Beginning, as usual, with this week-end's upsets:
41 DUNDEE UTD - Rangers 2:1 40 NAPOLI - Juventus 3:1 40 Hibs - ST MIRREN 0:1 37 ZARAGOZA - Villarreal 4:1 36 Charlton - QPR 0:1 35 SOCHAUX - Marseille 2:1 33 HERTHA BERLIN - Bochum 2:0 33 READING - Newcastle 2:1 32 PRESTON - Plymouth 2:0 31 KILMARNOCK - Hearts 3:1 31 REAL MURCIA - Heulva 1:0 31 STUTTGART - Bayer Leverkusen 1:0 17 BORUSSIA DORTMUND - Bayern Munich 0:0 16 PALERMO - Inter Milan 0:0 15 Aberdeen - FALKIRK 1:1 15 METZ - Nancy 0:0
Highlights from Round 9 of the FA Cup:
01 Evesham - Halifax 0:0 05 Burton Albion - Tamworth 2:1 07 Stafford Rangers - Cambridge Utd 1:1 10 Bradford Park Avenue - Gainsborough Trinity 0:4 12 York City - Rushall Olympic 6:0 13 Kidderminster - Vauxhall Motors 3:1 14 Harrogate Railway - Harrogate Town 2:1 15 Chasetown - Nuneaton 2:1 17 Hornchurch - Team Bath 0:1 22 Bath City - Torquay 0:2 25 Eastleigh - Forest Green 3:3 32 Havant and Waterlooville - Leighton 3:0
Evesham and Eastleigh the only new names into the Round 8 draw; AFC Hornchurch, Leighton Town, and Rushall Olympic were all making their first appearances in Round 9, as was Eastleigh. Some sides are making returns after long gaps: Staines were last in Round 8 in 1984-5, Workington in 1982-3, Droylsden in 1978-9, Ware in 1968-9, and Horsham in 1966-7.
The Round 8 draw includes:
03 Torquay - Yeovil 05 Bury - Workington 09 Eastleigh / Forest Green - Bournemouth 11 Team Bath - Chasetown 14 Hereford - Leeds United 20 Evesham / Halifax - Burton 21 York - Havant and Waterlooville 22 Harrogate Railway - Droylsden 24 Ware - Kidderminster 25 Walsall - Shrewsbury 27 Altrincham - Millwall 32 Stafford / Cambridge U - Crawley / Aldershot 33 Notts County - Histon 38 Chesterfield - Tranmere 39 Wycombe - Swindon
The live match will be Torquay - Yeovil (3.15, 11 November, BBC-1).
Cup week-end in Scotland, too
After the non-league shenanigans of Round 8 three weeks ago, Round 7 in the new-look cup sees the entry of Division D, and the three surviving Junior teams gave a good account of themselves. Linlithgow Rose downed Spartans 4:1, Pollok drew 2:2 at Montrose, and Culter beat Vale of Leithen 2:1. The surprise was Stenhousemuir's humiliating 1:0 defeat at Threave Rovers. Albion Rovers hit 8 (EIGHT) past Burntisland Shipyard, Huntly and Arbroath both hit 5 in winning.
Round 6 sees the entry of Division C and the bottom six sides from last year's Division B. Three non-league sides are sure to be in the draw alongside the big guns: Culter host Huntly, Cove play Edinburgh University, and Linlithgow Rose host Dalbeattie Star. Threave's reward is a home tie against Raith Rovers, and Whitehill Welfare will travel to Ross County.
League 1
R RD +- +-RD
============================
LYN 1139 84.0 44 0.52
BDX 1056 85.7 -23 -0.27
NCY 1046 91.5 - 4 -0.04
REN 1045 85.2 1 0.01
LEM 1014 88.8 - 8 -0.09
NIC 989 88.0 5 0.06
MAR 986 84.2 6 0.07
PSG 985 86.4 -17 -0.20
STR 970 105.0 68 0.65
SET 968 87.3 49 0.56
MON 965 87.4 -20 -0.23
VCN 962 87.5 -26 -0.30
AUX 959 87.0 - 1 -0.01
LEN 934 84.0 - 5 -0.06
LOR 929 87.0 -43 -0.49
SCX 920 85.2 20 0.23
TOU 919 81.7 -49 -0.60
LIL 913 87.3 -44 -0.50
CAE 896 103.7 125 1.21
MTZ 834 109.3 28 0.26
NTS (II) 921 108.5 4 0.04
SED (II) 901 118.0 0 0.00
TRY (II) 845 112.6 -59 -0.52
Changes are in matches since 24 September. Lyon's consolidated its lead as Strasbourg and St Ettienne continue to tear up the league. Toulouse and Lille are the major losers.
Division A
R RD +- +-RD
============================
RAN 992 86.5 -16 -0.18
CEL 968 86.5 17 0.20
ABD 901 87.8 4 0.05
DDU 842 89.4 92 1.03
HBS 808 89.6 -45 -0.50
HRT 791 89.7 -10 -0.11
KLM 769 90.1 -43 -0.48
MTW 754 89.6 44 0.49
ICT 723 89.8 49 0.55
FAL 688 89.3 -40 -0.45
STM 668 94.3 41 0.43
GRE 547 102.9 -95 -0.92
DNF (II) 684 116.9 -26 -0.22
LVG (II) 555 151.0 0 0.00
Changes are in matches since 24 September. In spite of their good form in Europe, Rangers have been dodgy in domestic play. The rise and rise of Dundee Utd was crystallised by Sunday's win over Rangers, putting the sides level on league points. Hibs and Kilmarnock are falling, and it's politest not to mention Gretna.
Midweek: league programmes in Spain and Italy, cups in France, England, Scotland, and Germany.
