In the Championship – Brum lead at Christmas

Last updated : 24 December 2006 By Tony Scholes
DJ Campbell - scored Birmingham's first goal at Southend
Six times in the last ten seasons the team top at Christmas have been there at the end of the season, on four more occasions they have been second. Just Ipswich, who finished third in 2004, and ourselves, who plummeted to seventh two years earlier, have missed out on promotion.

Birmingham's latest points collection came courtesy of an easy win at bottom club Southend, but it was a game where Suffolk referee Mike Thorpe had another eccentric afternoon. The referee whose decisions cost us dearly at Coventry allowed a clear foul on Lee Bradbury to go as Birmingham went in front through DJ Campbell but he excelled himself with a bizarre decision that thankfully for him led to their third goal, another from Gary McSheffrey.

There was a foul on the edge of the box, Thorpe played an advantage and Campbell scored only to see the official change his mind and award Birmingham a free kick. Thankfully for the referee it didn't prove a costly mistake as McSheffrey hammered home the free kick.

Thorpe wasn't the only official making bad mistakes, and the one at Molineux that led to Wolves' first equaliser against Norwich was hard to believe. Often assistants have difficult decisions to make with offsides. Sometimes fans will say he was yards offside when in fact it was close enough to be inches. This time the Wolves player was yards offside, using the penalty area line as a guide he looked to be about eight yards offside, and yet there was no flag.

Norwich boss Peter Grant was fuming after the game, in which the league's leading scorer Robert Earnshaw grabbed another two. Having seen the goal again he was astonished and was also critical of the four minutes added on at the end, with Jody Craddock equalising for Wolves in the very last of those four minutes.

The game of the day was probably at Hillsborough where Sheffield Wednesday came back from the dead to earn a point against Southampton. Manager Brian Laws admitted they had not played well, the worst performance since he took over as manager he admitted. But they stayed in it, just, with Glenn Whelan twice scoring to bring it back from 0-2 to 1-2 and then from 1-3 to 2-3.

It still didn't look enough until deep into stoppage time loan goalkeeper Mark Crossley went up for a corner, got to the cross and headed in the equaliser. Not surprisingly it was his first goal in a career that has spanned 480 games.

Kevin Phillips - two goals in stoppage time at the end of the first half
Goals were harder to find in some games and as well the game at the Turf there were also 0-0 draws between Leicester and Cardiff at the Crisp Bowl and also the big Yorkshire relegation battle between Leeds and Hull at Elland Road. Maybe the lack of goals was due to fifteen goals per season striker Ian Moore spent the entire game on the bench. Then again, maybe not.

There were certainly goals at Home Park where Plymouth must have been convinced they were going to go in ahead at half time when Lilian Nalis added to an early goal from Barry Hayles to put the home side in front. That second goal came with just five minutes of the half remaining and the score was still 2-0 as the fourth official held up the board for added time at the end of the half.

It was at this point that Kevin Phillips raced on to a ball from John Hartson to pull one back and within seconds of the restart a double blunder by goalkeeper Romain Larrieu saw Phillips grab a second. His first mistake was to misplace a clearance straight to Phillips who immediately shot from distance. Larrieu thankfully got back to save the shot but fumbled it and could only watch as it fell into the net.

So 2-2 at half time, and it was the same score at the end but despite that crazy last minute of the first half, Ian Holloway was delighted with the way his side had played. Holloway, known for his wonderful post match interviews sounded more like Steve Cotterill when he said: “I think there was a positive feel around the ground because everybody knew we were playing West Brom, rather than Luton or Hull.

Maybe Holloway should have been pointing the finger at himself a bit for the dropped points in what he described as a terrific performance. He decided he needed more experience at the back and gave Larrieu his first game of the season.

The game saw the most yellow cards of the day in the division, and also the only red card when Neil Clement was sent off for a second bookable offence right at the end by referee Iain Williamson. I wonder where he'll be refereeing on Tuesday.

David Nugent got the only goal of the game as Preston beat Colchester 1-0, Martin Rowlands did likewise for QPR against Barnsley. Liam Lawrence was the only goalscorer as Stoke got back to winning ways at Ipswich and Mark Hudson's goal for Palace on Friday night was enough to beat RK Sunderland.

Dean Kiely - in inspired form for Luton
My liking for the Legend of the Palace would normally have had me wanting RK Sunderland to equalise but as I watched it through the fog I couldn't help thinking I didn't want the Wearside club to get a late goal again, the week before was still to painful.

That just leaves Luton who were winners over Coventry in a game of two goalkeepers. Dean Kiely was in inspired form for Luton and it was confirmed ahead of the game that he has signed for another month on loan. At the other end Coventry had their former loan goalkeeper Luke Steele playing, he'd arrived just in time for the game on an emergency loan from West Brom.

