Around One – Baggies stay top after another big home win

Driss Diallo - put through his own goal in bottom club Ipswich's 4-1 defeat at West Brom

There was always an uneasy truce between the supporters and long ball Joe Royle because of his Norwich connections and this start will not be helping. Former Ipswich player Thomas Gaardsoe scored his first West Brom goal to give them the lead and it was all completed with an own goal from ex-Claret Driss Diallo who chose Ipswich ahead of the Clarets because of their Premiership potential.

Wigan must have felt at home playing at Selhurst Park. They are used to playing in front of small crowds at he JJB but not this small, as not much over 1,000 turned up to see them turn over Franchise 4-2. Franchise are now without a point since the opening day of the season, yes it gets better with every match, and are sat just one place above Ipswich.

Alongside Wigan on points are West Ham who beat Reading with Alan Pardew nowhere in sight. Dailly got the winner for Brooking’s outfit and maybe Pardew was celebrating in front of his magic lantern with a claret & blue scarf around his neck.

Remember Sunderland the side that was one defeat away from creating a league record of consecutive defeats and the side that hadn’t won a league game in 2003 as recently as three weeks ago? They have just celebrated their fourth successive victory, moved into fourth place and last season’s Premiership disaster is almost forgotten. They even played in front of their biggest crowd of the season as they beat Palace with a rather dubiously awarded stoppage time penalty.

There was some good news but some very bad news for Forest. They gained some revenge for their play off defeat at the hands of Sheffield United by beating them 3-1 at the City Ground. But sadly their former Burnley loan striker David Johnson was stretchered off with a broken leg after just twelve minutes.

David Johnson - suffered a broken leg against Sheffield United

Forest run out easy winners but their main concern will be Johnson and we wish him a full and speedy recovery.

Cardiff have found themselves in the top six courtesy of a 5-0 win against Gillingham. The Gills hadn’t conceded a goal until we showed the way on Bank Holiday Monday and after three clean sheets have conceded 13 in 4 games.

Robert Earnshaw became the first player in the division to hit four goals in a game this season after Peter Thorne had opened the scoring. The only other hat trick was Dougie Freedman’s for Palace on the opening day of the season at the Turf.

Preston returned to losing ways after picking up their first win against Stoke with a 2-1 defeat at Bradford. They took the lead through Fuller but some classic goalkeeping from David Lucas helped the home side to two second half goals.

Alexander was sent off to see North End finish the game with ten men and after an incident involving Michael Branch and Michael Keane in stoppage time they could have found themselves with more sent off after a mass brawl on the half way line.

It even sparked The Weary Whinger into life and he came running on to do ………. absolutely nothing other than get a closer view. Referee Pearson settled for waving just two yellow cards.

Watford beat Millwall 3-1 in a match that wasn't without incident and it was somewhat strange to see Watford playing in an all white kit at home. They chose to use their away kit in a home game to help market it. I can just imagine Burnley playing in grey at home going down well.

Watford's Danny Webber was stamped on by Kevin Muscat

He had no option with the red card though and it has to be said that Muscat’s return to English football was very sad news indeed. On this occasion Muscat decided he would stamp on a Danny Webber’s leg. He gave away a penalty and thankfully Webber wasn’t injured.

The Australian full back got no support from his manager or team mates and Millwall boss Mark McGhee blasted after the game, "It was an insane moment, it really was. At half time the other lads were around him. More often than not they will stick up for each other, but there didn’t seem to be anyone who wanted to stick up for him.

"I feel let down by him. I know about Kevin’s history before he signed for Millwall and we had discussions before he signed. He has cost us one game and he will be censored under club rules. He can’t be doing that sort of thing."

I have to say I am amazed that Mark McGhee was naïve enough to think that this sort of thing wouldn’t happen and almost certainly there will be more unsavoury moments with Muscat for him to contend with.

Thomas Gaardsoe wasn’t the only player to score against his former club, the only goal of the game at Walsall came from Junior to give visitors Derby all three points. Junior chose to leave the Bescot at the end of last season and his goal took Derby off the bottom with their first win of the season.

Walsall though have now gone five without a win since that crushing opening day Merson inspired victory against West Brom.

Andy Morrell - scored Coventry's fourth and his first for the club

Stoke’s 100% record from the first two games now looks a long time ago and they have collected just a couple of points from the last fifteen.

Finally Crewe took the points in the big Sky match at Rotherham courtesy of a Dean Ashton penalty and a Richard Walker goal in a 2-0 win. Things are a little tough for Ronnie Moore just now and their only win this season was against West Ham who were always in for a bad day once they realised the dressing rooms weren’t big enough.

Performance of the week has to go to Coventry, they really did seem to have forgotten how to win whilst the top moment had to be the sight of Weary Whinger running on to the Bradford pitch as hall hell broke loose.

Mind you I have to admit raising a smile when I saw Diallo’s own goal go in as long ball Joe’s Ipswich went down heavily at West Brom.

This week sees the first full midweek fixture list of the season with all but one of the matches being played on the Tuesday.

The weeks fixtures are as follows with all midweek fixtures kicking off at 7:45 p.m. and weekend fixtures at 3:00 p.m. unless otherwise shown.

Burnley v Nottingham Forest
Crewe Alexandra v West Ham United
Crystal Palace v Bradford City (8:00 p.m.)
Gillingham v Norwich City
Ipswich Town v Walsall
Millwall v Franchise
Preston North End v Coventry City
Reading v Cardiff City (8:00 p.m.)
Sheffield United v Rotherham United
Stoke City v Sunderland
Wigan Athletic v West Bromwich Albion (8:00 p.m.)

Derby County v Watford

Burnley v Bradford City
Crewe Alexandra v Nottingham Forest
Crystal Palace v West Bromwich Albion
Derby County v Sunderland
Gillingham v West Ham United
Ipswich Town v Franchise
Millwall v Walsall
Preston North End v Rotherham United
Reading v Coventry City
Sheffield United v Cardiff City
Stoke City v Norwich City (5:35 p.m.)
Wigan Athletic v Watford

6: Robert Earnshaw (Cardiff)
5: Marlon Harewood (Nottm Forest)
4: Carl Asaba (Stoke)
4: Nathan Ellington (Wigan)
4: Dougie Freedman (Crystal Palace)
4: Shaun Goater (Reading)
4: Lee Hughes (West Brom)
4: Rob Hulse (West Brom)
4: Mark Rivers (Norwich)
4: Marcus Stewart (Sunderland)
3: Patrick Agyemang (Franchise)
3: Robbie Blake (Burnley)
3: Jermain Defoe (West Ham)
3: Paul Merson (Walsall)
3: Scott Murray (Reading)
3: Bob Peeters (Millwall)
3: Andy Reid (Nottm Forest)