Football3s

As a Valentines gift to you and your other halves, we've decided to put on an extra game of Football3s this week. But which one to cover?

Kicking off at lunchtime on Saturday we have Swansea v Newcastle on Sky. This clashes with both the tasty Saints v Pompey derby on ITV and Swansea's rivals Cardiff who are away to Chelsea in the FA Cup live on S4C.

If you don't like Saturday lunchtime games then we could cover Man City v Stoke, Bolton v Spurs or Crystal Palace v Aston Villa.

We're debating which match is the biggest but we'd rather you decide. So let us know which one you'd prefer by commenting below. Or tweet the name of your team followed by the hashtag #football3s. Whichever team has the most votes by 5pm Friday, we'll cover.

(Photo by functoruser)

You'd have thought that David Cameron would be busy setting up Conservative Party policy ahead of the general election. Turns out he's been messing about with football games on the internet. Yesterday we were sent this (courtesy of Daniel Bower). Daniel later went on to win the top prize for the Leeds v Spurs match. Organising political campaigns, scooping coin on Football3s, is there anything Mr Bower can't turn his hand to?

His luck hasn’t ended there - in recognition of his efforts we’re going to send Dan a t-shirt we found lying around the office. It's a large and we think it's been washed.

So if you’ve got anything amusing you want to share with us by all means send it over. Not only does it seem to bring luck but also if we find it funny we’ll try and give something back in return. Even if it is a chewed biro. Or a signed picture of me.

We’re really sorry about the technical glitch that caused the game to crash around the 70-minute mark and close all the rooms last night. We’re trying to resolve this so that it doesn’t happen again. Apologies if it cost you points.

We hope you enjoyed the game otherwise.

It’ll be loud, it’ll be partisan and it’ll be very tough for Spurs. Leeds have already disposed of one Premier League side this year and will be hoping to add another scalp tonight. With grayson’s aces scooping £50 last night, Simon Grayson will be hoping to turn it into a bumper week for Leeds fans. As we covered Spurs last week we looked back over that game and picked our men to watch:

Gareth Bale: He finally registered his first Premier League win as a Spurs starter against Fulham at the 23rd time of asking and did so in some style. He top scored with 80 points, which included 6 crosses and 28 interceptions (second only to centre back Michael Dawson). Attacking fullbacks tend to do well in Football3s and Spurs will be looking for similar production from Bale tonight.

Wilson Palacios: With Leeds certain to be charged up a lot of responsibility falls on the Honduran to be the first line of defence. Scored 69 against Fulham, which included 20 interceptions and 5 tackles. His short, simple passes also meant that he didn’t score any negative points for failed passes so if you’re looking for someone to keep your score ticking over, Palacios could be your man.

Jermaine Beckford: We couldn’t go through a three to watch without tipping our hat to Leeds’ cup goal hero. With the winner at Old Trafford and a brace in the first game between the two sides, Beckford seems to be saving his best for the FA Cup. He offers little except for goals but the former RAC tyre fitter will certainly be worth taking a chance on.

(Photo by djsherbet)

With three of the so called “Big Four” already out of the competition, there is a great chance for a side to put in a real cup run this year. With one of the ties of the fifth round, a home game against Aston Villa, up for grabs both these sides are sure to go all out for the win. However, as we’ve never covered either of these sides before we thought we’d give you a helping hand to identify tonight’s key players:

Jody Craddock: Captain, centre half and second top scorer, Craddock does it all for Wolves. He may be losing his pace, some would argue that he never really had any, but he has been one of Wolves most impressive performers this season. He won’t shirk a challenge all evening and will rack up the interception and tackle points, and maybe nick a goal too!

Sylvan Ebanks-Blake: He has disappointed this season after tearing up the Championship last year but showed flashes of his best in the original tie. With Kevin Doyle carrying a bit of a knock, Ebanks-Blake should find himself starting again and while strikers tend to be a boom or bust play in Football3s, if Ebanks-Blake is sharp then there are a lot of upsides to having him in your three.

Darren Ambrose: With the departure of Victor Moses there is even more pressure on Palace’s main man to produce the goods. He’s already bagged 14 goals and 4 assists from midfield this season after being brought in on a free in the summer, in what’s looking like an inspired signing. Players playing his role traditionally do well in Football3s, Carrick and Scholes top scored for United last week, so Ambrose will probably score highly as well.

(Photo by OliverN5)

"Anyone that's mad enough not to play needs a check up from the neck up"
Gary Hawkins, manager of ballersboys

We are hiring a tester. The tester is responsible for making sure that Football3s looks great and works efficiently.

Our small team manages, designs and builds Football3s. This is a neat opportunity for someone who cares about football or the web or both combined.

Email noam@football3s.com if the job sounds interesting.

After protracted contract negotiations, we're pleased to announce our latest signing to the team - Ed Smith - who we signed today on deadline day from Leicester City.

When we say we signed him from Leicester City, he wasn't playing for them he was watching them, but still a signing is a signing.

Also we don't have any scarves or a stand so we've improvised with a beer mat, as you can see.

I'm not belittling Hereford United (see BensBulls comment on last post) or entering the debate of who's the biggest club, Arsenal or Spurs.

But since I said I would, here is the updated table from last night if all of you represented the clubs you support at Football3s:

1. Man Utd

2. Chelsea

3. Tottenham Hotspur

4. Arsenal

5. Liverpool

6. Aston Villa

7. Wolves

8. Glasgow Rangers

9. Reading

10. Hull City

If you represented the club you support at football3s. Who would be top of the league?

I checked for last nights match and calculated the league by aggregating the points from all players according to the teams they follow.

Its weird that the top 4 mirror the Premiership a bit, but below that there are some pockets of support from outside the big teams. Here are the top 10:

1. Man Utd

2. Chelsea

3. Aston Villa

4. Tottenham Hotspur

5. Leeds Utd

6. Arsenal

7. Preston

8. Darlington

9. Fulham

10. Man. City

Can Man City close the gap tonight? - I'll let you know tomorrow

For neutrals the fall out from the Manchester derby has been hugely entertaining. Whether it be Gary Neville’s schoolboy middle finger gesture towards Tevez or the Argentine labelleling the former England defender a “boot licker” and an “idiot” , it has certainly kept the football world entertained. Fortunately that was only round one, and in anticipation of even more fireworks this week we looked back over last weeks game to pick our ones to watch tonight:

Wayne Rooney: He managed to do everything but score and was absolutely superb in the last 20 minutes of the match at Eastlands. He's obviously found his shooting boots though and notched four times at the weekend against Hull. Scored 63 last week with nearly half those points coming from shots on target. If he can actually beat Given with a couple of those this time round he’ll be the top scorer in the match.

Ryan Giggs: He’s had to shoulder a lot more creative responsibility since Ronaldo left and nowhere was this as obvious as in the Manchester derby earlier in the season when United won 4-3 and Giggs grabbed 3 assists. He scored 85 last Tuesday, including United’s goal, but it was the 11 crosses he made that show his real value and United will be hoping someone will be on the end of them this week.

Vincent Kompany: The big Belgian was a rock at the heart of the defence last week especially when you consider his partner, Boyata, was a teenager only playing his third game for the club. His 63 points included an acrobatic assist but most impressively 23 interceptions. If City are to protect their first leg lead then they will have to rely heavily on Kompany.

(Photo by gordonflood.com)