The PDC World Championship: My Men of the Tournament.

The Ladbrokes World Darts Championship reached its conclusion on Monday night, and will be remembered for being probably the best tournament ever staged in the 19-year history of the event. There of course could only be one winner, that man being Adrian Lewis, who etched his name further into the game's history books, but there were many more players for which the tournament was a success.

Andy Hamilton’s run to the final was helped in no small part by his belief, will to win, and simply the fact that he is one of the most difficult players on the circuit to finish off. Antonio Alcinas could have had him in the first round, Vincent van der Voort could have put him out in the second, and Simon Whitlock probably should have won their semi-final, but Hamilton is one of the most tenacious guys out there, and only he decides when the game is over. In all honesty, the final was a game too far, but £100,000, a rise to 7^th in the Order of Merit, and a place in the Premier League is a decent consolation for a player who nearly didn’t qualify for the Matchplay last summer. Then he looked like a player whose best days were behind him, but how wrong some of us were.

John Part proved once again that class is permanent with a run to the quarter-finals that had the fans reminiscing of times gone by when he really was the man to beat. Part is a master of the set format, and the match against James Wade went a long way to proving it. Few players down the years have won as many match-defining legs as the Canadian has – his 2008 title win was built around how many sets he won on 5^th legs – and it only took a sudden death leg to defeat him. He is back up to 24^th in the Order of Merit, but most importantly we learned that he has his hunger back for the big matches that are hopefully still to come in his career, that’s if he ever lost it, of course.

Simon Whitlock’s broken left ankle kept him out of the Grand Slam and the Players Championship finals, and there were doubts over whether he would be in any fit state to compete at the Worlds. So much so, that bookmakers suspended betting on his first round tie with Dennis Smith, for fear of either an upset or a withdrawal. They needn’t have worried. A near flawless showing with a 105 average meant that the beard really had to be feared. Few expected him to beat Gary Anderson in the quarter-finals, least of all in the devastating fashion in which he did, but he proved that he was just as dangerous is two years before, where he reached the final. Only a spirited Hamilton revival denied him a second crack at the title, but I think he would have taken a last-four place three weeks ago.

Before the World Championship, few had really heard much about Kim Huybrechts. Fair enough, he has had a couple of decent results before - he had reached a European Championship quarter-final - but he was hardly a household name. We all took notice however after he put out Grand Prix finalist Brendan Dolan in the first round. To be fair, Dolan didn't turn up, but Huybrechts put in a mature performance on his Alexandra Palace debut. The London crowd had a new name to look out for and cheer for, and that was before they were introduced to his girlfriend Dana! She unwittingly played more of a part in her man's victory over Paul Nicholson in the third round, after The Asset blamed Sky for giving her too much airtime, which led to a surge in crowd activity on his key throws. In all honesty, that took away from another brilliant win from the Belgian, who in a couple of years could be one of the really big players in the PDC.

The last word has to go to the champion though. Adrian Lewis retained the title, becoming only the third man in the sport’s history, after Eric Bristow and Raymond van Barneveld to successfully defend his first World Championship. There were a number of occasions on which he looked vulnerable, not least in the first round, when two sets behind Nigel Heydon, but champions manage to find an extra gear, and he managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. He looked in real trouble against James Wade in the semi-final, and very few players would have been capable of winning five successive sets – which included all of the final ten legs of the match – to win a sensational encounter 6-5. His missed double 12 for the 9-darter in the final was probably the only thing missing from a job very well done.

The line-up for the 2012 Premier League has been announced as I write. The top 4 in the Order of Merit - Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis, James Wade, Gary Anderson - are joined by wild card selections Raymond van Barneveld, Simon Whitlock, Andy Hamilton and Kevin Painter. After that, the real tournament action begins, where the Hamiltons and Huybrechts of this world will look to build on the very firm foundations they now have following a brilliant World Championship.

2012 World Darts Championship preview

The 2012 Ladbrokes World Darts Championship gets underway this Thursday, as 72 players prepare to battle it out for a winners cheque of £200,000, the biggest prize in the sport, and a place among the all time greats. Can Adrian Lewis defend the title he won for the first time in 2011? Will another new face lift the famous trophy? Or will Phil Taylor win his 16th World title on the 2nd January?

