in a major talking point. Ander Herrera drove a shot towards goal and Reid threw himself to the ground, making a superb block… although the ball then popped up into his withheld arm. Big shout, no penalty from Martin Atkinson. On the basis of things, it looked like a fair call, though Howard Webb disagreed in his Daily Mail column (no link because they don’t deserve one):

“After a dull first half Manchester United should have been awarded a penalty when West Ham defender Winston Reid handled a shot inside the penalty area even though the ball struck his knee first. Reid could well have been dismissed had that been given as he had been cautioned early on. Slaven Bilic subbed Reid soon afterwards.”

Harsh stuff from that man. Anyway, Reid didn’t last much longer. He was replaced after an hour with the score still at 0-0, possibly feeling his hamstring a little – he was slow to walk off – but then possibly it was pre-planned to only give him 60 minutes. We’ll find out in the coming days.

The game opened up without him, Man United coming more into it. However the next big event was a penalty shout declined after Marcos Rojo appeared to go lunging in on Dimitri Payet. Replays seemed to confirm that if there was any contact then it certainly wasn’t of Rojo’s doing, who pulled all the way out of the challenge before Payet went tumbling. Had he been booked for diving then he’d have been off with a second yellow. Instead the ref let it play on (Webby thought it was a clear penalty, of course). A few minutes later Payet won a free kick off Daley Blind and went right on ahead and did this:

Oh sweet Lord, how can you even his a free kick that well!? That’s one of the 2-3 best goalkeepers in the world that he beat there.

Ah, but it wasn’t to be the winner. United pressed and eventually Anthony Martial was able to bundle in an 83rd minute equaliser, even if there was debate over whether Bastian Schweinsteiger may have fouled keeper Darren Randolph in the build-up. Remember this is the same Schweiny that elbowed Winston in the face last time these teams played. 1-1 was the final score, there’ll be a replay at Upton Park to decide this one on Wednesday 23 March. Needless to say each coach had something to moan about afterwards. Certain chairmen too:

Up Next: Chelsea vs West Ham, 4.00am Sunday (NZT)

Chris Wood – Leeds United (English Championship)

A little bit of drama here as Steve Evans had said that if Woody trained and pulled through then he’d be selected in the team to face Cardiff and he did and yet he wasn’t. Which caused some stir among Leeds fans, with speculation ranging from possible re-injuries to maybe even a murder cover-up. Did Evans kill Woody and bury him under Elland Road and is continually telling us that he’s back in training and yeah I spoke to him this morning and he’s doing well and all that just to throw off the coppers with their timelines and alibis. On second thought, that’s probably not true, since he played on the weekend.

But not against Cardiff, where the Whites earned a 2-0 win after former Man Utd defender Fabio Da Silva was sent off in the 64th minute for a second yellow. Souleymane Doukara opened the scoring after 37 minutes and Mirco Antenucci (who had set up the first) topped it off with a second in injury time for the win.

Then to the weekend, when Woody finally made his awaited return to the pitch. Off the bench in the 85th minute, mind you, but it’s just good to have him back. Funny enough, Woody comes back at a point of his absence when the club least needs him. Against Blackburn – who had won three of their last four – they took the lead when Sol Bamba found space in the six yard box off a corner to blast it in. That was 34 minutes into the game. 69 minutes in and Antenucci made it 2-0 with a slick chipped finish on the break. Simeon Jackson pulled one back with a minute to play but Leeds did it 2-1 for their third straight win – their longest winning streak of the season.

Lovely stuff. Let’s enjoy this image for a while too:

Up Next: Home to Huddersfield, 4.00am Sunday (NZT)

Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (English Championship)

A poor week from Tommy’s team and it might be hard to sneak into those playoffs now. It’s far from over, win their game in hand this week and they’ll be within a point, but they had a real chance to gain ground these last two games and couldn’t do it.

First they drew 2-2 with Bolton, which is a terrible result against a team already resigned to relegation. Even worse when you were 2-0 up after 70 minutes, cheers to Kevin Bru and Christophe Berra (called up for the Scotland squad this week – one of their squads anyway) for the goals. Bru’s was a blistering strike, while Berra’s was his first of the season.

