English Premiership Results 8th February 2009

Aston Villa made a club record with seventh successive away victory by crash Blackburn Rovers 2-0 at Ewood Park . Are they good enough to break into the top four of Premiership? Villa lead by James Milner and a goal from Gabriel Agbonlahor. "We have a lot of belief about us. We created a lot of chances considering we were away from home. I thought the team were magnificent." Martin O’Neill described his players as brilliant.

Meanwhile at Stadium of Light Sunderland beat Stoke City with the same score, 2-0. And Chelse got embarassed result from Hull with 0-0 score. In the first minute Frank Lampard took a free-kick, Michael Ballack flicked on, and Matt Duke parried. The ball fell to John Terry, three yards from goal. Somehow he made it over.

One banner unfurled by fans called for Scolari's sacking. Hull are still without a win in nine league games, but this was a hugely encouraging point for Phil Brown's side and their performance was more reminiscent of their early season form when they won away at Tottenham and Arsenal.

Rafa Benitez suddenly appears to be an addicted gambler. Already missing Steven Gerrard and the suspended Lucas yesterday evening, he left out three of his most experienced players until well into the second half and before they came on to play decisive roles, Portsmouth looked capable of earning Tony Adams some breathing space. After winning only two out of his 15 previous matches, they led 2-1 at 85 minutes, only to be undone by goals from Dirk Kuyt and Fernando Torres, two of the senior internationals Benitez had put on the substitutes' bench.

At The Hawtons, Newcastle can make a 3-2 scores without their manager, Joe Kinnear after falling ill at the team hotel. Ryan Taylor was a constant threat down the right flank, Kevin Nolan probed and cajoled as he always did at Bolton, and Peter Lovenkrands was alert to many of the West Bromwich defence's myriad cock-ups. Lovenkrands grabbed his first goal for the club, in the ninth minute, although by then The Hawthorns had already witnessed two goals in a dramatic and almost farcical beginning.

It took Damien Duff just 62 seconds to latch on to Albion botch-up No 1: Leon Barnett stumbled and allowed Shola Ameobi's innocuous pass under his feet, and a grateful Duff fired past Scott Carson. One hundred and forty seconds later, Marc-Antoine Fortune, the West Bromwich striker on loan from Nancy, equalised by taking advantage of a slip by Steven Taylor and burying Borja Valero's centre with a rasping drive.

The game went quite after that. For four minutes, anyway. Then Loven-krands turned in Nicky Butt's cute ball after Ryan Taylor's volley rebounded off a defender, and the travelling Toon Army were back in raucous song. They remained there as the Baggies' back four lost leave of their faculties and let Newcastle enjoy chance after chance. By the time Steven Taylor appeared at the far post to head in the corner of his namesake, Ryan, four minutes before the break, Newcastle's third goal was overdue. As was Mowbray's rollicking to his dysfunctional defenders.

Steve Bruce blamed himself for a match that began as mediocre and could not maintain even that standard. By the end, yesterday's goalless draw resembled the stalest of mid-table stalemates.

The newly signed Colombian forward, Hugo Rodallega, was responsible for the first, supplying a disguised pass when the Fulham defence expected a shot. Maynor Figueroa curled in an inviting early cross that Mido was set to meet perfectly before heading wide. "A fit Mido would have scored," Bruce said. One bonus for Hodgson was that Olivier Dacourt made a good debut, playing for longer than was intended but showing well in the undistinguished surroundings of this contest. (idc)