Around One – Wigan go top

Geoff Horsfield - his goal took Wigan top

Horsfield came close to becoming a Claret six seasons ago but then manager Chris Waddle preferred Kevin Henderson from Morpeth claiming there was more potential in the north easterner.

In the week that Horsfield has scored twice for the new First Division leaders Henderson has enjoyed his first two games on loan with basement club Carlisle United. It’s good to know we had such a good judge of player running our club for a while.

The Wigan game also attracted over 12,000 to the concrete jungle but this was boosted by a large away support. It has to be remembered that not much over 8,000 had turned up the previous home game against Ipswich.

The Baggies’ defeat saw them drop to fourth and this allowed the Roederless West Ham to climb into second place with an emphatic 3-0 win at Crewe. They didn’t mess around either and were 3-0 with just 25 minutes played, the first two goals coming from David Connolly who must surely be the signing of the season.

Forest climbed to third after also recording a 3-0 away win, against the Clarets, and although two of their goals came much later in the game they were worthy winners and looked a good side.

Reading are still under the charges of caretaker-boss Kevin Dillon and came back from behind to beat Cardiff at the Madejski Stadium. It was Dillon’s first success as boss after the defeat at West Ham on Saturday.

He is set to continue whilst Reading go to court to try and get an injunction to prevent Alan Pardew from becoming West Ham manager. Pardew is still officially manager at Reading, although taking no active part, and they are refusing to accept his resignation.

Alan Pardew - Reading are going to court to stop him taking over at West Ham

With Wigan and West Ham in the top two Reading are in the play off positions with Forest, West Brom and Sheffield United. The Blades climbed back in after an easy 5-0 home win against a Rotherham side who are finding things considerably more difficult this season.

Warnock, wounded in more ways than one after the defeat at Forest, saw his side rip Rotherham apart with both Mr. Karren Brady and Peter Ndlovu scoring twice.

It was Cardiff, beaten at Reading, and Sunderland who dropped out of the top six and it was something of a surprise to see the Mackems go down at the Windy City. Given the way Stoke played against us and the fact that Sunderland are currently on a good run I fully expected an away win.

But the up and at ‘em style of Stoke undid Sunderland and they were 3-0 up with less than 40 minutes gone. It did change in the second half, Sunderland pulled one back before having Sean Thornton sent off by referee Mike Pike for two fouls in quick succession.

Stoke still owed much to Ed de Goey who turned in yet another outstanding performance and you wonder just where they would be without the form he has shown so far this season.

Thornton was one of four players sent off in the midweek games, he was accompanied by Paul Devlin (on loan at Norwich) and both Patrick Suffo and Michael Doyle of Coventry. In the twelve matches though there were a staggering 47 yellow cards handed out.

Although I don’t totally agree with Stan’s summing up of our game at Norwich last Saturday I am fully in support of him in his views regarding cards and the suspensions and quite clearly there is a major problem when a full fixture list brings about so many cards.

Ricardo Fuller scored twice in Preston's win over Coventry

Congratulations to Millwall and Ipswich for combining to put Franchise bottom of the league. Ipswich won their first game of the season but beating Walsall 2-1 at Portman Road. It wasn’t a particularly good performance but was enough to see them off the bottom against a Walsall side who appeared to peak on the opening day of the season and haven’t won since.

Millwall played their part by ensuring that Franchise didn’t get any points and beat them comfortable at the Den with a 2-0 scoreline. Goals from Neil Harris and Noel Whelan were enough to give Franchise their sixth successive league defeat and only the win against Crewe on the opening day of the season has prevented them from having the same number of points as the UK got in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Only 7,855 turned up at Millwall but we believe that well in excess of 7,800 of them were home fans.

Norwich were winners again, this time at Gillingham, and once more Peter Crouch scored for his temporary club. He scored the only goal of the second half after the teams had gone in level at half time with the score 1-1.

The other game played on Tuesday saw Bradford City win at Palace for their second away win of the season, they won 2-0 at Cardiff in August. Graham’s cousin Michael Branch was on the score sheet again with the only goal of the game shortly before half time.

Lee Holmes - Derby youngster turned game their way against Watford

Three times Derby needed to go in front before they could claim victory. The star of the show didn’t appear until the 67^th minute and that was Derby winger Lee Holmes. He is now 16 years-old but last season created a record by becoming the youngest player ever to appear in the FA Cup.

Last night he tormented Watford and the second and third Derby goals both came from his pin point crosses. He is still to start a game for the Rams but without doubt he is a player to keep an eye on.

The results have left the Clarets in 15^th place and very much in the middle as we sit five points behind the play offs and four points above the relegation places.

The weekend fixtures are as follows with all games kicking off at 3:00 p.m. unless otherwise shown.

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)
6: Marlon Harewood (Nottm Forest)
4: Carl Asaba (Stoke)
4: David Connolly (West Ham)
4: Nathan Ellington (Wigan)
4: Dougie Freedman (Crystal Palace)
4: Ricardo Fuller (Preston)
4: Shaun Goater (Reading)
4: Lee Hughes (West Brom)
4: Rob Hulse (West Brom)
4: Peter Ndlovu (Sheff Utd)
4: Andy Reid (Nottm Forest)
4: Mark Rivers (Norwich)
4: Marcus Stewart (Sunderland)
3: Patrick Agyemang (Franchise)
3: Robbie Blake (Burnley)
3: Michael Branch (Bradford City)
3: Jermain Defoe (West Ham)
3: Paul Merson (Walsall)
3: Scott Murray (Reading)
3: Bob Peeters (Millwall)
3: Steven Sidwell (Reading)
3: Matthias Svensson (Derby)
3: Noel Whelan (Millwall)