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In the Championship – Ade gets debut winner
It was a good day for Watford too as they beat the bottom club with some ease. By the time Luke Rogers scored a consolation goal for the Railwaymen they were already four behind with Matthew Spring having scored two of the Watford goals.
They weren’t the only side this week to score four times, league leaders Reading hammered Norwich and in the process scored some quality goals. There was the free kick from Nicky Shorey, Steve Sidwell converting a Glen Little cross whilst Bobby Convey wrapped it up with a brilliant solo goal.
Apparently Steve Coppell is still not looking at the league table but if he does take a sly look he’ll find his side 21 points clear of third place, I think he can get the champagne on ice ready now, they are not going to miss out on automatic promotion.
Sheffield United are doing their best to stay in touch with them and Ade got the only goal of a controversial game at Derby to ensure they had another three points. It was a header from a right wing cross as he got between the two defenders.
Sheffield United and controversial means Neil Warnock must be involved and so he was as the two managers almost got to blows on the touchline. It all started when Michael Johnson made a superb challenge on Paul Ifill to put the ball out of play for a throw in right next to Warnock.
Up he went screaming at the player and incredibly referee Iain Williamson brought out the red card. I’m not sure what Ade could have been thinking at that time, Williamson was the referee who sent him off on his Burnley debut.
Both Johnson and acting Derby boss Terry Westley pointed the finger at Warnock and it took stewards to keep Westley away from the Blades boss. There was no foul and Derby have rightly appealed. What is appalling is that the referee was arrogant to the last and refused to watch the incident again claiming that he knew it was a reckless challenge.
He wasn’t the only referee to make
a mistake, three of them changed the results of games with poor decisions. They were André Marriner, Paul Crossley and the flood warden Andy Hall.
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Ipswich were leading Leeds 1-0 with two minutes to go when Jason De Vos was fouled by Rob Hulse, but amazingly as De Vos’ arm stretched out under the challenge Marriner got it the wrong way round and pointed to the spot from which David Healy rescued a point.
It was the same story at Plymouth, the scores were level here with two minutes to go when Claus Lundekvam was penalised by the flood warden. Nobody is so sure what it was given for, hand ball was suggested, but he pointed to the spot as Plymouth appealed for a corner. This time Paul Wotton stepped up to convert his fifth penalty of the season, no one has scored more.
Cardiff led 1-0 against relegation haunted Millwall with a goal from Cameron Jerome. It was Jerome who broke through again in the second half and was brought down in the box. It was going to be a spot kick and a red card but Crossley waved play on. A two goal lead would have seen Cardiff through to a win but new Millwall signing Berry Powel scored on his debut to earn the Lions a point.
No Craig Levein and no Mark de Vries – yes you have guessed it, Leicester scored three goals and won a game. They had picked up just two points from their previous ten games, and that had prompted the sacking of Levein plus the rapid departure of Dutch striker (not sure striker is the word I would use) de Vries.
They recovered from an early goal against them at QPR to lead 2-1 and eventually win the game 3-2 with Stephen Hughes scoring the late winner. With Brighton getting just a point in the unviewable non-event at the Withdean, it took the Foxes out of the bottom three.
Two of the divisions form teams met at Deepdale for the second time in four days. Preston and Crystal Palace fought out a draw in the FA Cup tie but this time it was Preston who came out on top. New signing Brett Ormerod got their first, brought in on a free transfer from Southampton.
Hull are struggling at home and fell to their third successive defeat at the Kingston Communications Stadium. They led too, with Stuart Elliott scoring just his fourth goal of the season. Stern John got the winner for Coventry but not before Dennis Wise had scored the goal of the week with an overhead kick from the edge of the box.
That was defeat for one of the three clubs promoted from League One last May whilst the other two met at Hillsborough where Luton beat Sheffield Wednesday to leave the Owls still hovering close to the drop zone.
For Luton though, it took them a place up the table over Wolves whose game at Stoke has been rescheduled for a date in March. The weekend fixtures are spread over three days and are shown below with this week’s stats.
The Week's Results | |
Saturday 28th January | |
Watford 4 Crewe 1 | . |
Tuesday 31st January | |
Brighton 0 Burnley 0 | Preston 2 Crystal Palace 0 |
Cardiff 1 Millwall 1 | QPR 2 Leicester 3 |
Hull 1 Coventry 2 | Reading 4 Norwich 0 |
Ipswich 1 Leeds 1 | Sheffield Wed 0 Luton 2 |
Plymouth 2 Southampton 1 | . |
Wednesday 1st February | |
Derby 0 Sheffield Utd 1 | . |
The Week's Stats | |
Biggest win | Reading 4-0 v Norwich (home) |
Total goals scored | 29 |
Player scoring most goals | 2 - Matthew Spring (Watford) |
Highest Attendance | 26,275 - Derby v Sheffield Utd |
Lowest Attendance | 6,267 - Brighton v Burnley |
Total Yellow Cards | 44 |
Total Red Cards | 1 |
Most cards in a game | Derby v Sheffield Utd (6Y 1R) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
14 | Cameron Jerome (Cardiff) |
13 | Ade Akinbiyi (Sheffield Utd) - 12 with Burnley Marlon King (Watford) Dave Kitson (Reading) |
11 | Kevin Doyle (Reading) |
10 | Dean Ashton (Norwich) Steve Howard (Luton) Andy Johnson (Crystal Palace) Gary McSheffrey (Coventry) Ashley Young (Watford) |
9 | Carl Cort (Wolves) David Healy (Leeds) Darius Henderson (Watford) Rob Hulse (Leeds) Steven Kabba (Sheffield Utd) Jason Koumas (Cardiff) Neil Shipperley (Sheffield Utd) |
8 | Dele Adebola (Coventry) Sammy Bangoura (Stoke) Inigo Idiakez (Derby) Clinton Morrison (Crystal Palace) Matthew Spring (Watford) Danny Webber (Sheffield Utd) Paul Wotton (Plymouth) |
7 | Robbie Blake (Leeds) Paul Gallagher (Stoke) Phil Jagielka (Sheffield Utd) Leroy Lita (Reading) Dave Nugent (Preston) Garreth O'Connor (Burnley) Steve Sidwell (Reading) |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Brighton | 55 | 2 | Millwall | 69 | 11 |
| Burnley | 51 | 3 | Norwich | 53 | 2 |
| Cardiff | 51 | 2 | Plymouth | 46 | 0 |
| Coventry | 65 | 4 | Preston | 52 | 2 |
| Crewe | 29 | 1 | QPR | 62 | 6 |
| Crystal Palace | 67 | 2 | Reading | 33 | 0 |
| Derby | 51 | 5 | Sheffield Utd | 55 | 1 |
| Hull | 37 | 3 | Sheffield Wed | 38 | 1 |
| Ipswich | 43 | 4 | Southampton | 54 | 4 |
| Leeds | 52 | 2 | Stoke | 55 | 6 |
| Leicester | 64 | 4 | Watford | 44 | 3 |
| Luton | 39 | 3 | Wolves | 37 | 1 |
The Weekend Fixtures | |
Saturday 4th February | |
Burnley v Plymouth | Leicester v Wolves |
Coventry v Brighton | Luton v Hull |
Crystal Palace v Cardiff | Millwall v Sheffield Wed |
Crewe v Reading | Southampton v Derby |
Leeds v QPR | Stoke v Preston |
Sunday 5th February | |
Norwich v Ipswich | . |
Monday 6th February | |
Sheffield Utd v Watford | . |