The Power is obviously the man to beat despite last week's failure to win the Players Championship finals. His loss to Mervyn King and earlier wobble against Terry Jenkins suggests that he isn't unbeatable, but this is the Worlds, where the long format really plays into his hands. The Stoke ace faces what looks like a comfortable passage into the 2nd round with a game against either Haruki Muramatsu or Dennis Nilsson, but Taylor has been around long enough to know that no game is a gimme, and if it is to be the Swede, he will give Dennis Nilsson the respect he would give Dennis Priestley. The vast majority of fans, pundits and indeed players, would fancy him to reach the quarter-final, where he is seeded to meet his old rival, the 8th seeded Raymond van Barneveld.

A televised tournament win has eluded Barney for four years now, and apart from perhaps the Premier League, where he lost a tight semi-final to eventual winner Gary Anderson, he hasn't looked like ending his run. If he is indeed to challenge in the later stages, he will most likely have to defeat Paul Nicholson in the 3rd Round before the Taylor quarter-final. There is no doubt that an in-form and a happy van Barneveld is capable of winning both of those ties, indeed the whole event, but the man we usually see is far removed from that. If only we could get the Barney of 2007 back to give Taylor a game we remember like that final five years ago. Time will tell which turns up.

I expect the seeding to take its course, which means a 3rd round encounter between van Barneveld and Nicholson, but the Geordie-Aussie, who now lives in Chorley, will have to be at his very best against Mensur Suljovic in Round 1. The Austrian may rarely feature in the big tournaments, but when he does, he gives the big boys real tests. In my preview for last year's Worlds, I said it would not surprise me if he reached the 3rd Round by defeating James Wade. He did just that, so Nicholson will be on his toes. Win or lose however, The Asset will surely be one of the most talked about players at the Alexandra Palace, as his Marmite image and personality continues to divide the fans.

The likely semi-final opponent for Taylor, van Barneveld or Nicholson (in fact I would be shocked if anyone else won the second quarter of the draw) is Gary Anderson. Last year's runner up and the 2011 Premier League champion has had a kind draw in the first round, against Jyhan Artut of Germany. Colin Lloyd or an improving Scott Rand could await in the 3rd Round, but an in-form Scot should have enough over a long format for those, and he has been helped by the fact that Simon Whitlock, who he would play in the last 8 if it goes according to seeding, is struggling with an ankle injury that has kept him out of the Grand Slam and the Players Championship finals. The Aussie will be desperate to not only compete, but to at least reach a clash with Anderson. Some may say he has to get that far, if not further. He is defending runners-up money from 2010 and a slip down the rankings awaits should Anderson, or Steve Beaton or Mervyn King (his seeded 2nd and 3rd Round opponents) put him out. He has been given the longest possible recovery time by the organisers; his tie with the veteran Dennis Smith is on the final day of first round play.

As for the bottom half of the draw, Adrian Lewis is 5/2 favourite with the sponsors to reach the final. If he shows anywhere near the blistering form of last year, he should easily make his way into a last 16 encounter with probably Wayne Jones, who has had a couple of iffy tournaments of late since his terrific rise up the rankings in the last 12-18 months. After that it ought to be Wes Newton, whose brilliant year, including a UK Open final, has put him in the reckoning for a Premier League place in the new year. Jackpot gave us the highlight of the event in the final, with a magical 9-darter in just the third leg against Anderson, and no doubt he will fancy his chances of at least one more during the event. His tournament win featured a record 60 180s in total, and he could go close to that landmark as well.

If Lewis does reach the semi-finals, and I think he will, Mark Webster or James Wade will provide a very tough test. They are scheduled to meet in the last 8, and have already had some very tense games this year, notably the UK Open semi-final, where Wade edged the Welshman out in a deciding leg. Webster has arguably the best record in the Sky majors in 2011 - although without a win, he is the only player to reach at least the quarter-finals in all of them, and in addition, was runner-up to Kevin Painter last week in Doncaster. He is nothing if not tenacious and difficult to beat, yet perhaps lacks the killer instinct that Wade has when it comes to key, game-changing doubles.

The Machine added the UK Open to his trophy cabinet this year, although he is continually targeted by those who insist that somehow they aren't 'real' victories because he hasn't knocked out Phil Taylor to win any. He is desperate to put that right and defeat The Power in the final, yet he would take beating whoever it takes I'm sure. He is however sometimes prone to losing games he should win (see Suljovic last year, Scott Waites in the Grand Slam final). If he gets his head for the game right, he is as dangerous in every form of the game as is necessary to win his first World title.

As always, the quality of the field gets higher and higher, and the number of players knocking on the door of the top 32 is growing. Some seeds, in my opinion, are in big danger of pre-Christmas exits. They include former finalist Mark Dudbridge, who faces rising star and former Lakeside finalist Dave Chisnall. Vincent van der Voort will have to be at his best to beat Mark Hylton. Andy Hamilton could have had easier ties than Antonio Alcinas, and Colin Osborne, a player who has had a difficult year, faces Michael van Gerwen, who will surely prove why he has been lauded as a wonderkid for so many years now.

