Cardiff are the season's fourth league leaders

Last updated : 04 October 2012 By Tony Scholes

They did it with a 2-1 home win against Birmingham who themselves had done Cardiff a favour by winning at Brighton on Saturday. All is not well at Birmingham, despite that win a few days earlier. There is a lot of speculation that the squad haven't taken to new manager Lee Clark and, if that's the case, they may find themselves struggling to move too far up the table.

They are currently in 19th place, one of six clubs, which includes us, on eleven points. That's three points above the bottom three, a bottom three than no longer includes Sheffield Wednesday. They have been replaced by Millwall who themselves had moved out on Saturday after getting a Turf Moor point.

Interestingly, our last three home games have come against teams in the bottom four. Peterborough are still bottom. They still hadn't got a point when they left the Turf but have, very much to my surprise, won two away games this week at Hull and Barnsley.

It's suddenly changed things a bit at the bottom with all of the bottom three, and Ipswich are the other club, all within a win of getting out.

It's equally close at the top with Cardiff only three points clear of Crystal Palace who, courtesy of their zero goal difference, are not even in the play off positions.

A quick look at a couple of our local clubs showed they, like ourselves were involved in draws. Managerless Blackburn drew at Nottingham Forest and Bolton were held at home by Leeds in a game that Bolton should have won handsomely according to their manager. Needless to say, Neil Warnock didn't agree.

Teams have just one more game to play now before the next international break. They are all on Saturday this week, and all but one of them kicking off at 3 o'clock. The exception is Ipswich's home game against leaders Cardiff which gets underway at 5:20 p.m. in front of the Sky cameras.

The results and the stats from the midweek games are below with the leading goalscorers, which shows one player some way ahead of the field, each club's disciplinary record, the highest and lowest attendances and the weekend fixture.

The Results
Tuesday 2nd October
Barnsley 0 Peterborough United 2 Cardiff City 2 Birmingham City 1
Bolton Wanderers 2 Leeds United 2 Charlton Athletic 1 Watford 2
Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Ipswich Town 1 Huddersfield Town 0 Leicester City 2
Bristol City 1 Millwall 1 Hull City 2 Blackpool 3
Burnley 3 Sheffield Wednesday 3 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 Crystal Palace 2
Wednesday 3rd October
Middlesbrough 2 Derby County 2 Nottingham Forest 0 Blackburn Rovers 0

 

The Stats
Biggest Win Leicester City 2-0 v Huddersfield Town (away)
Peterborough United 2-0 v Barnsley (a)
Total Goals Scored 36 (15 home - 21 away)
Player Scoring Most Goals 3 - Charlie Austin (Burnley)
Highest Attendance 24,736 - Brighton & Hove Albion v Ipswich Town
Lowest Attendance 8,319 - Barnsley v Peterborough United
Total Yellow Cards 28
Total Red Cards 1
Most Cards in a Game Charlton Athletic v Watford (7Y 1R) Ref: Mike Dean

 

Leading Goalscorers (League Only)
11 Charlie Austin (Burnley) - includes 1 penalty
7 Luciano Becchio (Leeds United) - includes 2 penalties
Craig Davies (Barnsley) - includes 1 penalty
6 Tom Ince (Blackpool)
Craig Mackail-Smith (Brighton & Hove Albion) - includes 1 penalty
Glenn Murray (Crystal Palace) - includes 3 penalties
Pete Whittingham (Cardiff City) - includes 2 penalties
5 Jermaine Johnson (Sheffield Wednesday)
Jordan Rhodes (Blackburn Rovers) - 2 with Huddersfield Town
4 Sam Baldock (Bristol City)
Kevin Davies (Bolton Wanderers)
Chris Eagles (Bolton Wanderers)
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (Wolverhampton Wanderers) - includes 1 penalty
Nuno Gomes (Blackburn Rovers)
Darius Henderson (Millwall)
Lukas Jutkiewicz (Middlesbrough)
David Nugent (Leicester City)
Jay Simpson (Hull City)
Matej Vydra (Watford)
Jamie Ward (Derby County) - includes 1 penalty

 

Hat Tricks
 Date Player & Game
01/09/12 3: Pete Whittingham - CARDIFF CITY v Wolverhampton Wanderers
15/09/12 3: Charlie Austin - BURNLEY v Peterborough United
22/09/12 3: Glenn Murray - CRYSTAL PALACE v Cardiff City
22/09/12 4: Craig Davies - Birmingham City v BARNSLEY
23/09/12 3: David Nugent - LEICESTER CITY v Hull City
29/09/12 3: Emile Sinclair - Hull City v PETERBOROUGH UNITED
02/10/12 3: Charlie Austin - BURNLEY v Sheffield Wednesday

 

Disciplinary Record (League and Cup)
Club Y R Y R Club Y R Y R
  League   Total   League  Total 
Barnsley 11 1 14 2 Huddersfield Town 16 1 17 1
Birmingham City 8 0 10 0 Hull City 6 0 6 1
Blackburn Rovers 13 0 13 0 Ipswich Town 11 0 11 0
Blackpool 9 0 9 0 Leeds United 18 0 23 0
Bolton Wanderers 20 0 22 0 Leicester City 10 0 10 0
Brighton & Hove Albion 14 0 15 0 Middlesbrough 14 0 16 0
Bristol City 12 0 14 0 Millwall 17 1 19 1
Burnley 13 0 19 0 Nottingham Forest 22 2 22 2
Cardiff City 15 0 17 0 Peterborough United 19 0 21 0
Charlton Athletic 11 0 11 0 Sheffield Wednesday 20 1 23 1
Crystal Palace 12 0 16 0 Watford 19 1 20 1
Derby County 8 0 9 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers 10 0 12 0

 

Highest and Lowest Attendances
Highest Lowest
Att Fixture Att Fixture
28,707 Nottingham Forest v Derby County (30/09) 5,435 Peterborough United v Bristol City (18/09)
27,437 Derby County v Sheffield Wednesday (18/08) 6,188 Peterborough United v Millwall (21/08)
26,598 Sheffield Wed v Bolton Wanderers (22/09) 8,088 Barnsley v Bristol City (01/09)
26,594 Brighton & HA v Sheffield Weds (14/09) 8,319 Barnsley v Peterborough United (02/10)
26,121 Brighton & HA v Birmingham City (29/09) 8,571 Barnsley v Ipswich Town (29/09)
25,518 Brighton & Hove Albion v Cardiff City (21/08) 9,280 Peterborough Utd v Wolves (22/09)
25,379 Sheffield Wed v Birmingham City (21/08) 9,295 Millwall v Cardiff City (18/09)
25,230 Sheffield Wed v Huddersfield Town (19/09) 9,576 Millwall v Middlesbrough (01/09)
24,752 Sheffield Wednesday v Millwall (25/08) 10,432 Peterborough United v Leeds United (25/08)
24,736 Brighton & Hove Albion v Ipswich Town (02/10) 10,979 Burnley v Peterborough United (15/09)

 

The Next Fixtures
Saturday 6th October
Birmingham City v Huddersfield Town Leeds United v Barnsley
Blackburn Rovers v Wolverhampton Wanderers Leicester City v Bristol City
Blackpool v Charlton Athletic Millwall v Bolton Wanderers
Crystal Palace v Burnley Peterborough United v Nottingham Forest
Derby County v Brighton & Hove Albion Sheffield Wednesday v Hull City
Ipswich Town v Cardiff City (17:20) Watford v Middlesbrough