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In the Championship - Baggies moving closer
This win, with another goal inspired by Jason Koumas and scored by Diomansy Kamara, followed victory at Leeds in their last away game. Fair enough they've beaten two of the poorer teams, but I expect them to continue their run of form and challenge for the top.
That challenge is going to be difficult if Derby, and in particular Steve Howard, continue their current form. Derby have won their last eight games, six of them in the league, and the last five have all been won 1-0. On three of those five occasions the only goal of the game has been scored by striker Steve Howard is now proving to be very good value for the £1 million they paid Luton in the summer.
His goal beat the Clarets last Tuesday and he scored again at Southampton in a game that the home side could have won in the first half hour before the visitors came storming back. Manager Billy Davies admitted his side had achieved nothing yet, but he was doing his ‘Job Done' celebrating at the end of the game at St. Mary's.
His former club Preston came from behind to win at Sheffield Wednesday. Deon Burton gave the home side an early lead but it was soon cancelled out by Brett Ormerod. From there it was a stroll for Preston in a disappointing game with David Nugent scoring twice to win it.
For Wednesday and Brian Laws there has been a big change in fortune. They last picked up points on the last Saturday of 2006 and have now lost their last five league games, although in those games they have only once failed to score, that in one of Derby's 1-0 wins.
Birmingham are not in the best of runs, although they had that crushing 5-1 FA Cup win at Newcastle, they haven't won a league game since Boxing Day. They were faced with a trip to fortress Layer Road to take on Colchester and found themselves a goal down early in the second half. They did manage to do what most sides have failed to do this season, they took a point from Colchester on their own ground, Stephen Clemence grabbing the equaliser following a corner.
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Coventry fans travelled to the Stadium of Light hoping they wouldn't be beaten by one of the Trinidad & Tobago World Cup stars. They'd sold striker Stern John during the week to RK Sunderland, their club had allowed him to play against them and it really would have rubbed salt into the wound had he scored against them.
They needn't have worried, they did lose 2-0 as it happened, but John didn't score. The RK Sunderland's first goal was scored by Trinidad & Tobago World Cup star Dwight Yorke and their second by Trinidad & Tobago World Cup star Carlos Edwards.
I think most of us have been waiting for ages for Leeds to start winning. Somehow you just get this uneasy feeling that they will start to do this and pull away from the bottom places in the table. They won at Hull in midweek and when Jonathan Howson scored his first ever goal to give them an early lead at Norwich then you sensed this was the time.
Not quite, the obnoxious Dennis Wise had to watch Norwich come back to score twice and beat his side, but basically outplay them and the result should have been even more convincing, although Tresor Kandol did make a complete mess of one chance, shooting hopelessly wide when clear on goal. The winning goal was scored by Darren Huckerby who had been a £4 million signing for Leeds in 1999.
That means they are still bottom, and not only that, are now a point behind Southend who earned themselves another point from a 1-1 draw at the Ocean Finance club Stoke. Ricardo Fuller gave the home side the lead but Freddy Eastwood scored a late equaliser for the Essex side who have now lost just once in their last seven league games.
Manager Steve Tilson was delighted to still have leading scorer Eastwood in his side. He'd been widely tipped to be on his way during the January transfer window but the relieved manager was able to confirm they hadn't even received an offer.
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It's eight games without defeat now for the Legend of the Palace, the latest win coming courtesy of goals from Leon Cort and recent signing Paul Ifill against Ipswich. He's getting excited and talking about the play offs but Palace have only four points more than we have and I don't see them as serious contenders.
That leaves Wolves v Plymouth, and the visiting fans got another look at the exciting talent that is Scott Sinclair from their £27 seats in the Steve Bull Stand. The 17-year-old youngster on loan from Chelsea turned in another exciting performance and scored the first goal as the two teams collected a point each from an entertaining game.
He's a favourite for the quotes and Ian Holloway didn't let us down again this week as for the second time in four days he felt let down by the referee who awarded Wolves a controversial free kick that led to their second equaliser.
