Division One – Stoke's turn out of the bottom three

Mark Robins - scoring goals again for Rotherham

Stoke’s win came courtesy of two goals from Peter Hoekstra. the first came from the penalty spot and the second and winning goal after he collected the ball from Andy Cooke to hit home from outside the box.

Brighton also picked up a point, drawing 2-2 with Ipswich at Portman Road. The came from behind to lead 2-1 with an own goal from the Tractor Boy’s keeper Andy Marshall and one from loan player Tony Rougier but conceded a late equaliser.

Ipswich were looking the most likely side to break the grip of the top six before the weekend but by the time they play again they could have lost a good number of their side. It looks as though Spiv Harry Redknapp is set to sign Herman Hreidarsson with Darren Ambrose ready to move to Newcastle. With Charlton keen on Darren Bent and Villa wanting Matt Holland the season could collapse for the Suffolk club. How all this fits in with the Premiership transfer window is anyone’s guess but I suppose rules are made to be broken.

Sheffield Wednesday are beginning to look doomed, they were easily beaten by a currently struggling Millwall side and the way they were giving the goals away suggests they could be lining up a league game against manager Chris Turner’s former club Hartlepool in the 2003/04 season.

Up at the top Leicester closed the game on Portsmouth with a 2-1 win at Coventry. Matt Jansen scored his first goal for the Sky Blues, the club he believes are chasing promotion.

Portsmouth meanwhile had to settle for a point at Deepdale when Paul McKenna hit home a late equaliser. Portsmouth’s first half goal from Yakubu was brilliant, an example on how to pass and move, superb stuff.

It was one of two goals that could have won a ‘Goal of the Day’ competition with Michael Tongue’s for Sheffield United the other. It was a superb strike from outside the box, with Michael Brown and Phil Jagielka the Blades seem to have more than their fair share of players who can hit goals in from distance.

Sheffield United won their home game against Derby 2-0 and that enabled them to keep 3^rd place against Reading who won 1-0 at Bradford with what was described by Bradford boss as a ‘Circus Goal’.

It was certainly a funny goal to watch as goalkeeper Aiden Davison was doing a bit of showboating with defenders Simon Francis and David Wetherall. It all had to go wrong and did when Davison presented the ball to Nicky Forster who made no mistake for the only goal of the game.

Showboating going wrong at the Bradford & Bingley Pulse Valley Parade Stadium going wrong, whatever next.

The other two clubs in the play offs had somewhat comfortable home wins. Forest saw off Norwich 4-0 and Wolves beat Gillingham 6-0.

If you have a goalscorer on your staff it is an extremely good idea to give him a game. That was the case at Rotherham where Ronnie Moore finally had the sense to recall Mark Robins who had been out on loan at Bristol City. He replaced Alan Lee who has scored just three goals since mid-October, two of them coming on the day the Clarets threw one in on the Turf. Back in the side it took the 33 year-old Robins all of 19 minutes to score. Rotherham finally won 2-1 to record their first win in seven games whilst ending Franchise’s unbeaten six game run.

And that leaves Walsall who were paying the penalty again. Having conceded a penalty against the Clarets last Saturday and again at Preston in midweek they went one better, conceded two and had two players sent off at Crystal Palace. Despite the fact that James Walker (who didn’t give either penalty away this week) saving one of them they wer still beaten 2-0.

The results have left the top six looking even more secure but down at the bottom Walsall and Derby (the ones with the suspended manager) are now just six points clear of Stoke and Grimsby and another couple of bad weeks could see them suddenly dragged into things.

For many clubs the season is virtually over, we are one of them no matter what anyone else might say. If anything we have more chance of going down than reaching the play offs but that isn’t going to happen either. Now it’s the turn of Craig Brown to get all excited about reaching the play offs – and that won’t happen either.

There are four games tomorrow (all kicking off at 7:45 p.m.) and just three matches on Saturday (all 3:00 p.m.).They are as follows:

Tuesday 25^th March

Brighton and Hove Albion v Crystal Palace
Burnley v Bradford City
Norwich City v Franchise
Sheffield United v Gillingham

Saturday 29^th March

Gillingham v Ipswich Town
Norwich City v Bradford City
Sheffield Wednesday v Watford

Leading Goalscorers (League Only)

22: David Johnson (Nottm. Forest)
19: David Connolly (Franchise)
18: Marlon Harewood (Nottm. Forest)
18: Svetoslav Todorov (Portsmouth)
17: Paul Dickov (Leicester)
17: Kenny Miller (Wolves)
15: Neil Shipperley (Franchise)
14: Richard Cresswell (Preston)
13: Michael Brown (Sheffield United)
13: Darren Byfield (Rotherham)
13: Nicky Forster (Reading)
13: Andy Gray (Bradford)
13: Alan Lee (Rotherham)
12: Brian Deane (Leicester)
12: Steve Kabba (Sheffield United inc. 1 for Palace & 6 for Grimsby)
12: Paul McVeigh (Norwich)

Average Attendances

Average attendances this season have become somewhat confusing at Burnley with the club opting to use a different counting method part way through. Season ticket holders are now included although a percentage of attendees is given.

This makes it difficult to give an accurate picture so for the purposes of the figures we have shown below Burnley’s average is taken from the actual attendances at the games (as per the figures released by the club in the first part of the season).