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In the Championship – Are Blades faltering?
Neil Warnock wasn’t best pleased and he even prompted arguments after the game, complaining about Plymouth fielding Lilian Nalis after the clubs had agreed he wouldn’t play in this fixture when his transfer was rushed through. Needless to say that was not the version from Tony Pulis.
Whilst all that arguing was going on, Watford were reducing United’s lead in second place to nine points as they hit four for the third game in succession. This time the victims were Coventry with Marlon King, who had scored twice at Bramall Lane, scoring again to go clear as the leading scorer in the league.
Apparently, according to Dennis Wise, Watford don’t play any football at all, in fact he likened them to the Wimbledon side he played on. Whatever Wise thinks, they certainly played too much football for Coventry who had no answer to them.
The chase really is for second place, there is not a prayer anyone will catch Reading. With thirteen games still to go they have an incredible 82 points and will surely break the league record of 105 held by Sunderland from their 1998/99 promotion season. Their goal difference isn’t bad either, as if it would be needed, and it stands at plus 53. They have scored 72 goals (11 better than second best Watford) and conceded 19 (and that is four goals less than next best Preston).
They had some good fortune against Southampton, Grzegorz Rasiak should have scored for the Saints as should Peter Madsen, but with a certain Glen Little inspiring them again from the right hand side they were more than worthy winners as both Leroy Lita and Kevin Doyle added to their tally of goals.
Just below the top three, and in the play off places are Leeds, Preston and Palace with only Preston recording a win, and a somewhat controversial one at that. Luton boss Mike Newell was sent to the stand after being refused permission to make a substitution and called the referee and fourth official arrogant and incompetent.
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Newell said after the game, “I don’t see the point of fourth officials because all they ever cause is trouble,” a view shared by many other managers. He did admit that they had deserved to lose and said his side had been outplayed by Preston.
Both Leeds and Palace had to settle for points from goalless draws away from home. Palace’s came at Sheffield Wednesday whilst Leeds were at Pride Park where the supporters held yet another demonstration against the board after the game.
There’s a potential offer for Derby from a consortium led by local businessman Peter Gadsby, the fans are backing that offer against the current mysterious set up running the club.
Wolves fans are far from happy just now and there was a shock for them when bottom club Crewe went in front after just six minutes at Molineux through Billy Jones. They held the lead until right on half time when Mark Kennedy equalised but Wolves had to settle for a point again forcing more pressure on Glenn Hoddle who is still busy denying any approach from Newcastle.
Brighton had a vital relegation battle at the Withdean against Leicester City who haven’t looked back since sacking Craig Levein. Whilst their board of directors continue with their policy of upsetting as many other clubs as possible with approaches for their managers, caretaker Rob Kelly picked up his third successive win.
It was virtually all over after five minutes with both Patrick McCarthy and Iain Hume scoring although the home side did pull one back in the second half. All the goals came at the end furthest away from the visiting fans, so they will have all been setting their alarm clocks yesterday morning to watch the goals on TV, their first chance to see them.
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He also sent back the loan players brought in by Holloway, Wolves pair Leon Clarke and Keith Lowe, and Blackburn’s Andy Taylor, and his new look team won got off to a winning start with a goal from Marc Nygaard. It was enough for chairman Gianni Paladini to tell television reporters that he was now the permanent manager.
Waddock is looking for someone experienced to work alongside him, and with Jim Smith having turned it down, it is rumoured that he wants 70 year old Don Howe. We shouldn’t knock it, bringing in a septuagenarian has worked for Adie Boothroyd at Watford.
Losers Millwall are really struggling and Alan Dunne, sent off by Alan Wiley for use of an elbow was the twelfth red card picked up by the East London club this season.
Sammy Bangoura is in trouble at Stoke, he’s not turned up after playing in the African Cup of Nations and he’s going to be punished according to some bloke by the name of Tony Scholes.
Things are not going to well at the Windy City right now. They arrived at Burnley on Boxing Day in fifth place in the league but just two points from eight games since has seen them drop eleven places.
It’s a worse recent record than ours and they went down 3-0 to Cardiff on Saturday at Ninian Park where defender Neil Cox got a couple, his first goals since signing for Cardiff last summer. That was after a superb finish from Kevin Cooper had given the home side the lead.
