Sunderland v Newcastle United result 25th October 2008

Sunderland 2 Newcastle United 1 Attendance 47,936

This midday Premiership fixture was a mouth watering North East derby and lived up to the expectation with both teams showing lots of commitment in the tackle and desire to win. Cisse scored first in the 20th minute stabbing home a Melbranque cross. Shola Amoebi then made it even only ten minutes later with a well worked move finished off with a firm header from the Nigerian.

But it was in the second half that Kieran Richardson made the Stadium of Light erupt with a thunderbolt free kick hitting the top corner of the net. This was a wonderful goal showing superb techinque to bend and swerve the ball at high speed - Shay Given had no chance.

Newcastle's performance was stronger and are showing more signs of improvement currently from Spurs but Joe Kinnear will feel the pain of losing a local derby whilst being in the bottom 3.

Everton v Manchester United result 25th October 2008

Everton 1 Manchester United 1 Attendance 36,069

Darren Fletcher opened the scoring 22 minutes in at Goodison Park from a Ryan Giggs assist. Man Utd then dominated the possession with slicking passing and movement. In the second half Everton were subjected to more pressure from the Red Devils but then in the 63rd minute Everton turned the game on its head with a counter attacking football spell beginning with great passing move involving a Phil Neville cross which Fellaini headed home to make it 1-1. Quickly after this Yakubu then hit the post from a narrow angle at close range. Anderson came on for Park in an attempt to take some pressure off of the Manchester United defence. Everton played with style and aggression in attack with Yakubu putting heavy pressure on Ferdinand and Vidic. The game evened out and although Fergie will see this match as two points lost in the premiership battle, Man Utd could have easily dropped all three.

Iain Dowie sacked at QPR

Chairman Flavio Briatore has sacked Iain Dowie after only 15 games from his managerial role at Queen's Park Rangers. With 8 wins, 3 draws and 4 wins this year. This is the second time that Dowie seems to have been prematurely sacked after 12 games. There have been rumours that Briatore has been trying to tinker with the QPR team selection and there have been board friction with the sporting director Gianni Paladini and vice chairman Amit Bhatia.

Terry Venables, Darren Ferguson, Roberto Mancini and Alan Curbishley have all been linked with the positon.