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They whinged when they had players sent off against us but they can have no complaints about Uhlenbeek’s red card on Saturday, he left referee Pugh with no option whatsoever. Manager Law though admitted that this kind of defeat had been coming and said Sheffield United looked as though they could score at will.
It was a good day for Sheffield United though and the two new signings, Steve Kabba and Dean Windass, got the first two goals. Kabba has now scored for three clubs this season, his first came for Palace and then six on loan for Grimsby before this debut goal for Sheffield United.
Get your money on Preston’s Craig Brown being the next First Division manager to get the sack, that’s if the Preston fans get their own way. Unable to come to terms with the fact that they are no longer the Moyes’ Boys they are turning on the defensive minded Scot in no uncertain terms. They are blaming Brown for everything that is going wrong.
Brown does though seem to have got to grips with how to draw a game and once again it was a point each as Brighton came from two behind to take their point from Deepdale. Quite how they played as well as they did against us is anyone’s guess, they certainly haven’t played that well in any game before or since this season. Their current placing of 18th is about right for this Preston side.
Palace got back to winning ways at the expense of Grimsby after losing at Norwich last Saturday. Despite suggestions of him being man of the match last week Nik Michopoulos found himself back on the subs bench with Alex Kolinko starting the game.
Stoke City are a club going for records, their 1-0 defeat at home to Millwall was their eighth consecutive defeat. New boss Tony Pulis said that they needed more luck and better players. Inspired management that from Pulis, that really took some working out.
With the Clarets beating Norwich at the Turf it now means Portsmouth are twelve points clear of third place and already looking set for an automatic promotion place. They strolled past Sheffield Wednesday after a good second half performance and with Leicester picking up maximum points against Rotherham the top two do seem to be pulling away.
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Ipswich are climbing slowly and beat Coventry 2-1 at Portman Road. Having seen the way they played against us a few weeks ago it is difficult to believe they are down in the bottom half of the league. Coventry are having a bad run just now, this is their third defeat in succession and had to play without Craig Hignett on Saturday. I wonder why.
Probably the biggest game of the day was the one at Molineux between two of the top six clubs Wolves and Nottingham Forest. It went Wolves’ way but they had to come from behind at half time to win 2-1.
Finally a couple of 1-0 wins. Reading’s via a fluke deflected goal from Kevin Watson saw Watford drop from fifth to eighth whilst Walsall’s Brazilian forward Junior got the only goal of the game in their home win against Gillingham. The Gills have now picked up just one point from the last five games and that has seen them drop to 16th in the table.
Click HERE for the up to date league table.
All the fixtures for the following week are shown below (3:00 p.m. kick off unless otherwise shown).
Monday 25th November
Derby County v Franchise (7:45 p.m.)
Tuesday 26th November
Preston North End v Leicester City (7:45 p.m.)
Crystal Palace v Reading (8:00 p.m.)
Wednesday 27th November
Nottingham Forest v Brighton and Hove Albion (7:45 p.m.)
Saturday 30th November
Brighton and Hove Albion v Reading
Coventry City v Preston North End
Franchise v Sheffield Wednesday
Gillingham v Stoke City
Grimsby Town v Leicester City
Millwall v Bradford City
Norwich City v Derby County
Nottingham Forest v Ipswich Town
Portsmouth v Walsall
Rotherham United v Wolverhampton Wanderers (5:35 p.m.)
Sheffield United v Crystal Palace
Watford v Burnley
Leading Goalscorers (League only)
15: David Johnson (Nottm. Forest)
10: Alan Lee (Rotherham)
10: Paul McVeigh (Norwich)
10: Svetoslav Todorov (Portsmouth)
9: Nathan Blake (Wolves)
9: David Connolly (Franchise)
9: Richard Cresswell (Preston)
9: Neil Shipperley (Franchise)
8: Carl Asaba (Sheffield United)
8: Darren Byfield (Rotherham)
8: Andy Johnson (Crystal Palace)
8: Steve Kabba (Sheffield United inc. 6 for Grimsby & 1 for Crystal Palace)
7: Brian Deane (Leicester)
7: Paul Dickov (Leicester)
7: Ricardo Fuller (Preston)
6: Darren Ambrose (Ipswich)
6: Robbie Blake (Burnley)
6: Malcolm Christie (Derby)
6: Andy Cooke (Stoke City)
6: Pablo Counago (Ipswich)
6: Jamie Cureton (Reading)
6: Jorge Leitao (Walsall)
6: Junior (Walsall)
6: Paul Merson (Portsmouth)
6: David Nielsen (Norwich)
6: Vincent Pericard (Portsmouth)
6: Dean Sturridge (Wolves)