All the action is on Sky Sports HD, and I can't wait for it to start!

Newcastle United: Controversial or Canny?

Newcastle United have renamed their St. James' Park ground the Sports Direct Arena, in a move which many will see as controversial, yet others may possibly understand and even embrace.

While sponsored stadiums are hardly rare these days, they have usually been restricted, at the top level at least, to newbuild stadiums such as Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, and renaming has so far only been done by Manchester City, whose Etihad Stadium, formerly the City of Manchester Stadium has only been home since 2003. Newcastle have played at their home for 119 years, so they are removing as much a part of their history as the black and white stripes. But they will be earning hundreds of millions of pounds to do it, and in this billionaire era of football we live in, any means of gaining a financial advantage has to be looked at. If it means being controversial, then so be it in my opinion. For Newcastle, that money could be the difference between merely existing in the Premier League and having the clout to really challenge at the top end of the table again.

If fans do not want to use the new name, they don't have to. How many fans of Bradford City (Coral Windows Stadium), Leyton Orient (Matchroom Stadium) or Stevenage (Lamex Stadium) use their sponsored names? At a guess, I would imagine they would mostly still refer to their homes as Valley Parade, Brisbane Road and Broadhall Way. Yet are they all grateful for the extra money in the coffers those names bring? What do you reckon?

I would not mind, within reason, what my team's ground was called. The money it generates, and stability that can bring is worth more than a name.

A new era at Nottingham Forest

Well, that went well, didn't it?

The Steve McClaren era at Nottingham Forest is already over after just ten league games. The whole situation has left me disappointed for a number of reasons.

One aspect which annoyed me as a fan is that he and the team were never allowed to get on with the job. When McClaren was appointed in June, the national press was obviously and understandably interested in how it would work out, and what, if anything would change from the relatively successful couple of years under Billy Davies. What we got, however, was a national press, who in my opinion, were desperate for Forest, and particularly McClaren, to fail. We are very often, for whatever reason, slow starters to seasons, but the goldfish bowl atmosphere can't have helped at all.

I was prepared to forgive McClaren himself for Forest's disappointing run of results; after all, it wasn't he who was crossing the white line every Saturday. Some of the individual errors which have led to opposition goals have been little short of embarrassing, and I felt for the management team, who surely couldn't have legislated for them happening time and again.

That is why I wanted to give McClaren more time than some of Forest's fans were. Many wanted him out a lot earlier than yesterday, particularly after we were beaten, and frankly embarrassed at home by Derby County's ten men. Obviously a few didn't want him in at all, but that's neither here nor there. My opinion finally changed after the Birmingham defeat yesterday.

I expected a tough game, but Birmingham didn't really threaten much at all early on. The first half went entirely according to plan. Forest, back in the 4-4-2 formation after two games of 5-3-2, with very different outcomes, were stopping the visitors from playing, and we were moving the ball about well and creating decent opportunities. the 1-0 lead at half time was deserved, and with an hour gone, it could if not should have been 2-0 or more. There was no need for it to change. We all knew it, the eleven players on the pitch knew it. If only McClaren knew it.

Off went Radi Majewski, who yet again ran his socks off for the cause, to be replaced by Jonathan Greening, who was booed onto the pitch my a minority of his own supporters. There is protecting a lead, but this was entirely different. It completely changed the way the game was being played, to a point where Greening may as well have entered the pitch in a blue shirt. I have been unfortunate enough in my time to see some bad players play for Forest, but Greening's start to his Reds career has been little short of a shambles. When Guy Moussi is on his own in the holding role, he knows his place and he is an absolute colossus, but doesn't know whether to attack or defend with Greening, or Paul McKenna last season, alongside him. That, and Greening's incompetence and inability to pass a ball forwards or even to a red shirt, meant that we may as well have played the last 30 minutes with nine men.

Birmingham's equaliser, although well taken, was avoidable, and despite our dominance of the game up until that point, it then became pick-a-number stuff for the Blues. A comfortable 1-0 lead had become a desperate 3-1 defeat basically because of one manager's insistence to play his golden goose.

The reaction at the end was almost vitriolic. I for one have never seen or heard anything like it at the City Ground. McClaren just had to go. I am disappointed for him in a way, inasmuch as the promises he was given weren't being delivered, but that cannot justify the ineptitude of his team to throw the game away like they did. It has happened more than once, and had he stuck around, it probably would have happened again.

