The trumpets of Jericho sound for Everton's hopes

The government have firmly rejected the application by Everton FC to build a new development in Kirkby today and it seems hope of an appeal with not materialise due to the decision being made in accordance with recommendations by the planning inspectorate.
Opposition to this prohject has been very clear from the onset of the announcement by Everton that they intended to move from Goodison Park into a development in partnership with Tesco, who would have been investing a considerable sum into the project, but it is clear now that this avenue is firmly closed.
Bill Kenwright has been searching for investors for some time now to bring back the prestige of a club on the decline and it was hoped that a much bigger stadium with better facilities would go some way to attracting someone with financial clout. The problem Everton have now is, having to sell big in order to survive, how long will David Moyes be able to work miracles at a club seriously punching above it weight?

Graham Matheson

'El Classico'

This coming Sunday sees one of theree of Europe's biggest derbies with the eyes of the world firmly on events in Spain as the 159th 'El Classico' between Real Madrid and Barcelona will be played in front of a packed and hostile Camp Nou.
Expectations will be high for this match as the top two teams in the land, both in terms of status and current league form, battle it out for top spot in La Liga.  Expectations are also raised because of the events of the

Liverpool not very hungry in Hungary

Liverpool stutter to a 1-0 win over Hungarian champions, Debrecen. Needing Lyon to produce a result in Florence because of terrible results in games against both teams, is no way to compete in a campaign but they were off to a great start after just 4 minutes, when a well-worked corner fell to Ngog to tap in at the far post. The next fifteen minutes saw Liverpool press and pass the ball quickly retaining possession well and carve out chances but found the Debrecen goalkeeper, Poleksic, in fine form, stopping Ngog and Steven Gerrard. The remainder of the first half was laboured from Liverpool, whose midfield of Lucas-Mascherano intent on slowing down the game and a far-from-fit Aurelio providing no attacking threat from the left, produced very little of quality.
The second half produced more of the same with an obvious lack of quality passes and vision from central midfield despite the willing running of the ever-improving Ngog. Ever-improving yes, but can they really rely on an untested and unproven youngster to carry all of the goalscoring threat? As the game wore on it became more-and-more obvious that the attacking threat and vision of Acquilani was desperately needed in place of the, at times, absent Lucas but it took Benitez until the 75th minutes to make a subsitution, bringing on Benayoun for an obviously tired Ngog. The Debrecen defence proved admirably capable of stopping the predictable Liverpool attack, with the only moment of tension coming with a Steven Gerrard burst into the burst that Meszaros was able to brilliantly block.
For all of Liverpool's attacking impotency, Debrecen found themselves threatening more and more as the game wore on with the main threat coming from the sublime touches of Rudolf. Liverpool hearts were in their mouths in stoppage time as the substitute, Coulibaly, hitting tamely straight at Reina from six yards.
As it was, Lyon could not produce the result Liverpool so desperately needed with a first half penalty enough to see Fiorentina through at Liverpool's expense.

Crunch time for Liverpool

Liverpool are busy preparing for their important match in Hungary tonight with most of the questions from journalists being, "Will you be keeping a close eye on the score in Italy?" Jamie Carragher and Rafa Benitez have been careful in answering these questions stating the obvious, "We'll concentrate on our doing our job." Yet Carragher, the epitomy of Liverpool's never-say-die attitude, appears to be resigned to the possibility of Europa League football, "We're still focused and believe we can go through in the Champions League. If not,