“My lot are incensed by the referee,” he said. “That was a perfectly good tackle. What was wrong with it? It was a block tackle. We won it, we had the ball so what's wrong with that? I felt we went to sleep when the referee made the decision. They passed it forward when we should have been defending and they equalised.
“Out of the two matches this week to have only one point? I am absolutely devastated, but it is all about performance. She was a very nice looking young lady today but she turned us down and didn't get in our taxi.”
The big game this weekend sees West Brom at home to Southampton, another win might just see them get into that top two. The full fixtures are shown below.
The Weekend Results | |
Friday 2nd February | |
Cardiff 2 Barnsley 0 | . |
Saturday 3rd February | |
Colchester 1 Birmingham 1 | Sheffield Wed 1 Preston 3 |
Crystal Palace 2 Ipswich 0 | Southampton 0 Derby 1 |
Hull 0 West Brom 1 | Stoke 1 Southend 1 |
Leicester 1 Luton 1 | RK Sunderland 2 Coventry 0 |
Norwich 2 Leeds 1 | Wolves 2 Plymouth 2 |
QPR 3 Burnley 1 | . |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Preston 3-1 v Sheffield Wed (away) |
Total goals scored | 29 |
Player scoring most goals | 2 - David Nugent (Preston) |
Highest Attendance | 33,591 - RK Sunderland v Coventry |
Lowest Attendance | 5,918 - Colchester v Birmingham |
Total Yellow Cards | 39 |
Total Red Cards | 1 |
Most cards in a game | Stoke v Southend (7Y) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
17 | Michael Chopra (Cardiff) Robert Earnshaw (Norwich) Diomansy Kamara (West Brom) Grzegorz Rasiak (Southampton) |
15 | Chris Iwelumo (Colchester) |
13 | Jamie Cureton (Colchester) Steve Howard (Derby) Gary McSheffrey (Birmingham) |
12 | David Nugent (Preston) Rowan Vine (Birmingham) - all 12 goals with Luton |
11 | Alan Lee (Ipswich) |
10 | Andy Gray (Burnley) Barry Hayles (Plymouth) Kevin Phillips (West Brom) |
9 | Chris Brunt (Sheffield Wed) Freddy Eastwood (Southend) Kenwyne Jones (Southampton) |
8 | Nicklas Bendtner (Birmingham) Dexter Blackstock (QPR) Carlos Edwards (RK Sunderland) - 6 with Luton Brian Howard (Barnsley) Iain Hume (Leicester) |
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 |
27h Jan | 3 - Michael Chopra - CARDIFF v Leicester |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Barnsley | 50 | 4 | Luton | 43 | 4 |
| Birmingham | 55 | 5 | Norwich | 53 | 4 |
| Burnley | 54 | 7 | Plymouth | 70 | 3 |
| Cardiff | 44 | 5 | Preston | 50 | 3 |
| Colchester | 34 | 1 | QPR | 56 | 1 |
| Coventry | 63 | 1 | Sheffield Wed | 58 | 4 |
| Crystal Palace | 36 | 1 | Southampton | 41 | 1 |
| Derby | 69 | 2 | Southend | 50 | 3 |
| Hull | 62 | 3 | Stoke | 54 | 2 |
| Ipswich | 83 | 4 | RK Sunderland | 44 | 4 |
| Leeds | 69 | 3 | West Brom | 76 | 3 |
| Leicester | 61 | 3 | Wolves | 47 | 4 |
The Week's Fixtures | |
Friday 9th February | |
Southend v QPR | . |
Saturday 10th February | |
Barnsley v Colchester | Leeds v Crystal Palace |
Burnley v Sheffield Wed | Luton v Norwich |
Coventry v Cardiff | Plymouth v RK Sunderland |
Derby v Hull | Preston v Wolves |
Ipswich v Leicester | West Brom v Southampton |
Sunday 11th February | |
Birmingham v Stoke | . |