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Our win at Derby must surely be in the running for Performance of the Week, particularly having been a goal down at half time, but there will certainly be competition from Sheffield United who beat Norwich 3-2 at Carrow Road. They led 3-0 until late in the game after they had been reduced to ten men. This win has taken the Blades into the top six and one of the play off positions.
Norwich duly lost their place in the top two with Leicester taking second spot. They came from two behind at Franchise to win 3-2 in front of the smallest recorded attendance this season in the division. Only 2,165 witnessed the goings on at Selhurst Park. Leicester say behind leaders Portsmouth though who picked up another three points with a 3-1 win at Gillingham to remain three points clear at the top.
Back to our game and Warren Barton scored a first, he became the first player in Division One this season to be credited with scoring an own goal whilst Robbie Blake’s was the fourteenth successful penalty this season.
There were three players sent off in the seven games, they were Robbie Pethick (Brighton), Iffy Onuora (Sheffield United) and Danny Sonner (Walsall). Former Claret Sonner was sent off at Watford for grabbing Tommy Smith by the throat and throwing him to the ground. How refreshing it was to hear his manager Colin Lee refuse to defend him and say that Sonner’s behaviour was unacceptable and he will be fined the maximum allowed.
The league is beginning to take shape now and already there are 17 points separating top from bottom. For the most optimistic of Burnley fans we can report that we are now only seven points behind the play off positions and with a couple of home games to come we could get ourselves a lot closer.
We reported that the Franchise v Leicester game attracting the smallest crowd of the season, just 2,165. The highest attendance remains the 33,016 who saw Derby beat Reading 3-0 on the opening day of the season.
The league’s leading scorer, Reading’s Jamie Cureton, was involved in a 0-0 draw this weekend at Rotherham and has now been joined by Norwich City’s Paul McVeigh. The list of leading scorers is below.
No former Clarets on the Division One scoresheet again this week but David Eyres found the net for the first time this season with a free kick from twenty yards. It pulled Oldham level at Notts County and they went on to win 3-1.
It was reported that Tom Cowan had scored York’s goal in the 2-1 defeat at Bury on Friday in Division Three but that was not the case. In fact it could be have been Chris Brass who scored it although no one is quite sure just now. It certainly wasn’t Cowan’s goal though.
Down in the Conference Paul Barnes completed the scoring in Doncaster’s 5-1 win against Dagenham & Redbridge with a 25 yarder. The South Yorkshire club are top of the Conference.
First Division Leading Scorers:
6: Jamie Cureton (Reading)
6: Paul McVeigh (Norwich)
4: Darren Byfield (Rotherham)
4: Malcolm Christie (Derby)
4: David Johnson (Nottm Forest)
4: Alan Lee (Rotherham)
4: Neil Shipperley (Franchise)
3: Carl Asaba (Sheffield United)
3: Adam Bolder (Derby)
3: Deon Burton (Portsmouth)
3: Jason Crowe (Portsmouth)
3: Brian Deane (Leicester)
3: Ricardo Fuller (Preston)
3: Shefki Kuqi (Sheffield Wednesday)
3: Paul Merson (Portsmouth)
3: Phil Mulryne (Norwich)
3: Riccardo Scimeca (Nottm Forest)