G'Day Mate! Seven Australians That Lit Up The Premier League

Happy Australia day! The country that has given us Shane Warne, Shaddap Your Face and Neighbours has also provided us with some pretty decent Premier League players over the years. We've picked out seven very good ones in no particular order.

Mark Bosnich - Aston Villa, Manchester United, Chelsea

The first of the goalkeeping Marks on the list. Bosnich became known for his superb penalty saving ability and for his $5,000 a week cocaine habit. Dubbed a terrible professional by Alex Ferguson he went on to play over one hundred games for Villa but was never spectacular. Won seventeen caps for Australia.

Tim Cahill - Everton

Now here is a player that is worthy of a mention. Spent eight seasons on Merseyside and will forever be remembered by the Everton faithful for always putting in one hundred percent effort and never giving up. Also remembered for his boxing celebration which i'm sure many premier league corner flags will be glad those days are over. Before going on to win ninety four caps for Australia Cahill played for Samoa under 20's at the age of just fourteen. He's also still playing, currently turning out for one of Man City's sister teams Melbourne City.

Brett Emerton - Blackburn

Emerton spent eight seasons at Blackburn Rovers, even bagging a goal on his debut against Wolves. Unfortunately picked up a cruciate injury in 2009 leaving him sidelined for months. Played over two hundred times for Rovers and 94 times for Australia.

Harry Kewell - Leeds United, Liverpool

Kewell was part of a very promising era for Leeds, making his debut aged 17. Went on to win the PFA young player of the year in the 99-00 season.Also married somebody from Yorkshire soap Emmerdale. He became the first Australian born player to win the Champions League after limping off during the legendary 2005 champions league final for Liverpool. He is currently the under 21 coach at Watford.

Lucas Neill - Blackburn, West Ham, Everton

Neill made over 250 appearances during his time in England and for a while was considered a Blackburn hero for his never say die attitude in games. This soon changed after he rejected a new contract as he fancied a change of scene. The Rovers fans were convinced he had left the club for financial reasons and let his know their true feelings on his return to Ewood Park by booing him every time he touched the ball.

Mark Schwarzer - Middlesbrough, Fulham, Chelsea, Leicester City

Genuine Premier league legend, Schwarzer is currently the only player form outside the United Kingdom to make over five hundred appearances in the Premier League. But despite his lengthy sty in England he has only won one domestic trophy which was the league cup with Middlesbrough in 2004. He has been part of two title winning teams (Chelsea and Leicester) but both times he hadn't made enough league appearances to claim a league winners medal.  Currently holds the record for the most capped player for Australia (106) and the oldest player to play in the Premier League for both Chelsea and Leicester.

Mark Viduka - Leeds United, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United

Mark Viduka or 'Big Dukes' as he is affectionately known back home was a powerful striker, best known for his time at Leeds United where he went on to form a strong strike partnership with Alan Smith. Played in the Premier League for nine seasons. Won forty three caps and scored eleven goals for Australia. Currently holds the record for the most goals from an Australian player in the champions league with four.

The York Report - York Citys Great Escape Begins

York City claimed their first home win since September with a 2-1 win over Barrow.

The National League's bottom club have shown a resurgence in form recently but have been unable to secure the three points that they desperately need.

Amari Morgan-Smith grabbed his second goal in two games for the Minstermen after twenty two minutes, collecting the ball from a big Jon Parkin flick on.

York had more chances, including an effort from Jon 'The Beast' Parkin and despite Barrow coming  into the game York's goalkeeper Kyle Letheren had very little to do. That was until the seventy second minute when Barrow striker Jordan Williams nipped in before Letheren and slotted home and equalizer.

It seemed like it was going to be same old York. Its happened a fair few times this season, York take the lead and play superbly but let it slip near the end. But today was different, York had the fight in them and with the game in its dying embers Sean Newton popped up to drive home a winner. Newtons dramatic goal sent the fans wild.

Frustratingly both North Ferriby and Guiseley also picked up three points today, but York's win leaves them just four points from safety with plenty of games to keep themselves in the league.

Next up for the Minstermen is a trip to Aldershot who currently sit 7th in the league, but after beating 6th placed Barrow confidence will hopefully be high in the York camp.

Five Things We Learnt From Englands Draw With Slovenia

Gareth Southgate took charge of the second of his four match spell as England manager. After a their two nil win against Malta, England were hoping to kick on and add another three points to their qualifying total. Unfortunately it was a lackluster performance so The CRF looks at 5 things we learnt.

1.Joe Hart is top quality on his day.
It seems that people have forgotten that Joe Hart can be a great goalkeeper. After his numerous mistakes at euro 2016 people right called for him to be dropped from the England starting line up. Following this new man on the block Pep Guardiola deemed Hart surplus to requirements and sent him out on loan to Torino, but last night he was at his very best. In the first half he was quick off his line after a shambolic back pass by Eric Dier and in the second half he was on hand to make three saves in quick succession, one was an unbelievable stop from a corner, and called into action again from another shocking back pass this time from captain for the night Jordan Henderson. With England's back line all over the place last night it was Joe Harts fantastic performance that got England a very lucky point.