He leaves with the season still young enough for Forest to recover their league position. In terms of promotion or play-offs, the season is over, but I don't think we are in a relegation battle quite yet. The new manager simply has to get us to 50 points as quickly as possible, finish as high as we can, and start again next year.

There are a few candidates for the managerial vacancy, some obvious, some less so. As I write, Karl Robinson, the MK Dons manager, is the bookies' favourite. I'm not too sure whether he would get it, or who I would like to see come in quite yet. But for me, apart from the obvious task of win some games, his key objective is to make this Forest team his team. That was Steve McClaren's problem. It was still ultimately Billy Davies' squad, and I'm not too sure that there were enough players who believed they could play for McClaren like they could play for Davies.

The Greatest Goals Scored by Goalkeepers

I hope you liked my look at some of the greatest own goals ever scored in last week's blog. It made me realise there were so many awesome ones that I didn't put on there, so it may be a topic I go back to in the future.

The own goals blog was one I had planned to do for a while, and just as I was thinking of how to follow it up, Preston's Iain Turner did this...

Yes, that's right, I bring you the greatest goals scored by goalkeepers!

Turner wasn't the first Preston keeper to do it though, Andy Lonergan popped up with one a few years earlier at Leicester, made all the more entertaining by the unbelievably bad commentary.



Lonergan now plays for Leeds United, whose former stopper Paul Robinson famously got them out of trouble in a cup-tie against Swindon with this effort.

Not content with that, he scored the 'other' goalkeeper's goal a couple of years later, for Tottenham versus Watford, and his then England teammate Ben Foster.

Here's probably the greatest ever headed goal from a corner, keeper or no keeper. This is Mart Poom, for Sunderland against his former club Derby.

 

Some keepers are more famous for their goals than for their shot-stopping. Here's probably the maddest of the lot, Jose Luis Chilavert. A master of free-kicks and penalties, and, er, speculative efforts from the halfway line?

 

 Last, but not least, the greatest goal in history scored by a goalkeeper. May 1999. Carlisle United had to win to avoid relegation out of the Football League. With the score at 1-1, deep into time added on for stoppages, the Cumbrians pile everyone into Plymouth's box, and I mean everyone. Enter one Jimmy Glass, on loan from Swindon, playing his third and final game for the club. The rest, as they say, is history...

 

The greatest own goals in the world

This week I was made aware of one of the great own goals in recent history. It occured in the Under-21s game between Spain and Georgia. Spain were 6-0 up and cruising. It would take something special for Georgia to get a consolation...

Wow. Not even David De Gea was to blame for that one!

It's certainly up there with my favourites of all time.

Tony Popovic (Crystal Palace v Portsmouth)

There's a phrase in football, 'If in doubt, kick it out.' Which is fine, unless this happens...

Jan Lecjaks (Anderlecht v Partizan)

If you are going to clear it from your own box, don't do it with the wrong foot. Also, make sure it's not a key Champions League play-off tie before you drop yourself in it...

Mind you, if you think that's funny, look up the penalty shoot-out which decided this tie. Some of Anderlecht's are now in orbit.

Speaking of key games, don't put diving headers in your own net if it's a Dutch League title decider. Denny Landzaat (FC Twente v Ajax), take note for future reference...



Franck Queudrue (Lens v Bastia) had a decent spell in the Premier League, but before then, he scored this cracker...

We're getting to the good ones now. Jamie Pollock. If you know your own goals, this needs no introduction...



And finally, the greatest own goal in the history of football. An FA Cup tie in 2000 between Morecambe and Forest Green Rovers. The hero of the piece? Wayne Hatswell. An effort so good that the Match of the Day team played it on coverage of every subsequent round until the final, and to this day, will find an excuse to air it. Here we go...

Let me know some of your favourites via my Twitter page (@adamgray50) or on this blog.



Premier League Predictions

The Barclays Premier League is back this weekend for a new season, and although a big part of its charm is its unpredictability, there are always a few events which are less surprising than others. Instead of the usual preview, with who I think will win the league, who will get relegated and that sort of thing, I thought I would look into some of those easy-to-predict events. I have looked deep into my crystal ball to offer you just a few stories which I think will happen in the upcoming campaign.

Steve Kean will be sacked as Blackburn Rovers manager.
Blackburn's owners, the Venky's group, sacked Sam Allardyce early last season with the club reasonably well placed in the league table, or at least as well as was to be expected. For the Indians to declare their top-six ambitions and then to replace a top, experienced boss in Big Sam with Kean was a very strange move, and since then, Rovers have dropped like a stone. An Allardyce-led Blackburn would never have needed a final day win at Wolves to stay up, and I can't see it getting any better before the owners decide that enough is enough. With or without Kean, I see a very tough year for the Ewood Park outfit, and that's before the possible loss of Chris Samba.

