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In the Championship – As you were
Referee Lee Probert was again a busy man and followed on from his six yellow cards on Saturday by booking nine players as leaders Sheffield United beat Brighton 1-0 at the Withdean with a goal from Phil Jagielka.
Brighton boss Mark McGhee chose to keep a diplomatic silence on the referee’s performance whilst Neil Warnock, never lost for a word or two, admitted to being baffled. For those Burnley fans who witnessed Probert at Plymouth last season this will have come as no surprise.
The win keeps the Blades four points clear although Reading and Watford kept within that distance with both recording good wins. Reading, having gone a goal up with Kevin Doyle’s third goal in three games, had to come back from 2-1 down to beat Palace.
They did it despite both Leroy Lita and Glen Little missing a twice taken spot kick but Lita’s goal was something special, a spectacular overhead kick. Our friend Ibrahima Sonko grabbed the late winner for Reading.
Watford and Norwich were expected to be at opposite ends of the table and so they are but as Nigel Worthington now finds himself under pressure it is all plain sailing for Watford boss Boothroyd right now.
They beat Norwich 2-1 to remain in third place. They were two up before the half hour through Marlon King and Ashley Young whilst Norwich could only reply once through loan man Kevin Lisbie.
It leaves the Norfolk club in the bottom three, just above Sheffield Wednesday, Plymouth and Millwall who all picked up points. Plymouth, at home for the first time under former Notts County boss Jocky Scott, were held to a 1-1 draw by Crewe.
Eddie Johnson gave the Cheshire club an early lead but former Blackpool striker Scott Taylor equalised within four minutes and that’s how it finished.
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Sheffield Wednesday won their game 1-0 against Leeds in front of the biggest crowd so far this season in the Championship. It took something of a freak goal to win it with Chris Eagles’ free kick into the box going straight in past Neil Sullivan.
The Owls certainly have a big advantage over other clubs in the division, their average attendance is bigger than any other club’s highest attendance for any game.
After a great start to the season Luton are suddenly finding points that little bit more difficult to find. They have now gone three games without a win and suffered a 1-0 defeat at QPR with former Watford player Lee Cook scoring the only goal of the game. Luton pushed for an equaliser at the end against ten man QPR but the home side held on for a deserved lead.
QPR manager Ian Holloway has been offered a new five year deal but it contains the stipulation that he will only be paid until the end of any season should he be sacked. It sounds very much like five separate one year deals to me.
He’s not too happy with that clause nor the fact that the summer signings were not his choice. A piece of advice Ian, I’d get out of there if I were you.
Another of the promoted clubs, Hull City, are beginning to find things a little tough and they went down to a 1-0 home defeat against Stoke for whom Blackburn striker Paul Gallagher got the winner, whilst another loan striker Michael Ricketts got the only goal as Cardiff beat Leicester at Ninian Park.
Derby and Coventry shared the spoils with a 1-1 draw and in a midweek where goals were hard to come by Ipswich and Southampton broke the trend with a 2-2 draw at Portman Road.
Ipswich were twice in front with goals from Richard Naylor and Owen Garvan, the latter scoring his first ever goal, with the Saints replying through Darren Powell and Dennis Wise.
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It is more than an emergency at Millwall, so much so that they have brought in three players this week. Jermaine Wright arrived in time to score their first goal at Wolves and also in the side were defenders Adrian Williams from Coventry and Philip Ifill from Spurs.
Senegalese midfielder Khalilou Fadiga is well known to Derby boss Phil Brown from his time at Bolton and he made the same move from the Reebok to Pride Park in time to come on as a substitute against Coventry.
Finally Neil Warnock has added to his collection of strikers. He collects them like kids used to collect Panini stickers and probably has his own album. This time it is not Gareth Taylor as was reported in some newspapers, he’s gone to Portsmouth and taken 22 year-old Cameroon striker Vincent Pericard.
That’s it for this week but we’ll be back in the Championship after the weekend fixtures which are shown below as are the average attendances so far plus each club's disciplinary record to date.