As for the Luton sub goalkeeper Marlon Beresford, there were no rumours of him swearing at spectators on this occasion. Poor Marlon was found guilty in court this week after being caught swearing during Luton's game at Plymouth last season. It came following complaints from home supporters. I happen to think it is all pathetic, it's a football ground for goodness sake, it happens. What sort of fans complain about things like this?

So it's Christmas, and that means a rush of games over the next few days. We've got Boxing Day, the weekend and finally New Year's Day before we all move into FA Cup action on the first weekend of 2007. All the fixtures up to the New Year are shown below.

The Weekend Results

Friday 22nd December

Crystal Palace 1 RK Sunderland 0

.

Saturday 23rd December

Burnley 0 Derby 0

Preston 1 Colchester 0

Ipswich 0 Stoke 1

QPR 1 Barnsley 0

Leeds 0 Hull 0

Sheffield Wed 3 Southampton 3

Leicester 0 Cardiff 0

Southend 0 Birmingham 4

Luton 3 Coventry 1

Wolves 2 Norwich 2

Plymouth 2 West Bom 2

.

The Weekend Stats

Biggest win

Birmingham 4-0 v Southend (away)

Total goals scored

26

Player scoring most goals
2

Robert Earnshaw (Norwich)
Kevin Phillips (West Brom)
Glenn Whelan (Sheffield Wed)

Highest Attendance

23,739 - Sheffield Wed v Southampton

Lowest Attendance

8,299 - Luton v Coventry

Total Yellow Cards

37

Total Red Cards

1

Most cards in a game

Plymouth v West Brom (6Y 1R)

The leading scorers (league only)

16

Robert Earnshaw (Norwich)

15

Grzegorz Rasiak (Southampton)

12

Michael Chopra (Cardiff)
Jamie Cureton (Colchester)
Gary McSheffrey (Birmingham)

10

Andy Gray (Burnley)
Chris Iwelumo (Colchester)
Diomansy Kamara (West Brom)
Rowan Vine (Luton)

9

Alan Lee (Ipswich)

8

Nicklas Bendtner (Birmingham)
Steve Howard (Derby)
Kevin Phillips (West Brom)

7

Chris Brunt (Sheffield Wed)
Freddy Eastwood (Southend)
Barry Hayles (Plymouth)
Iain Hume (Leicester)
Kenwyne Jones (Southampton)
Marcus Tudgay (Sheffield Wed)

6

Patrick Agyemang (Preston)
Dexter Blackstock (QPR)
DJ Campbell (Birmingham)
Carlos Edwards (Luton)
David Healy (Leeds)
Brian Howard (Barnsley)
Arturo Lupoli (Derby)
Clinton Morrison (Crystal Palace)
David Nugent (Preston)
Jon Parkin (Hull)
Martin Rowlands (QPR)

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

Disciplinary Record (all games)

Club

Y

R

Club

Y

R

Barnsley

34

4

Luton

28

3

Birmingham

50

4

Norwich

43

3

Burnley

40

6

Plymouth

41

1

Cardiff

34

5

Preston

40

2

Colchester

26

1

QPR

45

0

Coventry

44

1

Sheffield Wed

40

4

Crystal Palace

31

0

Southampton

34

0

Derby

51

2

Southend

38

2

Hull

45

2

Stoke

40

2

Ipswich

66

3

RK Sunderland

37

3

Leeds

56

3

West Brom

61

3

Leicester

47

3

Wolves

33

2

This Christmas/New Year Fixtures

Tuesday 26th December

Barnsley v Burnley

Hull v Leicester

Birmingham v QPR

Norwich v Southend

Cardiff v Plymouth

Southampton v Crystal Palace

Colchester v Luton

Stoke v Sheffield Wed

Coventry v Ipswich

RK Sunderland v Leeds

Derby Wolves

West Brom v Preston

Friday 29th December

Birmingham v Luton

.

Saturday 30th December

Barnsley v Sheffield Wed

Norwich v QPR

Cardiff v Crystal Palace

Southampton v Leicester

Colchester v Wolves

Stoke v Leeds

Coventry v Southend

RK Sunderland v Preston

Derby v Plymouth

West Brom v Ipswich

Hull v Burnley

.

Monday 1st January

Burnley v Stoke

Plymouth v Southampton

Crystal Palace v Norwich

Preston v Derby

Ipswich v Birmingham

QPR v Colchester

Leeds v Coventry

Sheffield Wed v Hull

Leicester v RK Sunderland

Southend v West Brom

Luton v Cardiff

Wolves v Barnsley