Fernando Torres will score 15 league goals.
Everyone knows the ability that Torres has, and at times in his career, especially in the early years at Liverpool, he has looked every bit the best striker in the world. It is easy to write strikers off during barren spells in front of goal, yet also easy to forget how difficult it must be for a January signing to adapt to a new club and its style of play. Edin Dzeko didn't seem to get the stick Torres got despite an equally disappointing start for Manchester City last season. I also expect him to be a lot better this year. I think Torres can continue to form partnerships with Nicolas Anelka, Didier Drogba and possibly Romelu Lukaku and become the dangerman that his £50m price tag suggests he must be.

Arsenal will again flatter to deceive at the back.
Despite calls to do so, Arsene Wenger has again (at the time of writing) failed to sign a top-class defender or goalkeeper. Although Wojciech Szczesny looks the part in goal, there are still question marks about him experience-wise. Thomas Vermaelen was a huge miss last season, and while he looks like one of the league's great defenders, it became far too apparent that his colleagues just aren't up to it at times. I'm still not convinced by Sebastien Squillaci. Carl Jenkinson has come in from Charlton, but with the greatest respect, I don't think he was the defensive acquisition the Gunners fans had in mind this pre-season. Their defensive ineptitude was highlighted at Wembley in the Carling Cup final, but more so at Newcastle in the 4-4 draw. Can you really expect Chelsea, Manchester United or Manchester City to have not won there? No, yet I still wouldn't be surprised if Arsenal had a similar result this year.

Mario Balotelli will find himself in trouble.
Balotelli is no stranger to finding himself in the headlines for the wrong reasons rather than the right, and I can't see that changing in a hurry. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if he ended the season away from the Etihad Stadium if Roberto Mancini loses patience with him. He is obviously a very good player, but he needs to show it far more often. What best summed him up last season was his display at The Hawthorns against West Bromwich Albion, where he scored twice yet was sent off in a 2-0 win. He isn't showing signs of maturity quite yet though, and he was described as 'an embarrassment' by Sky Sports' Gary Neville during the Community Shield coverage. Something has to change, but will it? Not likely.

Twitter will get a player into trouble.
We have seen it before (Ryan Babel), we are currently seeing it (Joey Barton), and I am certain we will see Twitter get some other player into trouble this season. Twitter is brilliant; it gives fans access to players that had been lost in recent years, and a lot of them tell us things that perhaps they couldn't in official interviews. Perhaps that is the problem. Its quick nature means that players often tweet without thought and it is very easy to publish information they may regret. Babel's doctored photo of Howard Webb in a Manchester United shirt, and Barton's war of words with Newcastle United are two examples of that. A few managers have talked about banning it. I hope that doesn't happen, but players need to be aware that we are all watching them.

We will have 'a breath of fresh air'.
In the last few years, we have seen promoted sides take the Premier League by storm in the early months with no-nonsense, all-out-attack football. It's great to see, but ultimately it doesn't get you anywhere. 38 games is a long time for the league to work you out, just ask Blackpool last year, Hull a couple of years ago, and West Brom under Tony Mowbray. All of those sides went down, despite playing some great football at times. Some may even call it 'a breath of fresh air'. I hate that phrase. The bad thing about it last season was that all of the pundits seemed so unaware of its overuse. I must have heard it hundreds of times. It's meant as a compliment, yet all they mean is 'they can't defend for toffee, but aren't they brave'. It's patronising to say the least, and I would be astonished if Swansea or Norwich didn't get the treatment. They would rather not though. Give me a 1-0 any day of the week.

Liverpool will get back into the top four.
I'm not sure at who's expense, although right now Arsenal look the most likely, but this is the year that Liverpool will finally get back into the Champions League. Kenny Dalglish has arrived and completely changed the club. Their second half of last season couldn't have gone better, in contrast to a first half which couldn't have been worse. Liverpool is now a club that feels they're going places again, and a full season of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez's partnership, plus the new midfield signings to come in and support them is an exciting prospect. In addition, the emergence of the likes of Jay Spearing, John Flanagan and Jack Robinson means that they have genuine strength in depth that has not been there in the last few years. Although the fans wish they did have it, they have no Europa League football as a potential distraction to league form.

Let me know what you think, as well as offer your own predictions via this blog, or at twitter.com/adamgray50