Own Goals Cause Draws

This week's Super Sunday had a touch of deja vu about them. Both games had an early goal, a sending off and an own goal to produce two 1-1 draws. The first of which came in the Stadium of Light where the first Tyne Wear derby was played.

The usual feistiness of the derby was prevalent throughout the match and Newcastle got off to a lightning quick start. The visitors were ahead after just three minutes when a Demba Ba shot was parried by Simon Mignolet. The ball fell to Yohan Cabaye who smashed the ball home.

Newcastle were then down to ten men on 25-minutes when Cheick Tiote received a red card. After the whistle had already blown for a Newcastle free-kick, Tiote carried on playing and, shortly after Steven Fletcher had cleared the ball, left his studs in an attempted challenge.

Newcastle didn't really seem too off-put despite the man advantage but Sunderland did arguably deserve a point. They got that point with four minutes left when a Seb Larsson free-kick was met by John O'Shea, his header ten deflected off Demba Ba to out wit Tim Krul and find the net.

It was a very similar story in the second game at Loftus Road where QPR entertained Everton. Everton were very slow for a lot of the game and got caught on the counter attack almost immediately. From a corner, Julio Cesar managed to clear the ball out to Junior Hoilett and the Canadian ran the rest of way before his shot clipped the back of Leighton Baines, wrong footing Tim Howard, and putting QPR ahead after just two minutes.

Everton did get better as the first half went on and they were level on 33-minutes. A Seamus Coleman cross was met by an unmarked Sylvain Distin. The defender's header came off the post before hitting the back of Julio Cesar and rolling back over the line, counting as an own goal by the unfortunate Brazilian keeper.

Everton's hopes of sneaking a victory were marred when they found themselves down to ten men just after the hour mark. Steven Pienaar had been guilty of persistent fouling throughout the match and had already picked up a yellow card within ten minutes of the second half. His second yellow was shown after the slid into Jose Bosingwa, and left referee Jon Moss no other option. Everton held on despite the man disadvantage, leaving QPR now eight games without a win.