As the Premiership hots up

As the Saturday 3 o’clock kick off’s finish if you were betting on the away teams winning then four of your bets came in.

As the top of the Premiership is turning into what will be a grandstand finish, and the bottom being a battle for survival, today’s results have only added to the excitement for what will be a fantastic run in to the end of the season.

As the four away team managers enjoyed their days out to opposing teams, King Kev as he was labelled when he took over at Newcastle was on the receiving end of a Mark Hughes’s away Blackburn team beating them 1-0 at St James Park. Reading managed to put their losing streak behind them with their first away win of the season by beating Middlesborough 1-0 at the Riverside, and the defending champions Manchester United enjoyed their day out in the capital with a 3-0 away win at Fulham. Controversy over the red card shown to West Ham old boy Frank Lampard may take some of the shine off what was an impressive 4-0 away London derby win at West Ham.

Derby and Sunderland played out a 0-0 draw in a result that has to be said was not unexpected considering Derby have the worst home team record in the Premiership and Sunderland the away.

A late consolation goal from Jermaine Jenas wasn’t enough to take any gloss off what was an impressive home performance by Birmingham City by beating Carling Cup winners Tottenham 4-1 at St Andrews.

With Birmingham beating Tottenham today, today was the day when Phil and Brin’s bet could have been over, at the start of the season Brin said Tottenham would finish above Aston Villa come end of the season and Phil was not one to take that easily so the bet was on! However a late late goal by Bendtner saw Phil’s dreams of an away win at Arsenal come crashing down around him and the bet continuing for another week.

The remaining weekend Premiership fixtures sees Manchester City play Wigan in the late Saturday kick off, whilst on Sunday Liverpool travel to Bolton in an away fixture that they always seem to have difficulties in winning, and Everton welcome Harry Redknapp’s Portsmouth side to Goodison.