2.England need to sort their defence out quickly
So many times i was left with my hands over my eyes as Englands defence tried to be far to casual on the ball. Gary Cahill has not been at the top of his game for too long and his inclusion in the starting line up still confuses many. John Stones showed great confidence with the ball at times but then had moments where he decided tried to be too clever and was caught out. The full backs Rose and Walker looked positive at times but again showed defensive frailty. Perhaps its time to give players like Michael Keane a chance, he's a no nonsense centre back and would hopefully remind the rest of his defense that you don't need to be fancy in front of your own goal. England were lucky not to be punished by Slovenia's strikers but against better opposition it could be a catastrophe.

3.Wayne Rooney isn't the only problem but leaving him out is still the right choice.
Everybody knows that Wayne Rooney is not at his best and hasn't been for some time for club and country. Everybody was quite surprised that Gareth Southgate was the man the be ruthless and leave the England captain on the bench. He must have been watching from his seat rubbing his hands thinking that the media might give him a break as the players on the pitch struggled but his introduction did nothing the lessen the criticism. One nice lay off to Jesse Lingard and curling a shot wide were not enough to stake a claim to be reinstalled to the starting line him. He didn't inspire any change when he came off the bench and looked sluggish on the ball and was unable to get the Three Lions going. Maybe its time his spot in the squad was given over to somebody else so he can concentrate on getting back to his top level domestically.

4.Andros Townsend still has what it takes
Townsend has been in slight international wilderness over the last few years. Having scored on his debut things looked like they were going from strength to strength, but injuries combined with a lack of form domestically slowed his England career down. But after coming off the bench last night he looked lively, causing the Slovenian defenders problems by constantly running at them. He nearly scored with his first involvement and put in some good crosses. Not everything paid off for him but he was a positive introduction to the game and really showed Walcott what is expected on the wing for England.

5.England seem nervous to try anything adventurous
After the shocking performances at the Euros in the summer, England seem petrified of making any mistakes. Looking at the Malta game, they should be winning games like that by 6 goals but instead they bagged the two goals and stopped being overly attacking just in case they were caught out. Last night there seemed to be another lack of adventure with the players on the pitch, and this caused them so many issues. They just seemed to lack positivity and instead of trying to beat players just passed the ball right back to Joe Hart. It seemed that they were so nervous of getting stick from the media and the fans they started to make silly mistakes like the poor back passes of Henderson and Dier. Perhaps we need to lower our expectations of them or perhaps they need to up their game and at least play with the passion the fans deserve to see.

Montpellier-The Last Champions before The PSG Domination

What do Eric Cantona, Roger Miller and Laurent Blanc all have in common? Thats right i'm sure you guessed that they have all played for Montpellier. Why am I talking about Montpellier I hear you ask? Well they were the last team to lift the Ligue 1 trophy before the current dominance of the Qatari backed PSG so lets take a look at what happened to some of the stars of La Paillade's title winning season.



Oliver Giroud
The French striker finished top of the goal charts in Ligue 1 in their title winning season with 21 goals. Despite being linked with a big move away during January (Montpelliers chairman priced Giroud at 50 to 60 million euros) he managed to keep his head and keep firing Montpellier to the top of the table by March and on to the clubs first top flight title in their history. Having been priced so high Giroud ended up joining Arsenal for 12.4 million euros in the summer following the triumph and has gone on to score over 50 club goals and picked up two FA Cup winners medals.
 

Hilton 
Vitorino Hilton da Silva or just Hilton for short joined the French club at the start of their successful campaign in 2011. Signing after leaving Marseille and stating his unhappiness in France Hilton went on to be a solid addition to the clubs defence and was named in the team of the year 2012. The 39 year old still plys his trade for the club and is currently the club captain.
 

Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa
A product of the youth academy Mbiwa went on to play over 180 games for Montpellier. He appeared 34 times in their title winning campaign putting in top performance after top performance at the heart of the defence. He stayed at the club for the first half of their title defense before an £8.5 million  move to Premier league Newcastle beckoned. After Struggling to make an impact he joined Roma on a season long loan before moving back to France permanently with Lyon. He currently has four senior caps for the French national side.
 

Benjamin Stambouli
After bouncing around various youth teams including Marseille, Satmbouli signed his first professional deal with Montpellier. The defensive midfielder made 26 appearances whilst helping them win their first ever top flight title. Resisting the temptation of a big move straight after success Stambouli stayed until 2014 and was made vice captain for the 2013/14 season. It was Tottenham Hotspur that coaxed him away from France for a fee of £4.7 Million. After an unimpressive spell at Spurs Stambouli moved back to France with PSG. He currently plays for Schalke in Germany.
 

Remy Cabella
Another academy graduate Cabella had spent the season before on loan at Arles-Avignon trying to get back to top standard after suffering a cruciate ligament injury previously. During the title winning season he chipped in with 3 goals in 24 appearances. It wasn't until 2014 that he made the move from France to the North East of England, signing for Newcastle on a six year deal for a reported £8 million, but was unable to really make a name for himself and moved back to France with Marseille.
 

Rene Girard - Manager
Girard had been around the block a few times before joining Montpellier, leaving his post as France under 21 manager to take the job. After guiding them to the title he was said 'I Think our triuph is a real shot in the arm for French football, It just goes to show that everyone can beat everyone and money isn't the be all and end all. Were a club of mates, a club that brings through young players and gives them a chance.' After doing a Leicester before Leicester he went on to manage Lille and is currently in charge of Nantes.