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The Championship weekend got off to a start on Friday night at Deepdale and a game that would see Preston hit rock bottom after their sixth home defeat of the season against a hardly inspiring Hull side.
Things have certainly changed their during our absence from the Championship for a side who, since winning promotion with us in 2000 have only once had anything like a relegation battle. That looks very much to be the case this season, certainly on the evidence of that performance.
They are now three points behind the field, with Crystal Palace and Bristol City occupying the other two relegation places. For Palace, however, it's been a good week since their underserved defeat at Middlesbrough as they recorded their second home win in four days. This one was somewhat fortunate with referee Pat Miller having a major influence on the result.
Up at the top, QPR have caught the Burnley habit of drawing too many games. Saturday's at Nottingham Forest was their sixth in seven games. They remain unbeaten but have now lost top place again after Cardiff's win at Scunthorpe.
They had the game won very early as they went into a 3-0 lead, although credit to Scunthorpe who did come back with two goals of their own before Cardiff got a fourth. Their main challengers for the title could yet come from just down the M4 at Swansea. They beat Middlesbrough yesterday and are now only three points behind QPR.
The talking point I referred to was the red card shown to Norwich's Grant Holt in their 3-3 draw at Reading. It came right on half time when they led 3-1 and, quite frankly, was a nonsense. Still, we shouldn't have been surprised; the referee was Michael Oliver after all.
If in any doubt this referee gets his cards out and that was his sixth red card in twelve games this season. There's already been one successful appeal made against one of his red cards, that of West Brom's Pablo Ibanez, and surely this will be another.
The other red card came in Portsmouth's home defeat against Doncaster where big friends Steve Cotterill and Sean O'Driscoll faced each other. Cotterill claimed that Donny's David Healy got Carl Dickinson sent off but that comment is utter tripe. The only player who got Dickinson sent off was Dickinson himself. That both Healy and Mark Wilson should have both been sent off by referee Graham Scott for their reaction is hardly a defence for the challenge from the Pompey defender.
The weekend games have seen us return to the top six. There are no midweek games this week with the Clarets now looking to end that away drought next week at Coventry.
he results, stats, leading scorers, each club's disciplinary record and the next fixtures are all shown below.
Friday 12th November | |
Preston 0 Hull 2 | . |
Saturday 13th November | |
Burnley 3 Watford 2 | Millwall 0 Sheffield United 1 |
Crystal Palace 2 Coventry 0 | Nottingham Forest 0 QPR 0 |
Ipswich 1 Barnsley 3 | Portsmouth 2 Doncaster 3 |
Leeds 3 Bristol City 1 | Reading 3 Norwich 3 |
Leicester 2 Derby 0 | Scunthorpe 2 Cardiff 4 |
Sunday 14th November | |
Swansea 1 Middlesbrough 0 | . |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Barnsley 3-1 v Ipswich (away) |
Total goals scored | 38 (19 home - 19 away) |
Player scoring most goals | 3 - Lucian Becchio (Leeds) |
Highest Attendance | 27,567 - Leeds v Bristol City |
Lowest Attendance | 5,333 - Scunthorpe v Cardiff |
Total Yellow Cards | 40 |
Total Red Cards | 2 |
Most cards in a game | Portsmouth v Doncaster (5Y 1R) - Graham Scott |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
13 | Jay Bothroyd (Cardiff) |
9 | Kris Commons (Derby) - includes 1 penalty Chris Iwelumo (Burnley) |
8 | Luciano Becchio (Leeds) Jamie Mackie (QPR) Lewis McGugan (Nottingham Forest) - includes 1 penalty Scott Sinclair (Swansea) |
7 | Danny Graham (Watford) Amdy King (Leicester) Jon Parkin (Preston) |
6 | James Coppinger (Doncaster) Adam Hammill (Barnsley) Liam Lawrence (Portsmouth) - includes 4 penalties Steve Morison (Millwall) - includes 1 penalty Billy Sharp (Doncaster) - includes 3 penalties Davide Somma (Leeds) Marvin Sordell (Watford) Jonathan Stead (Bristol City) Adel Taarabt (QPR) - includes 4 penalties |
5 | Kris Boyd (Middlesbrough) Chris Eagles (Burnley) - includes 3 penalties James Hayter (Doncaster) Heidar Helguson (QPR) - includes 3 penalties Jonny Howson (Leeds) Jason Scotland (Ipswich) |
Hat Tricks (league only) | |
11th Sep | 3 - Chris Iwelumo - BURNLEY v Preston |
14th Sep | 3 - James Coppinger - DONCASTER v Norwich |
14th Sep | 3 - James Vaughan - CRYSTAL PALACE v Portsmouth |
28th Sep | 3 - Jon Parkin - Leeds v PRESTON |
30th Oct | 3 - Jonny Howson - Scunthorpe v LEEDS |
13th Nov | 3 - Luciano Becchio - LEEDS v Bristol City |
Disciplinary Record (all domestic games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Barnsley | 28 | 0 | Middlesbrough | 28 | 1 |
| Bristol City | 20 | 1 | Millwall | 29 | 2 |
| Burnley | 37 | 4 | Norwich | 23 | 2 |
| Cardiff | 19 | 1 | Nottingham Forest | 24 | 0 |
| Coventry | 28 | 1 | Portsmouth | 28 | 3 |
| Crystal Palace | 28 | 4 | Preston | 42 | 5 |
| Derby | 30 | 0 | QPR | 30 | 2 |
| Doncaster | 22 | 1 | Reading | 28 | 3 |
| Hull | 34 | 1 | Scunthorpe | 18 | 1 |
| Ipswich | 27 | 2 | Sheffield United | 23 | 2 |
| Leeds | 28 | 2 | Swansea | 41 | 1 |
| Leicester | 21 | 2 | Watford | 21 | 0 |
The Next Fixtures | |
Saturday 20th November | |
Barnsley v Portsmouth | Hull v Ipswich |
Bristol City v Leicester | Middlesbrough v Millwall |
Cardiff v Nottingham Forest | Norwich v Leeds |
Coventry v Burnley | QPR v Preston |
Derby v Scunthorpe | Sheffield United v Crystal Palace (17:20) |
Doncaster v Swansea | Watford v Reading |