But just a minute after Berra bundled his effort in, Bolton were back within one. A great strike from fullback Lawrie Wilson, who once trialled with Ipswich. Tommy Smith headed wide with ten minutes remaining. Ipswich held on, Bolton pressed. On came Wellington Silva in injury time and almost straight away he was booked for diving. A couple minutes later he won a penalty for a trip by Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Stephen Dobbie scored from the spot for a 96th minute equaliser. 2-2. Smithy had a game-high eight clearances but his distribution from the back was pretty poor. Four blocked shots was decent though.

So dropped points there (in heart-breaking fashion) and then they travelled to Cardiff (remember them? Lost to Leeds 2-0?) who were level on points with Ipswich. And Cardiff started slack too, actually they were off the pace all game – however a 19th minute header from Bruno Manga had them in front all the same. The thing is, Ipswich were just as untidy. Very little creativity, perhaps a good lot of tiredness too getting towards the end of a busy season. There were chances. Pringle shooting into the side netting, Sears having his finish cleared a few yards off the line. In defence Smith made a crucial touch on a cross to put Anthony Pilkington’s attempt off before he could hit it but at the other end they were getting desperate. Smithy was subbed off late with Maitland-Niles going on in his place (as an unnatural right back) with CB Berra going up front. It didn’t help, they lost 1-0.

Other results limited the damage, meaning that games against Blackburn and Rotherham this week are massive. There are ten games left and time is running out

Up Next: Home to Blackburn, 8.45am Wednesday & home to Rotherham, 4.00am Sunday (NZT)

Jeremy Brockie – SuperSport United (South African Premier Soccer League)

Guess who the top scorer in South Africa is this season? You don’t have to, it’s Ol’ Brox here. He tipped the scales with the only goal in a 1-0 Nedbank Cup victory against Moroka Swallows.

Coach Stuart Baxter: "Brockie is a natural finisher. Give him possession in the right areas of the field and he can inflict damage. He is in a rich vein of form."

Hey that’s nice to know. Shame there aren’t any All Whites games coming up but all good. Brockie’s 52n minute curler was his 13th in all competitions this season and Maritzburg’s Kurt Lentjies is the only other player to have scored in all four South African league/cup tournaments this season. To be fair, the Swallows are bottom of the second division so this was a game they expected to win but it still took a fine effort from the kiwi. SuperSport will play Pretoria University in the Round of 16. Here’s the goal for ya, excuse the shoddy quality:

“It was a great goal worthy of winning any match” – so said the beaten coach, former Nigerian international Greg Etafia.

More Brockie praise from his new English coach: “Brockie is dangerous from that No 10 position because he is more difficult to mark. If he is standing on the shoulders of defenders, he doesn’t have the blistering pace to go behind them so he has to use his intelligence. Brockie will be the player for us for the rest of the reason.”

Up Next: Sunday 2.30am, Lamontville Golden Arrows vs SSU (NZT)

Kip Colvey – San Jose Earthquakes (American Major League Soccer)

First of all, Kip is a fantastic name as far as fitting in in America goes. Second of all, speaking of fitting in that’s exactly what Kip did this week – right into the starting line-up. In fact they were playing the defending champs (and Jake Gleeson’s lads) Portland Timbers and SJE went right on ahead and beat them 2-1, quality result that. Gleeson was on the bench unused but Colvey played the full 90 minutes at left back as first half goals to Chris Wondolowski and Quincy Amarikwa set up a 2-1 in, Jack McInerney’s late goal only worth consolation. By the way, Amarikwa’s goal? IN-SANE!

Kip was a busy bloke in his first start, getting 61 touches. Not too much getting forward down the line but he was tidy in possession and made three interceptions. A very solid start for the youngster.

Here he is saying some words ahead of this clash:

That accent’s getting wonky but such is the price of success. Colvey was one of two substitute debutants in SJE’s first game, along with Brazilian Matheus Silva. Both rookies are among the four youngest players in the squad.

KC: “That’s pretty big for a young player to know people around you at the club have confidence in you.”

From SJEarthquakes.com:

“Colvey and Silva have developed a friendship during their brief time together and are both looking forward to their opportunities this season, although their expectations heading into last Sunday’s match were a bit different.

“I had a feeling before the game. I was talking to Kip and I told him I knew I was going to play,” explained Silva. “Nobody told me, but I had a feeling I would get some touches and help the team get the win.”

“I had no idea,” Colvey said. “I just knew I was in the 18 and if anyone got injured, which actually happened, then I would be on. I was just happy I could contribute to the game.””

Up Next: A toughie away to Steven Gerrard’s LA Galaxy, 3.30pm Sunday (NZT)