Michael Gray interview

Michael Gray is most commonly known for his time at boyhood club Sunderland, in which they reached the dizzy heights of 7^th in the Premiership in successive seasons. Gray also played for Blackburn, Wolves and Sheffield Wednesday, as well as loan spells at Celtic and Leeds United (twice). The full-back also won three caps for England, with one of his caps whilst impressing in the second tier of English Football.

How does the Tyne Wear derby compare to any other football game you have played in?

It’s all about the passion and bragging rights. It was a game you just don't want to lose. Especially being a local lad.

You represented England whilst playing in then the Division 1; did you ever feel like you had to leave Sunderland to maintain your England place?

No because I knew that Sunderland was a team going places! It was just amazing to represent your country. I was so proud.

You played in arguably the best play-off final match ever, unfortunately missing a penalty in the 4-4 epic with Charlton, what were your feelings when you missed? And how did you recover to help win the Title the following season?

We came back stronger and it made me want to succeed even more! My passion was playing for my hometown team in the Premiership, which I was fortunate enough to achieve.

The first year in the Premiership saw Sunderland 7th, including a 2-1 win at Newcastle! And the following year, you repeated the 7th place finish and again winning at St.James's park, how tough was it to follow up them two seasons?

It was tough. Expectations were so high and the squad was the same. We needed new players but they never came. It’s a big shame really we didn’t push on.

Around that time there was rumors of you joining Newcastle, I take it they were never going to become reality?

Me joining my fiercest rivals would never have happened!

You just missed out on England's Euro 2000 campaign, so when Phil Neville, playing in your position, gave away the penalty which knocked England out; how did you feel towards him? Gutted or the old If I was playing that wouldn't have happened!

People make mistakes all the time. It could have been me but unfortunately I wasn't picked.

Is it true you rejected a contract at Manchester United to choose your boyhood club in Sunderland?

Yes I turned them down to play for Sunderland. It might have had something to do with Ryan Giggs playing the same position.

During your short period at Celtic you did play in the Old Firm Derby, how does it compare to the Tyne-Wear derby?

Both derbies are amazing to play in.  I wouldn’t like to choose between them. I’ve had great memories from both!

Bayern's dominance overshadowed by Tevez saga

A Mario Gomez double ensured Bayern Munich maintained their stranglehold on Group A, as they beat Manchester City 2-0.

Despite dominating the opening proceedings, City were poor and Bayern scored twice in a seven minute period before half-time, both through the right foot of Gomez, which effectively killed the game as a contest.

With his side trailing by two goals, Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini controversially brought off Edin Dzeko for the defensive minded Nigel De Jong, to the frustration of not only Dzeko but a clearly annoyed Carlos Tevez after the Argentine was snubbed in favour of De Jong. Reportedly the former United striker refused to warm up and come on in response to Mancini's decision.

The early oppourtunites fell the way of City, and the in form Dzeko should've opened the scoring from a Micah Richards cross, however the Bosnian striker's finish was tame and right at the impressive Manuel Neuer.

The attacking full back was again at the hub of City's forward play, and Richards' felt he should've had a penalty after an apparent trip from the former Blue Jerome Boateng. Replay's suggested there was contact however the referee Kassai didn't give it.

City's stranglehold on the match was beginning to loosen and Bayern Munich were now the ones threatening to open the scoring. Long range efforts from Franck Ribery and Bastian Schweinsteiger were comfortably dealt with by Joe Hart in the City goal. The later should've given Bayern the lead however with a different chance as Thomas Mueller did brilliantly to create a chance for Schweinsteiger in the six yard box, however the German midfielder blazed over.

However the German's opened the scoring shortly after through Gomez after Hart failed to brilliantly thwart Munich for a third time. Ribery created the opener after he cut inside Richards and his long range shot was well saved by Hart, who expertly stopped Mueller from tapping in the rebound, however Gomez tapped in a simple chance.

