Round-up #1

I was impressed with the way Newcastle won at Bolton. I think we might see the fortunes of both clubs swap around this season since Sam Allardyce knows what he's doing and Sammy Lee has all the tactical acumen and experience of the otter he's trying to model himself on. It's not often you see such pink-faced men with proper white-blonde hair.

The man may be deeply annoying but I think Roy Keane will be a good manager. Obviously he's impressed everyone already by guiding Sunderland to the promised land, but I like to give first-time managers an opportunity to fail too. That naturally happens - in most cases - within a year or 18 months, but a 1-0 home win over Spurs is a good result and I can't see the Black Cats rolling over like limp cocks this season.

Blackburn are a team I like; they've made a conscious effort to reduce ticket prices and they're not the best-supported team in the land - especially when you consider the size of the town and its population. They've got a good manager in Mark Hughes and I'd like to think that they'll do well this season too. Their 2-1 win at Middlesbrough was well deserved and Matt Derbyshire will be a young player to watch out for. He's got a bit of experience having been loaned out to lower league clubs over the past couple of seasons, and he caught the attention of your Spy a number of times last year when he kept scoring having just come on as a sub.

Iain Dowie could be the man to take Coventry forward after the club's been stuttering along since falling out of the Premiership in 2000/01. I can't work Dowie out; he did really well at Oldham and continued his good form at Crystal Palace. But then he came in for a lot of criticism in his short stint at Charlton but looks like he might have found his level at Championship level with a club looking to push for the play-offs. Their 4-1 win at Barnsley yesterday supports my theory that the Tykes are rubbish and destined for the drop.

Hats off to Scunthorpe for their 1-1 draw at Charlton. They had to come from behind and it was old Champ Manager favourite Izzy Iriekpen who scored the equaliser. The Addicks have gone from playing at Anfield to hosting the Iron in one swift move (that being downwards).

It's always nice to see Sheffield Wednesday get tonked. I didn't think that would happen much since they've got Brian Laws in charge (and he made such an impression since taking over last season) but I suspect it's just a blip; I can't make my mind up about Ipswich because in manager Jim Magilton they don't seen to have someone who can lead them to promotion, but he's been solid so far and might develop over the coming year.

Leeds pissed off Tranmere and the rest of the country's moralistic football fans by scoring in the last minute to register an opening day win and immediately reduce their deficit to 12 points. Them, Cheltenham and Leyton Orient - three teams I tipped for relegation just the other day - all won, so that's told me. Orient's 2-1 win at Southend was the most impressive of the three as many pundits were expecting to see Southend make an immediate return to the Championship.

I didn't know Michael Rickett's career had fallen so far - nothing against Oldham, like. He was such a big name at Bolton that it's difficult to accept that careers can take such drastic turns due to injury and serious loss of form. I guess it happened to Michael Bridges when he resurrected his career at Carlisle, but he's 29 now and his days of playing at the top are sadly long gone.

Ooooh, I almost forgot to mention - that Cheltenham win: three red cards! I saw the highlights on ITV's The Championship (poorly-named since it covers all leagues outside the Premiership) but none of them were exciting - just second yellow cards for stuff like not retreating ten yards at a free kick.

How I had to laugh at MK Dons' 2-1 home defeat to Bury! As you may have guessed by now, your Spy isn't a fan of franchise clubs and goes against the media grain when he says Paul Ince isn't all that great, so I took great pleasure in laughing at their misfortune. Two other 'surprise' results stood out in League 2, them being Accrington's 1-0 away win at Wycombe (I don't think the Chairboys will be going anywhere as long as Paul Lambert is in charge) and Shrewsbury's 4-0 hammering of Lincoln at Cincil Bank, proving that I'm not the only person to get predictions wrong after the BBC Sport website outrageously tipped the Imps to be League 2 champions.

If you like unpredictability then never look any further than the Scottish leagues. Second division Alloa began their season with a 4-1 away win at Peterhead, which was quite impressive since they've spent the past two or three seasons escaping relegation each time. Being top of the league is obviously pressure Alloa can do without as they wilted at home to Airdrie United 6-0. Airdrie themselves lost 1-0 at home to Raith on the opening day of the season.

As sure as eggs are eggs (or as long as there's a hole in my arse, as Grandad Spy used to say) East Stirling are Scotland's worst league team. But their 3-2 win over Dumbarton keeps them off the bottom for the time being - that acolade going to Forfar, having joined Elgin and Arbroath in losing their first two matches of the season.