News Round-Up

- Tonight's draw for the second round of the League Cup has seen us paired with Neil Warnock's Crystal Palace. The game will be played in the week beginning 24th August. Not the best draw, really. Warnock will have his cloggers up for it, you know what he's like. I'm sure the press will get plenty of material out of the tie. Let's hope we don't slip up again.

- Gareth Barry, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Wayne Bridge all played for England tonight, with Barry at fault for the second Dutch goal in an entertaining 2-2 draw. Nigel de Jong also appeared for the home side, and had a really good first-half especially. Shay Given and Richard Dunne both played for Ireland in their disappointing 0-3 defeat against Australia.

- Martin Petrov's apparent wanting away made lots of corners of the press today. A couple of sources are also reporting David Bentley is still interesting Mark Hughes. I suppose a swap deal could be a possibility, though i'm not sure Bentley's good enough to earn a place over SWP.

- The club have announced that an unspecified number of extra tickets will go on sale tomorrow morning for the opening day away trip to Ewood Park. These are only available in person to seasoncard holders from 9am.

- A City XI made up of academy players drew 3-3 with Witton Albion, conceding three in the last half an hour. Ahmed Benali (2) and Jack Redshaw with the goals.

- Rumours are doing the rounds that Brian Kidd will shortly be announced in some sort of coaching role at the academy after leaving Portsmouth this week.