Munich had a penalty appeal of their own as Ribery appeared to be blocked off by Vincent Kompany, however City couldn't prevent Bayern from doubling their first half lead. Dzeko felled Phillip Lahm, and Ribery's resulting free kick was headed goalwards by Daniel Van Buyten, and Hart again superbly repelled the header, however Gomez reacted the quickest to score from close range.

The second half saw a European masterclass in keeping the ball from Munich, as City, despite their negative change in De Jong on for Dzeko, Bayern dominated the midfield as Mueller and Schweinsteiger in particular were awesome.

The substitution of De Jong caused clear frustration for the snubbed Tevez, however his response in refusal to be brought on was appauling. The understandable disappointment of being ignored is fair, however with his side in a poor predicament, the players's poor reaction will result in the end of Tevez's City up and down career.

Bayern saw the second half out comfortably, and if it wasn't for Hart, Bayern and Gomez alike could've had their third. However it didn't matter and Munich sit comfortably at the top of Group A, and continue their incredible clean sheet record which has been extended to ten games.

For City however, the Tevez enquiry will start when the club arrive back from Munich and with a double header against Villarreal coming up, the incredible start they had to the season now seems a distant memory to the Citizens.



Match ratings

Bayern Munich team: Neuer 6, Rafinha 7, Van Buyten 6, Boateng 8, Lahm 7, Ribery 8 (Robben 90, 5), Dias 7, Schweinsteiger 8, Kroos 7 (Tymoschuk 82, 5), Mueller 8, Gomez 8 (Peterson 90, 5)

Manchester City team: Hart 8, Richards 7, Kompany 6, K.Toure 5, Clichy 6, Y.Toure 6, Barry 5 (Kolarov 73, 5), Silva 7, Nasri 5 (Milner 69, 5), Aguero 6, Dzeko 5 (De Jong 55, 5)

City battle to win over dogged Everton

Goals from second half substitutes Mario Balotelli and James Milner ensured City overcome a defensively good Everton in a 2-0 win.

With David Moyes's side keeping Manchester City at bay brilliantly for an hour, Roberto Mancini's decision to leave the unhappy Carlos Tevez on the bench paid dividend's when the Italian Balotelli opened the scoring.

Everton, who have won on their last four previous trip's to Manchester City, started the brighter and Maroune Fellaini caused Joleon Lescott problems early doors, however they failed to test Joe Hart in their dominant period

Jack Rodwell did a good man marking job on Manchester City's David Silva, and with the Spaniard being marked out of the early proceeding's, the pressure was on Samir Nasri to take ahold of the game, however the former Arsenal player was quiet as City failed to create any clear cut chances in the first half.

Manchester City came out of the blocks quick in the second half and Sergio Aguero was starting to get more into the game, however it took the change of Balotelli for them to open up a resolute Everton.

Consistant pressure from Mancini's side resulted in the opening goal as Aguero kept ahold of the ball to find the Balotelli whose shot took a little knick of Phil Jagielka giving Tim Howard little chance in the Everton goal.

The goal ensured Everton had to come out and look for a leveller, and David Moyes was furious that a Vincent Kompany apparent trip on Louis Saha wasn't given on the edge of the area.

Despite some spells of pressure Everton didn't look like breaking down City, and it was infact the Manchester side who scored the second goal of the game. Royston Drenthe gave the ball away in the midfield and Silva, who started to lose the shackles of Rodwell after Balotelli's opener, slid a perfect pass through for another sub in James Milner who beat Howard well.

A late clearence from Stefan Savic off the line prevented Fellaini from reducing the defecit in stopage time.

The win for Manchester City was a deserved one and shows the club has the character and patience to break down sides who are going to come and try and frustrate sides at the Etihad Stadium.

