Gloves off at Fight Hart Lane
Rocky may have pitched up at Goodison Park yesterday but, pound-for-pound, the day's best contest was at White Hart Lane as Newcastle emerged victorious in a five-goal thriller against Tottenham — after being galvanised by a half-time dust-up.
Sylvester Stallone was the special guest for Everton's 1-1 draw against Reading. He was paraded to the fans before kick-off draped in an Everton scarf to chants of Rocky, Rocky' and the familiar rousing theme tune for his boxing blockbusters.
Read more
• Butt makes most of Given's heroics
• Skipper Terry poised to sign £150,000-a-week deal at Chelsea
• It won't be Rocky for Beckham in LA, says Sly
• Hammers have £10m bid for Young accepted
But the real fireworks came at in north London when Newcastle's Nicky Butt clashed with Pascal Chimbonda, a bit of push and shove that carried on in the tunnel.
The pair were booked for their troubles, but that did not stop Butt from putting a week in his sick bed behind him to grab a precious late winner for Newcastle.
Toon boss Glenn Roeder admitted that the incident — sparked by man-of-the-match Shay Given's fury at challenges on him by Chimbonda and Tottenham striker Dimitar Berbatov — had been all the motivation his side needed to launch their comeback from 2-1 down.
He said: "They made their minds up that what happened was going to pull them together even tighter. The temperature was raised and the incident galvanised our players to go out and fight."
Butt added: "It was a great result considering all our injuries. We stuck at it and got the goals at the right time to earn a great victory.
"I'm over my flu and I'm just happy to play in the team. I thought Obafemi Martins and Antoine Sibierski set the tone up front. They put them under great pressure and it was great team performance."
