In the Championship – Billy Davies Day

Last updated : 18 September 2006 By Tony Scholes
Billy Davies - not happy with the Preston fans
But this was a Billy Davies Day with a difference, there were none of those ridiculous clap sticks, no hideous Billy Davies masks or tartan and no one had to reduce their height by about a foot. No, this time it was Billy Davies Abuse Day as the visiting fans let him know exactly what they think about him since he decided to walk out on them.

It was obvious that the Midget in the Suit wouldn't like it, but the arrogant little man actually chose to slam the Preston fans, you know those who actually showed some loyalty to the club. He's going to explain why he left, but you'll have to pay for the information via his book. I bet that'll be a best seller, not!!

It was honours even on the pitch and I had to admit to smiling as Preston conceded a very soft penalty when their horse racing defender Sean St Ledger, the one who has come across as some spoiled brat on the recent TV programme featuring Ron Atkinson at Peterborough, looked to get touch on the ball. We all know about Preston and soft penalties, we have suffered enough, and the best thing of all was that it was Graham Laws pointing to the spot.

Preston, penalties, there's yet another link and the worst decision of the weekend. This came at Hull on Friday when Preston referee Graham Salisbury saw a clear hand ball in the box and immediately pointed to the spot. The only problem was that it was Sheffield Wednesday forward Deon Burton who had stuck his arm in the air, and not the Hull defender.

Burton kept his cool, and a straight face, and stuck the penalty away to give Wednesday an early lead but the home side came back with two Jon Parkin goals to grab their first home win of the season and lift them away from bottom place in the table.

That's now been taken by QPR who were beaten 2-1 at Colchester and this was a result and performance that hardly pleased manager Gary Waddock. Describing it as a shambles and embarrassing he said: “I don't know where to start. Where is the pride? Where is the passion?” and then adding: “We told the players after the game they need to take a long hard look at themselves.”

Colchester had no such problems and have started to climb the table after their poor start, they are now unbeaten in four games and have picked up ten points from them, although as the desperate Waddock was quick to point out their second goal from Richard Garcia should have been ruled out because it came from a thrown in and the taker had his foot a few inches over the line.

Stern John - scored Coventry's winner against Leeds
Yes, desperate, and that must surely apply to the beleaguered Kevin Blackwell at Leeds. This is the bloke who has been the saviour of the club, or so he keeps on telling us week after week after week. In truth he doesn't appear to have a clue but is certainly fighting his corner after a Stern John goal inflicted another defeat on his side.

He bemoans the lack of goals, and yes Robbie Blake did miss a good chance to equalise after being given a full five minutes as a substitute but he knows his number is almost up and said after the game: “Sven's Mrs Nancy is the only one not being linked with my job. But she'll probably be top of the list tomorrow. I've seen managers cruelly treated here so I know what's coming.”

Waddock or Blackwell, it seemed to be a fight for the first to go this season. But they've been beaten by Captain Marvel himself Bryan Robson who was relieved of his duties today as we reported earlier. His last stand was Saturday when the Baggies lost their 100% home record in a 1-1 draw against Southend. They led with a superb Nathan Ellington goal but the end for him came with Matt Harrold's equaliser with eight minutes to go.

Birmingham lost their place at the top of the league and also lost Bruno N'Gotty as they were held to a 2-2 draw against Ipswich. N'Gotty got in a tangle with Alan Lee just after Ipswich had gone in front and left referee Webb with little alternative. Lee though was very fortunate to escape without a card. Down to ten men they did find themselves an equaliser from David Dunn but it wasn't enough to keep them at the top with Cardiff winning.

And win they did, by a 4-1 scoreline against Luton although they did get the opportunity to play against ten men for all but the first nine minutes after Lewis Emanual was sent off for handling the ball on the line.

Mike Newell was furious, claiming that it is impossible to deliberately handle a ball that is deflected at you from a yard away. The referee didn't look to be taking any action either until the flag happy assistant decided to intervene. Even Dave Jones admitted it was a large piece of luck his side received with the decision, although he was full of praise for his striker Michael Chopra who scored twice to take his total for the week to five goals.

There was something of a novelty at Oakwell, Barnsley kept a clean sheet and it was their first since April. An early goal from Mark Richards was enough to win them the game against Wolves and that left one former Barnsley defender less than impressed, Wolves boss Mick McCarthy. All of Wolves last five league games have now ended 1-0, and the last two of them have been lost.

Hasney Aljofree - required almost fourteen minutes of treatment
At Carrow Road the game looked to be heading for a 0-0 draw between Norwich and Crystal Palace, but the visitors grabbed a winner in stoppage time and it was a first for Shefki Kuqi since his somewhat overpriced move to Selhurst Park last month.

There was a long time still to go in the game between Southampton and Plymouth as that Kuqi goal went in at Norwich. Just under fourteen minutes stoppage time was added on in the first half by the referee after an injury to Plymouth's Hasney Aljofree required extensive treatment on the pitch.