That leaves Hull and Norwich who picked up a point a piece at the Kingston Communications Stadium. The points looked to be heading the way of the home side after Leon Clarke gave them a first half lead, but a late Damien Delaney own goal earned Norwich a point.
We have a full fixture list this midweek, with ten of the games tomorrow and the other two on Wednesday. Weekend sees a restricted programme due to some of the Championship clubs still involved in the FA Cup. The fixtures are shown below along with this weekend’s stats.
The Weekend Results | |
Friday 10th February | |
Reading 2 Southampton 0 | . |
Saturday 11th February | |
Brighton 1 Leicester 2 | Preston 5 Luton 1 |
Cardiff 3 Stoke 0 | QPR 1 Millwall 0 |
Derby 0 Leeds 0 | Sheffield Wed 0 Crystal Palace 0 |
Hull 1 Norwich 1 | Watford 4 Coventry 0 |
Ipswich 2 Burnley 1 | Wolves 1 Crewe 1 |
Plymouth 0 Sheffield Utd 0 | . |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Preston 5-1 v Luton (home) |
Total goals scored | 26 |
Player scoring most goals | 2 - Neil Cox (Cardiff) |
Highest Attendance | 27,000 - Derby v Leeds |
Lowest Attendance | 7,187 - Brighton v Leicester |
Total Yellow Cards | 39 |
Total Red Cards | 4 |
Most cards in a game | Ipswich v Burnley (5Y 1R) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
16 | Marlon King (Watford) |
14 | Cameron Jerome (Cardiff) |
13 | Ade Akinbiyi (Sheffield Utd) - 12 with Burnley Dave Kitson (Reading) |
12 | Kevin Doyle (Reading) |
11 | Ashley Young (Watford) |
10 | Dean Ashton (Norwich) Darius Henderson (Watford) Steve Howard (Luton) Andy Johnson (Crystal Palace) Leroy Lita (Reading) Gary McSheffrey (Coventry) |
9 | Carl Cort (Wolves) David Healy (Leeds) 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) Dave Nugent (Preston) Steve Sidwell (Reading) Matthew Spring (Watford) Danny Webber (Sheffield Utd) Paul Wotton (Plymouth) |
7 | Robbie Blake (Leeds) Paul Gallagher (Stoke) Paul Ifill (Sheffield Utd) Phil Jagielka (Sheffield Utd) Garreth O'Connor (Burnley) Michael Ricketts (Burnley) - 5 with Cardiff |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Brighton | 57 | 3 | Millwall | 73 | 12 |
| Burnley | 56 | 5 | Norwich | 57 | 2 |
| Cardiff | 54 | 2 | Plymouth | 48 | 0 |
| Coventry | 71 | 4 | Preston | 57 | 2 |
| Crewe | 29 | 2 | QPR | 65 | 6 |
| Crystal Palace | 70 | 3 | Reading | 34 | 0 |
| Derby | 53 | 5 | Sheffield Utd | 57 | 2 |
| Hull | 42 | 3 | Sheffield Wed | 42 | 1 |
| Ipswich | 45 | 4 | Southampton | 55 | 4 |
| Leeds | 56 | 2 | Stoke | 57 | 7 |
| Leicester | 66 | 4 | Watford | 48 | 3 |
| Luton | 41 | 4 | Wolves | 37 | 1 |
The Week's Fixtures | |
Tuesday 14th February | |
Burnley v Wolves | Luton v Cardiff |
Crewe v Ipswich | Millwall v Hull |
Crystal Palace v QPR | Norwich v Brighton |
Leeds v Watford | Sheffield Utd v Reading |
Leicester v Derby | Stoke v Plymouth |
Wednesday 15th February | |
Coventry v Sheffield Wed | Southampton v Preston |
Friday 17th February | |
Luton v Reading | . |
Saturday 18th February | |
Brighton v Watford | Norwich v Derby |
Cardiff v Hull | Plymouth v Coventry |
Leicester v Leeds | Sheffield Wed v Sheffield Utd |
Millwall v Crystal Palace | Wolves v Ipswich |