Football.co.uk yet again looks at the heroes and villains of another unpredictable weekend's football.
Heroes
Bobby Zamora
Roy Hodgson may have gone a step too far when tipping the striker for an England call-up, but Zamora took a step toward proving his critics wrong.
The former West Ham United striker has come in for heavy criticism, sometimes from his own fans, as a result of his profligacy in front of goal.
He missed a host of gilt-edged chances in the week against CSKA Sofia and heard calls for him to retire from the Craven Cottage faithful, but won his side three points against Sunderland on Saturday.
It is not nice getting jeered by your own fans but his celebration, fingers to lips gesture at ungrateful supporters, was maybe a little premature.
Sebastian Larsson
One of the best free-kick takers in the Premier League may be a bold statement, but Larsson proved he is a contender with two brilliantly executed set pieces in Wigan.
The Swede's first may have been a tad fortunate, the ball somehow evaded a packed penalty area before finding the back of the net, but his second was superb.
His curling effort flew past Mike Pollitt, continued Birmingham City's revival and left fans dreaming of a Europa Cup challenge.
Villains
Phil Dowd
There are three vying for this spot – all involved in the same incident. Dowd inexplicably awarded Portsmouth a penalty for a foul by Wade Elliott on Hermann Hreidarsson.
Replays showed that Elliott was nowhere near the Icelander, who is given the benefit of the doubt after his admission that he did not dive nor deserve a penalty.
The third possible recipient, Aruna Dindane, redeemed himself for a shocking penalty and rebound attempt by scoring to give Pompey a badly needed win.
Matt Duke
The old adage constantly reminds us 'all goalkeepers are mad' and even the best of keepers can suffer rushes to their heads. Just ask David James.
Matt Duke, though, cannot be excused for deciding the best way of dealing with a long ball way out of the penalty area is not to let his defender clear but head the ball out of play himself.
Unfortunately for the Hull City gloveman Steve Sidwell, as well as almost 40,000 others, spotted him slightly off his line and acted as ball boy before James Milner gratefully lobbed the ball into the open net.
Duke completed his nightmare game by again rushing out of his goal, this time bringing down Ashley Young to gift Aston Villa a third from the penalty spot.
- by David Brenchley
Source: DSG
