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In the Championship – Boothroyd's looking up
“We’re looking up,” he said, “We won’t be relegated, that’s fact,” he added but so far all he has managed to do is get rid of the gap and the Hertfordshire side now sit outside the bottom three only because of a better goal difference than Brighton.
Leeds boss Kevin Blackwell expressed his amazement when Boothroyd said he was leaving to go to Watford and on Saturday for his first home match in charge it was Blackwell’s Leeds who provided the opposition.
Having gone behind to a Rob Hulse goal they equalised before half time through Heidar Helguson. However, they were reduced to ten men early in the second half when Jay DeMerit was sent off and fell behind again when Clarke Carlisle scored.
There was no way back and the 2-1 defeat saw them drop to twentieth and just below them it was Brighton slipping into the bottom three. The Seagulls did bring to an end a run of defeats that had reached six but their home draw against Leicester couldn’t keep them out any longer with Gillingham beating the Clarets.
It took a late Paul Reid goal to earn them that point against another side reduced to ten, after they had trailed to a David Connolly own goal.
We’ve all expected Nottingham Forest to pull out of trouble but it is just not happening and after what was a torrid week for the club they have almost been written off as relegated by their own manager Gary Megson.
“It will take a miracle,” said Megson. You would expect me to say that while it is still mathematically possible to get out of trouble we will do everything we can, and that’s what we have to believe in. But I know it will take a miracle now to get out of the trouble we are in.”
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A game in hand they may have but it leaves Forest six points away and time is beginning to run out for a club who two years ago were in the play offs and boasting one of the best young squads in the league.
Having had their relegation confirmed it would probably have been no surprise to see Rotherham win and they did take the lead against in form Preston. That goal came from Will Hoskins but it was former Miller Chris Sedgwick who brought the Enders level with Youl Mawene hitting the winner for them.
Some of the other clubs just above the drop zone couldn’t do themselves any favours with Coventry, Crewe and Cardiff all losing.
Coventry were very much in the game at West Ham and it was still 0-0 with fourteen minutes to go. Then Richard Shaw put through his own goal and despite a frantic effort to equalise it all went worse with Teddy Sheringham converting a penalty a minute from time and Bobby Zamora adding a third in stoppage time.
Crewe almost rescued a point with a brilliant comeback but left Millwall with nothing. It was 1-0 to the home side at half time but five minutes into the second half it was all over and done with as Millwall went 3-0 up.
But Crewe came storming back and with over twenty minutes to go had got it back to 3-2. Luke Varney hit an equaliser with just nine minutes left but as they began to celebrate they conceded a penalty with just five minutes left with Ben May claiming the points for Millwall.
It’s so tight down there, Brighton and Watford have 45 points and above them there are Crewe and Cardiff with 46 and Gillingham and Coventry both with 47. It must surely now be one of these six to go with Forest and Rotherham unless Forest can pull themselves back into the pack.
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Sunderland, who were beginning to look home and dry, were surprisingly beaten 2-1 at home to Reading, and then after they had been in front. The diving, handballing Dave Kitson got both Reading goals in front of a big SSOL crowd.
Ipswich had their chance to get back into the top two last night but were two goals behind at Wolves with just over twenty minutes gone as Colin Cameron scored the first and put the second one on a plate for Carl Cort.
The Molineux side have now climbed into the top half of the table for the first time this season but the main talking point there has been the future of Glenn Hoddle. Incredibly Wolves have lost just once, at Wigan, since Hoddle took over in mid December.
LBJ was disappointed with it all last night and said it was a night that was a good one for watching Sunderland manager Mick McCarthy. “He’ll need an operation to wipe the smile off his face after that,” said LBJ.
Derby fell behind at home to an early Gerry Taggart goal, no surprise there then with Derby‘s home record. This time though they found their form at Pride Park and were level within a minute Grzegorz Rasiak before going on to win it 3-1 with further goals from Morten Bisgaard and Inigo Idiakez.
That’ll teach Tony Pulis who last month was talking about the play offs. He’s not now after three successive defeats and just one point from the last five games.
And that leaves us with Sheffield United v QPR and a controversial ending involving the most inept Lee Probert. Martin Rowlands had given QPR the lead but the home side turned it round with two goals from loan striker Danny Webber.
It was all square again when Kevin Gallen equalised and a draw looked a certainly until Probert took centre stage in stoppage time by awarding Sheffield United what could only be described as a fortuitous penalty.
Andy Gray scored from the spot but it left the visitors furious. Winning manager Neil Warnock had little to say about it but Ian Holloway certainly did. “I’ve seen it and there is no wonder people sat behind the bench were laughing,” said Holloway. “What the hell he saw I don’t know. He ought to get down to Specsavers.” Well, we know all about Mr. Probert.
Forest take on Sheffield United tonight and that’s followed by a full fixture list which are shown below the weekend stats.
The Weekend Results | |
Saturday 9th April | |
Brighton 1 Leicester 1 | Rotherham 1 Preston 2 |
Cardiff 0 Wigan 2 | Sheffield Utd 3 QPR 2 |
Derby 3 Stoke 1 | Sunderland 1 Reading 2 |
Gillingham 1 Burnley 0 | Watford 1 Leeds 2 |
Millwall 4 Crewe 3 | West Ham 3 Coventry 0 |
Nott'm Forest 0 Plymouth 3 | . |
Monday 11th April | |
Wolves 2 Ipswich 0 | . |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Plymouth 3-0 v Nott'm Forest (away) |
Total goals scored | 38 |
Player scoring most goals | Dexter Blackstock (Plymouth) |
Highest Attendance | 34,273 - Sunderland v Reading |
Lowest Attendance | 6,312 - Rotherham v Preston |
Total Yellow Cards | 36 |
Total Red Cards | 3 |
Most cards in a game | Brighton v Leicester (5Y 1R) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
23 | Nathan Ellington (Wigan) |
20 | Jason Roberts (Wigan) Teddy Sheringham (West Ham) |
19 | Darren Bent (Ipswich) Dave Kitson (Reading) |
18 | Dean Ashton (Crewe) - now with Norwich Paul Furlong (QPR) |
17 | Kenny Miller (Wolves) |
16 | Shefki Kuqi (Ipswich) Grzegorz Rasiak (Derby) |
15 | Carl Cort (Wolves) Richard Cresswell (Preston) Marcus Stewart (Sunderland) Danny Webber (Sheffield Utd) - 12 for Watford |
14 | Andy Gray (Sheffield Utd) |
13 | Stephen Elliott (Sunderland) Marlon Harewood (West Ham) Heidar Helguson (Watford) |
12 | David Healy (Leeds) - 5 for Preston Lee McCulloch (Wigan) Gifton Noel-Williams (Stoke) Paul Wotton (Plymouth) |
11 | Tommy Miller (Ipswich) Peter Thorne (Cardiff) |
The Weekend Fixtures | |
Tuesday 12th April | |
Nott'm Forest v Sheffield Utd | . |
Friday 15th April | |
Sheffield Utd v Derby | . |
Saturday 16th April | |
Burnley v Brighton | QPR v Leeds |
Coventry v Wolves | Reading v Nott'm Forest |
Gillingham v Crewe | Rotherham v Watford |
Leicester v Wigan | Stoke v Plymouth |
Preston v Cardiff | West Ham v Millwall |
Sunday 17th April | |
Ipswich v Sunderland | . |