Rubber Chicken’s Dojo

sheffield wednesday rebounded from a midweek blip against scunthorpe ( 2-0 loss) to go back to their 2-1 winning ways versus plymouth argyle. all the goals were scored in the first half as both teams were determined to lift themselves from the relegation battle.

new zealand striker, rory fallon, nodded home to open the scoring on 24 minutes. [aside] should be interesting to see how fallon goes in south africa this year. big fella might attract some attention from bigger clubs.

within a minute of argyle going ahead, luke varney poked home a marcus tudgay through ball to level the scores. it was varney’s first goal since re-signing with the owls on loan from derby county. [aside #2] it’s his sixth spell on loan with sheffield. why don’t they just buy him already?

varney doubled his tally three minutes before the break and it proved to be the game winner. tommy spurr, whose throw-in lead to the first goal, played the ball down the line to tudgay. he headed it down to varney who found some space as the argyle defence stayed off him. varney slotted it home at the far post to finish the scoring.

the second half lacked any decisive chances. plymouth tried to push forward but lacked creativity and finish.

while plymouth gets further mired in the relegation zone, the owls’ win lifts them to 19th on the table. they are five points ahead of the highest relegation position but the teams below them have games in hand. the positive football has to continue for safety to be certain.

the boston globe has an interesting set of photos for this week’s big picture series. the theme is fiery festivals. the viking looking pictures come from scotland and a festival that has been a tradition for 130 years. the lower set is from spain and includes horse riders jumping through flames to pruify their souls. here’s the pick of the lot:

sheffield wednesday have hit their usual new year purple patch, right when i don’t have interwebs coverage. as such, they’ve clawed their way out of the relegation zone and, relative, safety.

the owls now find themselves on a three game winning steak. all three games ended 2-1 against barnsley, blackpool and, most recently, peterborough. new coach alan irvine must be saying the right things in the dressing room. marcus tudgay (both against peterborough) has scored two of the six goals, while luke varney, while scoreless, has been playing well.  meanwhile, premiership target, lee grant, has been playing the house down at the other end, ably supported by the four in front of him.

let’s hope this miracle continues.

witty dialogue, fast-paced action and rachel mcadams make sherlock holmes worth going and taking a look at. director guy ritchie sets a cracking pace straight off the bat, giving an excellent insight into how holmes (robert downey jr) thinks. seeing how he is going to execute his fighting and then seeing it at full speed was pretty neato.

downey jr does a decent holmes while jude law plays sidekick, watson. he does a pretty good straight-man role. thhot.ey seemed to pay well off each other. mcadams plays token love interest but is still hot.

19th century london looks good, with some nice cgi. i could go on about costumes but i’m not gay. farting dog jokes are appreciated though. nice.

let’s be honest, this is more for entertainment, not cultural significance. it wasn’t really worth $20 plus popcorn but that doesn’t mean it was a terrible movie. just not the best one i’ve seen lately.

sheffield wednesday have confirmed that former preston north end manager, alan irvine, has been appointed their new manager. he has signed a three and a half year contract, meaning he’ll only last two.

irvine was controversially sacked from his former club this year, having guided preston to the playoffs last season. he had been there for just over two years.

former england striker, alan shearer, has been linked and consequently denied taking over the vacant manager’s seat at sheffield wednesday. the manager-less owls have not been faring too well so it comes as no surprise that he does not want to get on that ship. it was theorised that he would take over only if his good friend, gary speed, was his assistant. more on the story from the bbc.

sheffield wednesday continued their sucky season as they succumbed to a much more committed crystal palace and were bounced out at the first hurdle in front of their smallest attendance of the year. even though the score was 2-1, wednesday were not only not even close in this one, they didn’t even score their goal. meaning the goals against newcastle last week have been the only ones scored since november.

i guess now they can concentrate on not blowing so hard in the championship division.