Manchester City player ratings: Hart 6, Richards 7, Kompany 7, Lescott 6, Clichy 7, Barry 6, Nasri 6 (Savic 5), Silva 8, Y Toure 7, Dzeko 6 (Balotelli 7), Aguero 8 (Milner 7)

Everton player ratings: Howard 7, Hibbert 7, Baines 7, Jagielka 7, Distin 7, Neville 6 (Drenthe 5), Coleman 5 (Vellios 5), Cahill 6 (Saha 6), Osman 7, Felliani 7, Rodwell 7

The weekend's Italian Round up (Done before midweek games + Inter sacking)

Link to goals and tables from Europe

Previous week's round up
Rest of Europe La Liga  Serie A

Serie A
Napoli were too good for AC Milan in a fantastic game which saw Edison Cavani score a hat-trick in a come from behind 3-1 victory, in doing so firing a warning to their Serie A rivals.

The result see's Napoli top the table after two consecutive 3-1 win's, where AC Milan slide down to 17th after just one point from their opening two games.

Alberto Aquilani opened the scoring with a brilliant header, after good work from Antonio Cassano. However Napoli's response was quick as Cavani lashed home from a Marek Hamsik free kick just two minutes later. The striker turned the game on its head after a great counter attack, spearheaded by the impressive Walter Gargano who set up his Urugyian counterpart who beat Cristian Abbiati at his near post. Cavani completed the scoring as well as his hat trick just seven minutes into the second half as he smashed home after Alessandro Nesta's failed clearence.

Napoli fully deserved the three points and under Walter Mazzari are geniune title contenders. Their 3-4-2-1 formation is very efficient and AC Milan never really looked like winning this match after Cavani had levelled.

How Napoli regularly lined up last year, however they've been improved with the addition of Gokan Inhler and Goran Pandev.

A.S Roma bounced back after defeat at home to Cagliari last week, with a good defensive display in the San Siro away to Inter Milan, as both Italian giants picked up their first point of the season in a goalless draw. The game's real talking point was the unfortunate injury to Roma's new number one Martin Stekelenburg after a collision with an onrushing Lucio. The Brazilian defender tried to hurdle Stekelenburg however his boot caught the keeper and the Dutch goalkeeper had to be substituted in the first half. The game on the whole was a lively encounter as both teams spurned good chances to steal a victory, with Wesley Sneijder's deflected effort somehow creeping wide.

Juventus, like Napoli, made it back to back wins with a 1-0 victory away to Siena. The match winner came in the shape of Alessandro Matri. Siena rarely threatened the Turin side, and the margin of victory should've been more. The goal came after great work from new signing Mirko Vuckenic who got the byline brilliantly to find Matri, who after his discomfort in front of goal last week, will no doubt be pleased to have finished the simple chance.

Udinese joined Napoli and Juve at the top of Serie A as they beat Fiorentina 2-0 with goals coming from  a Antonio Di Natale penalty and a Maurico Isla drive. Despite losing key players in the summer, Udinese have started the season well and Arthur Boruc in the Fiorentina goal was a busy man in ensuring the scoreline was respectable.

Genoa came from behind to beat Lazio with scoring a 71st minute winner. Guiseppi Sculli opened the scoring from a Miroslav Klose cross, before the Argentine Rodrigo Palacio finished cooly to level the scores early on in the second half. With the game looking like ending all square, Juraj Kucka finished the easiest of chances to ensure the three points were Genoa's.

Other results
Cagliari 2 Novara 1
Atlanta 1 Palermo 0
Bologna 0 Leece 2
Catania 1 Cesena 0
Parma 2 Chievo 1

Gasperini sacked after just five games

Inter Milan have sacked Gian Piero Gasperini after just five winless games.

The former Genoa manager was a surprise selection to replace Leonardo, and despite such a short period at the club, I feel Massimo Moratti was right to sack Gasperini.

Inter Milan slumped to a poor 3-1 defeat away to newly promoted Novara last night and quite frankly they were appalling. Their inability to retain the ball against a Novara side, who despite defending well, weren't great at keeping the ball themselves, was the worst I've ever seen from an Inter side bereft of ideas and attacking fluidity.

One failure doesn't result in Gasperini becoming a poor manager, however the timing for him to join the club just wasn't right. With an ageing squad and the severe decline in form of some of their key squad from the 2010 treble winning side, Gasperini was never going to succeed.