The Midweek Results | |
Tuesday 13th September | |
Brighton 0 Sheffield Utd 1 | QPR 1 Luton 0 |
Cardiff 1 Leicester 0 | Reading 3 Crystal Palace 2 |
Hull 0 Stoke 1 | Sheffield Wed 1 Leeds 0 |
Ipswich 2 Southampton 2 | Watford 2 Norwich 1 |
Plymouth 1 Crewe 1 | Wolves 1 Millwall 2 |
Preston 0 Burnley 0 | . |
Wednesday 14th September | |
Derby 1 Coventry 1 | . |
The Midweek Stats | |
Biggest win | all wins were by one goal |
Total goals scored | 23 |
Player scoring most goals | no player scored more than one goal |
Highest Attendance | 29,986 - Sheffield Wed v Leeds |
Lowest Attendance | 6,553 - Brighton v Sheffield Utd |
Total Yellow Cards | 44 |
Total Red Cards | 1 |
Most cards in a game | Brighton v Sheffield Utd (9Y) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
6 | Steve Kabba (Sheffield Utd) Carl Cort (Wolves) Andy Johnson (Crystal Palace) Marlon King (Watford) |
5 | Ade Akinbiyi (Burnley) Cameron Jerome (Cardiff) Leroy Lita (Reading) |
4 | Dele Adebola (Coventry) Dean Ashton (Norwich) Morten Bisgaard (Derby) David Connolly (Leicester) David Healy (Leeds) Dave Nugent (Reading) Ashley Young (Watford) |
3 | Ahmet Brkovic (Luton) Mark de Vries (Leicester) Kevin Doyle (Reading) Inigo Idiakez (Derby) Kevin Nicholls (Luton) Mark Rivers (Crewe) Neil Shipperley (Sheffield Utd) |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Brighton | 18 | 0 | Millwall | 17 | 2 |
| Burnley | 14 | 2 | Norwich | 14 | 1 |
| Cardiff | 15 | 0 | Plymouth | 13 | 0 |
| Coventry | 22 | 2 | Preston | 16 | 0 |
| Crewe | 9 | 0 | QPR | 19 | 3 |
| Crystal Palace | 19 | 0 | Reading | 12 | 0 |
| Derby | 21 | 2 | Sheffield Utd | 10 | 0 |
| Hull | 8 | 1 | Sheffield Wed | 11 | 1 |
| Ipswich | 13 | 2 | Southampton | 15 | 1 |
| Leeds | 9 | 0 | Stoke | 15 | 3 |
| Leicester | 15 | 0 | Watford | 12 | 0 |
| Luton | 14 | 1 | Wolves | 13 | 0 |
Average Attendances (league only) | |||
Avge | Club | High | Low |
28,861 | Sheffield Wednesday | 29,986 | 26,688 |
24,913 | Norwich | 25,355 | 23,981 |
23,523 | Southampton | 25,744 | 20,792 |
23,519 | Ipswich | 24,292 | 22,551 |
23,487 | Derby | 25,292 | 21,840 |
23,350 | Wolves | 24,745 | 21,897 |
22,691 | Coventry | 23,000 | 22,074 |
21,766 | Leicester | 22,618 | 20,519 |
20,960 | Leeds | 21,229 | 20,440 |
19,933 | Hull | 22,201 | 18,648 |
19,385 | Sheffield United | 21,059 | 17,739 |
19,053 | Crystal Palace | 21,166 | 17,637 |
16,552 | Stoke | 18,744 | 14,249 |
15,662 | Reading | 17,562 | 14,027 |
13,970 | Preston | 17,139 | 12,461 |
13,763 | Watford | 16,802 | 12,152 |
13,438 | QPR | 14,632 | 12,131 |
12,720 | Plymouth | 14,279 | 10,460 |
11,539 | Burnley | 12,243 | 10,431 |
11,296 | Cardiff | 15,231 | 9,196 |
9,504 | Luton | 10,248 | 8,220 |
8,240 | Millwall | 8,668 | 8,240 |
7,129 | Crewe | 8,006 | 5,958 |
6,399 | Brighton | 6,676 | 6,132 |
The Weekend Fixtures | |
Friday 16th September | |
Preston v Stoke | . |
Saturday 17th September | |
Brighton v Coventry | Reading v Crewe |
Cardiff v Crystal Palace | Sheffield Wed v Millwall |
Hull v Luton | Watford v Sheffield Utd |
Plymouth v Burnley | Wolves v Leicester |
QPR v Leeds | . |
Sunday 18th September | |
Derby v Southampton | Ipswich v Norwich |