Republic of Ireland v Wales News 7th February 2011

No more withdrawals yet as far as I know but Gary Speed has announced his starting eleven.

Goalkeeper: Wayne Hennessey
Defenders: Neal Eardley, James Collins (captain), Danny Collins, Sam Ricketts
Defensive Midfield: Andrew Crofts, David Vaughan
Attacking Midfield: Andy King, Simon Church, Hal Robson-Kanu
Striker: Robert Earnshaw

Substitutes
Goalkeepers: Jason Brown, Lewis Price
Defenders: Darcy Blake, Chris Gunter, Lewin Nyatanga, Ashley Williams
Midfielders: Andy Dorman, Joe Ledley
Strikers: Jermaine Easter, Sam Vokes


The biggest surprise is that there’s no place in the starting line-up for Chris Gunter or Ashley Williams. Instead, Gary has chosen an all-Premier League back line.

The only Premier League players not to feature are Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper Jason Brown (you can only fit one of them in the team and Jason hasn’t featured in any Blackburn squads this season) and Sam Vokes, a late call-up who has only recently returned from a hamstring injury. Scottish Premier League midfielder Joe Ledley is also on the bench.

The other Premier League players withdrew from the squad (Gary tactfully said that this made his job easier, which is a really nice way of looking at it) but it’s lovely to hear that Craig Bellamy has travelled with the squad despite not being in the squad and players including Gareth Bale have been to see his new manager. They can’t play but they’ve shown their commitment to Wales all the same.

Gary says he’s happy for David Vaughan to be his unsung hero (though he’s always very much sung around here).

Wales v Northern Ireland (under-21s)

Goalkeepers: Chris Maxwell (Wrexham), Rhys Taylor (Crewe Alexandra, on loan from Chelsea)
Defenders: Daniel Alfei (Swansea City), Tom Bender (Colchester United), Troy Brown (Ipswich Town), Paul Dummett (Newcastle United), Adam Matthews (Cardiff City), Jazz Richards (Swansea City)
Midfielders: Joe Allen (Swansea City), Billy Bodin (Swindon Town), Reece Jones (Kingstonian, on loan from AFC Wimbledon), Lee Lucas (Swansea City), Jonathan Meades (Cardiff City), Jonathan Williams (Crystal Palace)
Forwards: Elliott Chamberlain (Leicester City), Ryan Doble (Southampton), Robert Ogleby (Heart of Midlothian), Jake Taylor (Reading)

Stand-By
Goalkeepers: Jonathan Bond (Watford), David Cornell (Port Talbot Town, on loan from Swansea City)
Defenders: Kieron Freeman (Nottingham Forest, David Stephens (Hibernian), Joe Walsh (Swansea City)
Midfielders: Nathan Craig (Everton), Joe Partington (Bournemouth)
Forwards: Tom Bradshaw (Shrewsbury Town), Kayleden Brown (Port Vale, on loan from West Bromwich Albion), Jake Cassidy (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Richard Peniket (Fulham), Casey Thomas (Port Talbot Town, on loan from Swansea City)

No withdrawals have been confirmed as yet but:
Troy Brown has missed Ipswich’s last six matches with a hamstring injury (although it’s not impossible he’s fine and just hasn’t been selected)
Joe Allen was promoted to the senior squad following yet more withdrawals, only to withdraw himself with a calf injury.
Billy Bodin wasn’t in Swindon’s squad this weekend following reports that he had an ankle injury and needed to be assessed. But it’s possible Swindon just decided to put seven other players on the bench.

Wales under-21s - squad to face Austria

Wales under-21 squad to face Austria in Newport on 17th November.

Wales under-21 squad to face Sweden:
Goalkeepers: Rhys Taylor (Chelsea, on loan at Crewe Alexandra), David Cornell (Swansea City)
Defenders: Daniel Alfei (Swansea City), Ashley Richards (Swansea City), Paul Dummett (Newcastle United), Adam Matthews (Cardiff City), Troy Brown (Ipswich Town), David Stephens (Hibernians)
Midfielders: Nathan Craig (Everton), Lee Lucas (Swansea City), Joe Allen (Swansea City), Billy Bodin (Swindon Town), Joe Partington (AFC Bournemouth), Jonathan Williams (Crystal Palace)
Strikers: Ryan Doble (Southampton), Jake Taylor (Reading), Casey Thomas (Swansea City), Tom Bradshaw (Shrewsbury Town)
Stand-By Players:
Jonathan Bond (Watford), Joe Walsh (Swansea City), Tom Bender (Colchester United), Robert Ogleby (Hearts), Jonathan Meades (Cardiff City, on loan FK Moss)

Under-19 squad for UEFA qualifiers mini-tournament

Brian Flynn’s under-19 squad for the UEFA qualifiers mini-tournament in South Wales is as follows.