He took an elbow from Kenwyne Jones but the good news is that he's fine and should be OK to play on Saturday. A relieved Ian Holloway said: “He's absolutely fine. It was a bit like the neighbour's dog in that his bark is much worse than his bite and this looked much worse than it was. Kenwyne Jones clonked him straight on the bugle, so there was a lot of claret all over the place, and coming out of his mouth. He should be alright.”

Plymouth weren't though – and they lost out to a single goal scored early in the second half by Grzegorz Rasiak who scored his sixth goal of the season.
That just leaves us with the biggest crowd so far this season, which was at the Stadium of Light to see Leicester take on RK Sunderland. They got themselves a point too and it could have been all three after Matty Fryatt had given them the lead. The home side came back with a goal from substitute Tobias Hysen to get the draw.

It's Carling Cup week this week, so that means over half the sides in our league will have a free week after we all fell victim to lower division sides in the first round. But there's a full fixture list over the weekend and those fixtures are shown below with the stats. Also included this week is the first look at the attendances this season, with all sides having now played four at home. As you can see we are down in twenty-first place.

The Weekend Results

Friday15th September

Hull 2 Sheffield Wed 1

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Saturday 16th September

Barnsley 1 Wolves 0

Norwich 0 Crystal Palace 1

Birmingham 2 Ipswich 2

Southampton 1 Plymouth 0

Cardiff 4 Luton 1

Stoke 0 Burnley 1

Colchester 2 QPR 1

RK Sunderland 1 Leicester 1

Coventry 1 Leeds 0

West Brom 1 Southend 1

Derby 1 Preston 1

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The Weekend Stats

Biggest win

Cardiff 4-1 v Luton (home)

Total goals scored

26

Player scoring most goals
3

Michael Chopra (Cardiff)
Jon Parkin (Hull)

Highest Attendance

35,104 - RK Sunderland v Leicester

Lowest Attendance

5,246 - Colchester v QPR

Total Yellow Cards

40

Total Red Cards

2

Most cards in a game

Coventry v Leeds (5Y)
Hull v Sheffield Wed (5Y)
West Brom v Southend (5Y)

The leading scorers (league only)

6

Michael Chopra (Cardiff)
Robert Earnshaw (Norwich)
Grzegorz Rasiak (Southampton)

5

Jon Parkin (Hull)

4

Jamie Cureton (Colchester)
Barry Hayles (Plymouth)
Paul Hayes (Barnsley)
Mark Richards (Barnsley)

3

Nickas Bendtner (Birmingham)
Jay Bothroyd (Wolves)
DJ Campbell (Birmingham)
Freddy Eastwood (Southend)
Andy Gray (Burnley)
Chris Iwelumo (Colchester)
Stern John (Coventry)
Michael McIndoe (Barnsley)
Gifton Noel-Williams (Burnley)
James Scowcroft (Crystal Palace)
Rowan Vine (Luton)
Simon Walton (Ipswich)

Disciplinary Record (all games)

Club

Y

R

Club

Y

R

Barnsley

10

1

Luton

10

1

Birmingham

15

3

Norwich

13

0

Burnley

12

2

Plymouth

18

0

Cardiff

15

2

Preston

18

2

Colchester

8

0

QPR

12

0

Coventry

16

0

Sheffield Wed

14

2

Crystal Palace

8

0

Southampton

11

0

Derby

16

0

Southend

10

0

Hull

15

1

Stoke

13

0

Ipswich

19

0

RK Sunderland

13

1

Leeds

21

1

West Brom

19

0

Leicester

11

0

Wolves

13

1

Average Attendances (league only)

Avge

Club

High

Low

27,597

RK Sunderland

35,104

24,242

24,508

Norwich City

24,876

23,863

23,214

Derby

26,502

21,939

22,199

Sheffield Wed

23,792

19,966

22,136

Southampton

24,233

20,712

21,522

Ipswich

25,413

19,465

21,194

Coventry

22,366

20,006

21,132

Birmingham

24,238

19,228

19,992

Leeds

23,037

16,268

19,383

Wolves

21,546

17,410

19,272

West Brom

20,682

17,509

18,989

Leicester

19,427

18,677

17,192

Crystal Palace

18,072

16,396

16,824

Hull City

18,207

15,261

16,672

Cardiff

20,109

13,965

14,058

Stoke

20,013

11,626

13,566

Plymouth

15,964

11,655

13,020

Preston

15,650

11,879

12,054

QPR

13,996

10,918

11,300

Barnsley

12,082

10,464

11,194

Burnley

12,245

10,039

9,882

Southend

11,072

8,971

8,163

Luton Town

9,187

7,609

4,685

Colchester

5,246

4,249

This Week's Fixtures

Friday 22nd September

Preston v Barnsley

.

Saturday 23rd September

Burnley v Southampton

Luton v West Brom

Crystal Palace v Coventry

Plymouth v Norwich

Ipswich v RK Sunderland

QPR v Hull

Leeds v Birmingham

Sheffield Wed v Derby

Leicester v Colchester

Wolves v Stoke

Sunday 24th September

Southend v Cardiff

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