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Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish is still angry that midfielder Craig Gardner is suspended for Saturday’s trip to Newcastle United.Gardner was sent off for a second bookable offence in last weekend’s heated 1-1 draw with Wolves.

McLeish was unhappy to see Gardner buck the trend by being the only player to be sent off for Birmingham this term.

“Craig has been sent off a couple of times this season and he has been suspended for a total of five games,” McLeish said on Thursday.

“I thought our discipline had been very good and he was a bit unlucky because it was a passionate derby.”

“We’ve got house rules in place to deal with it but they are not for public discussion.”

“Craig and the rest of the guys know the rules.”

McLeish is well aware that his players have still not secured their Premier League status for next season.

The side’s form badly slipped after clinching the Carling Cup in February and McLeish’s men have taken just one point from their last three outings – conceding nine in the process.

But McLeish can take heart from the fact that Newcastle have not won a game since the start of April.

“We’re not relaxing, we don’t know how many points we still need,” he said.

“The focus is now on the next game at Newcastle and trying to get a result there.”

“We need to deliver a good performance until the end of the season.”

“The guys put in a tremendous effort when we drew with Wolves last weekend.”

“Our energy, stamina and concentration was just fantastic.”

“You would have expected Wolves to have had more of the ball than they did because we had Craig sent off but our resilience and desire was magnificent.”

Birmingham were beaten 5-0 at Liverpool on their last away day and McLeish held his hand up to his own mistakes.

He knows they must be set up better on the road in order to get a positive result.

“We need to put in a strong performance and use our will and determination,” he said.

“I know we have to be much better organised than we were at Liverpool. We were a bit open at Anfield and I’ve got to take a bit of blame for that as well.”

“The players are confident of getting the points.”

Birmingham will be without goalkeeper Maik Taylor, defender Scott Dann (calf), midfielder Enric Valles (ankle) and forwards James McFadden (knee) and Obafemi Martins (groin).

Forward Nicola Zigic will face a late fitness test on his groin.

There is plenty of skill required when betting on a sporting event, but ultimately the majority of the time whether you win or lose is down to luck. You can do all the research possible and feel you’re on to a sure thing, but on the day anything can happen: that’s why sport is so exciting. However, now you have the chance to come out on top when betting online by taking advantage of matched betting opportunities and making sure that you aren’t left out of pocket after having a flutter online.

The majority of online bookmakers are offering deals to act as an incentive to try and entice new customers to register on their website and start betting. These incentives usually come in the form of free bets, with the deals offered by online bookies ranging from a fiver to £200! These offers require you to deposit your own stake and then you’ll receive a free bet once you have bet your stake. If you’re lucky you’ll win your original bet and your free bet and have made yourself a tidy sum of money, but you can take luck out of the equation by matching your bets.

Betting exchanges allow you to lay a bet, or bet against an event happening, and this is something you can use to your advantage. On the website that is offering you a free bet, you will need to make bet with your own money to qualify for the offer. So if you were betting on an upcoming football match, you could make a bet for Arsenal to win on the odds given. Then on the betting exchange you could lay this result, so you win if Arsenal lose or draw, and that way you don’t lose out whatever the result.

To find out what risk free matched bets you can take advantage of you can visit freebets4all.com and make use of their ‘Automatcher‘ service. This pioneering software will help you to find matched bets in the next ten days that offer you risk free matched betting with just a couple of clicks of your mouse. You can then compare the back and lay odds that are being offered on upcoming football matches by each online bookmaker, so you find a matched bet with an online bookie with which you have a free bet offer.

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You can even get advice on how to match your bets so that you can’t put a foot wrong and with the bets listed in order depending on the profit they return, you can choose the one that will give you the best return. If you sign up to the online bookies from the freebets4all website you can even get betting cashback, so you’ll get yourself even more free money. So when you’re watching the football match that you’ve bet and layed on, you won’t really mind what the result is as you’ll win either way and have a little bit more cash in your pocket.

Neil Warnock has stated that the way he was sacked from QPR was unprofessional, and that outside influences may well have influenced the club’s decision.

Warnock was dismissed after a poor run of form saw QPR slip down to 17th in the Premier League standings, and has since been replaced by Mark Hughes.

Speaking about the manner of his sacking, Warnock admits that it could have been handled better.

“I received a text saying the owners had been talking long into the night and Phil Beard, the new chief executive, asked if he could come and see me. So I told him to come to our house and I think when I saw him I felt sorry for him and said ‘don’t worry it’s nothing to do with you, this’,” he told Sky Sports.

“I think you get used to a certain way of doing things but he [owner Tony Fernandes ] is so far away, all over the world. I’m not a communicator by tweet I’m afraid so I was always going to be the last to know.

“Even the owner, I know the influence he’ll have had from certain people over the past few weeks.

“It would have been difficult to resist because people get on the phone and tweet and it’s almost like slowly poisoning somebody from outside the club and, no doubt, from within the club as well.

