Eagles does a Gifton and Deadman's headlining again

Two of the games hinged, ultimately, on penalty incidents, both of which provided us with some farcical footage.

Leeds beat Barnsley 1-0 at Elland Road with a Luciano Becchio penalty. Barnsley were the better side in the game and in some ways had only themselves to blame for not winning as they missed some great opportunities.

Chris Eagles, penalty close to reaching Bolton fans

The goal that decided it came from the penalty spot after former Claret Stephen Foster brought down Lee Peltier so far outside the box that no one could have believed otherwise. That was apart from referee Darren Deadman who astonished everyone with his latest gaffe.

Quite how this bloke is still refereeing I really don't know but he lurches from one horror show to another and has again been the man responsible for the destination of the points. His decision has clearly upset Keith Hill, who admitted to having also been a previous Deadman victim.

"The referee has got a major decision seriously wrong. That is unexplainable. When referees don't apologise when they have made a mistake it becomes a little bit disrespectful at times," Hill blasted.

"I just wonder if the assessor has told the referee a major decision has decided the outcome of the game and he has got it wrong - not just wrong, seriously wrong. It wasn't marginal. Whose job will it affect? Whose opinion will it affect when they look at that league table and won't consider the performance? It will affect a lot of Barnsley supporters who couldn't make it today."

One of the problems in football is that the hard done to manager never gets any support from the fortunate manager. We saw it last week with Kenny Jackett ridiculously supporting referee Craig Mawson. So, over to Neil Warnock.

He said: "It is fair to say the referee didn't have one of his better games. Both managers agree on that, then, with a smile on his face, added: "I am going to do an Arsène Wenger and say nothing about the penalty because I haven't seen it yet." 

At the Den, Millwall's Darius Henderson, the scorer of their late equaliser a week earlier at Burnley, had given the home side the lead against Bolton. Early in the second half Bolton equalised via a Chris Eagles free kick and on the hour Eagles got a glorious opportunity to put his side in front.

He was fouled in the box and the penalty was, rightly, awarded. Eagles, who missed three for Burnley, took it himself and all but landed it in the upper tier of the away end, the ball coming back off the advertising hoardings just below. Not quite Gifton I know, but not far away.

It cost them, with Henderson scoring right at the end to win it for Millwall, and it left the Bolton manager,  usually so full of words, struggling to put a brave face on things. "We were really poor in the first half and I let the players know in no uncertain terms that we simply hadn't been good enough," he said.

Then, back to normal, he added: "In the second half we played ever so well, but it's a recurring theme. We are not clinical."

He added Millwall's winner to the list of poor decisions against his team but even he couldn't suggest the first half performances augured well for anyone 's future. Apparently they are going to regroup.

It wasn't a good day all round in the North West. Apart from Bolton and us, Blackburn were beaten at home to Wolves (there's always something to brighten the mood when you leave a ground after losing) and Blackpool surprisingly lost at home to Charlton for whom one of the goalscorers was Leon Cort.

It's break time now - the internationals are on over the next week or so and then we're back via a televised game against Blackpool. It would be good if we could replicate the performance at home against them last season.

The weekend results and stats are below along with the leading goalscorers, each club's disciplinary record, the highest and lowest attendances and the next fixtures.