The Ryder Cup retained

Europe glory at Gleneagles

In hindsight now, it all seemed so simple, but even though Europe won with 2 points to spare, the weekend was not without it's turning points.

Part of the Ryder Cup's beauty is that golf is normally an individualistic pursuit, a player and their caddy against the rest of the field. But the Ryder Cup is different for the first 4 rounds over 2 days, it is about teamwork, and even on the 3rd day in the singles matches, it is heavily reliant on the collective spirit of the players.

Friday

The Friday fourballs and foursomes were full of twists and turns.

The fourballs saw Europe start well but fade at the crucial point, to allow the Americans to take a 2 1/2 to 1 1/2 lead. Spieth and Reed looked especially good, feeding off of each other and beating Poulter and Gallacher comprehensively 5&4.

The foursomes, saw Europe fightback, Garcia and McIlroy snatched a half at the last, and Donaldson and Westwood; McDowell and Dubuisson and Rose and Stenson all won outright, to turn the tables in Europe's favour.

Europe take a 5 - 3 lead.

Saturday

The morning fourballs went the USA's way again. Spieth and Reed again looked impressive beating Bjorn and Kaymer 5&3, and Mahan & Furyk beat Donaldson and Westwood. Rose and Stenson scored a key point for Europe, and continued their great start of 3 points from 3 matches.

Europe 6 1/2 USA 5 1/2

The foursomes left it all to play for, and it was a big shock to see Phil Mickleson omitted from the entire day's play on Saturday.

Europe started positively in the foursomes, racing into the lead in 3 of the matches.

In the end only Spieth and Reed, the rookies, could get anything out of the afternoon for the USA, and even then Reed missed a key putt on 16, and although they did go 1 up on 17 they were pegged back to all square on the last.

The morning's momentum that favoured USA, had swung back to Europe.

Going into Sunday's singles, it was advantage Europe.

Europe 10 USA 6

Sunday

The Americans came out of the block quickly on Sunday, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed both racing into leads against McDowell and Stenson respectively.

But McIlroy was in imperious form against Rickie Fowler, and the USA's chances soon waned.

In the end McDowell managed to beat Spieth coming from 3 down to win 2&1, and with points coming from McIlroy, Kaymer (with a lovely chip-in) and Garcia, and halves from Rose and Poulter, it was left to Jamie Donaldson, who won 4&3 against Keegan Bradley, and he produced a lovely iron shot, to leave a short putt, which Bradley conceded.

Europe 16 1/2 USA 11 1/2

Europe retained the Ryder Cup, and made it 3 consecutive wins. Since 1990 of the 12 Ryder Cups played, Europe have now won 8, and USA just 4.

Players of the weekend

Justin Rose - Rose won 4 out of possible 5 points for Europe. He was the first player to fire for Europe and delivered some fantastic match-play golf over the weekend, his fourball with Henrik Stenson against Bubba Watson and Matt Kuchar was the round of the weekend, with Rose and Stenson setting a Ryder Cup record of 12 under for their fourball match, whilst collectively the fourball was 21 under. He was unbeaten in the tournament

Jordan Spieth - Spieth partnered well with fellow rookie Patrick Reed and they secured 2 1/2 points from their first 3 games, which left Captain Tom Watson, ruing not playing them on Friday afternoon. Spieth had a great start to his singles, being 3 up on Graeme McDowell, but the Northern Irishman, managed to come back and win the game. 

Patrick Reed - Reed partnered well with Spieth on the first 2 days and revelled in the Ryder Cup atmosphere, silencing the crowd with his putting. He came away with 3 1/2 points from a possible 4, showing maturity beyond his years, and was unbeaten over the weekend.

Players with weekends to forget

Phil Mickleson - His weekend started with a witty jibe about US players not 'litigating one another' but ended with jibes at Tom Watson's captaincy, that endeared himself to few, however true his words were (although Faldo's criticisms, seem hypocritical, given his criticisms of Garcia).

Mickleson actually did well in the matches that he played, securing 2 points out of a possible 3. However, the out of column is where Mickleson would contend with Watson. 'Lefty' was left out on Saturday, despite imploring with Watson to play. 

 

Mickleson has a poor Ryder Cup record (14 points from 37 matches - 38%),but fitness prevailing, he is almost certain to play the next Ryder Cup, where Watson will almost certainly not be the captain.