“It’s a dangerous precedent. If you let players talk to the chairman but, you know, you can’t stop tweeting,” he concluded.

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By Gareth McKnight

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Defending champions Internacional of Brazil are through to the Copa Libertadores last 16 after they defeated Ecuador’s Emelec 2-0.Internacional striker Rafael Sobis’ headed effort opened the scoring for the home side, with Leandro Damiao latching onto a rebound with six minutes remaining to double the score and confirm Inter’s passage into the next stage.

The Brazilian side finished at the top of Group Six with 13 points, four points clear of Mexican side Jaguares.

They also qualified for the knockout stages despite going down 2-1 against Bolivia’s Wilstermann on Tuesday.

The Mexicans opening the scoring through Julio Frias, but relinquished their advantage when Frias was handed a straight red card on 50 minutes.

Wilstermann then hit back with goals to Rogelio Fabio Lima and Nicolas Torres within five minutes of each other to seal the three points, but it was not enough to lift them from bottom place in the group.

Elsewhere, 2004 champions Once Caldas also sealed their qualification to the knockout stages with a 2-0 win over Peruvian side Universidad San Martin.

Goals from Wason Renteria and Matias Mirabaje sent Once above Universidad into second place in the Group One standings, with the losers also having two men sent off in the dying stages.

Libertad, who had already sealed their progression to the next round, ensured they would finish the group stage undefeated with a 2-0 win at home over San Luis.

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson has hit out at midfielder Javier Mascherano, who is poised to leave the Reds to join Spanish champions Barcelona.

The 26-year-old Argentinian refused to play in Monday evening's 3-0 loss at Manchester City, having decided that he wanted to take up the opportunity to head to the Camp Nou.

Hodgson told reporters:"It is not easy for me to defend the actions (of Mascherano) because professionals are paid to play and when they are called on to play, they play.

"We had a player at Blackburn, Graeme Le Saux, who was very agitated when I joined the club because he was determined to go to Chelsea and that caused a lot of problems in pre-season.

"Tim Sherwood was wanted by Tottenham and that caused a lot of problems because he wanted to get back to London.

"These situations do occur unfortunately and we have to live with it.

"I don't think they (the players) mean it as a challenge to your authority or a challenge to the club's authority.

"It is just a selfish situation that they have got something they want to do and they just expect the club and, therefore, you as one of the leaders of the club, to bow down and accept that they are going to do it.

"Unfortunately there are going to be periods of time when there will be some unpleasantness because players must also understand that when you sign contracts you sign contracts to play.

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"If the club decide they are going to accept an offer for you and let you go that is one thing, but you run the risk the club might say 'I'm sorry, you've got the contract and we aren't selling you so you are staying'.

"It doesn't bother me as a challenge to my authority – it is just a fact of life.

"But it is a fact of life which gets exacerbated in a one-month period in January and between July and August."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Manchester United scored five goals for the second time in the space of a week as they trounced 10-man Wigan at Old Trafford with Dimitar Berbatov plundering a Boxing Day hat trick.

The Red Devil’s lashed five past Fulham without reply last Wednesday and repeated the scoreline against Roberto Martinez’s side who had Connor Sammon sent off in the first half. It was a massive hit to their hopes of climbing out of the relegation zone following a run of one defeat in their last six games. At the other end of the table United moved level on points with rivals City at the top with goal difference keeping Sir Alex Ferguson’s men in second place. However, the fact they have cut their noisy neighbours’ lead down to nothing in the last two months will certainly give them the imputes to regain top spot going into the New Year.

Seven wins from their last eight had propelled United right back into the title race and they took barely 10 minutes to break the deadlock against struggling Wigan. Despite fielding Michael Carrick and Antonio Valencia in defence the hosts sauntered to victory with Park Ji Sung who guided Patrice Evra’s cross past Ali Al Habsi after the Frenchman beat two defenders on the left. After being pegged back for the first 15 minutes the visitors finally had the chance to attack although Sammon should have done better with the striker completely missing Ronnie Stams cross on a rare forage forward. It proved to be fleeting as United went straight back on the offensive with Ryan Giggs and Berbatov trying their luck from range. The pendulum then swung further in the home sides direction as Sammon was sent off after catching Carrick in the face with an elbow. With a man advantage and extra space to operate in United doubled their lead through Berbatov who held off the challenge of Antonio Alcaraz to lash the ball home four minutes before half time.

It was a similar story after the break with the Bulgarian doubling his tally just before the hour mark collecting Valencia’s pass before lashing the ball past Al Habsi. That goal came after Park headed straight at the Oman keeper before Javier Hernandez had a penalty shout turned down. United certainly had more goals in them and Valencia made it four with 15 minutes remaining with the Ecuadorian seeing his stinging drive whistle past Al Habsi. The scoring wasn’t done there and Berbatov was to have the last laugh as he completed his hat trick three minutes later from the penalty spot. Wigan were enraged after Phil Dowd’s decision to award a spot kick despite Alcaraz’s challenge on Park occurring outside the area. Berbatov gleefully accepted the chance to complete his treble and make it four goals in two games.

