Simeon Jackson may not be getting on the score sheet that much lately, but he’s still making his presence known.
This past Saturday, the 24-year-old striker assisted on Norwich’s first goal as the Canaries rallied from a 1-0 deficit to defeat visiting Wolves by a 2-1 score line.
Jackson fed Norwich’s leading scorer Grant Holt – who also grabbed the winner – in the 26th minute, getting the home side back on level terms after having conceded just a minute previous.
The Holt-Jackson partnership has been a cornerstone of the Norwich attack this season, and has helped the Canaries to an almost-assured second consecutive season in the Premier League.
A team not so sure about their future in the EPL are Blackburn Rovers, who fell 2-1 at Bolton Wanderers last Saturday and now sit dangerously near the drop zone. Junior Hoilett played 90 minutes for Rovers in the loss.
Meanwhile in the nPower Championship, David Edgar and Burnley fought to a 2-2 draw with West Ham United, with Edgar going the full 90 on the backline. With eight matches to go, Burnley are firmly settled in the lower-mid table.
Down a level in England’s League One, striker Iain Hume featured in a pair of home games for Preston North End over the past few days. On Tuesday, Hume went the distance in a 3-1 PNE loss to Brentford, and three days earlier Hume played 80 minutes as Preston drew 1-1 with Bury. The results dropped PNE to 15th on the 24-team league table.
Over on the continent, Atiba Hutchinson also got himself into a pair of matches recently, as his side PSV Eindhoven won a KNVB Cup game 3-1 over Heerenveen last Wednesday and followed that up with a 2-0 loss at Ajax in league play on Sunday.
Hutchinson went 90 minutes in both games for PSV, who are through to the final of the Cup thanks to the midweek victory. The Eindhoven side is currently fourth in the Eredivisie standings.
Next door in Germany, defender Kevin McKenna is probably thankful that he remained on the bench for FC Köln on Sunday, as the side were demolished 6-1 by table-toppers Borussia Dortmund. The loss sees Köln fall to 14th place in the Bundesliga.
While one Canadian’s German club was stumbling downward, another’s continued its ascent, as Olivier Occean’s SpVgg Greuther Fürth cruised to a 3-0 victory over lowly Karlsruher SC on Saturday.
Occean went 90 minutes up front for Fürth and, although he didn’t score in the match, he remains the club’s leading goalscorer. The win kept Greuther Fürth one point ahead of Eintracht Frankfurt at the top of the 2.Bundesliga standings.
Another club inching toward the top of the league table is FC Vaslui, backstopped by Milan Borjan. Vaslui took a huge step in their title aspirations on Sunday when they traveled to second-place Dinamo Bucureşti and grabbed a 1-0 win. The victory brought Vaslui to within three points of their hosts, and to within eight of Romanian league leaders CFR Cluj.
Another shot-stopper started his league campaign this past weekend, as the Norwegian Tippeligaen kicked off its 2012 season. Lars Hirschfeld manned the nets for Vålerenga as usual, with the club claiming a 2-1 victory over FK Haugesund on Matchday 1.
