Armchair fans see team score late goals

When Joe Mason gave Cardiff the lead on five minutes at the Amex Stadium two days ago it was the first time Brighton had been behind in a game all season. They recovered to draw it 1-1 and that allowed them to move two points clear of Middlesbrough who were beaten 2-0 at Reading.

It's certainly tight just behind that with all four of the clubs in the play-off positions on 18 points and that includes us. We moved up from 7th to 3rd on Friday night with the win at Rotherham but all of Reading, Birmingham and Hull won on the following day to go back above us.

I think a review of the weekend has to include a few words on former Claret Kevin McDonald. He was one of a number of our ex players to score at the weekend but the only one in the Championship.

His goal was the first in Wolves' 3-0 home win against Huddersfield and capped a fine week for him, adding to the goal he'd got a week earlier and his first ever call up to the Scotland squad. Unfortunately that's where the good news ends. He's today been forced to withdraw from Gordon Strachan's squad because of injury.

I watched that game and McDonald played well. He even played the full 90 minutes but I won't go there.

I saw the Charlton v Fulham game too yesterday and still can't believe Fulham didn't win it. They were coasting at 2-2 with less than ten minutes to go so Charlton sent on Johnnie Jackson as a substitute. He's a bit of a local hero, now in his sixth season with them.

He scored with his first touch, heading home a corner, and you sensed there might be a fight back. It came in the sixth minute of stoppage time, another header from Jordan Cousins.

Fulham boss Kit Symons, who had seen his side lose 3-0 at home against Wolves earlier in the week, said: "I'm incredibly disappointed. There's no excuse. Two free headers; two points thrown away. Up to the last ten minutes we never looked in any trouble whatsoever."

Every club has armchair fans but Charlton's get closer to the action than most. In the corner of the ground and close to the pitch, they've stuck a settee from which three home supporters sit and watch the game.

Apparently to win a place for a home game you have to send in a picture to the club of you and your family sat on your home settee in your Charlton shirts.

I've never heard of such an idea before, maybe it's been instigated by the Belgian owners. Do you they get mayonnaise with their chips at half time?

The MK franchise left it late to get themselves out of the bottom three. Had they lost at Bristol City they would have been off the bottom only on goal difference with Preston occupying the last place. Bristol City, without a home win all season, led from the sixth minute through Jonathan Kodjia only to concede an equaliser in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

So tight is it at the bottom that MK are now 18th, above Brentford, Rotherham and Bolton on goal difference and one point ahead of Preston and a Bristol City team who remain bottom.

Bolton it is then who are now in the relegation places and this after going 2-0 up at QPR on Saturday after just 11 minutes. With just over an hour gone they were behind and they couldn't even get anything despite equalising five minutes from the end. Jay Emmanuel=Thomas, who had scored QPR's first, got a late winner for them. These were the first two goals for QPR for the former Burnley target who was released by Bristol City at the end of last season.

Derby's was reportedly the best performance of the day. They beat Brentford 2-0 in what was described as a very impressing showing and Preston surely conceded the best goal of the day. They were already trailing 2-1 at Sheffield Wednesday when Lewis McGugan scored the latest Football League goal of the day from fully 40 yards, hitting it over goalkeeper Jordan Pickford after spotting him off his line.

That's it for a couple of weeks now while the internationals are played. In the period since the last break, Derby have picked up the most points. The only points they've dropped in five games were in the 0-0 draw against us.

Reading and Middlesbrough have 12 points with Birmingham, us and Sheffield Wednesday all having collected 1o points. At the other end, Preston and Charlton have gained just two points each and MK have only picked just that one point at Bristol, this despite outplaying every team they've played according to manager Karl Robinson.

All the results and stats are below along with the leading goalscorers, the red and yellow card counts, the highest and lowest attendances and finally the next set of fixtures which kicks off with Bristol City against Nottingham Forest at Ashton Gate on Friday 16th October.