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West Ham boss Avram Grant has been handed a two-match touchline ban and a fine for comments made after his side’s FA Cup loss to Stoke City.The Israeli manager was unhappy with referee Mike Jones after the Hammers suffered a 2-1 defeat at the Britannia Stadium on March 13.

Grant initially denied the charges and requested an independent panel to assess the allegations, but they too found him guilty.

“At an Independent Regulatory Commission Avram Grant was handed a touchline suspension for two matches and fined a total of 6,000 euros,” a FA statement said.

“The Commission found the charge of improper conduct relating to media comments proven, following remarks made in relation to match official Mike Jones in a post-match interview following West Ham United’s fixture with Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium on Sunday, 13 March 2011.”

Robert Huth opened the scoring for the Potters in the quarter-final encounter before Frederic Piquionne levelled in controversial fashion.

Stoke missed a second-half penalty through Matthew Etherington, but Danny Higginbotham struck the winner with a free-kick.

After the loss, Grant was quoted as telling The Daily Mirror: “Maybe this (Piquionne’s goal) is the reason the referee started the second half very, very strange. Until they scored the goal, he gave fouls and penalties, everything for them.”

The Hammers felt they should have had a penalty when James Tomkins appeared to be hauled down in the area, with Grant saying Jones may have ‘felt a little bit weak’.

Grant, whose team is in a relegation battle, will be in the stands for West Ham’s English Premier League games at Bolton and at home to Aston Villa.

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp claimed Tuesday's 3-2 loss to Young Boys in the first leg of a Champions League play-off was a "great defeat".

Spurs were shocked by the Swiss outfit in the opening exchanges as they cruised into a 3-0 lead.

But Sebastian Bassong's header just before the interval and Roman Pavlyuchenko's stunning drive in the closing stages kept the tie alive ahead of the return leg at White Hart Lane.

"It was a great defeat – if there's such a thing," said Redknapp, who admitted his players struggled to cope with the artificial pitch at the Neufeldstadion.

"At 3-0 down, we were staring down the barrel. We were in desperate trouble. We were all over the show."

Tottenham fell behind to Senad Lulic's cool finish after the ball fell kindly to him inside four minutes.

Young Boys doubled their advantage on 13 minutes through Henri Bienvenu.

Worse was to follow as Bassong was caught flat-footed, leaving Xavier Hochstrasser to run free and smash his drive through Heurelho Gomes and into the back of his net.

"From the first minute, we started sloppily, they hit the post and it went on," continued Redknapp.

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"They didn't give us time to settle on the ball. They ran all over us in the first half hour.

"Our plan is to get after them at White Hart Lane. It'll be a fantastic crowd, great atmosphere and we're at home.

"We have to win the game. If we win the game, we have a great chance to go through, obviously, with the two away goals."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Martin O’Neill is looking for positivity at Sunderland as he steps into the Mackems hot seat. The Northern Irishman concedes that the side is in a perilous position, but believes that if the players display high energy and passion in the coming weeks then there is no reason why the side can’t climb the table.

Elsewhere in the news Milan submit Tevez proposal; Luis Suarez investigated again, while Mancini goes on the defensive after Bayern criticism over their spending.

News

Cahill confident of Everton improvement

Luis Suarez investigated again

Milan submit Carlos Tevez proposal

O’Neill looks for positivity at Sunderland

Injury boost for Tottenham

Rooney fully focussed on Champions League

Roberto Mancini goes on the defensive

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Transfer Talk

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Galliani talks of AC Milan loan deal, but City deny contact – Daily Mail

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The latest striker on Spurs’ hit-list – Mirror

City lay out the welcome Mat – Sun

Wolves hoping to sign Frimpong and Coquelin on loan from Arsenal – Daily Mail

Juventus eye Chelsea’s Luiz – Mirror

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Gary Neville’s recent decision to retire has had everyone in football talking. Manchester United fans have been singing his praises, announcing him as England’s best ever right back, former players have been talking up his longevity and sustained quality, whilst the majority of opposing fans have been celebrating the end of a career of a player they would liken to the anti-Christ of Premier League football. Whatever your opinion, he certainly falls into the category of a player who is quite well hated other than in the red half of Manchester. The reaction following his retirement had me thinking of other players who have played the Premier League villain despite remaining a fans favourite in his own back garden. So who are the top ten players loved by their clubs but hated by everybody else? I decided to put together a list of past and present Premier League players who have done their best to get on the nerves of ever football fan across the country, other than their own teams supporters of course. After giving it quite a bit of thought, a few players who we would have rather not had to have put with over the years have missed out, such as Graeme Le Saux, or Michael Brown. But feel free to add your own thoughts if I’ve missed the player you love to hate…

Click on the king of loathed players Robbie Savage to view the top 10

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