Goalkeepers: Jonathan Bond (Watford), Daniel Ward (Wrexham)
Defenders: Daniel Alfei (Swansea City), Tom Bender (Colchester United), Aaron Holloway (Bristol City), Max Penk (Wrexham), Joe Walsh (Swansea City), Adam Matthews (Cardiff City)
Midfielders: Billy Bodin (Swindon Town), Josh Dawkin (Norwich City), Kieron Freeman (Nottingham Forest), Reece Jones (AFC Wimbledon), Lee Lucas (Cardiff City), Jonathan Williams (Crystal Palace)
Strikers: Tom Bradshaw (Shrewsbury Town), Kayelden Brown (West Bromwich Albion), Elliott Chamberlain (Leicester City), Ibrahim Farah (Cardiff City)

Ibrahin Farah has been called up to replace Richard Peniket (Fulham), who withdrew from the original squad.

Fixtures:
20.11.10 – Wales v Turkey
22.10.10 – Wales v Iceland
25.10.10 – Wales v Kazakhstan

Wales v England News

The Wales v England match could take place at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Croatia v Wales Fixture

Touch wood, fingers crossed, no-one else has withdrawn from Wales' squad to face Croatia.

With such a young squad, no-one seems to be expecting very much of Wales and if you're expecting a win, you might well end up disappointed. But if you want a good, strong performance from some very promising young players, I think you'll be very happy with this match. There are more important things than winning. It's almost the Wales under-21 side against a team who were unlucky to qualify for the FA Cup. If Wales win, it's a giant-killing and we all know how rare and special they are. But they do happen.

Wales Online expects Wales’ starting line-up to be in a 3-5-2 formation as follows:
Goalkeeper: Wayne Hennessey
Defenders: Chris Gunter, Ashley Williams, Lewin Nyatanga, Craig Morgan, Sam Ricketts
Midfield: Brian Stock, Dave Edwards, Andy Dorman
Forwards: Simon Church, Rob Earnshaw.
Subs: Boaz Myhill, Neil Taylor, Christian Ribeiro, Mark Bradley, Sam Vokes, Hal Robson-Kanu

Awards for Welsh Players

The following players have all won end of season awards for their clubs. It's great to see so many players being recognised for their achievements at club level - there will be many more English players with awards but considering the percentage of Welsh players in the League and the percentage of Welsh players among the award-winners, I think Wales have done pretty well, even if you take out the players like Ryan Shawcross who have chosen not to play for Wales.

Premier League Award Winners
Craig Bellamy won Performance of the Season for Manchester City for his two goals as Man City lost to Man Utd 4-3.
Ryan Shawcross is Stoke City’s Young Player of the Season
Gareth Bale is International Supporters Clubs Young Player of the Season for Tottenham Hotspur
Gareth Bale is the One Hotspur Junior Player of the Season for Tottenham Hotspur
David Jones came second in the awards for Wolverhampton Wanderers' Goal of the Season.
Dave Edwards was also nominated for Goal of the Season for Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Championship Award Winners
David Vaughan was shortlisted for the Blackpool Player of the Year award.
Christian Ribeiro is Bristol City’s Young Player of the Year
Robbie Savage is Derby County’s Player of the Season
Gareth Roberts is the winner of Doncaster Rovers’ Goal of the Season for an amazing strike against Peterborough United.
Andy King is Leicester City’s joint Player of the Year
Andy King of Leicester City was shortlisted for Championship Player of the Season
Danny Coyne is Middlesbrough’s Community Player of the Year
Rhys Williams is Middlesbrough’s Young Player of the Year.
Rhys Williams was in second place for Players’ Player of the Year at Middlesbrough.
Carl Fletcher is Plymouth Argyle’s Player of the Year
Chris Gunter (Nottingham Forest) and Ashley Williams (Swansea City) are in the Championship Team of the Season
Ashley Williams was a contender for Swansea City’s Player of the Year
Ashley Williams is Swansea City’s Players’ Player of the Year
Jazz Richards is Swansea City’s Young Player of the Year
Lee Lucas is Swansea’s Youth Team Player of the Year

League One Awards
Andrew Crofts is Brighton & Hove Albion’s Player of the Season.
Ben Swallow was in second place for the Young Player of the Year award for Bristol Rovers.
Richard Duffy came fourth in Exeter City’s Player of the Season awards.
Jermaine Easter won the Football Writers’ Player of the Year award for Milton Keynes Dons
Jermaine Easter won the Top Goalscorer award for Milton Keynes Dons

League Two Awards
Michael Flynn of Bradford City was a contender for the Telegraph & Argus/Map Group UK Player of the Year award.
Tony James is Burton Albion’s Players’ Player of the Year
Tony James is Burton Albion’s Supporters’ Player of the Year
Darren Moss won Morecambe’s Goal of the Season award for his stunning goal against Dagenham.
Ben Davies is Notts County’s Player of the Year
Ben Davies of Notts County is in the League Two Team of the Season
Tom Bradshaw won Shrewsbury Town’s Goal of the Season award for one of his goals against Crewe Alexandra.

