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In the Championship - Absolutely, terribly, disgustingly wrong
They knew they would need to win at Preston with RK Sunderland having a much easier away game at relegated Luton, although the Bedfordshire side were in some better form. Their win the week before at Southend had brought to an end a run of one point from eleven games.
As it turned out Luton had no answer to them. With only six minutes gone the Mackems were 2-0 up through Anthony Stokes and Daryl Murphy and although they didn't score again in the first half they added three more after the interval with Murphy again, Ross Wallace and David Connolly all scoring in front of a packed away end at Kenilworth Road.
For most of the afternoon it looked as if it would be enough with Birmingham being held by Preston, but with five minutes to go they knew they'd got the title when Steve Bruce's team went behind with Simon Whaley scoring his first goal since he equalised at Burnley back in October. That goal was enough to ensure RK Sunderland the title and to give Preston the win they needed to try and get back into that top three.
They needed West Brom, Wolves or Southampton to slip up but that didn't happen, in fact those three team netted fifteen goals between them as they all comfortably held on to their play off places. It was all too much for Preston manager Paul Simpson. He's not to blame of course, he never is, and he once again blamed the players and in particular a bad apple in the dressing room. No names though, no guts for that, but maybe someone had been tipping off the opposition with the team sheet the day before, I've heard that's happened somewhere this season.
Derby were already guaranteed a play off place so they didn't need to get a result against Leeds, the club who are just about beneath contempt right now. The obnoxious Dennis Wise said he would play an under strength side, but it hardly makes any difference, their best eleven aren't good enough for this league.
The main excitement came when Seth Johnson clashed with referee Paul Crossley who had to be stretchered off receiving oxygen. He's fine thankfully and he left the major decision to his replacement Carl Boyeson, that was to send off Leeds debutant Robert Bayly. Derby won easily, and doesn't that league table look good when you see the bottom club.
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West Brom are my tip to win the play offs. For me they have the best players although they have probably let themselves down this season, they should really have been challenging right at the top. Kevin Phillips got a hat trick, becoming the second Championship player to hit two this season, the other being Colchester's Jamie Cureton.
They were all waving their free scarves and banging their clap sticks at Preston, and I bet their hopes were lifted when they heard that Iain Hume had given Leicester the lead against Wolves after just three minutes, and ten minutes later got the news that Adam Barrett had scored put Southend in front at Southampton.
It didn't last, both Wolves and Southampton recovered and both went on to win 4-1. Two of Mick McCarthy's January signings, Michael Kightly and Andy Keogh were on the scoresheet. Keogh scored from the spot, the latest Wolves player to take on the role after a series of misses.
Down at St. Mary's there were two goals each for striker pair Kenwyne Jones and Leon Best. Their form has been such that Grzegorz Rasiak now has to settle for a place on the bench. It's been quite a season for Best. He's had loan spells at both Bournemouth and Yeovil before getting into the Saints side and has ended the season with seventeen league goals.
The only other side with play off hopes were Stoke, but the loan side couldn't quite make it and had to settle for a point in a lively game at QPR that saw referee Trevor Kettle once more spending the afternoon waving his red and yellow cards as often as possible. Stoke probably knew their time was up when Martin Rowlands scored an early goal for the home side and there were only six minutes left on the clock when Mamady Sidibe equalised.
We've already featured the three relegated clubs, Southend, Luton and bottom club Leeds. Hull should have still needed to avoid a heavy defeat just in case Leeds won at Derby, but that was removed because of Leeds going into administration.
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Fake tanned Phil Brown, Hull boss since the sacking of Phil Parkinson, said: "We're trying to get rid of diving, because that is cheating, and then, off the field, we have chairmen who pull the plug. We've been working our tripe off since Christmas to survive and then, to pull the plug, in terms of the way Leeds did, I felt almost cheated before the game. I would like their penalty to be carried over into next season and I'd like it to be fifty points, as opposed to ten."
His counterpart Ian Holloway, who is never without a word, added: "You shouldn't overspend. You should run your club properly and you shouldn't run up these debts. It's not right. I don't like what's happening around football, plunging into administration when you shouldn't. I think that's absolutely, terribly, disgustingly wrong. You don't go running up debts and cheating in the end. You should be docked ten points from next season, like poor old Rotherham were, in my opinion."
Cardiff were talking play offs only a matter of two or three weeks ago. Another defeat, this time at Ipswich, has condemned them to a final place in the bottom half of the table. They were top of the league when they beat us in November but since then have been a relegation side. They could well be a likely candidate to return to League One in a year's time.
They have relied very heavily on striker Michael Chopra who, should you be unaware, used to play for Newcastle and thinks he should be in the England squad. He might wish to take a look at this poor run of Cardiff's, prolific he may think he is, but he's scored in only five games since early November.
Ipswich were the latest side to beat them with Jonathan Walters getting two of the goals and in the remaining matches Sheffield Wednesday kept up their good run with a 3-2 home win against Norwich whilst Colchester were beaten at home by the Legend's Crystal Palace. The game at Hillsborough provided us with one of the best moments of the day when Norwich keeper Tony Warner attempted to clear a back pass from Dickson Etuhu, completely missed the ball and agonisingly turned to watch it bobble into the net.
The season is over for most of us, we've just got the play offs to come, and the fixtures are shown below. Also below are the final average attendances for all the clubs, and since we last showed this the Clarets have dropped a couple of places below QPR and Barnsley leaving us in 21st place.