Stephen Gallacher - It is harsh to pick out Gallacher in his first Ryder Cup, but he picked up 0 points from 2 games, and whilst McGinley's wildcard choice could not be questioned too much, as he was in great form, it is likely Luke Donald would have fared better.

Bubba Watson - Big Phil will be remembered for his comments, but there was nothing memorable about Bubba's display, losing all 3 of the matches he played. Although one of the defeats was the record breaking match against Rose and Stenson, as one of the USA's key players, more was required from Bubba.

Rickie Fowler - Fowler was Watson's go to guy it seemed, alongside Jimmy Walker. (Only Walker, Fowler, McIlroy and Rose, played in all 5 matches). However despite playing all 5 matches and sporting a USA haircut, Fowler scored only 1 1/2 points and failed to win any matches.

The next Ryder Cup is at Hazeltine Golf Club in USA in 2016.

Jens Voigt - The final hour

Jens Voigt

Jens Voigt is the most affable and at times the most aggressive (in a purely racing sense).

A fans favourite for many reasons, his quotes, his personality, his never say die spirit, his longevity and the fact that he is a great bike rider.

There are many great Voigt tales and when Voigt writes his final autobiography, (hopefully a more insightful one than the one he wrote in German in 2008) it will be well worth the read.

But after 17 years in the professional peloton, Voigt is making his last stand, fittingly it is alone and out in front.

Today, Jens takes on the Hour Record, the record has stood for 9 years, since Ondrej Sosenka recorded a distance of 49.7km in 2005.

For the uninitiated, the Hour record is a test of how far a rider can ride in one hour on a track. It is not for the faint of heart, it requires endurance of both the physical and mental variety. The current record was recorded at an average of over 31 mph!

Over the years the rules have changed somewhat, in the mid 90s Chris Boardman and Graeme Obree both broke the record on futuristic bikes. 



If Boardman's was a triumph of engineering, Obree's was a master of ingenuity, using old washing machine parts and changing the style of bike riding to enable faster speeds.

However Jens Voigt's attempt will hopefully mark a watershed moment in the Hour record. Previously, the UCI had said the record must be attempted on a normal road bike, this has now changed, and if Voigt does, as many hope, break the record tonight, it could pave the way for Cancellara, Wiggins and maybe even Tony Martin to try and break it.

It would be unlike Jens to go quietly, and I sincerely hope he breaks the record tonight, and does it screaming his inimitable phrase 'shut up legs' just one last time.

To watch Jen's attempt at the hour live, go to http://www.trekbikes.com/hour_record/.

I hope to be able to add some more Jens stories once the hour is completed, the man is a legend.

F1 - Monza review

The Bullet Review

It was a good week for:-

• Lewis Hamilton - Anything less than a win for Lewis, would have been a disaster for his World Championship hopes.

• Daniel Ricciardo - As good as Hamilton's recovery drive was, Ricciardo's was arguably better, after only qualifying 9th, he dropped to 12th at the start. Red Bull worked a very nice split strategy, giving Vettel the undercut, but knowing his tires would be marginal by the end, and leaving Ricciardo out later, meaning he had fresher tires, but would have to work through the field. 

          Ricciardo has shown that in this regard, he is top class, passing former World                   Champions Raikkonen, Button and Vettel. He also passed Magnussen and Perez. However, it was not just the fact that he passed these 5 drivers, but the way he passed them, with some exceptional pure racing manoeuvres.

• Felipe Massa - Massa has endured a tough, whilst Bottas has been on the podium 4 times, Massa's best this season was 4th. He managed to get a podium at Monza, and repaid Williams' faith in retaining him for next season.

It was a bad week for:-

• Nico Rosberg - He was clearly second best to Lewis this weekend, although a problem in practice, did compromise his qualifying. During the race, two errors gave away what should have been a comfortable win. It was strange to see Rosberg, who is usually so composed, make the same mistake twice, however he still has a firm grip on the Championship, with a 22 point lead.

• Fernando Alonso - Until his retirement at Monza, Alonso had completed the most laps of any driver this season. But being forced to retire from Ferrari's home grand prix was a bitter pill to swallow. It was unlikely, that Alonso would have done any better than 7th, but considering the cars performance issues, reliability issues are the last thing Ferrari would have wanted.