Croatia v Wales friendly - injury news

Croatia v Wales friendly
Some might way Wales might as well not show up for this – and a large number of the squad might not be showing up. The Championship play-off final is a day before the match against Croatia. All four teams in the play-offs feature Welsh internationals. Not to mention the many injuries.

Also, at least four players will be involved in the Championship play-off final, depending on which teams go through.

Goalkeepers
Wayne Hennessey (Wolves) - not getting first-team football
Boaz Myhill (Hull) - not getting first-team football
Jason Brown (Blackburn) - not getting first-team football
David Cornell (Swansea) - not getting first-team football
Lewis Price (Brentford loan from Derby) - not getting first-team football
Owain fon Williams (Stockport) - just got relegated to League Two and hasn't had first-team football for 2 weeks

Defenders
Gareth Bale (Spurs) - knee injury
Chris Gunter (Nottm Forest) - could be involved in Championship play-off final
Darcy Blake (Cardiff) - could be involved in Championship play-off final
Adam Matthews (Cardiff) - could be involved in Championship play-off final
Neal Eardley (Blackpool) - either not getting first-team football or unknown injury/recurrence of recent hamstring injury
Sam Ricketts (Bolton) - not getting first-team football
Danny Gabbidon (West Ham) - not getting first-team football
Christian Ribeiro (Bristol C) - not getting first-team football
James Collins (A Villa) - fine :D
Ashley Williams (Swansea) fine :D
Lewin Nyatanga (Bristol C) - :D
Craig Morgan (Peterborough) - fine, been relegated to League One but fine

Midfielders
Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal) - broken leg
Jack Collison (West Ham) - knee injury
Brian Stock (Doncaster) - back injury
Joe Allen (Swansea) - shoulder injury
Shaun MacDonald (Yeovil loan from Swansea) - groin injury
Gavin Williams (Yeovil on loan from Bristol C) – ankle injury but managed to play final game of season
Joe Ledley (Cardiff) - could be involved in Championship play-off final
Andy King (Leicesterr - could be involved in Championship play-off final
Dave Edwards (Wolves) - hasn't played for 2 weeks
Owain Tudur Jones (Norwich) - not getting first-team football
Mark Bradley (Walsall, now released) - not getting first-team football
Simon Davies (fine) :D (but might get injured in Europa League final)
David Vaughan (Blackpool) - fine :D
David Cotterill (Swansea) - fine :D
Andrew Crofts (Brighton) - fine, League One but still fine

Forwards
Craig Bellamy (Man City) – ankle injury
Jermaine Easter (MK Dons) - ongoing hamstring problems
Robert Earnshaw (Nottm Forest) - could be involved in Championship play-off final
Simon Church (Reading) - gets fairly regular first-team football but not regular starts
Ched Evans (Sheff Utd) - only played one game in the last few months and wasn't getting regular first-team football before then
Sam Vokes (Wolves) - not getting first-team football

And the players likely to be called up to replace them include:
Danny Coyne (Boro) - not getting first team football/wasn't called up even when he was getting first-team football
Danny Collins (Stoke) - not getting first-team football/manager not speaking to him
Rob Edwards (Blackpool) - could be involved in Championship play-off final
Gareth Roberts (Doncaster) - fine but hasn't been called up for quite a while
David Jones (Wolves) - said no last time he was asked to represent Wales
John Oster (Doncaster) - knee injury
Jazz Richards (Swansea) - injured
Nicky Adams (Leicester) - not getting first-team football/might be in Championship play-off final
Rhys Williams (Boro) - decided to play for Australia instead – and has a pelvic injury anyway
Freddy Eastwood (Coventry) - fine but manager doesn't seem to like him

At this rate they'll have to call me up! Except I'm injured too...

Other than those I’ve mentioned, I would consider calling up Ben Davies from Notts County. He helped them to storm to the League Two title and you’d think he’d be a good League One player, if not an excellent one. Maybe he can even play higher in the League, Boaz Myhill has played for Hull City in all four divisions. And the way things are going, Wales will need good League One players in the squad. Byron Anthony and Ben Swallow have done well for Bristol Rovers lately, Rhoys Wiggins has been excellent for Bournemouth (although again he’s a promoted League Two player), And if Ryan Giggs’ offer is still open I would consider him too.

