The x-factor winners

Simon Cox's strike and Maxi Rodriguez's hat-trick make Chris Kamara's picks of the weekend.

Chris Kamara's Picks of the Weekend

Every Saturday afternoon, Chris Kamara heads to stadiums up and down the country to deliver his unique match reports for Soccer Saturday. On Sundays you can see him back in the Sky Sports studios as he brings you all of the highlights on Goals on Sunday. And then on Mondays you can find Kammy right here on skysports.com as he brings you his picks of the weekend. Join us every week as he runs through his highs and lows...

GAME - Tottenham 2-2 West Brom
Bolton's late victory over Arsenal was probably the most significant result of the weekend but I thought the game at White Hart Lane was a cracker. West Brom were determined to prove that they weren't only there to make up the numbers and Spurs found that out to their cost. Having overturned Peter Odemwingie's early strike Spurs tried to be clever and waste a little bit of time but it caught up with them when Simon Cox came off the bench to put a dent in their Champions League aspirations.

GOAL - Simon Cox
I sat down and had 15 minutes with Roy Hodgson before kick-off on Saturday. In that time we covered a lot of ground, as you can imagine, because Roy is a very open and honest man. Simon's name came up and we chatted about how he's coping having made the big step up from League One; Roy said it's not a problem as the lad has got ability and added that Simon was unfortunate not to be starting because he's been playing really well of late. Anyway, later on Roy brought him on as a substitute for Paul Scharner, who to be fair had been doing really well. The move paid immediate dividends as Simon curled home an absolutely brilliant goal to prove there is a bit more about West Brom these days.

GAFFER - Ian Holloway
This is the most difficult category this week. Steve Bruce got the result that he needed, Liverpool continue to make good progress under Kenny Dalglish, Sir Alex Ferguson all but has the title wrapped up after beating Everton and Owen Coyle can be really proud of the way his side recovered from their mauling at Stoke to beat Arsenal. For me though Ian Holloway just shades it for the home draw against Newcastle that lifts Blackpool out of the bottom three. If you'd said to him at the start of the season that his side wouldn't be in the relegation places with four games to go I'm sure he would have taken it. It just goes to show how precious a point can be at this stage of the season.

PLAYER - Maxi Rodriguez
Where has this lad been? A long time has elapsed since he was signed by Rafa Benitez in January 2010 and in that time you'd have to say that he has underachieved. But he stepped forward on Saturday to score a hat-trick - a personal triumph for him and he'll probably feel accepted now, in much the same way as former Liverpool striker Fernando Torres will feel relieved at opening his account for Chelsea. I'm sure there's a lot more to come from both players. Kenny Dalglish took Maxi off near the end of Saturday's game to ensure he got the accolades he deserved and he'll be especially pleased the Argentine has found some form because it adds to his options in Steven Gerrard's absence.

TEAM - Sunderland
The Black Cats have been falling like a stone recently and they went a goal behind to Wigan shortly after the break on Saturday. At that point it would have been easy for them to fold but they didn't. Instead, they came back in style, scoring four goals without reply before Di Santo's late consolation. When you think that this was their first victory since January's 2-1 away win over Blackpool - a period in which they have lost eight and drawn only one of nine Premier League games - you can't underestimate this result.

GRIPE - Cohen's booking
I found this incident so sad. Under the letter of the law Mike Jones had to book Tamir but these were exceptional circumstances and I don't see why the referee couldn't have made an exception. Tamir wanted to make a personal tribute to his Dad Avi, a very good former footballer who died after a motorbike accident, and to him the booking is neither here nor there. Referee Mike Jones actually apologised to Tamir afterwards for showing him the yellow because he knew why the player celebrated the way he did. Was Jones that worried about being marked down that common sense had to go out of the window? I don't see why he couldn't have had a quiet word and said 'you are very fortunate that I am not putting you in the book but I understand why you did it'. I'm convinced that there isn't one single club in the league who would have complained.