• Max Chilton - Max is often lauded for his consistency in getting the car to the finish, which I think is a British way of compensating for the fact Jules Bianchi is a much quicker team-mate. However at Monza, Max made a rookie error, out braking himself at the second chicane, and going over the sausage kerb and into the barrier. Marussia had a poor weekend altogether, with Bianchi being beaten by Kobayashi for 17th.

• Kevin Magnussen - Magnussen undoubtedly has the raw talent, however he has been unable to adapt to the F1 rules about defending his position. His move on Alonso at Spa was clumsy and he forced Bottas over the kerbs at the first chicane at Monza. The 5 second penalty he incurred, meant he dropped from 7th to 10th and lost McLaren 3 valuable points, especially as they now lead Force India by just 1 point in the Constructors championship.

Singapore will suit very different teams to Monza, whilst Mercedes will still be the de facto top 2, Williams will be pushed hard by the Red Bulls for the final podium spot.

The Cod Army

The Fleetwood Town Story

They play in Red and White at Highbury Stadium - but this isn't an Arsenal side

You may not know it, but the revelation of the football league this season has been Fleetwood Town.

They currently lie 2nd in League One, undefeated from their 5 games, with 3 wins and 2 draws.

In this blog I'm going to look behind the story of how they got there.

In 1996 Fleetwood Town FC folded, they reformed a year later as Fleetwood Wanderers, in Division 1 of the North West Counties Football League, 10 rungs down the Football Pyramid.

They were promoted to the Premier Division of the North West Counties League in 1999 and renamed to Fleetwood Town F.C. and were 4 rungs below the conference, the 9th level of the Football Pyramid.

The journey to league one began in 2003, as former Halifax Town striker Nigel Greenwood was appointed manager and Andy Pilley took over as Chairman. Since then, they have risen up the leagues rapidly. 2 successive promotions took them into the Northern Premier League Premier Division, which they won in their second season in 2007-08. This lifted them into the Conference North where they won promotion through the play-offs after 2 seasons.

In the Conference National, they reached the play-offs in their first season, after finishing 5th, however they were beaten in the semi-finals by AFC Wimbledon, who have had a similar story of a rapid rise to the Football league.

Again it proved second time lucky for Fleetwood, as they were promoted as Champions of the Conference in 2011-12. A remarkable rise from tier 9 in the pyramid to tier 4, in just 8 seasons, a total of 5 promotions.

But Fleetwood's rise was not to end there. Fleetwood made a great start in League 2, and were in 3rd place after 10 games, but the manager's relationship with the Chairman soured and Fleetwood fell to 13th.

Remarkably, their second season in League 2 matched their second seasons in the NPL Premier, Conference North and Conference, and they achieved promotion via the play-offs, at the end of the 2013-14 season.

Fleetwood Town League History
Season	League	Pos
2014/2015	Skybet League One	2nd
2013/2014	Skybet League Two	4th	Promoted
2012/2013	npower League Two	13th
2011/2012	Blue Square (Conference) Premier	1st	Promoted
2010/2011	Blue Square (Conference) Premier	5th
2009/2010	Blue Square (Conference) North	2nd	Promoted
2008/2009	Blue Square (Conference) North	8th
2007/2008	Unibond (Northern) Premier	1st	Promoted
2006/2007	Unibond (Northern) Premier	8th
2005/2006	Unibond (Northern) Div. One	2nd	Promoted
2004/2005	Moore & Co. N.W.C. Premier Division	1st	Promoted
2003/2004	N.W.C. Premier Division	3rd

And now with Fleetwood sitting in 2nd position in League 1, no one is ruling out the prospect of them being in the Championship in a couple of years, and who knows, on this trajectory they will be in the Premiership in 2018 and in Europe in 2020!
For a club from Fleetwood, population of just 25,000, it is an impressive feat. Combined with the travails of neighbours Blackpool, it is entirely possible that the club from the town of 25,000 could be above their Blackpool neighbours boasting a population of 142,000.

They are currently managed by former Preston stalwart Graham Alexander, who only finished playing in 2012, and has a veritable wealth of experience with 40 Scotland caps and over 950 games in all divisions in the Football league.

On their current playing staff, they have ex-Blackpool players Keith Southern and Stephen Crainey, who both played for Blackpool in the Premier League. They also have former England Under-19s captain Stephen Schumacher.

They've also managed to bring in 2 loan signings from Premiership clubs, with Stephen Dobbie from Crystal Palace and Andrew Campbell from Newcastle.

