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In the Championship – Away Days
Neil Warnock’s team march on and they are already nine points clear of third place and they even survived conceding a good goal to their former player Mr Karren Brady. The Blades only used four strikers on Saturday, the other fifteen or so must have been having a rest, but none of them scored, it was David Unsworth and Paul Ifill who put them 2-0 up before Derby pulled that goal back.
Reading are keeping up their pursuit of them and another win, this time 1-0 at Norwich, keeps them well clear in second place. The goal came from James Harper and left the team I tipped to win the league floundering near the bottom.
Norwich did get a lifeline with a penalty decision that initially went against them. Calum Davenport went down in the box and was promptly yellow carded by referee Trevor Kettle for diving. At the same time the assistant was flagging for a penalty. The two spoke, Kettle withdrew the card and pointed to the spot. It didn’t help Norwich, Dean Ashton missed.
Liverpool’s John Welsh was at the centre of Coventry’s first ever defeat at the Ricoh Stadium. The capacity was increased on Saturday but they didn’t need the extra seats as they recorded their lowest crowd to date. Welsh, on loan to Hull, got both goals as they won 2-0.
There were two goals too for former Swindon striker Sam Parkin. He’d netted just two goals in eight games previously for Ipswich but got both as they recorded a surprise win at Elland Road. It’s just our luck if he’s got himself back into form this week.
Leeds couldn’t find a way through and made changes late in the game, bringing on the familiar pair of Ian Moore and Robbie Blake. They still didn’t find a way through and it ended 2-0 to Ipswich.
Sheffield Wednesday are thankfully still bottom but for a few hours over the weekend they moved up a place courtesy of a 2-2 draw in an entertaining game at Luton on Friday night. They fell behind early in the game to a Steve Howard goal, but came back to lead 2-1 before Howard completed the scoring.
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I’m not sure what the Weary Whinger would have made of it all but it cost Preston and just as it looked as though the nine men would survive to win it 1-0 they conceded a late goal to Clinton Morrison and had to settle for a point to go along with the two suspensions.
There was fun at Leicester too as QPR won 2-1. Two more were sent off, this time one from each side. Leicester’s Alan Maybury went after just twenty minutes with QPR already in front. They did equalise in the second half but Paul Furlong took centre stage at the end. He got QPR’s winner with four minutes to go and then got himself sent off in stoppage time.
The last of the goals this week came at the Windy City where Wolves beat Stoke 3-1 to climb into fifth place. They scored twice, either side of half time, through Carl Cort and Kenny Miller, and Lee Naylor wrapped it up with a strike from distance on his 300th appearance for the Molineux club.
Stoke pulled one back in the very last minute through Lewis Buxton but it was too late as Wolves leapfrogged over them in the table.
That leaves us with three goalless draws, at Crewe (against Watford), Southampton (versus Plymouth) and at Millwall who drew with Cardiff and also had Jody Morris sent off for two yellow cards.
Only Watford have had any emergencies this week and they were forced into signing two strikers on loan. Trevor Benjamin (who played at Crewe) signed from Peterborough whilst on the subs bench was young Aston Villa and England Under-20 forward Gabriel Agbonlahor.
We’ve a full fixture list in midweek and over the weekend before the second international weekend of the season brings a break. The fixtures are below along with information from this week.
The Weekend Results | |
Friday 23rd September | |
Luton 2 Sheffield Wed 2 | . |
Saturday 24th September | |
Burnley 1 Brighton 1 | Millwall 0 Cardiff 0 |
Crystal Palace 1 Preston 1 | Norwich 0 Reading 1 |
Coventry 0 v Hull 2 | Sheffield Utd 2 Derby 1 |
Crewe 0 Watford 0 | Southampton 0 Plymouth 0 |
Leeds 0 Ipswich 2 | Stoke 1 Wolves 3 |
Leicester 1 QPR 2 | . |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Wolves 3-1 v Stoke (away) |
Total goals scored | 23 |
Player scoring most goals | Steve Howard (Luton) |
Highest Attendance | 26,331 - Southampton v Plymouth |
Lowest Attendance | 6,258 - Crewe v Watford |
Total Yellow Cards | 31 |
Total Red Cards | 6 |
Most cards in a game | Leicester v QPR (7Y 2R) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
7 | Carl Cort (Wolves) |
6 | Andy Johnson (Crystal Palace) Steve Kabba (Sheffield Utd) 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) Darius Henderson (Watford) Steve Howard (Luton) Inigo Idiakez (Derby) Dave Nugent (Preston) Sam Parkin (Ipswich) Ashley Young (Watford) |
3 | Ahmet Brkovic (Luton) Mark de Vries (Leicester) Kevin Doyle (Reading) Mickey Evans (Plymouth) Rob Hulse (Leeds) Paul Ifill (Sheffield Utd) Leon Knight (Brighton) Clinton Morrison (Crystal Palace) Kevin Nicholls (Luton) Garreth O'Connor (Burnley) Mark Rivers (Crewe) Neil Shipperley (Sheffield Utd) |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Brighton | 18 | 0 | Millwall | 20 | 3 |
| Burnley | 17 | 2 | Norwich | 18 | 1 |
| Cardiff | 19 | 0 | Plymouth | 21 | 0 |
| Coventry | 23 | 2 | Preston | 22 | 2 |
| Crewe | 9 | 0 | QPR | 25 | 4 |
| Crystal Palace | 23 | 0 | Reading | 14 | 0 |
| Derby | 25 | 2 | Sheffield Utd | 13 | 0 |
| Hull | 11 | 2 | Sheffield Wed | 12 | 1 |
| Ipswich | 15 | 3 | Southampton | 23 | 2 |
| Leeds | 13 | 1 | Stoke | 16 | 3 |
| Leicester | 21 | 1 | Watford | 17 | 1 |
| Luton | 14 | 1 | Wolves | 14 | 0 |
The Week's Fixtures | |
Tuesday 27th September | |
Burnley v Ipswich | Millwall v QPR |
Crystal Palace v Sheffield Wed | Norwich v Hull |
Crewe v Wolves | Sheffield Utd v Plymouth |
Leicester v Brighton | Stoke v Cardiff |
Luton v Preston | . |
Wednesday 28th September | |
Coventry v Watford | Southampton v Reading |
Leeds v Derby | . |
Friday 30th September | |
Hull v Millwall | Wolves v Burnley |
Saturday 1st October | |
Brighton v Norwich | Preston v Southampton |
Cardiff v Luton | Reading v Sheffield Utd |
Derby v Leicester | Sheffield Wed v Coventry |
Ipswich v Crewe | Watford v Leeds |
Plymouth v Stoke | . |
Monday 3rd October | |
QPR v Crystal Palace | . |