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In the Championship – Capital at the bottom
Neither was it a surprise to see who had scored the goals in that game with Dean Ashton giving the home side the lead and Andy Johnson’s second goal of the season rescuing a point for Palace.
Holding everyone up though are crisis club Millwall, and the only surprise at the Den is that there have been no more changes of manager or chairman since the season got underway. For the second time in a week they played in front of a home crowd of 8,000 and again failed to score a goal in front of the home fans.
After a 0-0 draw in midweek, this time they didn’t even get a point as they fell to a 1-0 defeat against Stoke for whom John Hills grabbed his second of the season to record their first point of the season.
Up at the top, Luton lost their 100% record when they were held to a goalless draw at Kenilworth Road by Leeds United. They remain top though on goal difference from QPR and Wolves who were both winners.
QPR turned in an excellent performance to end Sheffield United’s 100% start to the season in a game that had a dramatic finale. The home side led 1-0 with a goal from Marc Bircham when the game went in to added time at the end.
Summer signing from Aston Villa, Stefan Moore, doubled that lead right on time but the Blades came storming back in added time. They pulled one back through Steve Kabba and almost snatched an undeserved equaliser.
The result of that is manager Neil Warnock is on the hunt for strikers again. He’s been linked with Portsmouth’s Svetoslav Todorov whose career has been cruelly hit by serious injury that has kept him out for two years.
Warnock is also believed to still want Ade Akinbiyi and the weekend newspapers were suggesting he was about to make a £1 million bid to lure him from the Clarets – well for a start he would have to pay a lot more than that, even if we were interested in selling.
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It remains the only defeat for the Molineux side since Glenn Hoddle took over as manager last December and he saw his side move up level with the leaders on Saturday following a 1-0 home win against newly promoted Hull.
Just an early own goal from Hull’s Damien Delaney separated the sides but it was enough for Wolves who remain, and rightly so, one of the favourites for a return to the Premiership.
Watching the goals on television I thought my eyes were deceiving me when I saw the goals at Deepdale as Preston took something of a beating against Reading. New signing Leroy Lita had bagged a couple for Reading but it was the third goal that made me sit up and take notice.
On the Friday evening I’d predicted that Glen Little, who had only scored his second Reading goal in midweek, would be on the scoresheet. He always seemed to play well for the Clarets at Preston, and I think we all remember that goal on Arthur’s Day in December 2001.
What I couldn’t possibly have predicted was Glen scoring with a header that any big central defender or striker would have been proud of. I’m still not convinced it was Glen.
You would have thought Preston were world beaters, listening to the local radio, whilst the Clarets were having a poor start to the season. I note there is now just the one point between us.
Upwardly looking Watford got their first win on Friday and looked to be in some good form as they won 3-1 at Cardiff in a televised game. Loan striker Marlon King, deemed not good enough for League One Nottingham Forest, hit two for the Golden Boys with big signing Darius Henderson scoring the other.
They were three up and the game was won by the time Cameron Jerome pulled one back for the club under the astute management of Sam Hammam and Peter Ridsdale.
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The young Trinidad & Tobago striker hit seven goals in seven games for the Owls before returning to Southampton and then on to a loan spell with Stoke.
Sturrock wanted him back at Hillsborough but with such as Kevin Phillips and Peter Crouch following James Beattie out of the exit door he was needed by Harry Redknapp.
Sturrock wanted him back at Hillsborough but with such as Kevin Phillips and Peter Crouch following James Beattie out of the exit door he was needed by Harry Redknapp.
He did return to Hillsborough this week and did get on the scoresheet again, this time scoring the only goal of the game for the Saints against the home side.
Sheffield Wednesday did have a new striker in the side. Having lost loan man Leon Best (also from Southampton) to injury they spent a quarter of a million on Wigan’s David Graham and he made his debut.
Graham only hit one goal in over thirty games for Wigan following his move from Torquay but he struggled on Saturday and was withdrawn on the hour.
Phil Brown remains unbeaten as Derby manager and will be pleased to have recorded his first win after two draws. It was a good win too at Plymouth where they virtually had it won in the first forty minutes.
By then they had scored both their goals. The first came from Polish striker Grzegorz Rasiak and Morten Bisgaard added the second for the Rams.
The only game to match ours for goals was the clash between Brighton and Crewe at the Withdean. It ended 2-2 with the result remaining in doubt right to the end with three goals in the last thirteen minutes.
Brighton led through a first half goal form Leon Knight but Crewe came from behind to lead 2-1 with just seven minutes remaining with goals from Mark Rivers and Michael Higdon. They couldn’t hang on and Dean Hammond grabbed a point for the home side with a goal two minutes from time.
That leaves the clash between Leicester and Ipswich that ended 0-0. It was a tough afternoon for the new look Ipswich side and they lost keeper Lewis Price to injury ten minutes before half time. He was replaced by 18 year-old Shane Supple who kept a clean sheet on his debut.
It is difficult to see just who is going to do well this season as yet, three games is nowhere near enough to judge. Looking back a year it was Wigan at the top after three games and the other clubs in the top six were Plymouth, Gillingham, Reading, Stoke and Burnley whilst Champions Sunderland were suffering a bad start and Sheffield United, Wolves and Derby were all in the bottom six.
We’ve no midweek fixtures this week, but a full fixture list at weekend with all twelve games played on Saturday.
The Weekend Results | |
Friday 12th August | |
Cardiff 1 Watford 3 | . |
Saturday 13th August | |
Brighton 2 Crewe 2 | Plymouth 0 Derby 2 |
Burnley 4 Coventry 0 | Preston 0 Reading 3 |
Leicester 0 Ipswich 0 | QPR 2 Sheffield Utd 1 |
Luton 0 Leeds 0 | Sheffield Wed 0 Southampton 1 |
Millwall 0 Stoke 1 | Wolves 1 Hull 0 |
Norwich 1 Crystal Palace 1 | . |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Burnley 4-0 v Coventry (home) |
Total goals scored | 25 |
Player scoring most goals | Ade Akinbiyi (Burnley) |
Highest Attendance | 26,688 - Sheff Wed v Southampton |
Lowest Attendance | 6,132 - Brighton v Crewe |
Total Yellow Cards | 26 |
Total Red Cards | 1 |
Most cards in a game | Plymouth v Derby (4Y) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
4 | David Connolly (Leicester) |
3 | Ade Akinbiyi (Burnley) Marlon King (Watford) Leroy Lita (Reading) |
2 | Dean Ashton (Crewe) Ahmet Brkovic (Luton) Micky Evans (Plymouth) John Halls (Stoke) Dean Hammond (Brighton) David Healy (Leeds) Darius Henderson (Watford) Andy Johnson (Crystal Palace) Kenwyne Jones (Southampton) Steve Kabba (Sheffield Utd) Glen Little (Reading) Dave Nugent (Preston) Ashley Young (Watford) |
The Weekend Fixtures | |
Saturday 20th August | |
Crystal Palace v Plymouth | Leeds v Wolves |
Coventry v QPR | Reading v Millwall |
Crewe v Leicester | Sheffield Utd v Preston |
Derby v Cardiff | Southampton v Norwich |
Hull v Brighton | Stoke v Luton |
Ipswich v Sheffield Wed | Watford v Burnley |