Weekend Roundup 12/20 - 12/21

Queen of the South - Over the last two weeks QoS has hosted second-placed Dunfermline and travelled to third-paced Livingston. Unfortunately for Queens they had similar results in each game, losing 2-1 at home and 2-0 on the road. This has left the Doonhamers gaining 1 point in their last 6 league games after having earned 21 points in their first 12 games. Now at the midpoint of the season QoS is in 7th place, just 1 point from the relegation playoff spot and 11 points behind the leaders.

This is quite a change from the quarter point where Queens was leading the division and everyone was talking about promotion. Maybe some of the bad Colorado Rapids mojo has rubbed off on Queen of the South. It was about the time that the group of Rapids fans started organizing to buy shares in QoS that the results went south.

Blackburn Rovers - Rovers played a pitiful game on the road at Wigan two weeks ago, falling 3-0 to a side that really didn't display anything special. This was the last straw for the Blackburn board as they fired manager Paul Ince and brought in Sam Alardyce to try to save the team from relegation. Hosting Stoke City on Saturday the move seemed to have worked, as Rovers stormed out to a 3-0 lead int he first 30 minutes. The team looked as good as it had all year, and while there were some questionable moments in the back the squad was composed and finished the job. One game short of the midway point Blackburn is 19th in the table, 3 points from safety.

CD Tenerife - Last week CDT hosted promotion rivals Hercules and managed a last second goal to claim the 3 points to close in on a promotion spot. This week it was relegation-fodder Alaves on the road and it was more of the same. This time though Tenerife scored eraly with two goals in the first 30 minutes, and held on after conceding a goal in the 87th minute to win 2-1. The win was CDT's 4th win on the road this season, which leads the league, after only managing 1 road win all of last season. CDT is now in 5th place, only 2 points from a promotion spot.

Kildare County - County is still in the offseason, but they announced that their youth/reserve team manager would be taking control of the first-team next season. That next season still looks to be in the "A" Championship as Meruve United has decided that they will take Kildare's spot in the first division. County's only hope at this point is that one of the other first division teams decides that they won't be able to handle another season int he first division and drops out, otherwise its relegation for Kildare.