But maybe Wales can still win. They'll always be the best team in the world to me!

Euro 2012

The draw has been made for the Uefa Euro qualifying groups. Wales are in Group G with Switzerland, Bulgaria, Montenegro – and England.

Some people think this is a difficult group for Wales but I’m more optimistic. England will win the group unless something really strange happens but I could see Wales finishing second. They’re not a bad team at all and lots of their young players will improve a lot as qualification takes place. I really do think Switzerland, Bulgaria and Montenegro are beatable – certainly a lot more so than Germany, Russia and Finland, the horrible big countries who ended up in Wales’ qualifying group for the World Cup.

As for England, they are a much better team than Wales. But it’s a derby and anything could happen. Well, a draw could definitely happen. Maybe, If we’re really really lucky.

But I’m really happy about England being in Wales’ group because I live near Wembley so it will be really easy for me to go.

Premiership Results 7th November 2009

Yes okay this is an old old post that went on my old crap blog but never mind, I'm posting it.


Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-4 Arsenal
As a passionate Wales supporter, I probably should really support a club team from the country of my birth. And I do. I was born in England and I support Arsenal. In this game, Arsenal actually scored two goals and Wolves scored three but luckily Wolves managed to put two of them in the wrong net. Aaron Ramsey made a rare start for Arsenal and stayed on the pitch for the entire game. He missed at least one opportunity to score but he was playing against Wayne Hennessey, who in my biased opinion is one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Wayne even managed to prevent Andrei Arshavin from scoring and not many keepers do that. David Edwards played 80 minutes for Wolves

Aston Villa 5-1 Bolton Wanderers
Aston Villa managed to thrash Bolton 5-1 despite the absence of James Collins in central defence. James has hurt his groin so I hope he gets that sorted out by Saturday. As Craig Bellamy has a habit of suffering mystery injuries when there’s a Wales friendly coming up, James might be needed to take his place as captain.
I like Aston Villa so I’m happy for them to win but unfortunately Sam Ricketts was playing for Bolton so I had to support them. Sam was replaced after 68 minutes which I’m sure was as a precaution to make sure he stayed fit for Wales, and nothing to do with any bad play on his part. Sam would have got an assist if Richard Dunne hadn’t got in the way.

Blackburn Rovers 3-1 Portsmouth
Jason Brown sat on the bench for Blackburn Rovers’ match against Portsmouth, which I’m glad to say they won 3-1. I think it was a good decision by manager Sam Allardyce to keep Jason on the bench. Jason’s chances of playing for Wales in the friendly against Scotland might be small, but we’re so short of goalkeepers already, the last thing we should be doing is putting them in dangerous places like between the goalposts where they might get hurt.

Manchester City 3-3 Burnley
Craig Bellamy made his first start for Manchester City since his controversial announcement that he would stop playing for Wales if Man City qualified for the Champions’ League. So that’s yet another good reason to make sure Manchester City know their place and stay out of the Big Four. (I admit it would be lovely to see them displacing Chelsea, but my priority is Wales, even if Craig’s isn’t.)
So I was all ready to support Man Shitty’s opponents today, only to discover they were playing Burnley. I hate Burnley. Not only did they knock Arsenal out of the Carling Cup last year, they had the cheek to fail to knock Tottenham out. Burnley did well today though – they got a draw which is an ideal result when you don’t want either of the teams to win. Craig threw himself into the action, bagging himself a goal and a yellow card.

Tottenham Hostpur 2-0 Sunderland
Gareth Bale sat on the bench throughout Tottenham’s 2-0 win over Sunderland. I’m really annoyed about that. If I have to suffer the agony of seeing Tottenham winning a match, they might at least put their star Welsh left back on. It would also have given Gareth some much-needed game time and hopefully helped his confidence too. But then again if Gareth had played, Tottenham would probably have won 5-0. And no Arsenal fan likes to see that.

Cymru am byth!

Why is it that people who support Wales are always so miserable? Yes we didn’t qualify for the World Cup. Yes all our players keep retiring. Yes the ones that haven’t retired are always injuring themselves. But what’s so bad about that? Did you actually think Wales would qualify for the World Cup? I’m sure one day they will but I can’t see that finishing fourth in a group that includes Germany, Russia and Finland is really so bad. Germany, Russia and Finland are HUGE.

The retirements get on my nerves a bit though and it is a bit worrying the way some players get injured as soon as you look at them. But that’s no reason why we shouldn’t enjoy supporting them. Grimsby have fans don’t they? And I bet most of them are quite passionate about their team. So why not be passionate about Wales?

So this is my happy blog about all the good things Welsh players do every week, for their club as well as for their country.