Around One – a good weekend for the Clarets

Phil Babb - gave penalty away for Watford's second

Watford’s second had to be the joke decision of the weekend as Sunderland Phil Babb won the ball with a superb tackle outside the box only for referee Lee Probert to punish it with the award of a penalty.

Thankfully Sunderland came back with goals from their subs, Marcus Stewart and Darren Byfield, and almost won it in stoppage time when a Jason McAteer effort hit the inside of the post and somehow came out.

Byfield had only signed the day before from Rotherham in a swap deal with Michael Proctor and hadn’t met his team mates until they picked him up on the M1 on the way to Vicarage Road.

What the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away and Derby scored deep into stoppage time to earn themselves a point against Cardiff at Pride Park. Cardiff had come from 1-0 down to lead 2-1 before loan man Leon Osman scored.

The bottom three were all beaten and that was the best news of all. ‘Nottingham Forest nil’ is now the familiar news from the City Ground and this time it cost Paul Hart his job as they failed to score for the seventh successive league game. Andy Reid’s 89^th minute equaliser on 6^th December was the last time they hit the net and their last win was as far back as October.

I wonder how long it will be BRBC before the BR disappears? Saturday saw their ninth defeat in eleven games and this time they were even in front against West Ham through Peter Atherton. Two second half goals from Bobby Zamora and Marlon Harewood ensured West Ham went home with the points.

Should we spare a thought for Franchise? No, and in fact it is getting even funnier. The administrators announced that no further players would have to go and then promptly got rid of Agyemang, Leigetwood, Reo-Coker, Nowland and McAnuff.

Darren Huckerby - scored winner for Norwich

Manager Stuart Murdoch complained that the referee, Michael Ryan, wanted to be the star of the show. But the worst news of all was the fact that league leaders Norwich sold all their tickets to give them a much bigger than average crowd.

The win allowed Norwich to extend their lead at the top with the next two both going down to 3-0 defeats. West Brom boss Gary Megson claimed that they had thrown away one of their 46 games by not bothering at Preston. Not one of his players turned in an even acceptable performance according to Megson.

WW though was impressed with it all and is now beginning to talk about promotion, we’ll just leave him to it for now.

Sheffield United were unable to capitalise on the Baggies defeat though and suffered their third home defeat of the season to Crystal Palace. The win moves Palace into the top half of the league, this was their eighth away win this season and means they have more points on their travels than any other club.

That’s five wins and a draw since Iain Dowie, who did such a good job at Oldham, took over. Only the Clarets have taken any points from them.

Once on a proper football pitch Wigan turned in an excellent performance by beating Ipswich 3-1 at Portman Road. It must be a joy for them to play away from home given the state of the pitch at the concrete jungle.

Although Stan said last week than not many teams will take points from them when they visit the JJB the fact is that they do. Wigan have failed to win over half of their home games so far this season. Meanwhile they continue to impress at home.

There have been some serious problems at Millwall this week with violence once again rearing its ugly head. Not outside the ground though this time, that doesn’t happen any longer after excellent work by the club and the supporters. This time it was between two players and they have suspended a junior player after what the club described as a serious incident.

It didn’t stop Danny Dichio scoring and he got his fifth in three games since signing for the Lions on loan. This time it was an equaliser that won them a point at home to Stoke.

Walsall were without Paul Merson at home to Crewe, he is in America receiving treatment for an addiction. Walsall led 1-0 but a late equaliser gave Crewe a share of the spoils, there is no truth in the rumour that Merson had money on the draw at 3/1.

Finally Ronnie Moore’s Rotherham went nap at home to Reading with two goals from Michael Proctor in his first game for the club following the swap deal with Byfield. The result ended a winless run for the Millers and an unbeaten run for the Royals and allowed Rotherham to keep above the Clarets.

There are no fixtures this midweek and there is also a reduced league programme this weekend because of the FA Cup 5^th round. Millwall’s game is still on should they lose to Telford yet should we be unable to play our cup tie this weekend then it will leave us with no game. Wonderful consistency from the inept Football League.

The fixtures all kick off at 3:00 p.m. unless otherwise shown.

Coventry City v Norwich City
Crystal Palace v Stoke City
Ipswich Town v BRBC
Millwall v Rotherham United (provisional)
Nottingham Forest v Walsall
Watford v Preston North End
West Bromwich Albion v Cardiff City (1:00 p.m.)
Wigan Athletic v Derby County