Around One – Where are the goals?

Russell - nine clean sheets in goal for West Brom

It was the same scoreline at Watford as they took on West Ham and it really is amazing that a side with Jermaine Defoe and David Connolly in the forward line are struggling to score goals quite so much as West Ham. But it is the lack of goals that is hampering them and they find themselves down in ninth place in the league.

But what about Watford, written off not long ago they have now lost just two of their last twelve games in a run that started with the 1-1 draw against the Clarets.

There were no goals either at the Preston v Norwich match but the point was enough to see the Canaries go second as their rivals Ipswich did them a favour by beating Sheffield United.

Ipswich won 3-0 and it was as convincing as the scoreline suggests with it made even worse for the Blades fans with the first goal scored by Shefki Kuqi, currently on loan from Wednesday.

No goals either at Walsall and Millwall when they took on Crystal Palace and Derby respectively but these were good points for the away teams who are both in the bottom five of the league.

The bottom two though did concede goals and were both beaten 1-0. Bradford went down at Stoke to an early John Eustace goal, his first for the Potters, and it was something of a surprise that they didn’t add further goals in a game they dominated.

Bradford’s caretaker boss Wayne Jacobs was fully aware of how Stoke play though and said after the game, "From the bit we'd seen of Stoke they are a big powerful side who try to bully teams and we set up our team to try and not let that happen." It didn’t appear to help.

Gary Croft - scored Cardiff's winner at Franchise

Now to the goals and after quickly passing by our 1-1 draw with Rotherham there was one other 3-0 win besides Ipswich’s over Sheffield United and this was something of a surprise – or was it?

Crewe v Sunderland would have been for some a certain away win and having been beaten in their last two games it did seem as though Crewe’s good run following the return of Dario G had come to an end.

A third defeat looked on the cards for the entire first half as Sunderland dominated proceedings but then it all changed early in the second half when the home side scored three times in ten minutes. Dean Ashton got the first and Steve Jones the next two as the game turned on its head.

But Crewe took their chances and that was something Sunderland certainly didn’t do as they missed a number of great opportunities. They are another side who don’t find scoring goals particularly easy but alongside West Ham they have the meanest defence in the league.

Wigan are still third after collecting a point in their fourth home draw of the season against Nottingham Forest. They led 1-0 but had to come back from 2-1 down to earn the 2-2 draw and it was no surprise to see the names of Nathan Ellington and Andy Liddell on the scoresheet, they and Geoff Horsfield have scored 21 of Wigan’s 28 goals.

Another 2-2 draw to complete the round up and that was the game between Coventry and Gillingham at Highfield Road with both Julian Joachim and Tommy Johnson both scoring twice, their first goals of the season. As at Wigan the home side scored first but had to come from behind, Joachim’s second coming in stoppage time.

It is all getting very tight now and Crewe in 12^th place are only four points behind the bottom play off position. But it is down at the bottom where we are currently looking and we remain only four points above that bottom four – worrying times.

There are some re-arranged games this week, postponed previously because of international call ups. All the midweek games kick off at 7:45 p.m. and the weekend games at 3:00 p.m. unless otherwise shown.

Burnley v Reading
Cardiff City v West Bromwich Albion
Franchise v West Ham United
Norwich City v Coventry City
Stoke City v Crystal Palace

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