Seperating Latest, and Previous Posts

Hi Everyone.

I hope someone can point me in the right direction, but basically I decided to have a go at creating my own theme using a blank wp theme, and learn along the way.. but there is something I really need and want to do.

It’s a two column theme, and I want the latest post from any category to show up on the left, main front page (just one post, full post)

and the previous posts to that, to show up with excerpts etc in the sidebar..

Does anyone know of a plugin that can do this, or point me in the right direction with the code.

I would be truly grateful

Many Thanks

Martin