They have the squad, the experience and the backing to make the play-offs this season. Although, promotion might prove a step too far this season, Fleetwood like to do these things at the second time of asking, and I wouldn't rule that out. Look out Championship in 2016.

A more sinister tale 

Andy has piled money into the club 

Whilst the story is in the leagues of fairytales, rising up 6 rungs of the Football Pyramid in 11 years, it is also tarred by the background of Andy Pilley. A 5-live investigates programme back in 2012, found that Pilley was involved in mis-selling energy supplies to small businesses, by using 2 companies he was involved with, a broker Commercial Energy and a supplier Business Energy Solutions.

Although, Pilley denies any wrong doing, OFCOM upheld his complaints against the show. He is by no means the worst chairman in the Football League, but he is certainly not whiter than white. It remains to be seen how long he will bank roll the club, he has spent over £10m, which only serves to show, how wide the gap is between the Premier League and the rest of the football league. In the recent transfer window, £10m would have bought you Fraser Forster or Jack Rodwell.

Transfer Deadline Day - Winners and Losers

Transfer Deadline Day

As soon as Harry's window closes, you know deadline day is over

Transfer deadline day is often a massive anti-climax, with Sky Sports reporters prattling on about rumours, footballers spotted everywhere from Cornwall to Carlisle in a giant game of Where's Wally, with so and so's mate down the training ground confirming 100% that Cristiano Ronaldo is joining Wrexham, and Jim White having a heart attack about a new loan signing at Fleetwood Town.

However deadline day signings can be significant, both in terms of team performance and a club's bank balance.

So now that the transfer deadline day is over, how did each of the Premiership teams fare?

Another English addition to Arsenal's squad

Arsenal
Having done some good early business replacing Sagna with Debuchy and bringing in Alexi Sanchez, it would have seemed like the pressure might be off Arsene Wenger for once, however it wouldn't be transfer deadline day, if Arsenal fans weren't crying out for Wenger to sign someone.

Giroud's injury meant a striker was needed, and Wenger delivered England Forward, Danny Welbeck for £16m. However, Welbeck is not exactly a prolific striker, he has 20 goals in 92 premiership games, but that is partly due to the fact he is often playing out wide and maybe he is still growing out of his Osgood-Schlatters disease. There is no doubt he has class, and he has 8 goals in 26 games at international level, and costs less than a one year loan for Falcao. 

Aston Villa
El Ahmadi left for Feyenoord, which was no great loss, however Villa's best business was keeping Ron Vlaar, and the very late addition of Tom Cleverley on loan, who despite his doubters is still a very good midfielder especially for a smaller Premier League side like Villa. 

Burnley
Burnley's business consisted of two loan signings, Nathan Chalobah from Chelsea and Michael Keane from Manchester United. Chalobah is a talented young midfielder, who has had a couple of loan spells in the Championship, including one at Watford, where he was rated very highly by their fans and scored this wonder goal below. The Premiership will represent a step up, but Burnley will provide him with the perfect platform.

Chelsea
Chelsea were the wise men of the transfer window, getting their business done early to avoid any last minute panic buying. It hasn't always been that way, as the purchase of Fernando Torres in 2011 showed. Van Ginkel left on loan, to make way for Loic Remy as the club were over their limit of 17 foreign players in their 25 man squad.

Crystal Palace
Palace have had a tough start to the season, losing Tony Pulis before the first game, but they managed to get Neil Warnock in place before the window closed, and he delivered 3 signings. Kevin Doyle provides another striking option, with some Premiership experience, James McArthur keeps them some more steel in the midfield. Zeki Fryers provides them with some pace at left back. With Zaha having come back to the club on loan, things are looking brighter at Selhurst Park.

Everton
Last years' deadline day was busy for Everton with Fellaini leaving and McCarthy joining. This year they missed out on Tom Cleverly, and also failed to strengthen their defence.

Hatem Ben Afri signing for Hull City Tigers

Hull City
Steve Bruce loves a deal almost as much as Harry Redknapp, and he produced the goods on deadline day, with 5 signings. 

The midfield has been strengthened significantly with Hatem Ben-Arfa and Gaston Ramirez adding a spark of invention to a midfield that already had a strong back bone in Huddlestone and Livermore, and now even more so with Mohamed Diame joining from West Ham.

Up front Shane Long was replaced by Hernandez, Abel not Javier. The Uruguayan scored plenty of goals at Palermo last season, with 14 league goals in 28 games, and played at the world cup with Uruguay. As long as he settles ok, he should be a good signing.