The defensive unit that so brilliantly thwarted Pep Guardiola's Barcelona just fifteen months ago has deteriated. Lucio, Christian Chivu and Javier Zanetti all performed admirably that night in the Nou Camp, however fast forward to last night, defensively Inter Milan were awful. Novara had three, they could've had five. Takayuki Morimoto was man of the match for Novara and gave Andrea Ranocchia a torrid time, resulting in the later being sent off and conceding a penalty for the vital second goal.

Its not just defensively however that Inter have been poor, their forwards have been in serious decline. Diego Milito was one that received praise for their treble season, with the striker scoring 22 league goals as well as two in the Champions League final. However the Argentine's form has been bad for a while now. The striker followed his 22 league effort with just five goals in Serie A last season and despite two on the opening day this season, the former Genoa forward hasn't scored since and really looked out of touch last night. The loss of Samuel Eto'o is huge, the striker scored 53 goals in two seasons with the Nerazzurri and the burden of replacing the Cameroon strikers goals falls heavily on Diego Forlan, who like Milito, has been poor since a great 2010 season and Pazzani, who despite a good back end of the 2011 season, will struggle to find the net as regularly as Eto'o.

Despite a couple of good seasons with Genoa Gasperini hasn't got a CV that fills a chairman with confidence, and the move was seen as a similar one to AC Milan's decision to appoint Masimmo Allegri, which worked well for the later in their successful 2010-11 Serie A campaign. Allegri, like Gasperini had minimal experience in the top flight of Italy, however after Gasperini's ultimately awful spell at Inter, its fair to say the similarities end there.

Rest of Europe round up

Rest of Europe round up

Bundesliga

Bayern Munich and Mario Gomez in particular were amongst the goals in Germany as they thrashed a poor Freiburg.

The German international scored four goals in this one sided encounter as Bayern made it four wins in a row to top the Bundesliga, putting behind them their opening day defeat at home to Borussia Monchengladbach. Franck Ribery got two as well as a late goal from substitute Nils Petersen. Munich made a good week great with a brilliant win in Spain against Villarreal in their Group A opener.

Dortmund's inconsistent defence of their title continued as they lost 2-1 at home to newly promoted Hertha Berlin. The result saw the Champions slide to 11th in the table, five points behind Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen, with the later beating Hamburg 2-0 thanks to a double from former Chelsea striker Claudio Pizarro. Defeat for Hamburg ensured they remained bottom of the league, with just one point from their opening five games. Despite Pizarro's goals, Marko Marin was in fantastic form and after losing  Per Mertesacker on deadline day to Arsenal, the club will no doubt be delighted to hold onto their prized asset.

Felix Magath got revenge on Schalke, for sacking him last season, as his new employers Wolfsburg won a entertaining match 2-1 with Mario Mandzukic scoring late on to secure a comeback victory. The win was a needed one for Wolfsburg who had won just once in their opening four games, in contrast to Schalke who would've gone level at the top of the Bundesliga with victory in the Volkswagen Arena.

Other results saw Leverkusen thrash newly promoted FC Augsburg 4-1 in the Friday match, which saw them, for a short while top the league. Hoffenhaim moved into fifth with a 4-0 away thrashing of Mainz who were the surprise package of the 2010-11.

The best of this weekend's fixtures undoubtedly see's the return of Manuel Neuer to Schalke as Bayern Munich travel to the Veltins-Arena in a top of the table clash. Munich haven't conceded a goal since the opening day of the season in all competition, however Schalke haven't struggled to score this season with Jan Klaas Huntelaar with four goals to his name already.

Ligue 1

Champions Lille came from behind to beat St.Etienne 3-1, with two goals from their star player Edin Hazard. An own goal from former Newcastle defender David Rozenhal gave the home side the lead, however Hazard levelled in superb fashion with a solo goal after beating three St.Etienne players. His second goal saw Lille take the lead for the first time in the match as his smashed finish went into the roof of the net. New signing Joe Cole set up the third for  Ludovic Obraniak who finished with style.