The Weekend Results | |
Sunday 6th May | |
Burnley 1 Coventry 2 | Luton 0 RK Sunderland 5 |
Colchester 0 Crystal Palace 2 | Preston 1 Birmingham 0 |
Derby 2 Leeds 0 | QPR 1 Stoke 1 |
Hull 1 Plymouth 2 | Sheffield Wed 3 Norwich 2 |
Ipswich 3 Cardiff 1 | Southampton 4 Southend 1 |
Leicester 1 Wolves 4 | West Brom 7 Barnsley 0 |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | West Brom 7-0 v Barnsley (home) |
Total goals scored | 44 |
Player scoring most goals | 3 - Kevin Phillips (West Brom) |
Highest Attendance | 32,008 - Southampton v Southend |
Lowest Attendance | 5,857- Colchester v Crystal Palace |
Total Yellow Cards | 52 |
Total Red Cards | 3 |
Most cards in a game | Leicester v Wolves (9Y 1R) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
23 | Jamie Cureton (Colchester) |
22 | Michael Chopra (Cardiff) |
20 | Diomansy Kamara (West Brom) |
19 | Robert Earnshaw (Norwich) |
18 | Chris Iwelumo (Colchester) Grzegorz Rasiak (Southampton) |
16 | Steve Howard (Derby) Alan Lee (Ipswich) Kevin Phillips (West Brom) |
15 | David Nugent (Preston) |
14 | Andy Gray (Burnley) Kenwyne Jones (Southampton) Gary McSheffrey (Birmingham) |
13 | Dexter Blackstock (QPR) David Connolly (RK Sunderland) Barry Hayles (Plymouth) Iain Hume (Leicester) Rowan Vine (Birmingham) - 12 with Luton |
12 | Deon Burton (Sheffield Wed) Steven MacLean (Sheffield Wed) Clinton Morrison (Crystal Palace) |
Hat Tricks (league only) | |
26th Aug | 3 - Jamie Cureton - COLCHESTER v Derby |
12th Sep | 3 - Gifton Noel-Williams - BURNLEY v Barnsley |
14th Oct | 3 - Kevin Phillips - Ipswich v WEST BROM |
29th Oct | 3 - Alan Lee - IPSWICH v Luton |
28th Nov | 4 - Chris Iwelumo - COLCHESTER v Hull |
9th Dec | 3 - Gary McSheffrey - BIRMINGHAM v Preston |
27th Jan | 3 - Michael Chopra - CARDIFF v Leicester |
17th Feb | 3 - Andrew Surman - SOUTHAMPTON v Barnsley |
31st Mar | 3 - Dean Windass - HULL v Southend |
31st Mar | 3 - Marek Saganowski - Wolves v SOUTHAMPTON |
7th Apr | 3 - Jamie Cureton - Southend v COLCHESTER |
6thMay | 3 - Kevin Phillips - WEST BROM v Barnsley |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Barnsley | 88 | 6 | Luton | 72 | 6 |
| Birmingham | 76 | 9 | Norwich | 78 | 4 |
| Burnley | 88 | 7 | Plymouth | 90 | 5 |
| Cardiff | 62 | 10 | Preston | 79 | 4 |
| Colchester | 48 | 2 | QPR | 103 | 2 |
| Coventry | 88 | 2 | Sheffield Wed | 85 | 6 |
| Crystal Palace | 50 | 1 | Southampton | 57 | 1 |
| Derby | 98 | 4 | Southend | 81 | 4 |
| Hull | 86 | 3 | Stoke | 86 | 4 |
| Ipswich | 106 | 8 | RK Sunderland | 66 | 4 |
| Leeds | 101 | 6 | West Brom | 100 | 11 |
| Leicester | 89 | 4 | Wolves | 71 | 6 |
Average Attendances (league only) | |||
Avge | Club | High | Low |
31,887 | RK Sunderland | 44,448 | 24,242 |
25,944 | Derby | 31,920 | 21,295 |
24,544 | Norwich City | 25,476 | 23,311 |
23,638 | Sheffield Wed | 29,108 | 18,752 |
23,556 | Southampton | 32,008 | 18,736 |
23,205 | Leicester | 30,457 | 18,677 |
22,444 | Ipswich | 28,355 | 19,337 |
22,273 | Birmingham | 29,431 | 15,854 |
21,613 | Leeds | 31,269 | 16,268 |
20,967 | Wolves | 28,016 | 16,772 |
20,471 | West Brom | 26,606 | 17,417 |
20,342 | Coventry | 27,212 | 16,178 |
18,742 | Hull City | 25,512 | 14,895 |
17,541 | Crystal Palace | 21,523 | 15,985 |
15,749 | Stoke | 23,017 | 11,626 |
15,223 | Cardiff | 20,109 | 11,549 |
14,429 | Preston | 19,603 | 11,601 |
13,011 | Plymouth | 17,088 | 9,841 |
12,936 | QPR | 16,741 | 10,811 |
12,733 | Barnsley | 21,253 | 9,479 |
11,956 | Burnley | 15,061 | 9,681 |
10,024 | Southend | 11,415 | 7,901 |
8,580 | Luton Town | 10,260 | 7,441 |
5,467 | Colchester | 6,065 | 4,249 |
The Play Off Fixtures | |
Saturday 12th May | |
Southampton v Derby | |
Sunday 13th May | |
Wolves v West Brom | |
Tuesday 15th May | |
Derby v Southampton | |
Wednesday 16th May | |
West Brom v Wolves |