Hull have arguably had the best window of all the teams, with Robert Snodgrass, Michael Dawson and Tom Ince also signing earlier in the window.

Leicester City
Leicester fans may have been hoping for more, but Nick Powell, signing on loan from Manchester United, is a good move and he should add some goals from midfield.

They look light however, especially at left back, with no real cover, and up front.

Liverpool
Liverpool are another team who did their business up front in the window. With Suarez leaving, they reinvested their funds in the Southampton triumvirate of Lovren, Lallana and Lambert, as well as Balotelli for a bargain £16m, the same price as Arsenal paid for Danny Welbeck.

Negredo scored 23 goals for City last season

Manchester City
Negredo leaving to join Valencia on loan, was the big story at City, Negredo is currently injured, but was in top form last season. Jovetic's return to form after injury last year, has meant Negredo is not really missed.

Valencia apparently have an obligation to purchase and not an option at the end of the loan, which kind of makes it a sale really, if he's not coming back.

Manchester United
United were the big deadline day movers, selling Welbeck, loaning out Hernandez, Powell and Keane and signing  Daley Blind and bringing Radamel Falcao on loan.

On the face of it United look stronger Welbeck and Hernandez were 3rd and 4th choice strikers, Falcao now joins Rooney and Van Persie, goals are surely guaranteed.

However, the real issues with United were not in attack but defence. Vidic and Ferdinand have not been replaced. With Van Gaal preferring a 3-5-2 formation, utilising wing backs, it seems crazy or at least unwise to have not added a proven experienced centre-back. It remains to be seen if Rojo or Blind can be converted to centre back, but United look weak at the back, especially with a lack of holding midfield options in front of them.

Falcao is coming back from a serious knee injury, but if he can produce the form shown below, he will be devastating for United.

Newcastle United
Fortunately, for Newcastle the days of Joe Kinnear trying to negotiate deals are long gone. Newcastle had a quiet deadline day, which won't surprise their supporters, but they have done business earlier in the window, and their squad looks ok.

Queens Park Rangers
The biggest surprise of the window was that Harry was unable to orchestrate more than 2 signings, however there was no surprise that he went back to sign 2 players he previously managed. Nico Kranjcar joined QPR on loan for his second season, and Sandro joined from Spurs for reportedly £6m, all good business for Harry, but QPR still look lightweight in attack.

From the Champions League final to Southampton

Southampton
Ronald Koeman declared himself happy and delighted with his squad, at the end of deadline day. He brought in Sadio Mane a striker who has be fruitful in the Austrian league and Champions League finalist and Belgian international Toby Alderweireld who can play both centre back and right back.

They also managed to hang on to Morgan Schneiderlin, and Jay Rodriguez, all round good business from Koeman.

Stoke City
Mark Hughes brought in Assiadi from Liverpool for a second season on loan. Otherwise the Potters were very quiet.

Sunderland
What Gus Poyet really needed was a striker, what he ended up with was 2 South American internationals, Sebastian Coates a promising Uruguayan centre back from Liverpool, and Ricky Alvarez an Argentinian attacking midfielder from Inter Milan. 

Both represent good business, but neither solve the potential lack of fire-power up front.

Swansea City
The way Swansea have started the season, they didn't really need to sign anyone. However they did make one addition Gambian Striker Modou Barrow from the Swedish league.

Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham tend to be active on deadline days, selling players, buying players and loaning them out. 

This year was no different, Sandro left for QPR, Holtby went on loan to Hamburg and they acquired French holding midfielder Benjamin Stambouli, a player in a similar mould to Morgan Schneiderlin who has stayed at Southampton. Stambouli is good in the tackle, strong on the ball, with a touch of class also, see the video below.

West Bromwich Albion
Having already signed 11 players it was no surprise deadline day was quiet at the Hawthorns.

West Ham United
Big Sam is another manager who likes a good deal, and he added to his squad with Morgan Amaltifano joining. Amaltifano was on loan at West Brom last season and scored this wonder goal against Man Utd. Amaltifano represents another player that West Ham will hope adds more flair to the club.

To see all the deadline day moves go to http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9451229/transfer-deadline-day-all-the-completed-transfer-deals.

And for all the Ins and Outs of the summer check out http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/football-transfers/10848288/Premier-League-summer-transfers-2014.html