The early pacesetters Montepellier extended their stay at the top of the table with victory at home to Nice. A 74th minute strike from Souleymane Camara was enough to claim all three points in a 1-0. Lyon moved to second of the Ligue 1 with a 2-1 away day victory against Dijon. Bafetimbi Gomis scored the winner eight minuites into the second half. Marsielle's poor start to the season continued with a home defeat to Rennes. Bordeaux, like Marsielle, also continued in drab fashion as they could only muster a goalless draw at home to Evain. PSG beat Brest 1-0, as Javier Pastore scored the only goal to fire the Paris side to 4th in the

Ipswich too strong for a poor Coventry side.

Ipswich Town got a vital three points as they easily overcame a poor Coventry side 3-0 at Portman Road this evening.

After a very inconstant start to the season which has seen Paul Jewell's Ipswich win one in their last six league and cup matches, a win was essential for his experienced side with tough away games at Middlesbrough and West Ham United up next.

Under Andy Thorn Coventry are one of the favourites for relegation this season and despite picking up their first win of the season last week against Derby, they were always second best to a much improved Ipswich.

Martin Craine headed into his own goal early on and Keith Andrews continued his impressive goal return with his fourth since his loan move, as Ipswich stunned Coventry with two early goals. A second half goal from the impressive Jason Scotland completed a 3-0 victory for Jewell's side and see's them move up to 13th in the Championship.

Ipswich fielded a side consisting of no less then ten former Premier League players, however it was the only one with no such top flight experience who shone the brightest in the 21-year old Aaron Cresswell who was just as brilliant in Coventry's half as he was his own in a man of the match performance.

Coventry stuck with the same XI that beat Derby last week, however it was Ipswich's lone change from their last encounter which played a huge part in the opening goal. Scotland, in for Darryl Murphy looked to have headed home from a beautiful Aaron Cresswell cross, however on closer viewing it was Coventry defender Craine who headed past Joe Murphy in the Coventry goal.

Michael Chopra should have doubled the Suffolk sides advantage however after good work from Grand Leadbitter, the forward blazed wide. However Chopra's miss wasn't too important as only a few minutes later the former Newcastle man lifted the ball superbly into Keith Andrews who finished brilliantly on the half volley past Joe Murphy.

Chopra was guilty of spurning a succession of presentable opportunities, in a first half in which Ipswich were truly dominant, however it was Andrews who missed the best chance for a 3-0 lead when he headed wide from a Jimmy Bullard corner.

The first real chance of note for Coventry came in the dying stages of the first half as Cody McDonald headed a Sammy Clingan corner towards goal, only to be denied superbly on the line by the impressive Cresswell.

After the break McDonald was to blame for not bringing Coventry back into the match after missing two great headed chances. His first chance was from a Clingan free kick and the former Norwich man headed his opportunity into the ground and over David Stockdale's bar. And the striker's second chance was just as good as Lukas Jutkiewicz did well to find McDonald, only for his finish to be poor.

Scotland ensured the three points were Ipswich's as he finished off a lovely team goal with a composed finish. Bullard found the Trindad striker in the Coventry half, and after a nice one-two with Chopra, he was too strong for Craine, and finished with great aplomb.

Some late Coventry pressure failed to see them reduce the deficit and Ipswich ran out comfortable victors.

Ipswich side: Stockdale 6, Edwards 7, Collins 7, Sonko 7 (Delaney), Cresswell 8, Leadbitter 7, Andrews 7, Bullard 7, Bowyer 6, Chopra 6 (Murphy), Scotland 8 (Emmanuel Thomas)

Coventry side: Murphy 7, Keogh 5, Hussey 6, Craine 5, Christie 5 (Cameron), Clingan 6, Bell 5, Baker 6, Bigirimana 5 (McSheffrey), Jutkiewicz 6, McDonald 6 (O'Donovan)