Around One – It wasn't that bad

Matty Fryatt - first goal for Walsall

The worst news of all came from Deepdale where Walsall picked up maximum points against a Preston side who were apparently miles better than their opponents and should have won. That is of course according to the gospel of the Pathetic Weary Whinger, back on the touchline after being sent off at Coventry in midweek, but he needs to stop whinging and start listening. Then he would have heard the Preston fans turning on him, yes they have had enough as well.

Walsall have turned to youth and their goals were scored by youngsters Matty Fryatt and Mark Wright, both scoring their first goals for the club.

Elsewhere the wins for Gillingham and Derby at least ensured defeats for Rotherham and Nottingham Forest although in a perfect world draws would have been better results.

Gills’ boss Andy Hessenthaler had been complaining that his side don’t get going early enough in games but they did this time and were two up after just nineteen minutes through Barry Ashby and Mama Sidibe. That was the end of Rotherham and the nearest they came to a goal was via a wind assisted long range effort from Michael Proctor that hit the bar.

The weather was at it at Derby too. Forest were already a goal behind when keeper Barry Roche kicked a stray coffee cup as he tried to clear the ball and set up Mr. Karren Brady for yet another goal in Derby colours.

He scored again to make it 3-0 before Forest pulled two back but it was the home side who won it when Marcus Tudgay added a fourth for a 4-2 scoreline.

Goalkeepers and the awful weather played a major part at Portman Road too and Watford’s loan keeper Lenny Pidgeley will not look back at this game with anything other than horror.

Dean Bowditch - hat trick for Ipswich against Watford

Bowditch became the youngest Ipswich player ever to hit a hat-trick as they completed an easy 4-1 victory in front of the television cameras.

BRBC have had a mini-revival but it has taken them nowhere and they remain in the bottom two. It came to an end yesterday at Bramall Lane when they conceded two goals, by Chris Morgan and Jack Lester, in two minutes during the second half.

Crewe lost again, this time at home to Cardiff and again it was a goalkeeper taking centre stage. Ben Williams, making his debut in goal for Dario G’s boys on loan from Manchester United, scored the only goal of the game.

He’d had a stormer but totally misjudged a wind swirling ball, it hit the post and bounced off him and into the net for the only goal of the game.

At the top leaders Norwich went down 1-0 at Crystal Palace with a Wayne Routledge goal but they still lead the table with West Brom’s game at Stoke called off because of high winds – certainly no surprise at the Britannia.

Norwich’s position at the top is because of their excellent home form, they have seven points more than any other team in the division from home matches. Virtually removing away support, as they did for most of these games, has certainly worked to their advantage.

The battle for the play off positions, the top two look to be too far clear now, is hotting up and Wigan and Sunderland both won on Saturday.

Wigan brought Coventry back down to earth with a 2-1 win whilst Sunderland scored twice in two minutes to win at the Madejski Library. The Sunderland goals were scored by Darren Byfield and Tommy Smith.

West Ham remain fifth but took one hell of a hammering at the Den on Sunday where just about everything happened.

Millwall won 4-1 and even managed to miss two penalties. West Ham’s goal came from the spot, the only thing they did better than Millwall all afternoon.

Former Blackburn defender Christian Dailly put through his own goal and Hammers keeper Stephen Bywater was sent off.

Worst of all was the sad news that there were major crowd disturbances although that was from the away fans who were there in a crowd of just over 14,000.

A total of eight mounted Police and three-dozen riot Police were brought on to the pitch at one stage to stop away fans from invading the playing area as West Ham fell apart on the pitch.

It was definitely the West Ham fans were in the dock as 250 supporters tried to force their way onto the pitch.

The match ended with three away fans thrown out and two arrested for criminal damage after they trashed the toilets in The Den whilst the police are still searching for two more.

There were no home fans involved in any of this but there was one Millwall supporter arrested for racial abuse and another four thrown out of the stadium.

All this after a massive police operation involving over 1,000 officers.

Back to that bottom section of the league and it is all getting very tight down there. Four of them play in midweek whilst only our game at Bradford next Saturday sees two meeting each other.

The fixtures for the next week are below with all midweek games kicking off at 7:45 p.m. and all the Saturday games at 3:00 p.m. unless otherwise shown.

Crewe Alexandra v Stoke City
Sheffield United v Derby County
Sunderland v Gillingham (8:00 p.m.)

Franchise v Millwall

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